On Demand Books at the Register

For the last 10 years, On Demand Books, has been working to create a print on-demand machine that will allow books to be printed at the register at bookstores, newsstands, and libraries.  Their machine - the Espresso Book Machine - has found its way into several smaller book stores over the last few years.  In addition, the company has been working to sign content providers to a have a catalogue of books that can be sold from their machine.

The cost to produce a book with this machine seems to be inline with what is charged currently by the numerous print on-demand publishers.  This means that the retail prices for the print on-demand books could be the same as any on the shelf offering at their store.  While the price of the machine is still probably too high for book stores (approx. $100,000 according to their website), over time this should come down.  If book stores could decrease their real estate foot print by moving some of the current on the shelf inventory to a digital catalog, these print on-demand machines could prove to be a very lucrative investment.

This is exciting news for print on-demand authors.  One can only imagine that when use of this machine reaches a critical mass, print on-demand companies, like Lulu and Createspace, would be willing to make deals to allow their authors the opportunity to sell through this network.  Maybe, print on-demand books will finally make it into the book stores after all.

To see a YouTube clip of the Espresso Book Machine in action, click here.

To learn how to build an on-demand business, pick up a copy of the book “Business in Minutes – How To Profit From the On-Demand Revolution” at CreateSpace, Amazon.com, or Barnes & Noble.com.