Espresso Book Machine

Last week at BEA, Lightning Source announced that it will allow all its publishers to participate in an Espresso Book Machine pilot program.

Essentially, this means that anyone who publishes through Lightning Source can now make their books available for on-site printing at any Espresso outlet or kiosk. Here’s the full story:

http://www.lightningsource.com/NewsItem.aspx?id=CST122

And here’s a video of the machine at work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIq0VqF0MnA&feature=related

This could revolutionize book selling. It won’t help to make a publisher’s book better known…that task is, and has always will be, the responsibility of the publisher, but it will speed up the purchase process. Instead of asking a bookstore to special order a book, and waiting for it to arrive, and possibly changing their mind before it arrives, a customer will now be able to wait 5 minutes while the book is printed on-site, either in a store or at a kiosk.

Having had quite a bit of experience with typesetting systems and chemical processors, I know that running the Espresso machine won’t be as easy as they make it sound…at least not yet. Unlike brief product demonstrations at trade shows, in the real world there will be mechanical failures, paper jams, supply shortages and the like. Employees will be needed to take care of all of these things and also ensure quality control of the end product. Perhaps this means there won’t be cost savings at all, because it will take more than one technician to oversee  the necessary extended business hours at retail locations (days, nights, and weekends). Still, the EBM offers the opportunity to change book selling in dramatic ways.

Maybe in time the machines will increase in speed and efficiency to the point that we’ll be able to purchase books at a drive-thru window. Maybe, in time,  publishers will place orders on the web and direct the order to the EBM nearest the buyer, eliminating book storage and shipping altogether. Perhaps publisher websites will include a link for this purpose so that buyers can place the order themselves.

It should be fun to watch the competition between Espresso and Kindle, and see whether paper or electronic books win the day. Perhaps like radio and television before them, neither technology will win, and Espresso, Kindle and bookstores will happily coexist, offering ever greater choices for consumers.

It seems the book business will now change whether it wants to or not. Many of us, both inside and outside of the business, might say it’s about time.

What do you want to know? What topics should we explore together? How can we help you along your publishing journey? Everyone here at 1106 Design wants to help. Post your comment here or email us at office@1106design.com

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Michele DeFilippo, owner, 1106 Design