The Future of Bookselling?
For those of us who will just always prefer the dead tree version of books to their digital counterparts, the future has arrived. From local Santa Cruz newspaper, Good Times:
Coming soon to a bookstore near you: the future of bookselling. That's what Casey Coonerty Protti, owner of Bookshop Santa Cruz, calls the Espresso Book Machine. It's a piece of technology about the size of an old-fashioned Xerox copy machine that's capable of creating a professionally printed, perfectly-bound, and trimmed paperback book in minutes—books to go, while you wait...
Bearing the weighty technical name Espresso Book Machine® (EBM)—A Xerox Solution, the device is produced by parent company On Demand Books, and positioned to send the beleaguered book industry reeling into the future—ready or not. Can't find the book you want on the shelves? No need to make a special order (or order it online), and wait days, or weeks, for it to arrive. The EBM will print one up for you on the spot—so long as the desired title is available through EspressNet®, the EBM's digital catalog of content. With major-player publishers such as McGraw-Hill, Simon & Schuster, and HarperCollins (among others) making their in-print backlists available, and public domain titles provided through the Google Books program, there are currently some eight million titles available in any language via the EBM. As more publishers and book providers sign on, those numbers will only increase.
And there's a little something there for authors looking to self-publish, too:
In addition to ushering in a brave new world of instant book access for readers, the EBM is poised to be a boon for authors, as well. The same technology that makes it possible to format and print a book on the spot will also allow an author to upload his or her manuscript and turn it into book form in a matter of minutes. Hard copy—an actual book!—that most elusive Holy Grail of so many unpublished authors is now within everyone's grasp.
Here's how it works: the author submits two PDF files, one for the text of the book, and one for the color cover....Once the formatting is complete, an author can start printing out as many or as few copies of his or her work as desired, at the push of a button.
...Once it's in the system, the author retains all rights to the work, decides on the retail price, and receives the full retail amount per sale, minus a small consignment fee per copy.
Can this machine save the bookselling industry? Who knows. But you've got to admit that it is pretty darn cool.
Image of Espresso Book Machine® from Good Times.
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Apr '11
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
Do Book stores even deserve to be saved? I say let them die and give me my Kindle books for lower prices. I mean the desire to maintain these antiquarian establishments is hurting the consumer (me) by maintaining e-book prices high so as not to under cut the old order. People may like their paper pages, and hard backs, but I say get with the times.
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
If there's a market for physical paper books, it's not a question of worthiness (unless the government gets involved with taxpayer dollars to subsidize the dying industry, of course). It's more of a question of how consumers can get what they want for a price they're willing to pay, and how suppliers can meet that demand at a cost and profit margin they're willing to accept.
Print-on-demand might be a solution, but I have no idea how much these machines cost and whether consumers will like the feel of the product.
Jun '12
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
Neat, yes, and possibly a way to save brick-and-mortar bookstores.
But new? Well... maybe to Santa Cruz, but it was announced on YouTube in 2008.
Mar '11
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
Diane, you're young so you won't remember that this machine (or ones like it) were the future of bookselling 10 years ago. It was the savior of Borders. There is probably a warehouse sitting somewhere filled with these and they're happy to sell one on occasion. The future is improved e-readers; turn that bookstore space into a Frogurt store and nail salon.
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
ConservativeWanderer: Neat, yes, and possibly a way to save brick-and-mortar bookstores.
But new? Well... maybe to Santa Cruz, but it was announced on YouTube in 2008. · 12 minutes ago
There are only 80 of these machines in the world, and most of these are at universities and in major libraries. Just 12 of them exist in independent bookstores at this point, including the new one in Santa Cruz. Perhaps that's a sign that they aren't the savior of the industry after all.
Jun '10
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
I prefer my books on my Nook e-reader, but I find myself still going to the Half Price Books clearance shelves for cheap dead tree books by published authors, which are much cheaper than normal Nook books, especially best-sellers.
Barnes and Noble offers many free selections, usually on Fridays. Most Free Fridays selections (and other free books) are from first-time authors or from first of a series published authors hoping to sell the second and third and so on. So, being a bargain hunter, off I go to the cheaper clearance books on Half Price Books's shelves.
I think for those who prefer dead tree books, these machines will do the trick, and big bricks and mortar full-price stores are sadly a relic of the past.
Apr '11
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
Not to be rude but where is your evidence for this? I can't see why they would reduce prices once they get rid of paper books. The publishing companies will still have office towers, employees, and a huge amount of digital distribution infrastructure to pay for.
None of that addresses the real reason I don't like e-books......ownership. As long as you are dependent on Apple or Amazon for your books they can always "retract" them at will. Also ebooks kill the secondary market. When I pay $20 for a hunk of dead tree at least I know I can go sell it later, or wait six months and buy that same hunk of dead tree for $8 at a used book store.
Jun '12
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
David Carroll: I prefer my books on my Nook e-reader, but I find myself still going to the Half Price Books clearance shelves for cheap dead tree books by published authors, which are much cheaper than normal Nook books, especially best-sellers.
Barnes and Noble offers many free selections, usually on Fridays. Most Free Fridays selections (and other free books) are from first-time authors or from first of a series published authors hoping to sell the second and third and so on. So, being a bargain hunter, off I go to the cheaper clearance books on Half Price Books's shelves.
I think for those who prefer dead tree books, these machines will do the trick, and big bricks and mortar full-price stores are sadly a relic of the past. · 0 minutes ago
I really don't wanna start a Nook vs Kindle debate here, but I'd like to point out that if you like free books, the Kindle has so many that a 3rd party website has set up a daily-updated list of all of them. (You can sort by genre in the left sidebar of that site, too.)
Oct '10
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
Apart from the debate over the merits of hard copy vs. electronic publication (and here's where I come down: I've been reading and reviewing a number of printed books recently, and I've found it intensely irritating not to be able to highlight and make a note for something to mention in a review—how 20th century!), it seems to me there's a second-order effect worth considering which may lead to a new golden age of fiction.
Traditionally, short stories were the way fictioneers broke into the craft. Many first-time novelists made their first big sale in their thirties because the trade is difficult to learn, and you need to write and throw away around a million words to master it. Short stories were the way aspiring writers paid the bills while learning the art.
Recently, the magazines which were the primary market for short fiction have folded, but with the advent of “Kindle singles”—short works at a bargain price or even free, an entirely new market for short fiction has opened.
Related: eReaderIQ.com will keep you apprised of free works available for the Kindle.
Apr '11
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
You could probably hire a monk to create an illuminated version on parchment as well. Might take a while longer though.
Apr '11
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
1967mustangman
Not to be rude but where is your evidence for this? I can't see why they would reduce prices once they get rid of paper books. The publishing companies will still have office towers, employees, and a huge amount of digital distribution infrastructure to pay for.
None of that addresses the real reason I don't like e-books......ownership. As long as you are dependent on Apple or Amazon for your books they can always "retract" them at will. Also ebooks kill the secondary market. When I pay $20 for a hunk of dead tree at least I know I can go sell it later, or wait six months and buy that same hunk of dead tree for $8 at a used book store. · 26 minutes ago
As for ownership you can make copies of the books on to your computer. No one can erase your hard drive. Not yet at least. You can just load them up again. Really clever people have found ways of converting them to text files, so then your e-books can escape the grasp of the terms of use agreements.
Nov '10
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
I saw one of these not too long ago, or something similar, and it looked really cool, and I wanted so bad to buy a book that way, but alas, I didn't. I should have. I wonder how long it takes? I think it's cool, although I too am an electronic reader. I mean, not a reader like a bar code reader...I mean that I read books electronically. I mean, I am not electronic I mean that I read electronic books. I mean, not books about electronics, but books in electronic format.
Sep '11
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
This idea has been around for a lot longer than 10 years. The original idea was developed at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), based on a image description language developed by a researcher named John Warnock. As they developed their technology, they tried to envision ways in which the technology could be used--the (seemingly) obvious use being on-demand printing.
Xerox's board shot down the idea. And shut down Warnock's research.
Warnock and his team then did something incredible. They memorized every single program command, structure, and function of their language. And then resigned.
They literally leased office space across the street, established a new company named Adobe Systems, and re-created the language, from memory, as PostScript. The page description language that has revolutionized typesetting and print production.
Xerox eventually realized their error--and created a giant ("PostScript compatible") print-on-demand device called the Xerox DocuTech, in the mid-1980s.
It's cool--but there's a problem. The machine is staggeringly expensive. Bookstores live in slim margins, and have a tough time with the capital cost. You have to print a lot of books every week to make this pay.
Apr '11
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
Diane Ellis, Ed.
If there's a market for physical paper books, it's not a question of worthiness (unless the government gets involved with taxpayer dollars to subsidize the dying industry, of course). It's more of a question of how consumers can get what they want for a price they're willing to pay, and how suppliers can meet that demand at a cost and profit margin they're willing to accept.
I know, I was just trying to start an argument about the respective merits of both. I myself was a very skeptical about kindles, but now that I have one I look at my book shelf and think, it weighs 60lb, and I'll have to move it some day soon.
Apr '11
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
I enjoy my Kindle, but I'd miss being able to lend books to friends, borrow from friends, or buy and sell used books, etc. And what does this all mean for libraries?
Interesting article in the NY Times, suggesting that digital books are, in a way, a step backward. We're giving up on the concept of the "codex" book and reverting back to scrolls: "if we stop reading on paper, we should keep in mind what we’re sacrificing: that nonlinear experience, which is unique to the codex. You don’t get it from any other medium — not movies, or TV, or music or video games. The codex won out over the scroll because it did what good technologies are supposed to do: It gave readers a power they never had before, power over the flow of their own reading experience."
Apr '11
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
Valiuth
As for ownership you can make copies of the books on to your computer. No one can erase your hard drive. Not yet at least. You can just load them up again. Really clever people have found ways of converting them to text files, so then your e-books can escape the grasp of the terms of use agreements. ·
Of course you can.............but not legally.
Apr '11
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
Keith Doherty
Interesting article in the NY Times, suggesting that digital books are, in a way, a step backward. We're giving up on the concept of the "codex" book and reverting back to scrolls: "if we stop reading on paper, we should keep in mind what we’re sacrificing: that nonlinear experience, which is unique to the codex. You don’t get it from any other medium — not movies, or TV, or music or video games. The codex won out over the scroll because it did what good technologies are supposed to do: It gave readers a power they never had before, power over the flow of their own reading experience."
Full disclosure I have a Kindle and find it great for some circumstances but this is one of my pet peeves. I love to flip through books and check back on the story or "thumb trough" a book.
The other thing e-books lack is the see-it-on a shelf experience. How many books did I pickup from the library as a kid because I saw it on a shelf? How many books have you found at a store because the cover-art caught your eye?
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
Thirty years ago, I tried to persuade a wealthy young woman of my acquaintance that this would be the future of bookselling -- that the book would be delivered digitally over the telephone line and printed on the spot. Had she taken my advice, she would have lost her fortune. But here it now is. Son of a gun!
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
On a mostly unrelated note, what's with fax machines? Why do people still use them, and why haven't we moved beyond them? Every time I'm asked to fax something to some institution or other, I'm majorly bummed out. Scanning and e-mailing I can do. But faxing? Really? Can't we find a simpler way?
Oct '10
Re: The Future of Bookselling?
Fax, at least if it adheres to the Group 3 standard, provides a positive confirmation that the document has been sent and received to both parties, which courts have accepted—E-mail, not so much. Of course, in this digital age one can easily forge Fax confirmations, and many Fax machines fudge the Group 3 requirement to not confirm transmission before the receiving machine has actually completed printing the page, but when it comes to contracts with lots of digits to the left of the decimal point, Fax is considered more probative of transmission and reception than an E-mail.