Getting POD Books to Retailers
Problem: While POD allows publishers to produce books at a fraction of the cost, some publishers face challenges getting them to retailers.
Solution: Major POD services such as Lightning Source and Replica Books, Bridgewater, N.J., offer publishers broad distribution through bookstores, thanks to corporate relationships with leading distributors. LSI is a division of Ingram; Replica, a unit of Informata.com, the e-commerce division of Baker & Taylor. As a result, publishers who release POD editions through these companies or their affiliates can gain access to the world's largest distribution channels. LSI and Replica sometimes produce a handful of copies of newly released POD books for their main warehouses, so that POD titles are actually in stock, albeit in small quantities, when orders are placed by bookstores. This also helps blur the line between the distribution of POD titles and conventional books.