Strictly speaking, "print on demand" describes a type of printing technology, not any particular business model. Over the past few years, however, digital technology has become so firmly associated with a particular complex of business practices that the term "POD publisher" has taken on a specific meaning.

What defines a POD publisher?

• Minimal selectivity. Some POD publishers accept every submitted manuscript. Others do more screening, but do not have the expertise to ensure high quality.

• Minimal editing. Some POD publishers do no more than a light copyedit, releasing books that are essentially unedited. Others employ inexperienced or amateur editors to more or less the same effect. Some POD publishers do no editing of any kind.

• High cover prices. The unit cost for digitally printed books is higher than for books printed on offset presses. Cover prices, therefore, must be correspondingly higher in order for the publisher to make a profit. Depending on length, a POD book can cost more than twice as much as its offset counterpart.

• BookPros pays its authors 100 percent of the royalties paid to the publisher, which equals approximately 40 percent of the book’s retail price. POD publishers, however, pay their authors only 10 to 15 percent of the retail price.

• Nonreturnability. Booksellers expect to be able to return unsold books to the publisher for full credit. POD publishers rarely accept returns or, if they do, have such a limited return policy that it's slightly better than no policy at all.

• Minimal marketing and distribution. POD publishers don't want to cut into their profits by spending money on book promotion. They'll ensure that their books are available for order online and through a wholesaler such as Ingram, but they won't advertise and will make little or no effort to obtain professional reviews and bookstore placement.

• Other nonstandard practices. These may include amateurish formatting, terrible cover design, hellacious contracts and fees of various kinds

Most of these practices, including the fee, are characteristic of the POD-based publishing service providers discussed above. However, they're increasingly common among digitally based independent publishers, whose often inexperienced staff may not have the skill to rigorously select and edit (never mind market and promote) the publisher's books and whose shoestring budgets force them to keep costs as low as possible.

Not all POD-based independents employ these practices, of course. Unfortunately, a great many do. The aggressive policies and poor-quality offerings of many POD publishers, have tainted print on demand in general. Many booksellers, reviewers and readers are wary of POD on principle and may assume that any publisher that relies exclusively or mainly on digital technology is a "POD publisher," even if the publisher is entirely professional. This is the POD stigma—and it's something that anyone who's thinking of signing a contract with a POD-based independent publisher needs to take into account, because it can make marketing extremely difficult.