A Definition and a Comparison Copyright 2004, Michael La

The purpose of this article is to consider Print-On-Demand publishing as an alternative for the aspiring author. It has its strengths and its weaknesses. You may wonder as you begin reading this, but in the end I'm going to say some good things about it.

To a large extent, the title explains the technology. The way that literature has traditionally been printed involves running many copies simultaneously in order to bring the price per copy down. Smaller print runs, such as advertising brochures or concert programs, cost more per copy because they are small print runs. Until recently, printing a single book was all but unthinkable.

In the case of novels, the traditional print publisher begins by publishing several thousand copies. His goal is to run off the smallest number of copies he can while getting the best possible price per copy.

These books are then sent to bookstores, which tend to prefer something along the lines of what has succeeded before. The remainder sits in a warehouse somewhere. Perhaps to be shipped as the orders come in, perhaps to be joined by any "remaindered" copies the bookstores couldn't move.

This represents an investment on the part of that publisher, hence his paranoia about experimenting with new formats or (more importantly) new authors.

Print-On-Demand (POD), as the name implies, uses a completely different process. The end result is, the price per copy on a small run is much lower. How small of a run? Try one book. Zero inventory. The book is economically produced when the reader orders it, not before.

This technology was probably invented for sales literature. Then someone realized it might be a pretty cool way to get ARCs (Advance Review Copies) out to the book reviewers before the book was actually available. Finally, someone decided to get it into the publishing mainstream.

Why is it so much cheaper to publish a single book via POD? The reasons really aren't relevant to this article, besides which they'd probably bore you. But if you care, the first link below spells it all out.

http://www.jdwrite.com/writing/pod_01.htm http://www.jdwrite.com/writing/pod_02.htm http://www.jdwrite.com/writing/pod_03.htm http://www.jdwrite.com/writing/pod_04.htm http://www.jdwrite.com/writing/pod_05.htm

I recommend reading (or at least skimming) all five of those, by the way. It's quite a comprehensive analysis of how. Then come back to this article to determine why. Or if.

Have you ever heard of the author who self-published and wound up with a best-seller? They do exist!

Now look at all the self-published authors who couldn't do that. They're the vast majority. The author who uses POD could be facing similar long shot odds.

(Keep reading. I'll say good things about POD eventually.)

POD has a definite advantage over self-publishing, in that you don't wind up with a few hundred (or more?) copies of a book in your basement because you can't sell them. Thus, it's cheaper, with no difference in quality unless you hook up with losers.

But neither option will bring you the readership that you'll get from a successful book with a traditional print publisher.

I have self published. I went to a local print shop back in the pre-POD days, ran off 80 copies at $3 a copy, and sold them to local bookstores for $6 a copy. Lots of fun, and lots of learning, but I didn't get rich. My wage per hour stunk, but that was fine with me because I honestly didn't care. I broke even and gave away the rest. A pleasant way to spend lunch hours during the work week.

Most of us, though, just don't have that kind of time. And even if we do, why bother? Take the money you'd have invested and buy some Microsoft stock, then take the time you'd have invested and write more books. You'll be happier and you'll make more money.

Having said all that, why am I recommending POD at all? In my case, it's because I've written some books that no print publisher will ever pick up. That's my honest appraisal.

If I were a mercenary type, I'd follow that up with something like "Why'd you even write those books then?" But if you are a REAL writer, you know the answer.

It's always about writing first, marketing second. Two different hats. I'm assuming you already did the writing and now are wondering what the heck to do with it.

As an example, my EPPIE 2002 finalist is too short. I wrote it back when print publishers wanted 40,000 words. Now they want 50,000. But it doesn't take 50,000 words to tell that particular story, and I'm not padding it. Even if I were willing, it'd stink and nobody would buy it. Give the publishers some credit. They know padding when they see it. The same goes for the readers.

As another example, consider my short story collection. Critically acclaimed and selling moderately well, but no traditional publisher wants short story collections from unknown authors. It's just that simple.

So, I simultaneously published these books in e-book form and POD form. E-books are cheaper and more environmentally friendly, but the paperback option is still there for those who can't or won't ever read an e-book.

(Daddy is in that group, by the way. How about your family?)

Places who publish only POD began by accepting anything sent their way. Pay your money, and do your own editing and marketing. This gave POD a credibility problem. There are POD outfits who don't operate this way, but the credibility problem will take time to heal.

As an author, your goal is to write what's in your heart, find people who like to read what you like to write, and get it out to them. (That's my goal, anyway.) If your name happens to be Tom Clancy, that equals many readers. But that's simply luck of the draw.

Many of us don't have such mass appeal. Possibly you're the sort of writer who knows exactly where you stand in that respect. But many don't, and they're flooding the POD market with stuff that most readers just plain don't want. Add to that the badly edited stuff, and the credibility problem with POD is understandable.

Ideally, what you want is for your e-publisher to simultaneously release your book in both formats without charging a POD setup fee. That way, you can direct all your promotional efforts to that single URL. However, these e-publishers have a real problem with backlog now, so if you want to travel the road I did, you'll need much more patience than I did.

Taking advantage of a free POD option with your e-book will also help your promotional efforts. Many reviewers just plain won't touch an e-book. If you've done the POD bit, in addition to being able to tell all your friends and family, "Look at this, I'm a real author because here's the paperback," you'll be able to send review copies via POD to those book reviewers.

(I told my friends and family to kiss my butt, but I'm just a crochety old cuss.)

If you find yourself with an e-publisher who doesn't offer free POD, you may wish to shop around for a POD publisher. As you do this, remember the business model. If a publisher makes all its money from writers, it doesn't need to sell a single book to a single reader to stay in business.

No matter how much praise they send your way, that's the bottom line. Writing is a calling, but publishing is a business. Those authors who can't distinguish between the two are what keep the opportunists in business. (I was such an author for most of my life.)

Some POD places are no more than thinly veiled vanity (or subsidy) presses. They have a valuable role to serve, but let's be honest. Most do no editing, and they don't care. They may not be making a massive profit from your setup fees, but they're certainly making enough to stay in business. Even if you don't sell any books to anyone except your Gramma.

(A few new POD places help with marketing and charge no fees of any kind. I've been told http://www.bewrite.net is such a place, but have yet to visit it.)

Earlier, I recommended e-publishing before print publishing for the free editing you'll receive. If you're going with POD, consider it mandatory. Either that, or pay an editor. The author who can write a mistake-free manuscript does not exist.

Still interested in POD publishing? I've done it, by the way, and it worked out well. Here are the questions you should ask yourself when you select a POD publisher:

A) Sale price of each book
1) Who decides what it is?
2) Will readers pay that much for your book?

B) Profit per sale vs. your setup cost 1) How many copies must you sell to break even? 2) Can you do it?
3) If not, do you care? How big of a financial hit are you willing to take just to see your name in print?

As a rule, US$100 or less setup cost is good and US$1000 is very bad. The latter, no matter how much publicity they promise you, is only a thinly disguised vanity publisher. You will not sell enough books to recoup that $1000 unless you are a real marketing machine. Even then you shouldn't pay the $1000 up front. Pay $100 or less and then sell all those books. $1000 or more won't get you anything that $100 or less won't.

A comprehensive list of POD publishers, along with descriptions, can be found on-line at http://dehanna.com/database.htm

The site mentioned fails to mention Booksurge (http://www.booksurge.com), also known as Digitz (http://www.digitz.net), and Publish America (http://www.publishamerica.com). The first charges US$99 and the second is free.

Another that isn't mentioned is Digital Print Australia at http://www.digitalprintaustralia.com. I've used them before. My setup cost was AUD$35 (roughly US$18), which compares rather favorably to those listed.

Their price per copy is also excellent. The quality is at least as good as what you'll find in the bookstores. If you've ever bought a paperback from Writers Exchange E-Publishing, you've seen it already. If not, Digital Print will send you a free sample. They sent mine to China.

Two problems you may have with them, though, are shipping charges from Australia if that's not where your readers are located, and the fact that they don't offer a way to sell the books on their site.

For selling the books, I used the Book Store feature on Authors Den (http://www.authorsden.com) back when it was free. It offers a secure server. I know some authors who I trusted enough to send money to without a secure server. But I suspect that most of your prospective readers won't know you that well. In fact, they won't know you at all.

Another option is the shopping cart feature at PayPal (https://www.paypal.com/refer/pal=BH2CTDYDK8RPW), which I haven't researched. But take a look. You oughta have PayPal anyway, because it lets people send you money or vice versa through email, absolutely free. They'll give you $5 just for signing up.

If the POD place only prints "trade paperbacks," which are the larger ones, your cost per book (and sale price per book) will be higher than if you can print "mass-market paperbacks." The choice is yours, but whatever you decide, visit the local bookstores and price similar-sized books. If you write like Stephen King but charge twice as much per book, readers are going to buy the author they've heard of, and that's probably not you. Yet...

Michael LaRocca's website at http://freereads.topcities.com was chosen by WRITER'S DIGEST as one of The 101 Best Websites For Writers in 2001 and 2002. He published two novels in 2002 and has two more scheduled for publication in 2004. He also works as an editor for an e-publisher. He teaches English at a university in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China, and publishes the free weekly newsletter Mad About Books.

ISO 9000 History

ISO 9000 is an important marketing tool and is recognized world wide. Maintained by the ISO (international standards organization), it is a family of ISO standards for quality management systems. ISO 9000 grew out of British standards institution's BS 5750. The ISO 9000 series are managed by several accreditation and certification bodies. Though the standard was first applied to manufacturing industries, it is now employed across a variety of other types of businesses.

Studies show that the history of industrialization has seen lots of standards on quality issues. For instance, during the two world wars, a high percentage of bullets and bombs went off in the factories themselves in the course of manufacturing. In an effort to curb such causalities, UK?s ministry of defense appointed inspectors in the factories to supervise the production process.

In 1959, the United States introduced Mil-Q-9858a, the first quality standard for military procurement. By 1962, NASA developed its quality system requirements for suppliers. Six years later, NATO accepted the AQAP (allied quality assurance procedures) specifications for the procurement of equipments. In 1969, UK and Canada introduced suppliers? quality assurance standards.

During the 1970s, British standards institution (BSI) published BS 9000 (the first UK standard for quality assurance) and BS 5179 (guidelines for quality assurance) norms. During the period, the BSI held meetings with industry to set a common standard. Consequently, in 1979, the institution developed BS 5750, a series of standards for use by manufacturing companies. They were enforced through assessments and audits.

In 1987, the BSI revised the standard to take in service providers and manufacturing industries also. In 1988, ISO adopted the BS 5750 standard without changes and published it globally under the name, ISO 9000.

In 1994, ISO revised the standard. In December 2000, the standard was again reorganized. The new ISO 9000 standard has many resemblances to its predecessors.

ISO 9000 provides detailed information on ISO 9000, ISO 9000 Standards, ISO 9000 Software, ISO 9000 Consulting and more. ISO 9000 is affiliated with Home Inspections

ISO 9000 Quality Assurance

ISO 9000 is a set of standards developed by the ISO (international organization for standardization) for quality assurance systems. It was first published in 1987 and the standards were modified in 1994. ISO 9000 serves as a true base for organizations to improve their quality assurance systems.

A quality assurance system involves the organizational structure, duties, procedures, processes, and materials for applying quality management. It is designed to help businesses assure their services and products, and please customer hopes by meeting their specifications. Quality assurance covers all activities of a product?s life cycle, including planning, controlling, measuring, testing and reporting, and improving quality levels.

ISO 9000 quality assurance models view an enterprise as a network of interconnected processes. For a quality system to be ISO-compliant, the processes should address areas known in the standard and should be documented and practiced as described. Documenting a process gives an organization the opportunity to understand, control, and improve its process network.

ISO quality assurance is a management activity that contains auditing and reporting actions. These two functions assist the manager to verify the efficiency of the quality system. ISO 9000 expresses quality assurance resources in general terms that can be used by any organization irrespective of the products or services provided. However, ISO 9000 does not explain how a business should apply these quality system elements.

Most companies first attempt to get certified to one of the quality assurance system models in the ISO 9000 series. For this, the company?s quality system and actions are audited by third party auditors for conformity to the standard and for effective operation. Upon successful certification, the company obtains a certificate from a certification body represented by the auditors.

ISO 9000 provides detailed information on ISO 9000, ISO 9000 Standards, ISO 9000 Software, ISO 9000 Consulting and more. ISO 9000 is affiliated with Home Inspections.

What is ISO 9000

ISO 9000 is a set of international standards that ensure product and service quality. In 1987, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) created the ISO 9000 standards providing guidelines to implement and operate quality management systems.

The ISO revised the standards in 1994, and again reorganized the standards and published an updated version in December 2000. The revised version includes three quality standards, namely, ISO 9000:2000, ISO 9001:2000, and ISO 9004:2000. The first one presents requirements, while the last two present guidelines.

ISO 9000 standards help businesses create in-house quality systems and monitor their existing quality systems. To develop quality systems, businesses should first identify areas in which quality control is required. Next step is to recognize what changes are to be made. After that, they should implement the standards by updating and managing their new quality processes.

ISO 9000 certification provides several benefits that can influence almost all activities of a company. The advantages range from increased stature to bottom-line operational saving. Of the numerous benefits include increased marketability, reduced operational expenses, better management control, improved internal communication, reduction of product-liability risks, and improved customer service.

For quality management, ISO 9000 standards require a total of twenty elements (sections.) They include management responsibility, quality management system, order entry, design control, document and data control, purchasing, control of customer supplied products, product identification and tractability, and process control.

ISO 9000 standards are generic as they can apply to any business, service or product, regardless of the industry. Businesses that employ these standards include manufacturing, processing, servicing, printing, forestry, electronics, steel, computing, legal services, financial services, accounting, trucking, and banking.

ISO 9000 is of great importance owing to its worldwide orientation. It has become the logical selection of all organizations that do business internationally, and for customers who want an international standard of quality. At present, national standards bodies from more than 120 nations support ISO 9000 quality standards.

ISO 9000 provides detailed information on ISO 9000, ISO 9000 Standards, ISO 9000 Software, ISO 9000 Consulting and more. ISO 9000 is affiliated with Home Inspections.

An Brief Explanation on ISO 9001:2000 Quality Procedure

When our company intend to implement Quality Management System (ISO 9001:2000), we should prepare quality management system documentation that includes documented statement of quality policy and quality objectives, a quality manual, quality procedures and workplace references or work instructions to ensure the effective planning, operation, and control of company processes.

In regard with quality procedure, it should be established, documented, implemented and maintained. The documented ISO 9001:2000 procedure may be different from one company to another because of the size of company and type of activities, the complexity of processes and their interactions and the competence of their personnel.

In practice, format of ISO 9001:2000 quality procedures may also differ from one company to another. For a company that is trying to make their own ISO 9001: 2000 quality procedures for the first time, using ISO 9001:2000 procedure examples can be very helpful. It does not mean duplicating the ISO 9001:2000 procedure example for the company own use.

An ISO 9001:2000 quality procedure may consist of cover sheet, flow diagram, and procedure in detail. The cover sheet contains Company name, title of ISO 9001:2000 procedure, sheet number, document number and revision record (revision number, description of revision, date of revision and signature of the person in charge.

The flow diagram explains step by step from the beginning how the ISO 9001:2000 procedure flows. And the procedure its self should at least have an objective, scope, general explanation, definitions used in the procedure, content of the procedure, records used, related documents and important attachments. The contents of ISO 9001:2000 procedure is a text description of the work flow or instructions based on its flow diagram. The description is started with the persons in charge and followed by explanation of their tasks or jobs as specified in the flow diagram.

Lukman is the webmaster of Free Ebooks Downloads Directory- http://www.hot-free-ebooks-maps.com. Communicate with him at http://inside-chemical-plant.blogspot.com

Is ISO 9001 2000 Right For My Business?

 

Firstly you should decide your own reasoning behind considering ISO 9001 2000 registration for your business.

Is the number of registrations in your market sector increasing?

Are your competitors seeking registration?

Are your customers asking about registration?

Are registrations increasing in your industry?

Are your customers asking you to become registered?

Have your group HQ asked you to gain registration?

Do you want to reap the financial benefits of registration?

Have the number of customer or consumer complaints increased?

Preventable errors reoccur again and again?

It is not possible to state exactly what benefits your organization will gain by having a formal quality system, primarily because each organisation is different. However, I think it is fair to say that most organisations will benefit from having a formalised Quality Management system where:

Work proceeds in an orderly and predictable way.

The same old preventable errors stop occurring.

Customer and consumer complaints fall dramatically.

Your Management System improves.

Internal communication within your organisation improves.

Returned product from customers reduces week on week.

The quality of your product and or service improves.

The level of customer and employee satisfaction improves.

Your organisation produces quality data to improve your business.

By now you should have a reasonable idea of whether or not ISO 9001 2000 registration is right for your organisation and whether or not you will gain financially from adopting the ISO 9001 2000 standard as a method of running your business effectively and efficiently.

If you are now seriously considering seeking registration to the ISO 9001 2000 standard you must begin to understand what the standard requires of an organization. There are many books and resources available which discuss implementing the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard into an organisation including the articles on this web site.

You may like to begin your ISO 9001 2000 education by reading the various articles on this web site. You will find they cover a broad spectrum of businesses, There is also an excellent Q&A sectionthat will answer the majority of commonly asked questions about ISO 9001 2000 registration and related topics.

Alternatively you could take an ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management training course, there are many available and they cater for beginners right through to ISO 9001 2000 experts.

To determine the amount of input required by your organisation to comply with the requirements of the ISO 9001 2000 standard will require that you assess your existing management system. You could to fetch in a consultant at this stage, a consultant will be able to identify exactly what your organisation needs to do in order to achieve the requirements of the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard.

Many organisations opt to carry out a gap analysis audit using a member of staff. However, the initial gap analysis audit is arguably the most important stage in the ISO 9001 2000 registration process. If the initial gap analysis is incorrect then both financial and human resources will be wasted. For this reason alone it is well worth seeking professional help from a consultant to carry out the gap analysis for you.

Many organisations who opt to jump straight into the Gap Analysis process themselves can often waste time, money and resources by not fully understanding the intent of the ISO 9001 2000 standard. Whereas seeking professional advice from a consultant will set your organisation on the right path with clear instructions on who, what, where, why, when and how things should be done.

If on the other hand your organization already has a very good understanding of the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard and has:

A documented Quality policy.

Been setting and using documented Quality objectives.

Customer and consumer complaints fall dramatically.

Documented Top management reviews of your Quality Management System.

A documented top level Quality Management System Manual.

Documented effective and efficient process procedures and or work instructions.

Documented employee skills and training records which are regularly reviewed.

Documented and compliant Quality Management System Audits.

Formal Customer complaint process with effective corrective and preventive action methods.

If you are doing all the above then you may be well on your way toward gaining ISO 9001 2000 registration. However, if your Quality Management System is incomplete or immature it will require much more effort to become compliant. You can continue to adjust your system, audit for compliance, train employees etc. until you reach a position where you feel you have done as much as you are able to do yourself.

If however, you have reached this stage and are concerned if you have missed something important you can hire a consultant to carry out a [Pre-Assessment]. A pre-assessment is a gap-analysis survey carried out by a professional who compares what processes your organisation has in place compared to those required by the ISO 9001 2000 Quality Management Standard.

The consultant will report any deficiencies in your organisations processes, it is then up to you to decide if you want to tackle these deficiencies by yourself or to engage the professional services of the consultant.

Driso provide ISO 9001 2000 consultancy, auditing, software, and training Services. They also supply Easy ISO 9001 2000® software for initially setting up an ISO 9001 2000 compliant Quality Management System or improving upon an existing one.

To contact Driso Consultancy Services visit the web site below and see what they can do for you and your business. Contact: http://www.driso.co.uk for more details.