Publishers Weekly reported last week [Judith Rosen, 4/2/2008 7:33:00 AM] that Lightning Source has entered into a strategic agreement with On Demand Books, the producers of The Espresso Book Machine that I wrote about earlier.
“It’s always been the holy grail of the book business to walk into a store and get any book,” said Kirby Best, president and CEO of Lightning Source. With the signing of today’s strategic agreement with On Demand Books, proprietor of the Espresso Book Machine, Best sees that goal coming a little bit closer…
The partnership with Lightning Source gives On Demand access to its scanning facilities, but it also gives the company access to copyrighted material through an opt in/opt out clause that Lightning Source will add to its publisher contracts. At present, the titles available through Espresso fall mainly in the public domain.
I think this a quite amazing development, yet quite natural. With word that the new machines could be the size of business copiers and available for lease next year, its arrival will only accelerate the sweeping changes in bookselling.
This is truly the missing link — offering large bookstores immediate access to LSI’s library without the cumbersome old-fashioned problems of Ingram’s core business, distribution. No shipping costs for bookstores, no wait for customers.
Eventually, it could even spell trouble for online retailers, who traditionally have been the main beneficiaries of POD sales.
This is *huge*.
