Espresso Book Machine
The Espresso Book Machine can print any of 500,000 titles while you wait
Pretty wild stuff:
“It’s not elegant and it’s not sexy – it looks like a large photocopier – but the Espresso Book Machine is being billed as the biggest change for the literary world since Gutenberg invented the printing press more than 500 years ago and made the mass production of books possible. Launching today at Blackwell’s Charing Cross Road branch in London, the machine prints and binds books on demand in five minutes, while customers wait.
Signalling the end, says Blackwell, to the frustration of being told by a bookseller that a title is out of print, or not in stock, the Espresso offers access to almost half a million books, from a facsimile of Lewis Carroll’s original manuscript for Alice in Wonderland to Mrs Beeton’s Book of Needlework. Blackwell hopes to increase this to over a million titles by the end of the summer – the equivalent of 23.6 miles of shelf space, or over 50 bookshops rolled into one. The majority of these books are currently out-of-copyright works, but Blackwell is working with publishers throughout the UK to increase access to in-copyright writings, and says the response has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Here’s the video
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Cryptogon via NJ Hoffer
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Sources:
Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine launches in London
Alison Flood
Guardian, 24 April 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/24/espresso-book-machine-launches
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April 28th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Seems like a pretty reasonable extension of widely available tech. I would pay a big more for a good quality hard cover, though.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:16 am
A penny per page aint bad. However I can foretell the demise of this tech in two words…
PAPER JAM
Been there; done that!
April 28th, 2009 at 10:11 am
“The user chooses a digital file from a web-based catalogue of books either at the physical EBM, or remotely via the internet”
from: http://www.ondemandbooks.com/EBM_Brochure.pdf
“…….users can also bring their own files in person on CD’s, flash drives, etc.”
Every University Professor just became his own publisher. I’m shorting MHP
April 28th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
[...] Espresso machine is the greatest change in book publishing since the printing press. The device is said to be the equivalent of 23.6 miles of shelf space, or over 50 bookstores rolled into one. I vividly [...]
April 29th, 2009 at 10:30 am
If you are interested in eBooks, paperback or hard cover re-prints, I suggest http://www.kirtasbooks.com. They will Digitize the book when you place your order, and once digitized, you can read it online FREE, or download it for $1.95.
I have order 3 books to hard cover, and one paperback and am extremely happy with the quality.
April 30th, 2009 at 8:23 am
The real news here is that a book store has bought off on this business model. If it spreads, big box book stores go away, shelf space and commercial real estate don’t have a big enough return per dollar invested to fight this model. You connect to Barnes and Nobel or to Borders over the net, place your order, and swing by their print center on your way home from work. Friendly kid hands you your books in a bag and maybe a coffee.
IF the model is widely accepted it could undermine Amazon. Why wait for a book to be shipped when it can be printed locally the same day. Right now, I’m much more interested in this than in an e-reader experience. The e-reader fights clutter at my house, but reading on one isn’t appealing yet. Maybe the next generation of the technology will change my mind, but for now, the EBM looks like it could take a big bite of the market.
April 30th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
has all the makings of KINKO’S v.2.1