Proud of being a POD Person - print-on-demand, that is

How much stigma is attached to publishing with a print-on-demand press? I've realized the stigma may be greater than confessing to a psychiatric diagnosis (in my case, bipolar disorder). But I believe that's changing rapidly, and that traditional publishers are stuck in the last Millennium. What do you think?

Personally, I'm delighted to have published two mysteries POD. I'd say more, but I've already been online far too long today, and I encourage you to read my thoughts elsewhere. My garden is calling and in need of a drink.

Julie Lomoe's Musings Mysterioso

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I worked for most of my university years, though I had the privilege to go through a European education where universities were cheap (though "elitist" in terms of requirements). But even in Europe I had to work part-time to support myself. And I certainly worked while studying in the U.S. I carried fewer hours and took longer than others in order to earn As. So the argument about money privilege doesn't wash. Standards shouldn't disappear because some students have a harder time financially than others.
Again, that's not an option for many students in the U.S., who are required to stay in school full-time by the terms of their loans/grants/aid. Universities in Europe are cheap because the Europeans, for the most part, understand that there's a direct link between an educated populace and long-term prosperity, and don't have a problem with paying higher taxes for excellent public services like healthcare, transportation and education. The difference between the European system and ours is glaring: when our kids study abroad at European schools, they're amazed at how tough the curriculum is; when Europeans study here, they say it's like going back to high school. You get what you pay for, in education as in all things.
In North Ameria we also bought in too easily to the idea of university as job training and that everyone should attend. Most European countries also have very good training schools (what we might call community college) with much less social stigma attatched. That's mostly because the European high school system sets a higher standard than we do in North America.

But let's not pretend the Europeans got to this point of understanding the importance of an educated populace all on their own through reason and discussion. In the last century there were a couple of huge European wars with massive loss of lives, emmigration and the extremes of communism and fascism before the idea of education for everyone caught on.

Be good to get to the same conclusion but take a different route here in North America.
Why are state colleges and universities a federal short-coming?
The current catastrophe in higher ed is more about national politics and conservative political rhetoric than it is about the federal government per se, although Bush did eliminate the Clinton-era block grants to the states that helped undo some of the Reagan-era damage. If you combine anti-intellectual rhetoric and the notion that higher ed is an individual good (as opposed to a public good) with the conservative faux-populist "I hate taxes" mantra, this is what you get: right-wing state legislatures that starve their own public universities (even though said universities are money engines that generate huge returns on every tax dollar spent) mostly out of anti-intellectual spite. College students tend to come out much more liberal than they went in, after all.
My wife teaches at a private liberal arts college and it amuses me that the faculty are more liberal than the student body--sort of the reverse of the 1960s.
Boys and girls, we're all getting way too testy. Arguements can be made, and are made every day, on who and what is at fault with our educational system and with students. In the end, it doesn't fucking matter. This arguement was going on in Socrates' time--it'll be going on when my great-great-great-great-great grandson on Rigal IV graduates from college. (add maybe four more 'greats' to that list)

The question we should be addressing is the plus and cons of being a POD writer/author. And I, for one, don't mind in the least in admitting I am a POD author.
Amen to that! There should be no shame in publishing POD. (And sorry to take this discussion even further OT. :/)
Good. And POD does not mean self-published. Even the big boys Print On Demand. Maybe to keep a book in print, many reasons.
Yes, people confuse self-publishing with POD all the time. Simply because self-published authors quite logically use POD, because it makes financial sense.

My former publisher was a small press that used POD, but as you say, the big houses use it, too. So POD in itself has no bearing on the books' quality, in terms of either content or the physical book itself.
Everybody has been very courteous to me. I hope I haven't offended. Anyway: sorry: a subject very close to my heart.
No hard feelings, I.J.

I, too, feel strongly about this issue. This is what happens when a bunch of intelligent people who make a living (or try to) expressing themselves get together. They sometimes disagree. And that's OK.

Sorry to everyone for pushing this thread off-topic.

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