THE BENEFITS OF PRINT-ON-DEMAND

A few weeks ago the American Numismatic Society announced its new print-on-demand program. At the same time, it announced the publication of a book on 20th century Washington medals by the late Syd Martin, who'd also authored multiple award-winning books on U.S. colonial numismatics. Here are a couple comments I saw that week on the Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4) Google Group. -Editor

"While missing other issues of the 20th century, the birth bicentennial celebration was responsible for creating enough material to rival the late 18th and 19th century items catalogued by Baker and more recently, Neil Musante's opus on Washingtoniana. Between Neil's book and now Syd's, a large portion of this material has been systematically organized. We are lucky to have had Syd's meticulous analytic skills applied to so many areas of collecting interest. I'm sure this will stand as the major reference for this material for many generations to come. Thanks for the heads up. I already ordered my copy."

"I was so glad to see ANS went through with this - likely knowing they won't make money on it, but just to honor Syd. A few years ago Syd showed me a draft and I thought it publication ready then, but always the perfectionist he was chasing a few more pieces he had heard about but had no photos of. At the time he said the book wouldn't be publishable - outside the realm of C4, and TAMS didn't have the ability to do a quality project. Thankfully this was one of the few times Syd was wrong, and the hobby as a whole will be better off for having this reference in print. It's outside of my area of interest (though I did collect Washingtonia early on), but I will still be ordering a copy. Hopefully many C4 members do so as well."

Specialized numismatic works were always hard to get into print - with a small audience it can take years or decades to break even on the costs of a print run, if ever. Many are self-published at great expense by the authors, and many other book projects never get off the ground because of the well-known uphill road to publication.

I suspected Syd's new book was a print-on-demand project from the get-go, and David Gladfelter confirmed this with ANS publications director Andrew Reinhard. -Editor

"When Syd died earlier this year, the Washingtonia book was mentioned along with the four books already published by him. No one seemed to know anything about this unpublished work. I am delighted to see it in print so quickly.

"I would be interested in knowing to what extent print on demand (POD) has already taken over numismatic publications which typically have very small press runs. Two C4 titles published conventionally this year in limited press runs are already out of print. Should they have been published on demand? If so, how long should they have remained in print? If an author rather than an organization controls the POD, what are the pros and cons? Lianna Spurrier and David Fanning have touched on this topic in their presentations."

Syd's book is a born-POD title, 8.5 x 11, 600 pages, full-color throughout on 70-lb. paper for the hardcover edition and 50-lb. for the paperback. We showed off a test-printing at the ANA World's Fair of Money earlier this year to great interest, and I am glad the book is now finally available for purchase. The ANS was gifted the completed manuscript by Syd's widow. Ute Wartenberg knew he was working on it prior to his passing, and I think he had literally dotted the last i and crossed the last t only a day or so before he died. Syd wrote the words and had literally hundreds of color images tied to the text. His wife knew where everything was, so it was easy to transfer the files. Jesse Kraft here at the ANS read the volume for content and was able to correct a few things, and then I line edited it to improve the English a bit and to whip it into ANS house style. I also typeset the volume and designed the cover, which features dozens of numismatic artifacts showcased inside the book. The manuscript and art were in such good shape that the book practically designed itself, and I am thankful for Syd's care and attention to detail.

1. Rescuing out-of-print books and journal numbers, ensuring quality and using the same design files or high-definition scans of our very old titles. While not a first printing, the content and size will remain the same as originally published and will also be branded as official ANS publications. This will protect the buyer from either over-spending or purchasing a cloned copy of an ANS work being sold by predatory publishers on Amazon. People can buy directly from us.

2. On some occasions there are unbudgeted-for volumes (like Syd's) that require near-immediate production and publications. We can use POD to get around what might be (in his case) a $15,000 printing bill for a few hundred copies printed on spec.

3. Some books will be born-POD to keep things affordable for readers, especially younger people, graduate students, and hobbyists on a budget.

The ANS will not become 100% POD (at least for as long as I am here). Some books require offset printing and, as in the case of books featuring color reproductions of banknotes, stochastic printing, something POD just can't deliver. POD books should not be considered as second-class citizens. Case-in-point is Faustina the Younger, which is a born-POD book, which the author graciously allowed us to experiment with POD to our (and his) satisfaction. For cases where we publish something that might only sell less than 200 copies, POD seems to be an affordable route to take.

On the chance that a book is under-printed, we can do a second printing using POD instead of re-investing another $10k–$20k in a reprint, which might not sell out the second time around. We did this for White Gold and Coins of the Ptolemaic Empire, making both available in hardcover and paperback this time, while trying to keep prices down somewhat for readers who missed out on the initial run.

Print-on-demand has been the only option considered when authors approach the Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society (EPNNES) or the Newman Numismatic Portal (NNP) for assistance. NNP has worked with a number of authors to make their manuscripts print-ready and available for reading or downloading on the site. Authors are free to take the file to a printer or print-on-demand site to create hardcopies, and some have done so.

The first of these that I saw in hardcopy format was David Alexander's book, Medals of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at New York University. Dave had a small number printed and I purchased one from him at the 2019 ANA World's Fair of Money. It was a beautiful volume that I was delighted to add to my library. Print-on-demand production quality can be quite high. While there are some nuances that Andrew mentioned above, I see no reason not to consider a POD option for any specialized numismatic book.

To further address David's question about the extent to which POD has already taken over numismatic publications, I know that earlier announced works from Peter Bertram and Peter Jones are available via print on demand, and I'm sure there are others. It's definitely an option the community is pursuing. -Editor