How do you save the local bookstores? You digitalise and remove the inventory constraints. :)

Maxinquaye · May 11, 2012

http://www.forbes.com/sites/philjohnson/2012/05/10/the-man-who-took-on-amazon-and-saved-a-bookstore/

To truly compete, he would also have to solve consumer’s expectations for instant gratification and delivery. Jeff needed a complete production, distribution, and fulfillment model. He has likely shocked a lot of people by building one in his own backyard.

Essentially, Jeff installed a printing press to close the inventory gap with Amazon. The Espresso Book Machine sits in the middle of Harvard Bookstore like a hi-tech visitor to an earlier era. A compact digital press, it can print nearly five million titles including Google Books that are in the public domain, as well as out of print titles. We’re talking beautiful, perfect bound paperbacks indistinguishable from books produced by major publishing houses. The Espresso Book Machine can be also used for custom publishing, a growing source of revenue, and customers can order books in the store and on-line.

This story made me happy.

Instead of relying on the current distribution chain that yields a low inventory, this bookstore owner digitalised his inventory, and removed the distributors.

He invested in sharp, extremely knowledgeable staff, and could compete with the delivery time - and the inventory - of Amazon.

I just found the story so amazing.

WildScribe · May 11, 2012

I've heard of this tech. Very exciting. I'm looking forward tho them becoming more common so I can play with one, myself.

James D. Macdonald · May 11, 2012

As long as the customer wants public domain books, he's fine.

Maxinquaye · May 11, 2012

I think it sounds wonderful. If publishers are worried about Amazon dominance, then this is a path they could go down, and allow these printer-bookshops to sell.

willietheshakes · May 11, 2012

James D. Macdonald said:
As long as the customer wants public domain books, he's fine.

This. x2

Plus, the bookstore owner has to have tens of thousands of dollars to invest in the hardware off the top...

Also? "indistinguishable from books produced by major publishing houses"? Horseshit.

Future Shock · May 11, 2012

James D. Macdonald said:
As long as the customer wants public domain books, he's fine.

The article mentioned that he could print public domain books, but did not indicate that he was limited to public domain books.

willietheshakes · May 11, 2012

Future Shock said:
The article mentioned that he could print public domain books, but did not indicate that he was limited to public domain books.

At present, that's the case. Why would a publisher want higher-priced, lower-quality versions of their books in the marketplace?

Future Shock · May 11, 2012

willietheshakes said:
At present, that's the case. Why would a publisher want higher-priced, lower-quality versions of their books in the marketplace?

No, that's actually not the case. I spent 5 minutes with the Google and found the website for the EBM over here. Small time, no name publishers like Simon & Schuster, Penguin, Shambhala, McGraw Hill, HarperCollins, Norton, Random House, and others make their books available for printing from one of these, and the publisher gets paid by the bookstore.

Deleted member 42 · May 11, 2012

I have regular sales on my royalty reports from the EspressoBookMachine for both consumer computer books and textbooks. I note that there are a bunch of publishers in the database, though it is heavily weighted in favor of technical and academic books--but then look where most of the EBMs are.

Maxinquaye · May 11, 2012

From the web-site linked above.

Benefits to Publishers and Content Aggregators:

New sales channel

Same margin as conventionally printed books

Support bricks-and-mortar retailers

Actively drive sales through marketing in partnership with EBM installations

No returns, shipping, supply-chain, inventory costs

No lost sales due to out-of-stocks

Keeps books in print

Green technology that eliminates pulping of books and fuel for shipping

Seems like good points those, particularly the no-returns.

willietheshakes · May 11, 2012

Future Shock said:
No, that's actually not the case. I spent 5 minutes with the Google and found the website for the EBM over here. Small time, no name publishers like Simon & Schuster, Penguin, Shambhala, McGraw Hill, HarperCollins, Norton, Random House, and others make their books available for printing from one of these, and the publisher gets paid by the bookstore.

"Publisher permission titles" according to the Harvard website.

I've spoken to writers who actually have issue with this technology, as it allows publishers to skirt out-of-print status...

But hey, you're absolutely correct.

Jamesaritchie · May 12, 2012

Yeah, the bookstore can print anything, as long as it has publisher permission, but the books are not of a quality I like, it poses problems for the writers, and damned if any of my books are going to printed that way until a LOT of issues are worked out.

And really, I don't think this will have any impact of the Amazon situation at all.

buz · May 12, 2012

I am completely ignorant of businessy things or legal issues, but, just in terms of technology, that sounds damn cool.

Alessandra Kelley · May 12, 2012

It sounds like Jason Epstein's vision of print-on-demand books from ten years ago.

Way cool.

BenPanced · May 12, 2012

willietheshakes said:
Plus, the bookstore owner has to have tens of thousands of dollars to invest in the hardware off the top...

And extra tech support costs. And lost money from lost sales if said machine is down for an extended period of time. And a white elephant if the concept doesn't take off.

No returns, shipping, supply-chain, inventory costs

Lovely. What if the machine's off and I wind up with a crap copy that has 50% of the pages cut off at the right margin and every fifth page of copy tilts 45-degrees to the left?

eward · May 13, 2012

Dude, Robert Sawyer totally predicted this in Flashforward. At least I think that was his book that had this -- bookstores that had print-on-demand books. Except for all of the books were printed this way. People just drank coffee while they waited for their NYT bestselling books to be printed.

I think it's pretty awesome. It's obviously a new thing so they're probably still working out the kinks, but what's with the haters? Like this bookstore is seeing tons of growth when most independent bookstores are closing, but no, we gotta criticize it :Shrug:

I think the "No returns" thing is for the bookstore. Like they don't have to worry about returning a bunch of unsold books to the publisher.

ETA: OMG, POWELL'S JUST GOT ONE! I am so checking that out.

DennisB · May 13, 2012

Here's a 3-min video from On Demand Books:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q946sfGLxm4

The quality looks pretty good.

Alitriona · May 13, 2012

DennisB said:
The quality looks pretty good.

I've seen variation in the standard of books from the same batch of pods. I'm not sure I would trust consistent quality here or that they would show an average so so result in a promo video.

willietheshakes · May 13, 2012

eward; said:
what's with the haters? Like this bookstore is seeing tons of growth when most independent bookstores are closing, but no, we gotta criticize it

Not a hater - a bookseller.

shockandawe232 · May 17, 2012

To put it simply, you don't. How do we save the abacus makers? New times, new things you have to learn to adapt. Make it into a coffee shop or something. host CE, philosophical, religious, etc. debates. Bring in author's to speak, do readings. have nooks/kindles/computers set up with author's you want to feature for people to read. I cant remember which one, but one of the big computer game makers started out as a lumber company, then during WWII became an airplane manufacturer, was a furnture maker at one point and today makes video games and gaming systems...Nintendo I think

shockandawe232 · May 17, 2012

...sure you can have a "novelty" section with physical books and stuff (I personally prefer physical books still), but it can't be your main business anymore if you want to prosper as a business

willietheshakes · May 17, 2012

shockandawe232 said:
To put it simply, you don't. How do we save the abacus makers? New times, new things you have to learn to adapt. Make it into a coffee shop or something. host CE, philosophical, religious, etc. debates. Bring in author's to speak, do readings. have nooks/kindles/computers set up with author's you want to feature for people to read. I cant remember which one, but one of the big computer game makers started out as a lumber company, then during WWII became an airplane manufacturer, was a furnture maker at one point and today makes video games and gaming systems...Nintendo I think

shockandawe232 said:
...sure you can have a "novelty" section with physical books and stuff (I personally prefer physical books still), but it can't be your main business anymore if you want to prosper as a business

Your empathy is overwhelming.

BenPanced · May 17, 2012

shockandawe232 said:
...sure you can have a "novelty" section with physical books and stuff (I personally prefer physical books still), but it can't be your main business anymore if you want to prosper as a business

Actually, the BME is more the novelty at the moment. If you expect to build an entire bookstore around one, possibly two of these machines, it can't work: one book takes approximately 10 minutes to produce. That's going to be a difficult selling point.

readitnweep · May 18, 2012

While it's new and there may be kinks, it sounds intriguing to me. I can't read books from a screen and have no desire to own a Kindle. I need to hold a book, and I'm interested in any idea that helps bookshops, because visiting them is my favorite thing to do.

Also, I don't order through Amazon for myself. I like going to a shop and purchasing books right then, not waiting for shipping, etc.

DCDaugherty · May 18, 2012

I'm not seeing a long-term outcome of bookstore survival because of this machine. In fact, I see just the opposite. Tech like this has a rather clear evolutionary path.

It is made more affordable.
It is made more compact.
It is made more user-friendly.

In other words, if this thing takes off, it is going to become the Redbox of the book world. Look what that helped do to movie rental stores.

How do you save the local bookstores? You digitalise and remove the inventory constraints. :)

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