More on POD publishers.

Is Print on Demand Publishing the new thing or a Band-Aid (plastic strip to be politically correct) for a broken/outdated system?

That sort of depends on what your goal is. Each POD publisher differs in one way or another but just be sure you understand that no POD publisher will be able to help you get into brick and mortar bookstores which is what most authors are looking for help with. Okay, maybe that's just what I'm looking for help with. ;)

The main distributors, Ingram, Baker & Taylor etc . . . have a long standing relationship with bookstores. In fact, bookstores sign contracts with these distributors which boast a very attractive return policy scenario (or so I've heard.) Certainly too good to pass up. While I've not seen the contract I do understand how the return policy works (sort of) and it is my understanding that it is designed to encourage bookstores to order a lot of titles to help distributors with warehousing costs. In other words bookstores order large quantities of a title (which constitutes a sell which helps push the title to the top of best-sellers list) but is given the option to return the books at anytime for a full refund. Back in the day, and I'm pretty sure this still happens, bookstores weren't even required to return the book at all so that they save on postage as well. Another incentive to purchase more books than needed. They simply have to return the front cover which makes the book unsellable to the publisher.

When a POD publisher offers an author distribution to the "brick and mortar" bookstores, or rather tells you to make your book returnable, you the author, become an active participant/victim of the large distributors return policy. POD publishers will not reimburse you for damaged returned goods yet they do have funny little ways to offset this loss. For instance my POD publisher automatically destroys returns. You're not given the option to look at the book yourself to see if you might can salvage any part of it. It's simply destroyed. My POD does offer to give you a sellable book for two dollars minus the printing cost if you choose this option.

I did ask recently why I wasn't told in the beginning that returns would be destroyed automatically as this would have certainly swayed my decision to go with said POD as why would I do business with someone who'd present my product to sellers but not protect me against returns. I was simply told that this is how the book industry works?

So there you go.

Yes. That is why my book is now non-returnable with the only advantage for using a POD being that my title shows up in the larger distributors database . . . but they won't order it since they can't return it at will and in whatever shape they desire to return it in which is usually mutilated in some fashion to verify proof of purchase from bookstores who aren't required to send a non-mutilated book back?

My POD did tell me that I could sell my books to the bookstores myself and set up my own return policy with them.

*Sue blinks in dismay.*

Really? Well that's nice to know.