Born in Missouri, nonetheless
I don’t recall exactly when I first heard of Print-On-Demand, but the first time I remember it sticking was before I had decided to write DisasterLand. An acquaintance (a long-time publishing professional) and I had just eaten lunch and we were taking a walk along the Hudson River. He knew many of my favorite authors were out of print, and he brought up the topic of PoD (I think this was in ‘99 or ‘00). From all perspectives, it was a dream — for readers, it allowed titles to remain in-print and accessible. It allowed authors to build audiences over time and collect royalties seemingly in perpetuity, and allowed publishers to eliminate the costs and hassles of warehousing.
All of which made complete sense to me. I had spent much of my spare afternoons and evenings trawling Manhattan’s used book stores looking for out-of-print gems. Though I truly loved it, it did take time. Wouldn’t it be great just to pull up that Masanubu Fukuoka book and have it printed right there while I waited?
With recent thoughts on eBooks and the future, I found something else that’s certainly intriguing. 2007 marks the year that the first-non beta Espresso Book Machine enters the world, at the New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business Library (shout out to Good Magazine for turning me on to this.)
Though books are limited to 300 pages, this is truly print-on-demand. Copies are printed on-site, while-you-wait. If POD truly takes off — and I think it must — this will certainly give Brick-and-Mortar stores a way to fight back against Amazon and other web-based booksellers, for whom POD has surely been a blessing.
Check out the video at the inventors’ website , which is oddly reminiscent of Kubrick’s 2001. I wonder when (and how) it was shot? Seriously… are they being serious?
The other links are excellent as well…
Browse Timeline
Related Entries
- The Espresso Book Machine Part II: Lightning Source Publishers Weekly re...
- Print On Demand: The End of an Era In the last two week...
Comments (1 Comment)
[...] 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 [...]
The Espresso Book Machine Part II: Lightning Source | TheSacredWeb (space) shared this on Apr 09 08 at 11:41 am
