AND THE ANSWER IS . . .

This is what Amazon has to say:

“Simply put, we can provide a better, more timely customer experience if the POD titles are printed inside our own fulfillment centers... If the POD printing machines reside inside our own fulfillment centers, we can more quickly ship the POD book to customers -- including in those cases where the POD book needs to be married together with another item. If a customer orders a POD item together with an item that we're holding in inventory -- a common case -- we can quickly print and bind the POD item, pick the inventoried item, and ship the two together in one box, and we can do so quickly. If the POD item were to be printed at a third party, we'd have to wait for it to be transshipped to our fulfillment center before it could be married together with the inventoried item.” What I have to say is that if Amazon doesn’t carry the books customers want to purchase, they won’t have to worry about the speed in which they ship or “marry” inventoried items.

“AND SO IT GOES” Linda Ellerbee