A New Era in Book Publishing?

The U.S. New York Public Library is exhibiting the "Espresso Book Machine," an on-demand book printer from New York-based company On Demand Books LLC at the NYPL Science, Industry and Business Library on East 34th St. in Manhattan. The 1,660-pound, 8-foot long, Internet-connected book-maker can deliver a 200-page paperback with color cover in 12 minutes (roughly 20 book pages per minute.) It has access through the WWW to 200,000 book titles that are in the public domain -- no longer under author/publisher copyright. The New York Public Library is giving away for free books produced by the exhibited machine from a select list of 20 public domain titles, including "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," "Moby Dick," and "A Christmas Carol." Earlier versions of the machine from the same company were displayed at the World Bank in Washington D.C.and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt.

Many have experimented with on demand printing during the last decade, but issues of piracy, copyright protection and quality of the product have limited development of the technology and the interest of book publishers. On Demand Books LLC was founded by Jeff Marsh, who designed the machine, Dane Neller, a former chief executive with gourmet retailer Dean & DeLuca; and Jason Epstein, the well known former editorial director of Random House who has spent his retirement years talking and writing about the future of publishing technology. The company is reportedly in discussions with a large printing company about a partnership and with an equipment manufacturing firm in order to make the machine smaller and faster. A Version 2.0 of the machine, smaller than the original, is planned for next year.

Currently, On Demand Books has leased an Espresso Book Machine to a bookstore in Manchester, Vermont in the U.S. and sold one to the campus bookstore at the University of Alberta in Canada. Book publishers are reported interested in the technology, but many fear losing control of their business. Neller and Epstein claim that decentralizing printing through these types of machines will enhance book sales, keep titles permanently in print, reduce expensive printing and shipping costs, and potentially lower book prices.