More Pod Critic

To do him credit, Pod Critic has not removed my comment to his blog. He has, however, shut off comments in favor of accepting emails from readers.

PC has also done a follow-up post here to the one from Monday. He clearly took exception to my comment that POD is a technology, not a business model. His new post says, "To say that print-on-demand technology is not a business model is to be uninformed."

It's been a while since I took macro and micro economics, but I remembered that a business model had at least half dozen components, depending on the conceptualization you use. I took a shortcut by Googling the term "business model" yesterday. I easily found the system I remembered from undergraduate school.

The components of the business model I'd been taught in micro-economics were: proposition, market segment, value chain structure, revenue generation, position in the value network (food chain), and competitive strategy.

Print-on-demand should be considered a competitive strategy, one of those components of a business model rather than the model itself. Competitive strategy is the means by which a business develops a competitive advantage.

My intention is not to argue with PC. I actually agree with him on several points. However, I believe that--at this point in time--self publishing is a useful strategy only for certain groups. Note that I said certain groups, not everyone.

If you're interested in reading more on this subject, try three of my earlier blogs. Start with the one for June 20, 2006 here. There were two follow-up posts on June 25, 2006, and September 15, 2006.

I honestly believe self-publishing will become a viable means of publication for more writers in the future. However, that time is not yet now.