I decided to take a closer look at a POD book. First I had the task of finding one I liked the look of.

I chose to browse Lulu.com and began with the keywords chick-lit, fiction (well, we all have our weaknesses). I requested more information for African Aliens, one of the 82 results. It may be fiction, but it’s definitely not chick-lit. I also notice that many of the results are American and I’d prefer to read something by a British author. I search for fiction and specify UK as the country. I read some sample chapters of King of the Kindness Room by Andrew James Stevenson, which is described as contemporary Welsh fiction, and like the look of it.

King of the Kindness Room cost £7.85 (including postage) and took 8 working days to arrive from the printer in Seville, Spain. As soon as I opened the package I was immediately aware it didn’t look like a 'real' book, but was this because of what I knew? I decided to speak to some unsuspecting fiction-readers, Laura and Jess, who had never heard of POD and ask for their first impressions.

Listen to what Laura and Jess thought of the POD book (RealPlayer, 1.21 mins).

And what of the story? For starters, it’s better than I was expecting. It has some wonderfully worded observations and becomes very gripping towards the end. At points it’s obvious that the novel hasn’t been vetted by a publisher but I like the feeling that I’m reading a raw, unsanitised product – it gives me a sense of rebellion.