Writing a book is no easy task. Once that book is written, however, actually delivering it to readers should be a walk in the park.

Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Books can often get back-ordered or caught in the bottleneck at presses that are running thousands of copies of one single title.

That’s why, as a self-published author, one of your greatest tools could be print-on-demand, or POD book printing. With POD, the books are printed as they are ordered and prepared to ship out in a very short amount of time.

Here are four reasons that you should consider POD printing:

Better Inventory Management

As a self-published writer, it can be a hassle managing your inventory. Do you have a good place to store five hundred copies of your book? Probably not. There’s a reason why companies count inventory as an expense on their balance sheet.

Fortunately, POD services help you manage your inventory.

Most POD services have no minimum orders, so whether you have one reader seeking your book or a speaking engagement of 300 people, you’ll be able to get the right number of copies with a quick turnaround. And sure, it’s never bad to have a few copies of your book on hand for when the need arises, but thanks to POD, you’ll never need to worry about storing hundreds of copies of your work.

Lower Costs

POD books have a lower cost because you don’t need to order as many copies or pay for warehousing. Many offset (traditional) printers will push you to make orders of hundreds of books at once, and even if the unit cost is low, 500 books at $4/each is a quick $2,000 out of your pocket.

Instead, thanks to POD, you can order just a handful of copies of your book at a similar unit price. It’s a lot easier to become profitable in these situations since you have to sell significantly fewer copies to be in the black.

Text can be changed

Whether you self-publish or are represented by the biggest publisher in the world, the first copy of your book will have typos. That’s just the way it works, and it’s nothing to feel bad about—people make mistakes.

Fortunately, when you have POD, it’s much easier to change the text within the book. You can adjust your misspelled “its” to “it’s,” then presto: you’re ready to print corrected copies.

Plus, another benefit of this POD option is that once you fix typos, you have fewer mistake-laden copies of your books left around since you don’t need to keep as much inventory on hand.

Best Customer Service

“Thanks for your interest in my book, but it’ll be about four months before I get more copies in.”

You never want to say these words. As a self-published author, one of the worst things you can do is tell somebody no when they want to acquire a copy of your book because you can’t get copies yourself. It feels unprofessional, but it’s also a common problem many self-published writers encounter.

Thankfully, with POD as your ally, you or your readers can get a copy of the book shipped out within a day or two upon it being ordered. This means no waits, more readers, and better customer service. Instead of postponing book deliveries, you’ll be seeing more than ever.

I’m in! But where can I find top-quality POD services?

If you’re ready to boost customer relationships, become more profitable, and reduce your waiting times, then POD is a great fit for you.

But where can you find a reliable printer?

My personal recommendation is MindStir Media, the #1 Self Publisher in the World who also offers the best print on demand book service.

Mindstir Media has a very easy, powerful 5-step process for printing-on-demand, and you can read about it right here.

Unlike many POD services, this process includes digital and physical copies to review before you order your first POD book, and once you approve the copies, your book will be available for distribution to 39,000 wholesalers, retailers, and libraries around the world via MindStir Media’s powerful supply chain.

POD is an investment in yourself and your book that can help you reach new heights with your work.