Devoted to publishing, publishers and to those who craft the written word

One other aspect of POD mentioned briefly in the Times article was that it is moving us away from thinking of the book as a fixed object. Having had books published conventionally and with POD, I like the fact that I can correct errors that might otherwise be embarrassingly enshrined forever (for example, in a book I had published in 1979, a character refers to a "silicone chip" -- a hilarious slip over the past 25 years, but one that got past my editor and copy editor in those days before anyone even had word processors).

With POD, authors can easily do what Whitman did with his various versions of Leaves of Grass. One idea I've toyed with is subtly changing the book each time a copy is bought, which would mean that no two people have the exact identical copy of the same title.

(I don't know how the ISBN people feel about this, however.)

Thanks for the comment, Richard! I just posted a bit more about your thoughts, you should check it out:
http://www.thepublishingspot.com/2006/07/be_more_like_walt_whitman.html

Cheers,
Jason Boog