PTL for POD

Print On Demand or POD. I’m learning how this new technology is revolutionizing and accelerating the process of publishing new Bible translations.

Today, I had a chance to visit the new POD bureau here at the Nigeria Bible Translation Trust.  At first it looks like a plain room with some innocent-looking printers, a binding machine and a Mac computer. But, what I learned is that this $20,000 equipment investment (thanks to Wycliffe Associates) is going to significantly change the way Bibles become available to unreached people groups in this country. Let me explain.

In the past, a New Testament translation project would take around 10 years to complete. Once ready to print, it would be handed off to the Bible Society which has a standard minimum press order of 5,000 copies. At $10 each, that meant an additional $50,000 had to be raised above and beyond the cost of translation before the Bible Society would touch the project. That kind of money doesn’t come easily for the smaller people groups of Nigeria.  Therefore, it can take years before any printed Bibles are actually available even though the translation is already complete!  Would you believe that there are four to six completed New Testaments here at NBTT that have been waiting for two years for these funds and there’s still no hope in sight of getting them printed?

Completed paper-back POD book done here at NBTT

Enter POD! Now, with a completed New Testament in digital format, it is easily formatted and immediately uploaded to high-speed inkjet printers. Add a bit of hot-melt glue in a special binding machine, trim the edges and you have a completed two-hundred page paper-back book in minutes that costs around $3.50! And here’s the best part of all: it doesn’t cost any more to print one book or a hundred.  In fact, if a small people group want to start with 50 New Testaments, they can now do that and then come back later to add another order for five or fifty any time they want.

It’s been fun seeing the excitement grow in the eyes of the NBTT Executive Director as we’ve discussed the implications of this POD technology. Not only does it have the potential to add a healthy new income stream for NBTT, but they can now prevent any further delay in getting God’s Word out to those in Nigeria who desperately need it.

So, PTL for POD!