Book Machine Making Modern Publishing Obsolete
At the push of a button, any paperback book you desire is printed, trimmed and bound in 3.5 minutes. It is library quality, in any language and is indistinguishable from the ones on the shelf – even if it’s out of print. Sounds like science fiction? It’s not.
The Espresso Book Machine has been installed at the NYC Library and it delivers any of the 200,000 public domain titles by the Open Content Alliance. It has minimal human interaction, resets itself after each print and is small enough to fit in a retail store.
Printed books have never gone out of style. What is finally changing is the outdated notion of publishing and the way that books end up in readers hands. These types of machines used to be well over $1,000,000 yet are now as cheap as $100,000, with that price dropping after every order.
Direct-to-consumer publishing cuts costs associated with shipping, warehousing and overhead by 40%-70%. That same book your picking up for $24.99 at Borders will be more like $7.49 in this new model.
With a connection to Internet databases, virtually any publisher on earth in any language will have the ability to set their book for print at the neighborhood bookstore.
In the past, printing small numbers of copies was expensive and publishers were forced to focus on bestsellers. The new goal should be set on what Chris Anderson calls The Long Tail. If enough small sales in a cost-effective direct-to-consumer environment become effective, they equal out to big profits over time. Suddenly, popularity no longer has a monopoly on profitability.
This allows for more niche audiences to access and purchase titles, just like they do with iTunes, Amazon.com and Netflix.
Video of the machine in action:
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VoidBlossom.com » Blog Archive » The Book Machine said
am August 1 2007 @ 11:05 am
[...] http://www.bustachange.com/book-machine-making-modern-publishing-obsolete/ [...]
Jerad Kaliher said
am August 1 2007 @ 3:11 pm
@Kevin, Thanks for the TrackBack.
Stephan Smith said
am August 1 2007 @ 6:33 pm
Technology simply amazes me.
And what a name, The Espresso Book Machine.
It also impresses me that it can spit out professional looking books in only 3.5 minutes!
I can see some practical uses for that technology as an Internet marketer.
And its steal for only $100,000 dollars!
Better wait til next year.
Its one thing to read about the Espresso Book Machine,
But that video shows all.
Great video!
Great post!
Jerad Kaliher said
am August 1 2007 @ 7:20 pm
@Stephan, thank you for all your support. Mainly I think that the potential for a machine like this will be from bookstores. Potentially, with a healthy database, they could print any book from any marketing campaign on earth.
This would lean great power to the people who are earning royalties on the content. For Internet marketers that would be 100% in your pocket, minus marketing and printing costs of course!
Stephan Smith said
am August 1 2007 @ 7:29 pm
Well if I’m selling an ebook,
I could send them a physical copy of the ebook as well and up the price.
Plus, I would have to have the physical books made until the sale.
So you would never have left over books because you are making the books as the sales come in.
GENIUS!
Bo Fahs said
am August 16 2007 @ 4:21 am
Is this what lulu.com is doing? You can send them your file and they’ll make 1 or 20 books at a very low cost.
You could reference your book on your blog, they’ll send the book to the customer and send you a check.
This modern world! Sheesh!
Jerad Kaliher said
am August 16 2007 @ 8:22 am
@Bo Fahs, that looks like a great concept. It’s nice to finally see the market shift to the side of the artist rather than the conglomerates.
Veronique Dupuis said
am August 21 2007 @ 7:16 am
This, of course, seems like a dream come true… Can’t wait to see it it’ actually going to be popular at all.
Because I also hear that we’ll soon have these “e-paper” pages, on which you will be able to download your favorite newspaper, magazines, books… and carry it everywhere. http://www.engadget.com/tag/e-paper/. On only one sheet of e-paper, we will be able to store hundreds of books, take notes, receive info in real-time. They won’t be screens, mind you (too heavy), but actual supports for e-ink.
But both e-paper and Expresso machines (as for the fall of the music industry as we know it) let us ponder… How are going to react all these people who make their living out of the printing, delivering, selling etc of books, magazines and newspapers?
Jerad Kaliher said
am August 21 2007 @ 2:09 pm
@Veronique: E-Paper looks to be promising, but from what I can tell it is going to be quite a bit down the road before we actually begin to use it. Especially if we want anything in multi-colors.
As far as the ‘fall’ of the music and publishing industries… it’s not the fall of these industries that I want to trumpet. It is the emergence of new industries that technology like this allow us to expand to. As of now publishing companies are able to print a book based on it’s popularity. If they get a manuscript in that looks like it may not be a hit they don’t even give it the light of day. This is just another way for us to have access to multiple sources of information.
As we all know the next era will not be in creating information, it will be sorting and distributing it. In my opinion that is where jobs will emerge. With the emergence of Web 2.0 and consumer commenting and marketing we will see trends shift from what we as a mob enjoy rather than what is spoon fed to us because a statistical trend.
Thank you for the comment!
Drew Smith said
am September 30 2007 @ 12:24 pm
I’m excited by this. As the green-age of lifestyle and technology blossoms, we see applications for new ideas that we might not have hearkened during more industrially-motivated times. For instance, I see this modern printing press as a means to cut back on gratuitous inventory. I see applications in schools where, rather than releasing new editions of mostly standardized material, a university simply issues a license to its students to use the school’s Espresso Machine. With such a license, these students can print material as needed, rather than shelling out the hundreds of dollars required to own multiple volumes each year when, in reality, they may only need 100 of the prescribed 1000 pages of text.
Furthermore, publishers can cease to print new editions by simply submitting all literature to a database and amending the literature as required. Then it will become clear whether it is money or the pursuit of knowledge which motivates them.
Jerad Kaliher said
am October 1 2007 @ 9:27 pm
@Drew Smith, the idea that you can cut down dramatically on inventory is such a great invention. I heard on the radio today that a few major bands are allowing you to buy music direct from their websites, cutting out all the middle men and keeping all the cash. Some even are allowing you to choose what price you think is fair.
I think that we are headed towards something interesting and characteristic of a new age. We are only seeing the first little blip with technologies like these. Who knows what is to come?
Pisander Peter said
am January 16 2008 @ 4:39 pm
It is my dream to have my own printing michine, the simple one so that I can operate it by my ownself. yet I can see that Book Michine it is a plus.
Please sent me more information on that book machine what about the vedo tape? Do you have one, send me one.
Thanks
Pisander Peter
Jerad Kaliher said
am January 16 2008 @ 5:39 pm
Pisander Peter, if you’d like to gather more information you might want to reach the manufacturer of the Espresso Book Machine:
On Demand Books LLC
584 Broadway, Suite 1100
New York, NY 10012
Tel: (212) 966-2222, Fax: (212) 966-2229