Don't judge a book by it's cover...or by it's container

I recently finished a spin-off series by an author I've been following for a while, and since I enjoy her books so much, I logged on to find and buy the original series this was based on. To make a long story short, the publisher--a major publisher who I will not name--let this go out of print and did not reprint her backlist when this new series came out.

I understand that in this economical climate publishers cannot print as much, nor necessarily print backlist that makes sense, but what I don't understand is why this was not made available via POD.

And then I read this blog entry by TOC which perfectly captured the problem.

Publishers: Let the Containers Go

Mac Slocum
December 3, 2008

In a guest post at Boing Boing, Clay Shirky says publishers who focus on book lovers rather than readers are setting themselves up to fail:

Businesses don't survive in the long term because old people persist in old behaviors; they survive because young people renew old behaviors, and all the behaviors young people are renewing cluster around reading, while they are adopting almost none of the behaviors tied to cherishing physical containers, whether for the written word or anything else. Can you imagine a 25-year-old telling a publisher "To get my business, you should stick to a single, analog format? Oh, and could you make it heavy, bulky, and unsearchable? Thanks."

I know change is scary and oftentimes hurts, and I personally will always prefer a printed book to an e-one, but that doesn't mean that the printed book need be printed before I pay for it.

The publishing industry finally has a chance via POD and e-books to right the two wrongs that have been slowly bleeding the industry dry--returns and having to pay for COGS prior to any sales--and I'd think the large houses that could afford to experiment would be the first to do so... Instead, Amazon Marketplace got my dollars and probably several other readers' dollars.