Bye-bye publisher? Bye-bye bookstore? Just this week at the New York Public Library’s Science, Business, and Industry Library, On Demand Books unveiled the first Espresso Book Machine. With the “EBM,” books can be printed and bound within minutes. This summer in libraries across America, users will have the ability to print free copies of public domain classics such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Moby Dick, or A Christmas Carol. Right now, a large selection of public-domain titles are being provided by Open Content Alliance, a non-profit organization with a database of over 200,000 titles. There will also be a few appropriately chosen copyright protected titles available like Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail.
On Demand Books is the company founded by legendary publishing executive, Jason Epstein (former big-time, well-known editor at Random House, Inc., for decades). “Printed books are one of history’s greatest and most enduring inventions, and after centuries, their form needs no improvement,” says Epstein. “What does need to change is the outdated way that books reach readers.”
National book retailers and hotel chains are among the companies contemplating ordering the EBM in quantities.
The advantages: books will never have to go out of print again; there’s no human interaction needed; it eliminates shipping and warehousing costs for books; thereby eliminating returns and pulping of unsold books; allows availability of millions of new and backlist titles in all categories and languages; all of which purportedly translates into lower prices to consumers and libraries and greater royalties and profits to authors and publishers.
The disadvantages: publishers can’t package in flashy covers covered with flashy quotes; you can’t really ask the machine if they read the book and like it; the machine can’t recommend a book to get for your Mom, Dad, or Aunt Betty. And I’m wondering, if it works anything like a candy vending machine, who’s going to be there to help out when your book gets stuck in the pipeline before getting spit out (a la my peanut M&Ms in row C1?)? and who will be there to clear a paper jam or refill Tray 2 when the paper supply dries up?
I’m not convinced that this is actually a step-forward for book publishing in terms of it providing a more direct connection to customers, or better service. And I would love to see a competition of man vs. machine, in which one person (or monkey) punches in the code to find, bind, and print a book from the EBM, and the other runs into a bookstore asking an associate to find and ring up as quickly as possible.
I’m also not convinced that this will slow the cannibalization of sales of the printed book, as the digital book (and Google) patiently looks on with hungry eyes. EBM = David, eBook = Goliath? vice versa?
Will EBMs sit in on marketing meetings? go on sales calls? What’s the relationship, if any between EBM and publisher/bookstore? At a price tag of $1 million, an EBM is an expensive sales associate to keep on staff.
Every day, publishers and bookstores alike are racing to stay on top of new technologies–and equally as exasperating–new tech-savvy, more demanding consumers. But, when it comes down to it, people who like to read books will find their book whether in a bookstore, library, online, as a download, or from the Espresso. The more options there are, hopefully the more readers there will be. And that’s a good thing.
