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"I finished the final draft of my manuscript a few weeks ago and ordered a few copies of my book, Flower of the Titanic. They were at my door in about a week. I was thrilled." With sales starting to trickle in, McLean is hopeful this will prove to publishers that her work is saleable. If not, at least she still has that all-important printed book with her name on it.

Others have found ways of integrating POD into their businesses. Writer and publisher Julie Ann Dawson explained: "I run a small indie press [called] Bards and Sages. Much of what I do is in the print RPG (role-playing game) industry, which is a small niche market in the hobby industry. Print-on-demand services allow me to make products available to our niche market without having to waste money on large inventories."

Dawson's POD site storefront also acts as a creative focal point. "Many RPG designers have joined with our company to launch Power Word: Print, which uses the storefront to serve as a one-stop portal to help gamers find print versions of their favourite games without having to hunt at a dozen different sites," she said.

Other POD users do not measure success financially but instead in terms of the satisfaction it brings them. "Success for me is creating original, moving and inspiring books for children," said Maggie Pagratis, owner of Athse Publishing, which uses POD as an alternative to traditional printing methods. "I am a teacher by profession, and value words,

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sharing knowledge and inspiration."

Her idea was to write books that would help children through difficult times and use the profits to further help disadvantaged children the world over via charitable donations. In order to do this, she set up Athse Publishing. Unfortunately, her efforts met with indifference. "I had put up the book Go Away Booboo at eBay auctions for charities, and not a single copy was bought," said Pagratis. "I wanted to use this book to help make pain go away, and decided not to give up and do it myself."

Selling books directly and using POD to print them proved a better approach. For Pagratis, POD was the springboard that gave her the success she wanted. "We intend on growing, perhaps not only using POD technologies. This is a stepping stone. Ninety-five per cent of the work we've done (over 40 books) has been accomplished in the last 10 months."

My own success story is different again. Last November, I released a short book about what I thought was an obscure area of card magic. I published it on a POD site, expecting to sell a dozen copies. I paid for a little advert on a magic forum to promote it, and the expected handful of people bought a copy.

Then something unexpected happened. One buyer wrote a glowing review of my book for a magic website. Almost immediately, a company specialising in instructional DVDs for magicians noticed it and wanted to bring it to a wider audience. We shot the DVD of the book in Newbury over two days in March. If it hadn't been for POD, there'd be no book in the first place and no subsequent DVD, either.

The selection process

Even while you are writing your masterpiece, you should be giving some thought to selecting a POD service to host and publish your finished work. It's important to do this early, because not all providers offer the same services or even sizes of printed book. You might format your manuscript and then find a site that's ideal for you, only to realise that you need to format your manuscript differently.