If you’re taking the reins on how your book is being printed, you’ve probably already come to face-to-face with the many available options. We’ve written before about print-on-demand versus traditional printing, but we thought it might also be helpful to discuss binding style. Hardcover vs. paperback or mass market—how do you decide which is right for your book?

When you’re deciding how to print your book, you have two main options: print-on-demand or printing on an offset press. What do those two options entail exactly? Print-on-demand, or POD, allows you to digitally print a single book at a time, often using a large laser printer. Offset, or “traditional,” printing involves a huge press that transfers the image from an inked plate to a rubber blanket and then to the paper, and usually necessitates a print run of at least 1,000 units to make economic sense. So which is right for your book? It depends on several factors you’ll want to weigh before making a decision.

You might consider POD if…