The World of Book Publishing Is About to Change

This week brought news of a major innovation in the book-publishing world. And Amazon (AMZN) had nothing to do with it.

Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, unveiled the new $100,000 Espresso Book Machine, a publishing device that can print a paperback book at the push of a button.

The machine is pretty incredible: It can print a professionally bound book in four minutes for about $8!

Book lovers can request a tome that’s not in the store’s inventory and the Espresso can print it while they wait. Customers can also order books online and pick them up in the store or even have them delivered.

While the machine can be found in a few other bookstores, this is the first one in the Bay State and this particular machine includes Google’s (GOOG) already digitized texts, greatly expanding the inventory. OnDemand Books, the machine’s creator, has about 1.6 million titles in its catalogue and with Google’s contribution, the total number of titles to choose from comes to about 3.6 million.

(Some of the other bookstores that will house the Espresso are: Boxcar and Caboose Bookshop & Café in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont; Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, Washington; Village Books in Bellingham, Washington; and Schuler Books & Music in Grand Rapids, Michigan.)

The machine has been dubbed the Paige M. Gutenborg at its Cambridge location and in a nod to history, the first book printed on it was the Bay Psalms Book, the first book ever printed in the U.S. (in Cambridge specifically) in 1640.

I live only a few miles from the Harvard Book Store and I can’t wait to check out the machine. As a real book-lover, I’ve been trying to decide whether to get something printed, especially since many previously hard to find titles will be available.

But what I’m most looking forward to is seeing this new technology in action. In my opinion, anything that brings books to people and encourages reading can’t be a bad thing.

What do you think of this new machine? Will it put book publishers out of business? Or will it encourage people to read more? Weigh in by commenting here.

Comments

[beentheredo...:]

Elyse, I agree with you this is a great innovation for soft cover books. However nothing can ever replace the hard cover.

Oct 04 09:01 AM

[notsosmart:]

soon it wont have to print.it will transfer to some electronic reader 7 a lot of paper & print saved.

Oct 04 11:38 AM

[swsprime:]

Like all new innovations in a market Elyse, it will fill a niche. Amazon think Kindle will take over the market, but it won't, Early TV companies though TV would take over the market, but it didn't.

The biggest threat to this new Instant printing machine is still the internet, which will reduce the price and trouble of acquiring good reading material down and down. Personally I still prefer to acquire books, but even I do so over the internet, because it is far more convenient and the choice is vast, and I would think why go to a bookshop and get a book printed for $8 when I can get a good condition, second hand original book complete with original cover and addendum's from about $4?

Well if this new machine has a monopoly on hard to find titles maybe there's its' niche, but I'm inclined to think it will find its' true niche with bookworms who are drawn to bookshops every day and want some thing new to occupy their time with, and with people who want hard copies of long out of print books.

I would agree with you that anything that brings books to people and encourages reading can’t be a bad thing and I wish the purveyors lots of success.

Oct 04 05:44 PM

[ryanclarke:]

The machine is a waste of time. Amazon's Kindle and other "electronic" readers will win over a paper book producing product. How so? Take a look at how Yahoo!, essentially an online newspaper, has reduced the need for the local newspaper.

Oct 04 08:43 PM

[Elyse Andrews:]

This is definitely a niche product, as swsprime pointed out above. I think it will fit in well with people who love the printed word and are in search of hard to find books for a lower cost. Ultimately electronic readers will probably be the way of books in the (somewhat distant) future, but this is still an interesting innovation in the traditional book publishing world.

Oct 05 08:39 AM

[User 495704:]

Print on Demand is nothing new, Amazon and others have been doing this for years (same thing with DVDs and CDs). And if Amazon eventually get same day free delivery expanded (with Prime, either through UPS/Fedex or through Amazon Fresh), Espresso machine doesn't look so industry changing any more.

Oct 05 11:03 AM

[Mary7:]

I agree, Amazon has already been doing this for years, and does do this with hard to find items for both Books, DVDs and CDs. If you can get everything in one place, hard cover books, hard to find, and digital, why shop anywhere else?

Oct 05 06:53 PM

[User 496784:]

I'm all for reducing paper waste wherever we can, but I love books. Books and photos are the best and highest use of paper, in my opinion.

Oct 07 09:06 AM

[Teilo:]

This is non-impressive. Lulu.com has been doing this for a long time, using proven Xerox iGen3 and 4's mated to book binding equipment, at a similar cost. They have made gobbs of money doing this. It is a self-publisher's dream-come-true.

Oct 07 12:51 PM