OneBookShelf, parent of the DriveThruRPG and RPGNow gaming PDF e-commerce Websites, plans to add print-on-demand capability later this year.  “Improvements in POD are going to enable us to offer a new service; we’ll be able to offer print book options in addition to PDFs in one click,” Sean Patrick Fannon,  RPG Marketing, Communications, and Publisher Services Manager for OneBookShelf told us. “The model we have come up with for our publishers, including some very large and well-known publishers, will allow them to abandon doing print runs on their own.”

In addition to continuing to sell directly to consumers, the company also plans to make POD publications available through hobby game retailers. 

The company is hoping to kick off the new program at Gen Con, but no firm date is set yet.  Initial efforts will be devoted to the RPG category, expanding later to the company's other categories, including comics. 

OneBookShelf is “going from the world’s largest PDF download store to become the biggest RPG store, period,” according to Fannon, due not only to the new POD initiative, but also to the launching of sites in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. 

The company recently took a hit to its volume when Wizards of the Coast abruptly halted sales of PDFs of its products (see “WotC Ends PDF Download Sales”).  Although Fannon acknowledged that the move was a negative for PDF sales, he said that Wizards of the Coast was “not even close” to half the company’s sales.  He pointed to steady growth, even during the current Great Recession, and the steady addition of new material, including the recent addition of Palladium Games titles to the PDF offerings.