INGRAM'S POD STOCKING POLICY

The biggest news in POD publishing is that Ingram has finally changed its stocking policy.  The former policy was a major stumbling block in the marketing of POD books because it only allowed Ingram to print and stock one or two copies of any particular POD title in its warehouses.  If the books in stock were sold then they'll conservatively print a couple more. This was slow and sluggish, and demand was frequently not fulfilled because the first copies would sell and then the books would be "unavailable" until new copies were printed.

Barnes & Noble, for example, uses a system that does not allow backordering, while the former Ingram POD system actually required it. This meant that most POD books came up as "unavailable" on bookseller's computer systems, even though the books were, in fact, ready to be printed within a day or two.

Ingram's system now lists POD books with "virtual" inventory of at least 100 books. In other words, it shows that there is a quantity of books in the warehouse.  Now, when orders come in, the books are printed within 24 hours and shipped out.  This new policy, with its virtual stock, enables true print on demand. The books show up as available, not as having to be backordered, and as long as Lightning Source (the Ingram printer) can handle the demand, they are immediately printed and shipped. Can they handle demand? They print millions of books a year one book at a time.