True On Demand Books May Be Closer
April 2, 2008 by Anne Wayman
Filed under Jobs
I suppose the holy grail of print on demand or POD is for us to be able to walk into any bookstore and order up a bound copy of any book for a reasonable price in about 15 minutes or so. Back in June, egadget.com published a blog, complete with picture, announcing the addition of an Espresso Book Machine to the New York Public Library. Built by OnDemandBooks, the largish machine will print one off bound books. Launched with something like 200,000 titles, not a ton has happened since.
But today, Publishers Weekly announced that OnDemandBooks has signed an agreement with Lightning Source. (Lightning Source is the pod arm of Ingram, the world’s largest book distributor – in fact, Lightning Source actually prints for many of the on-demand companies that offer various self-publishing packages.) The agreement gives OnDemandBooks access to the scanning facilities at Lightning Source and, more importantly I think, creates an opt-in/opt-out clause in publisher’s contracts. This means, I think, that I, as an author, can choose to allow OnDemandBooks to distribute my book via it’s machine – any why wouldn’t I?
As the article in PW points out, the Espresso Book Machine is still costly, and takes up to a month to make. We’re still a long way from truly instant books down at the corner store. Content, however, is key, as the web has proven over and over again. This is an exciting step in the right direction.
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Can you tell me what Publishers Weekly you found the article, what month it was? I didnt quite understand how it worked, i wouldnt think a machine like that would be good for the general population of books but for self published its monumental, im a fan of going into a bookstore but still want to read it myself, thanks for the information, Revella.
Hi, Anne:
This is certainly interesting. It reminds a bit — and only a bit since DVDs and books are so different — of the DVD machines that are popping in grocery stores around us here in Chicago. The machines are stocked with several newer-release DVDs, customers select the DVD they want, swipe their credit card and out comes the movie. Interesting, and because the rentals are far cheaper than what you can rent movies for at Blockbuster, pretty successful, from what I’ve seen.
It’s hard to imagine this concept taking off with books since, sadly, the majority of people would rather watch a movie than read a book, but I agree with you: Anything that gets us closer to instant books is a nice step.
Dan
Revella, I should have linked – http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6346866.html
OnDemandBooks – http://www.ondemandbooks.com/
best picture I found – http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/21/new-york-public-library-gets-first-espresso-book-machine/
Dan, you’re right, I hadn’t thought about the dvd machines at the grocery etc.
And I think there are enough people who like physical books to make this work… at least until there is a really good ebook reader out there… interesting to watch.