Books: hot, fresh, and ready to go
Hit the ATM, the DVD kiosk, and the made-to-order book machine? This ain’t no book vending machine, folks — it’s more like a coffee-machine, making a book for you in three minutes or so at a penny a page.
The aptly-named Espresso Book Machine, according to an article in next week’s Newsweek, is “currently being tested at the World Bank bookstore in Washington, D.C. … and can print the text for a 300-page book, with a color paperback cover — and bind it — in just three minutes and for only a penny per page.”
The brainchild of former Random House editorial director Jason Epstein and former Dean & DeLuca CEO Dane Neller, the machines go for $100,000 a pop; the New York Public Library and the Egypt’s Bibliotheca Alexandrina are due to get theirs for fall tryouts.
“If publishers digitize their catalogs and booksellers get onboard (big ifs), the machine could revolutionize the current warehouse-distribution model,” according to the story.
Related links:
Read the Newsweek story here
Oh heck, just when you get us all excited about e-books, we’re back to book-books!