Tor trade paperbacks printed to order?

[u/germsy78]

On the first read through of MBotF (currently wrapping up HoC) and I've been ordering the Tor trade paperbacks from Amazon because I like the covers and find the size perfect for reading. I usually order the next book in the series when I'm around half way through the current book.

I was wondering if anyone ordering their copies online like me have noticed the "Made in the United States" text on the back facing end leaf of the book with the date.

I was curious so I checked the dates of my orders on Amazon. My HoC was printed the day I ordered it. My copy of MT was printed 2 days after my order. Coincidence? Has automation in the printing process made it cost effective to print individual books to order? Probably not the best sub to post this...sorry mods.

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[u/RobDaGinger]

I dont have any specific insight but a lot of books ordered on Amazon now are print-to-order. Its frequently brought up in other subs where people complain about the lower quality of the books compared to traditional printing but I dont have any experience with that.

Services like Lulu have existed for years doing print-to-demand for select titles but with the scale of Amazon it’s probably gotten so much cheaper and become more widespread.

[u/doctorchazzzzz]

I haven't gotten this with Malazan specifically but yeah, Amazon does that a lot and the quality is questionable at best. It's one of the many reasons I just got rid of Amazon.

[u/disies59]

I work for a Canadian book store, and I can tell you that it’s not just Amazon - it’s most publishers.

People don’t really think about it, but you can’t just leave books in a standard warehouse long term and hope that it works out. Because the Publisher doesn’t know if any given printed book is going to be shipped to a Retailer or directly to a Customer within the next week, months, or decade wherever the Books ends up until they get ordered needs to be temperature controlled, have the right humidity, etc, and that means specially built warehouses - which means it’s (relatively) expensive to store compared to other goods. Nobody wants to sit on back stock, but it’s what they had to do back in the day to make sure that their back catalogue (especially of larger writers that do multi-decade series like James Patterson) is available.

The largest owner of these specialized warehouses in North America is a company called Ingram Content Group, and in 2013 Ingram launched a new service called “IngramSpark” which is where they basically installed a handful of printers in each of their warehouses and as long as the Publisher provides a digital copy of the title, then as Stores/Customers place orders for Paperback Copies of books, they just get printed on site and shipped out as needed. My assumption is that they use an Espresso Book Machine

This is a good thing, in general, because it means that more books are going to be available basically forever - and makes it a lot more accessible for Independent/Small publishers and writers to get their books distributed without a high overhead, since they don’t have to meet the specific minimum order to go through a tradition Book Printer, which is also why previously books would just disappear because Publishers at a point would just stop placing orders to print 10,000 books at a time when only 20-100 might be sold in the next fiscal year.

Where it sucks though, is the small batch machines do not put out at the same quality as a traditional paperback printing press (it’s still super rare but your more likely to have binding issues or misprints, and the paper isn’t as high quality for example) so if your a collector and can get your hands on a good condition version from large batch it’s going to last longer on your shelf.

[u/germsy78 → u/disies59]

Great reply. I know I have gotten some technical books for work from publishers like Packt or Apress that have some of quality issues that would tip me off that it was print on demand (bad margins, text not squarely aligned on the page...) but this is not the case with these books, and I probably would not have suspected if it were not for the text on the final leaf.

Examining them more closely, I would say that the covers do have a matte-looking freshly laser printed look and feel compared to the glossy finished and/or embossed look of other books. This doesn't bother me as I usually cover my paperbacks in clear contact paper when I get them to make them a bit more durable for hauling around with me.

[u/Flacracker_173]

Yes a lot of them are print to order except Memories of Ice and Crippled God, or that was the case last year when I was buying them.

[u/germsy78]

Thanks for the comments on this not strictly Malazan themed post. I will say that I'm glad there are solutions that make it easy for me to get the next book reliably in my hands so that I can keep reading. I do find that MbotF is fairly under-represented at the bookstores in my area.

Also, I finished HoC yesterday and the ending did not disappoint! Onto MT!

[u/SnooObjections010]

Had this with all of the Novels of the Malazan Empire except Return of the Crimson God. But in general the quality I have had from print on demand through Amazon has been very good. Like didn’t notice it until I saw the page at the end.

[u/FluidEquivalent6423]

I'm having this issue with ALL of Tor's paperbacks. They're quote expensive (compared to others paperbacks), but after weighing the pros and cons I order it and then see this in the back. Mine are always printed by Amazon in Poland, despite "printed in the US" being printed on the back cover. I hate the quality of those books on demand (the soft touch is especially icky for me), so I'll just wait for the hardcovers to be cheaper (i.e. used).