Is ECPrinting a Print on Demand Company?
No. We consider ourselves a full service Book Printing facility. We do have “print on demand” capability in that we can produce short-run digitally printed books. However we do have a minimum run of 100 books and do not get involved in printing 1 or 2 or 10 books at a time.
In recent years many companies have appeared on the internet offering "print on demand self publishing" services. These companies use a royalty based system and offer the author a listing with most of the major book chains. In reality the author is not self publishing since the so called "self publishing company" owns the ISBN and therefore the rights to that printing of the book.
We encourage people who are serious about self publishing to purchase their own ISBNs (www.bowker.com) and take full control of their project. We listen to our customers and try to cater to every unique idea they may have. Most print on demand publishers have a very limiting set of rules for book cover design and page layout.
Another issue that has given print on demand publishers a bad reputation is the fact that they set the price for the author's book. Often this price is set at an unusually high level. Authors who wish to have books on hand to promote and sell are forced to purchase them for a small discount off the cover price. This makes it very difficult and expensive to gain exposure.
Here is an article that does an excellent job at explaining how print on demand publishers work: http://www.sfwa.org/beware/printondemand.html