Print-on-Demand has the advantage of needing very little set-up time, which means that books and other publications can be printed with relatively low overhead. Instead of going through the laborious process of setting up an offset printing press, a few settings are made on a high-resolution printer and the document is sent to the printer from an attached computer.

This makes it just as cost-effective to print a few copies of a book as it is to print thousands of copies. This in turn makes it almost as easy to publish ten different books as it is to publish one book. Since books can be printed as needed, Print-on-Demand is good for both publishers and booksellers. They don't have to worry about over-printing and excess inventory, which saves them money and allows them to line their coffers and increase the value for their shareholders.

But Print-on-Demand also benefits writers. Unfortunately, the benefit isn't a financial one, since instead of getting an advance for signing a publishing contract, the writer actually has to pay to get the book published. (Having writers pay to get their books published isn't exactly a new idea, of course. Self-publishing has been around for as long as books have. Print-on-Demand just makes the whole process more efficient.)

So the real benefit for writers is that since Print-on-Demand makes it less expensive and less time-consuming to publish a book, publishers aren't subject to the same financial risk as they would be with traditional publishing, which makes them more willing to publish unknown writers. So people like me, who would otherwise never get published, are given an opportunity to present their work to the public.

Print-on-Demand makes it possible to bring a wider selection of books to the reading public. But will this benefit society, or will it just cause an overabundance of inferior-quality books to be published? Probably a little of each, but I think the benefits will outweigh the risks. The danger is real, but it's probably overstated--even without Print-on-Demand technology, plenty of truly awful books are published every year, and the world is arguably no worse because of it.