[Richard T. Eger]

Dear Tony, Ed, and Ruy,

I think it's IBM that has put out that print on demand TV advertisement. How does one go about learning more? What's involved? Did you actually have to print off 500 copies, or are you able to do a few at a time? Doesn't the setup to do a few at a time add cost? Being rather finicky about the quality of photo reproduction, just how good is the final product?

Ed, I'm not so sure your "just do it" versus vacilation is good advice. On the other hand, if one is willing to sink into something funds without a concern as to cost, just to see something in print, then your advice is correct.

As for electronic versus hard copy, though, for me, a book, a hard copy book, is the ultimate in permanence. Yes, you could post it on the Internet or sell it as an e-book, but I'm a bit old school and that physical "thing" has just too much attraction. I don't have to worry that there won't be something to view it on because Bill Gates has come out with a completely different system, obsoleting all of today's software and data storage formats. All one has to do is think of all the changes in the audio recording industry. Care to go out and buy a state of the art LP player for all those vinyls collected over a lifetime? A physical book defies obsoleting. The one very important gain with having something in electronic form is searchability, which I'll readily admit.

I also feel a sense of loss of one's artistic control on information when it is just dropped into the Internet. Pirating is rampant. Heck, is there any one of us that hasn't copied a photo or document off of someone else's website, regardless of whether the site claims copyright???

Ruy, I sure hope that your experience with your local bookstore is more the norm than what I have seen here. The more titles - good research - the better.

But, if I am correct, then a shrinking market puts a distinct pressure on publishers to stay with the most popular subjects and keep the books short, so that breakpoints can come earlier. Economy should come in volume, but, if the average book run is shrinking, then it is going to get tougher and tougher to turn something out that actually makes any money. As much as we'd like to think publishers are altruistic, they are there to make money. Maybe authors do it for the love of the game, but don't count on the same thinking from publishers. If they don't watch the bottom line, they'll go out of business. There's enough of that that we've seen already.

Regards,
Richard