There have been many efforts to create "print on demand" solutions -- though, often these have been done by brick and mortar book stores looking to come up with ways to compete with Amazon and other online sellers. However, most of these in-store print-on-demand offerings have never gotten very far. So, wouldn't it be amusing if the company that actually made print-on-demand make sense was Amazon itself? The company has now bought a print on demand company that will make it easier for Amazon to sell books with less demand -- since they won't have to stock any inventory. It's yet another sign that Amazon recognizes the importance of the long tail, in that this should let them sell books even further out on the tail, with little inventory expense to itself.