Book Printing on demand

Have you ever been frustrated about a book you need being out of stock at your favorite retailer? The solution to this problem may be more realistic than you might think. Invented by OnDemandBooks.com, their Espresso book machine—named thus because of its on demand, one at a time approach for books—can be purchased by a bookstore for about $100,000 per unit. In it’s extensive (and still growing) database, there are 1.6 million titles available for purchasing, printing, and binding right on the spot. The cost per page is about one penny, so not unreasonable by any means. The maximum number of pages for any book to be printed, however, is 830 pages. On average, a 300-page book/manuscript should print in about four minutes.

One of the current downsides however is that the majority of the titles are pre-1923 to avoid any copyright violations. With time though, it would not be unreasonable to expect more and more new books to be made available in this format. The concept, while relatively new, has great potential to catch on and increase sales because people will walk in knowing what they want may be easier than ever before.

For more information about the Espresso book machine, you can go to the corporate website.