Book Espresso

The Guardian published an interesting article on their website regarding a new innovation in publishing. Blackwells have announced that they will be installing EBM (Espresso Book Machines) in their bookshops, with a pilot in one of their larger stores before they are rolled out nationwide. EBMs literally print books whilst the customer waits for them, and can cope with printing 40 pages a minute. That's probably five minutes for a two hundred page book. This device has been introduced so that Blackwells can extend their titles to books that have long gone out of print, but I think this has wider implications for the publishing industry at large.

Print-on-demand might extend to works that publishers wouldn't normally touch because of the large financial risks involved in taking on a large print run of a work they think might not sell. This way, it could mean being published becomes easier for writers who are not considered mainstream, as well as keeping in print books that would otherwise be consigned to second hand bookshops, and ultimately obscurity. With print speeds on these machines expected to increase to 80 pages a minute, this could well become the norm rather than the exception in many high street bookshops.

I think what is great about this idea is that it doesn't sound the death-knell for the printed book, but it does bring a much needed injection of innovation into an industry currently on its knees. Publishers will be able to offer a much wider range of books, and with no sale or return issues, may in the future allow them to invest in new writers - and that can only be a good thing.

Update: Over at Ninthspace there is further speculation as to what EBMs could mean for the future of the publishing industry.

More comment from The Telegraph (05.07.08)

Comments

[Chris]

You might find this interesting:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9976510-7.html

Chris.

[P.Viktor]

"The Kindle features a 6-inch screen and E Ink technology, which is easier on the eyes than backlit displays"

I think that could be the undoing of any attempt by Apple to muscle in on the e-book industry. People will not want to look at backlit displays for large amounts of time, which is why the Kindle was so long in the developing stages to get that part of it right - it mimics the printed page, so that there isn't any exaggerated risk to eyesight, or simply making people's eyes tired (esp. considering that people spend a long time looking at computer screens, and mobile phone devices). Who knows? I still think the Kindle might prove to be the forerunner, just on this simple issue.