The emergence of print-on-demand Amazon paperback books

I agree with the broad point of the article, but the author misidentifies what's going on. The author's problems are coming from digital printing, not the print-on-demand business model specifically and Amazon isn't the only company doing it.

The older books were printed using a process called offset printing. It needs large economies of scale to be financially viable, but it produces higher quality books. The newer books are printed with digital printing, which is just a fancy version of the laser (typical) or inkjet printer you have at home. I believe Amazon POD uses inkjet, but not sure. The result is a worse quality book, but also one that doesn't have thousands of copies taking up inventory space until it's sold. Virtually all publishers are moving low volume works this way. The fact that the quality is merely "subpar" instead of unusable is a testament to how much digital printing has improved in recent years.

Separately, paper quality has gone down industry-wide. Paper mills are simply choosing to focus on higher volume papers like those used in cardboard instead of producing fine paper. That means shortages, price increases, and publishers making do. Also, POD publishers don't want to keep every type of paper under the sun. They standardize inventory to keep prices down.

To make things even more confusing, the same work might be printed using multiple methods and different papers, with different inks. It's common to do a first run with POD to gauge market demand and then offset if sales continue. Or offset for a collector's edition, or vice versa to allow more colors.

This article really resonates with me and I'm somewhat relieved to see someone else feels the same way.

I love physical books for general reading and will often buy both physical and ebook format for technical books to get the best of both worlds.

I now cannot stand print-on-demand books and, like the author, I can spot them very quickly. The quality is abysmal, and I might as well be printing them myself at that point.

I too used to default to Amazon, as the price was often about 30% cheaper. However, I've come to realise that you get what you pay for. In the UK, I just buy from Waterstones or local bookshops, as then I can trust that it has likely come from the publisher or at least can inspect in advance.

I am never buying a book from Amazon again.

Somewhat related:

Amazon has a huge fake ebook problem as well.

I recently spent $2 buying an ebook that is still copyrighted. It is cheaper than the first item in search result that has more reviews. I thought, it's an ebook, what could go wrong.

Upon opening it, I found that the formatting is completely off. Words are concatenated. It was impossible to read.

A few days later, I noticed that the book is gone from Amazon store. I cannot open the link from my order page, and I cannot even ask for a refund. I had to ask customer service to do that. I guess this was a pirated book that was taken down.

It was a shame Amazon did not even notify me of this.

And I hope this doesn't happen on kobo or elsewhere.

The blame is somewhat misguided: what's blame to here is cost-cutting, not printing on demand. If you're willing to pay, you can get POD books that, certainly to the untrained enough, are indistinguishable from "real" books.

For example, Lulu's hardcover books with linen wrap, dust jacket, "premium" B&W printing with 60# uncoated cream look pretty darn good: https://www.lulu.com/pricing

It's not just Amazon. I bought a copy of an ARM assembly book from a proper bookseller (Blackwells) which was a proper hardback for a high price--something like £80, and I received a print-on-demand mess with a hardcover. The print was there but barely legible, a dotty mess which gave me a headache. I returned it.

I can see print-on-demand working very well, but not until the quality issues are sorted out. Being charged top dollar for something which is substantially inferior is unacceptable.

A lot of comments very dismissive of anything "print on demand". As an author of a niche book in both hard/soft, I chose Lightning Source/Ingram because they produce quality books. At that time (2012) I could have gone the "easy" route and used Amazon but even then there were complaints about quality. I've received quite a few compliments about the physical quality of my book, primarily the paper back edition which I believe was 60lb cream paper stock.

Note that authors who take the easy way and use Amazon KDP w/ extended distribution appear on sites like BN, Books A Million, etc via the Ingram distribution but the physical copy will still be printed by Amazon and be inferior.

Some clues you can look for in general are - Amazon in the past two years has basically stopped stocking non-KDP POD books so they will almost always say avaialbe in X weeks (or if "Prime" 3-5 days). Amazon books are almost always a page count divisible by four and IIRC 828 pages is a limit on many trims.

So if you buy off of Amazon, check first to see that the Amazon listing looks like too.

It is really unfortunate that Amazon (and a few places in India) ruin it for everyone.

> Wouldn’t it be better for all sides if Amazon at least informed us that a book will be printed on demand and allowed us to make a decision before buying?

Better for all sides if a majority of buyers systematically returned them. Given the typical consumer doesn't even know what print on demand means, it is better for Amazon to keep it that way.

I'm buying ungodly numbers of books and I'd say more than half of what I get from Amazon is PoD, and print quality varies. In my country (Poland) they have one huge advantage: the price. It's quite often somewhere between 30%-50% cheaper than alternatives which is significant given book prices.

One thing that is pretty annoying is when a PoD book that had colors in the original no longer has them, e.g. on charts, but text still refers to them with color names.

I'll likely stop buying from Amazon too because over the years quality of PoD books also seems to be dropping, it wasn't that bad years ago.

I've experienced this. Actually when I received the book from Amazon I thought it was a counterfeit copy, only to discover that on the very last page it says: "Printed by Amazon Logistica Italia S.r.l".

Amazon's business shouldn't be printing books and obviously they should state clearly that the book you are purchasing is printed by them.

The current solution? Just return the item.

Here's how the last two books I ordered from amazon went: Book 1, low quality print barely readable code segments and the cover reads "Not for reprint outside of India". Book 2, over a month passes with no shipping update. I submit a cancellation request and it gets denied. I then contact customer support (extremely hard to do btw) and they also deny my request. Another week passes and it is randomly canceled and then the book arrives in the mail from a printing company with extremely bad binding.

Amazon has become the temu of books.

As a French reader, from a small city with multiple independent book shops: The simplest fix wouldn't be to just stop buying from Amazon ? Independent bookstores and used book sellers solve every problem in this article, often at better prices. They also deserve the support. Reading "elevates minds", but the shops, publishers, and supply chains don't sustain themselves on good vibes alone.

Like many commenters, I much prefer a publisher's version to Amazon's print-on-demand, so much so that when I deduce a book is print-on-demand from the thumbnail provided (POD front covers are universally primitive and basic), I continue looking at various other cover images until I find one that's clearly mass market publisher product. I buy it used, "Good" or better. I'll pay more for a used original than a new POD iteration.

Controversial take but... don't buy from Amazon? If you really care about quality and physical media you can go to a bookstore or at least form a relationship with a smaller online seller.

Regarding quality, I have noticed a considerable decline in non-on-demand quality of paperback books in recent years as well. Paper is often really bad, printing quality even worse. Very often the text is grayish pixelated, I'm guessing this is because the publishers have stored some subpar digitized version of prior editions, which on reprints comes out like an ereader from 20 years ago.

I often specifically look up old or first print editions of books (paperback or hardcover) and then buy them used from Abebooks etc.

However, the quality of the on-demand books via Amazon is hit and miss. It's not universally bad. Sometimes it is very good paper and sharp print. Sometimes it is cheapish white copy paper. The covers are universally bad. In Berlin they apparently come from Poland.

I also got on demand books in similar qualities from other German book sellers (buecher.de for example). On their page at least it's somewhat recognizable that it will be on demand, because they have some details about the manufacturer (themselves in this case).

I'm not necessarily against those on demand books, but I would really like if Amazon and other sites would

- let me know when I have to expect those books

- customize the quality options (e.g. paper color)

I remember getting some questionable quality books from amazon which didn't match up to the usual standard of a publisher. No Starch Press called this out in the past saying amazon sell counterfieght books. https://x.com/nostarch/status/1183095004258099202

I'm not sure what actually happens, but I mostly stopped buying paperbacks on Amazon a good while ago, and if I do, and I'm unhappy with the quality I'll return it.

Buy second hand books if you can: wider selection, good for the environment, lower price (usually), supports small businesses (usually).

I don't have any reason to believe this is not a scam. If Amazon had any good intention in doing this, why didn’t they simply note on the webpage that this book is printed on demand? Those introduction on pages look exactly the same as those for the original edition. It’s only once you’ve received the book that you realise Amazon has printed it themselves. I don’t like this game, and now I never buy books from Amazon unless I absolutely have to.

It is not just the print, it is also the way pages are cut and bound. The printed area is not where it should be on the page.

Don't buy from Amazon and expect anything but. Knowing the kind of company it is and still being a customer is inexcusable.

When I was searching for a good copy of The Wizard of Oz to read to my kids it was impossible to use Amazon. Since the book is out of copyright but still popular the results are for terribly formatted print on demand paper backs that don't include the illustrations. It's out of copyright, spend a little effort and do a good job!

I eventually found the series in hard cover from Books of Wonder. I buy from them or seek out used hard cover books for out of copyright books now. Abebooks is still useful though they are owned by Amazon so who knows for how long that will last.

I like to buy books and would never buy from Amazon. Haven't for a long time for many reasons.

I find it more enjoyable to browse a local bookshop or charity shop and, if I want to buy something specific online I'll go with bookshop.org.

The trick with Amazon is only ordering items if they are eligible for Prime delivery. Amazon seems to put those items under a lot more scrutiny, and I’ve never had a problem when ordering this way.

Yes, I know - anecdotal.

The last 3 books I’ve purchased from Amazon (UK) have been of questionable quality. The most recent was Designing Data–Intensive Applications (O’Reilly) and I’m still not sure if it’s print on demand, counterfeit- or just a reject. Roller marks, damaged pages, slightly off print. The returns process is inconvenient, one-offs are okay but on multiple purchases it’s fatiguing and so the book stays.

This isn’t specific to Amazon, I had the same issue with Waterstones in the UK (online)

I now just buy second hand (Abe, WOB) and hope for the best.

Pro-tip: support your local bookstore.

If it's inadequate, there's plenty of places to buy books online that aren't Amazon.

OP gives a price in euros. Why buy American?

My local book store accepts online orders and I can fetch my books from the shop a few days later. I am finding this more convenient than Amazon, even if a little more expensive. I also appreciate to have a book store in town, for the few times I have to find a present and have no idea and little time.

For the convenience aspect: Amazon deliveries routinely fail, require me to fetch the parcel at the entrance of my condo at inconvenient times, or require me the get my parcel at the condo concierge, again at inconvenient times, or the parcel is dropped at a random place.

I never had to return a book bought at the store. I do not even know their return policy. It may definitely be an issue someday in the future.

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It’s easy to tell when these books are printed by a high-volume inkjet printer. They are not as pleasurable to read. It’s a certain fuzziness, like when cinemas first went to digital, and when planetariums got rid of their optical star projectors.

I’m a very prolific reader who primarily reads ePubs and occasionally printed books (mainly because I’m running out of space to keep books at home). One thing that I’ve noticed in modern prints is the subpar spines. I’ve books from 90s with their spine intact and going through continuous reads vs recent buys that come apart and require a rebinding on just few reads.

Isn't paperback basically dead in the US because most sales are digital now?

Tbh i've given up on dead tree books with the lone exception of a few hard covers because ... space the final frontier.

There are a few things I take away from this post:

1. If you care about the physical manifestation of a product, maybe Amazon.com is not the place to be shopping for it.

2. If the product as it arrives is substantially different from that ordered, it seems dishonest of the seller.

3. While the physical book is a source of joy for me as well, I feel lucky to live in a time where I can own a copy of a book that only a handful of people value, for a reasonable price.

I gave up, bought a kobo libra2 that never saw an internet connection (you can find updated firmware online to download) and now just borrow epubs in the soulseek library.

Many people are mentioning bookshop.org and I would be happy to try it out but I want to note that they don’t ship outside the US and UK.

There are excellent english book stores in Madrid, and if you enjoy collecting books, you'll most likely enjoy the experience of going to one and buying a book there. If the book you're looking for is out of stock, they can usually get it for you the next day. There is literally no reason to buy books on Amazon.

I've gotten a few of these and each time I've filled out the Return form, Amazon's response has been "ok, we're refunding your card, no need to return the item".

I've bought some older hardcover books from Springer (and not for very cheap, mind you) and even then you can get some absolutely despicable print-on-demand abominations. Some appear to be created by scanning the original works in low resolution and then printing using some crappy inkjet. Good luck deciphering any subscripts in the formulas! Of course, to add to the insult, the binding is usually terrible as well.

It's a shame. Even for many classics the only way to get a decent copy is to either buy them second hand (often unfeasible) or to bind one yourself.

This is partially why I don't buy print books anymore, unless I have no other choice (like random region restrictions on ebooks I want to read).

Sadly, I'm completely locked into the Amazon ecosystem for ebooks, but at least there I know what I'm getting.

This is just a symptom of the broader enshittification of Amazon. Buying anything these days requires wading through a sea of low quality shit knockoffs and duplicate product entries all populated with useless reviews.

At some point leadership completely went off the rails on the quality vs quantity of its selection. I don’t shop somewhere because they have the biggest selection, I shop there because they have the BEST selection.

Some of this could be solved with better software via the search and browsing experience but that too just keeps going steadily downhill.

I first starting noticing bad print on demand editions from Oxford University Press almost 20 years ago.

I was excited when I opened this post, but apparently the author is complaining about this?

Here is a comment I made few months ago complaining about why this isn't a thing already:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46219555

I kept getting disappointed when authors I liked were printing kindle-only or digital only books and short stories, that I would gladly pay extra for the cost of printing. I have no interest in spending what extra time I have in front of a screen. I've tried getting into it, it's just too distracting. Even on a kindle with no network access, it isn't convenient to switch between pages, it feels too much like scrolling on my phone.

The authors says enshittification, but I don't get it, you can still buy original copies. hardcover is the go-to if you want something more authentic, no one is printing those on demand. Pay for those, and let the authors make more money too that way. When I buy paperback, I don't care about all that, so long as the font, page size and other qualities are good (a nice cover won't hurt either).

For some books, they haven't had a publication in too long, and there are no used copies for sale on Amazon, I'd be very glad to get on-demand printed versions.

I buy books which are classics or longsellers usually from used book stores or at flea markets, or generally from book stores where I can inspect the books before buying.

Print-on-demand Amazon paperback books can have great quality. It is mainly the responsibility of the author, by doing proper layout, and choosing a nice paper option. I've self-published with Amazon KDP, and am really happy with the result.

It can happen that the particular printing person on that day fucks up though.

if you appreciate books, you don’t buy them from amazon. that’s been true for a number of years now. of course, if someone is tight on budget and wants to get a book, I wouldn’t go at them for getting the cheapest option available, which in 99% of cases, amazon is. but for people that can afford it? no excuse. I find it to be immoral to buy from amazon. my wife and I have switched years ago: small local libraries > dussmann > amazon

I think it is pretty obvious. While Jack London's martin Eden is out of copyright and public domain now, if they order Penguin edition they still have to pay them some money for it. So Amazon calculated that it is cheaper to print their own. My guess they could not do this for non-public-domain books without securing rights first.

I strongly recommend abebooks for buying physical texts.

Honestly love them and dont see the issue at all.

Have seen a few people bootstrap themselves with POD and then move into traditional publishing.

Demanding people keep a massive stock of something just in case you want one is the height of privilege.

A while back I wanted to reread _Slaughterhouse 5_. I couldn't find my copy, my go-to local didn't have one in stock and would take a week or more to get it, and the library's was checked out, so I held my nose ordered one from Amazon.

The copy I received two days later was (a) kinda shitty in terms of cover quality and whatnot and (b) had been printed in my state by Amazon in response to my order. I found that pretty unnerving, and it may have been the last book I ordered from Amazon.

What annoys me about Amazon lately is that their books often arrive damaged.

You'd say that a company that has its origin in books would know how to ship them properly.

I noticed this years ago with technical books. IIRC, Manning was the first publisher that I noticed doing it. Pages so thin that I could see the text on the reverse side as I was reading it - it drove me crazy. O'Reilly started doing the same.

I had a PDF version of On Lisp (Paul Graham put it on his website for free some time after it went out of print). I used lulu.com to turn it into a printed book (1 copy for myself). I love it. The cover art isn't great (low-res image; not Lulu's fault), but the paper stock is amazing (I got to choose it!). The print quality is also great.

Lulu provides some evidence that you can run a profitable business and still offer users the ability to do _very small_ print runs (1 book). I wish they (or someone like them) could work out a deal with publishers that would let me choose the paper stock I want when I order a book online.

But, maybe there are other options...

Two quotes from the article:

> I purchase most of my books through Amazon. I don’t find the speed of delivery that valuable, but the competitive pricing (especially factoring in Prime), ease of ordering [...]

> To add insult to injury, print-on-demand books seem to be significantly more expensive than stock equivalents

That's the classic enshittification playbook right there. Hook 'em with low prices. Once you've captured the market, lower your costs and raise prices.

Vote with your wallet. Go to a bookstore. Small and local is fun if you don't have a particular book in mind. If you do have a particular book in mind, check Barnes and Noble's website. It will tell you if it's in stock near you. If not, order it. If you go to pick it up and don't like the quality of the print/binding -- return it.

edit: fixed spacing for quoted text