Amazon announced a new Print-on-Demand program today. It is not clear if there are any substantial changes to the existing BookSurge service other than some new discounts and inclusion in Search Inside the Book and Amazon Upgrade for free. The press release is short on details.

Nevertheless, the announcement is important because it signals Amazon’s commitment to driving down the costs of publishing. It is becoming increasingly easy for authors to self-publish and the perception of self-publishing is changing for the better. Publishers can also benefit from POD by bringing back previously out-of-print books. Tim O’Reilly hinted that O’Reilly is looking to do this after some recent research on the Long Tail. There will come a day when publishers no longer have to put titles out-of-print due to lack of demand (they may want to do it for other reasons). POD makes it relatively painless to keep books in print forever.

POD will play a larger role with traditional publishers over time. POD makes it more cost effective to publish niche topics that publishers wouldn’t normally sign.