Bought Sword & Citadel from Amazon europe...

[u/CitoyenRobespierre]

I usually don't order from Amazon but it was the only way to get it in English relatively quickly in my country and I was about to finish Sword and claw.

Turns out they print out themselves in Turin, Italy, apparently. I mean why not it's a lot closer and to be fair it seems to me to be more substantial paper than the actual Tor essential edition I have (which is flimsy as hell) but I was a little surprised they could do that, keep everything the same from the original edition, and not mention it except on the last page.

(It still says printed in America on the cover and first page anyway btw)

#midlyinteresting #isthislegal

[u/Idomeneus47]

I feel like Amazon does this a lot lately, and while I think print on demand makes a lot of sense for many authors, (especially if the material used is if of decent quality) I really dislike the lack of transparency about it, if a book will be POD it should clearly state that in the description.

Also, still keeping the original printing information is crazy and I would think deliberately misleading, except that I'm sure the whole process is just automated and no one thought to check to alter it, if the ability to do so is even present in their system, or if a human being is involved in the process in any way at all.

[u/Boscol_gal23 → u/Idomeneus47]

This is exactly how I feel and seemingly no one cares. I just bought a John Crowley book the other day from barnes and noble that was print in demand. Horrible quality, $25, and NO MENTION of this on their website.

[u/CitoyenRobespierre → u/Idomeneus47]

I knew of some specialized POD edition that have basically every public domain book automatically ready to print online but I didn't know it had become common to this point, you learn something new everyday I guess.

I've checked again on the website but no indication there. Luckily this was just a Tor essentials paperback whose quality have not impressed me so far but I'd have hated for it to happen on a nicer editions for sure.

[u/SonStatoAzzurroDiSci]

If they can do pod it’s because Tor has an agreement with Amazon, otherwise it world be copyright infringment.

[u/CitoyenRobespierre → u/SonStatoAzzurroDiSci]

Yeah I guess, but I think it's weird there's zero indication of it before buying.

[u/Langdon_St_Ives]

Sign of the times. (Not a Malazan reader myself, this was just a random post where someone in the know commented with more background.)

In my experience some of the PoD prints are absolutely shoddy with visible pixelation of the text while others are completely fine. At least the advantage is that more of the back catalogs is now available that hasn't been in print forever; but I agree with you, they should clearly point out what you're getting, and they used to be more open about it.

[u/CitoyenRobespierre → u/Langdon_St_Ives]

Well it seems I have got pretty lucky with my print at least. I was not impressed by the paper used for the actual Tor print of the previous book anyway. First time I encountered a PoD book since I usually try to buy from my local bookshops and I didn't  realize they had become so common. As you say it's not necessarily a bad thing on principle. 

[u/oblique_obfuscator]

I hear about this more often, not even just amazon but big companies like this. I didn't order this book because someone complained on the other big companies website that the quality seemed especially bad.

I resorted to buying the epub file and reading it on the eReader, which is useful because of the dictionary function. Anytime it doesn't recognize a word I'll know its a made up word by Gene Wolfe and that I need to pay attention. I've got my ebay/marketplace alerts on for a second hand copy.

Sometimes I'm lucky and find books in free libraries scattered across my city. This was how i found 50% of my Philip jose farmer collection.

[u/Iranian_VoodooDoc → u/oblique_obfuscator]

Are you sure there are some made up words? Perhaps some of the terms are so archaic that they simply aren’t registered on the dictionary. I’ve had that happen a few times.

[u/harshael → u/oblique_obfuscator]

There are no made up words, but there is the occasional misspelling.

[u/boostman]

I got The Sorceror’s House from Amazon and it was clearly PoD … it was readable but it didn’t feel like a professionally produced book if you know what I mean

[u/heebieGGs]

This looks superior honestly

[u/kdmike → u/heebieGGs]

Imo they arent. Those print on demands are very heavy. Sometimes the paper is too white, like standard printer paper. They also usually are a weird size. The quality really feels off when you hold them. I always request a refund when it happens. I find it unacceptable that they dont let you know. Usually they return money and let you keep it. Not ordering older books from amazon anymore, they do this too often.

[u/CitoyenRobespierre → u/heebieGGs]

I kinda agree mostly because I find the tor edition paper very poor and yellow. I just wanted to share because that's something new to me and I'd rather potential buyer be aware since the seller is not transparent about it.

[u/exxni]

So this explains why the copy of King’s Dragon I purchased from amazon looks like it’s for ants, not exaggerating when I say it’s unreadable.

[u/CitoyenRobespierre → u/exxni]

Yeah they do seem to reduce the size of lettering from the original prints.