Our first books were truly one-off, that is handmade, one or two of a kind. The internet and technology has changed lots of things, including how books are made and read. Whether it's a PDF or a Kindle download from Amazon, the most obvious change is the e-book. Less obvious, but no less significant, is the print-on-demand book. For big publishers it means that the decision to reprint a book that might only sell a few copies a month or year is moot: any book can be converted to a digital book and reprinted and shipped to order. For the small publisher, it means being able to make available books that might never be published at all.