Alice Teh Larsson

Another Amazon book delivery arrived, and I was looking forward to adding a new title to my library. But as I opened the book and checked its publication details, I noticed something familiar: a printing barcode on the final page, along with information identifying where and when the copy was produced.

It was another Print-on-Demand (POD) copy.

More often now, Amazon is replacing original publisher runs with localised digital printouts, often stamped “Printed in Poland” (or in Germany, or in France).

I’ve experienced this often enough lately that I now check the last page of a book almost as soon as I unwrap it. Especially when the book cover and the paper feel and look different from the usual editions. What used to be a delight—receiving a book I’d been looking forward to—has become an exercise in checking whether I’ve received the edition I expected.

I love books as physical objects as much as I love reading them. Their covers, typography, publishing history, and even the particular print runs they come from are part of what makes collecting books enjoyable to me. To me, a book is more than the words printed on its pages.

I’ve been returning these replicas to Amazon. This is such a waste of time, and it bothers me that this constant back-and-forth shipping creates an unnecessary environmental toll, too.

I get that a POD copy can be a perfectly legitimate, publisher-authorised edition. I also get that POD has made many books available that might otherwise be difficult to find or out of print. I don’t question its authenticity simply because of how it was printed.

My dissatisfaction comes from something else entirely: I want to know which edition I’m buying, and I want to receive the edition I expected. If I know from the outset that the book I’m about to buy is a POD, I can decide whether to go ahead.

Buyers deserve transparency. Until Amazon labels these POD copies clearly, I’m progressively moving my book budget over to platforms like Bokus.com to guarantee authentic editions. I’m also buying more from Momox, a Berlin-based online used-book store via the Amazon.se site.