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In the era of the Espresso machine, will bookstores turn into POD publishers? And perhaps try e-books, too?
June 3, 2009 | 9:53 am
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By David Rothman
Should bookstores try publishing? And in what ways?
Amazon is poking its camel’s nose under this particular tent, and since 2003, Barnes & Noble has owned Sterling Publishing. While I wonder about the antitrust angles, I can hardly blame bookstores for trying, given the fond hopes of some publishers for disintermediating stores or at least greatly reducing their present roles.
For now, I’d encourage booksellers of all sizes and ownership types to check out What does a general bookstore do with an Espresso Book Machine? at beyondprint.net?
Local titles hot on the Espresso
“In most cases,” the site says of Northshire Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Manchester, Vermont, “the books are locally authored (and in many cases, self-published).
“The most successful self-published title so far is Einstein’s Rabbi (written by a local Rabbi) with more than 300 copies in print [link here]. But the books vary a lot. There is an out-of-print history of Manchester that Northshire has scanned and reprinted. There is a compilation of work from a local creative-writing class. A precocious 11-year-old boy wrote a book, and his parents got it printed as a birthday present. There are family histories and autobiographies. Most of these books are printed in quantities of 30 or less, although a few projects have had print runs as high as 500 copies.”
Toward quality control
Is it possible that local bookstores and public libraries could spot and highlight the most promising titles each week—as a way of rewarding quality? And along the way, since files are being created for POD, couldn’t many of the same books be made available as e-books, especially in ePub?
Unlike some people, I don’t think there is just a finite amount of money and time available for book-buying or for reading. Let’s make books more appealing and less expensive and rely on reader interest, not just techno-gimmicks. The economies of the new technology, combined with the knowledge that the best booksellers and librarians have of local markets, would help. As for the local booksellers without this competence—well, are they really going to be able to survive anyway?
Related: Brief mention of this topic in PersonaNonData.
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Comments:
This sort of reminds me of a time when the music shops were reportedly considering setting up CD-burners in the shops, to allow customers to order music and have it burned onto a CD in any order or grouping. Needless to say, it never took off. Time involved, cost per song, and copyright issues effectively killed it.
POD being a bit more involved, I can see it becoming more of a promotional item for bookstores, especially if back catalogs ever get freed up for POD markets. But I fear that the time needed to print a book will be more than the average consumer will accept, especially when you consider that POD products are considered (wrongly, to be sure) to be of necessarily lesser quality than a book you’d get from the publisher, but will probably cost the same or more than a comparable publisher’s book at the cashier.
I also expect that publishers will dislike this in-store competition to their current catalogs and resist it viciously, essentially keeping them out of the major chains under penalty of being cut off from distribution of their current books. So if POD takes off, it will likely be somewhere–anywhere–other than a first-run bookstore.
Steve, it’s gonna take a lot of funerals before interest in print vanishes, so there is a role for POD. What’s more, there could be small print runs of the more popular titles to avoid the wait. Quality? It is or soon will be comparable to that of “regular” books. In the case of POD titles printed by Ingram and the like, it’s hard to tell the difference.
As for e-books–well, the bookstores could distribute them online.
Publishers? They’d better get used to the idea of local bookstores doing some POD, if that’s what it takes to keep them alive. They could still carry titles from traditional publishers.
Thanks,
David
I did say there was a potential for POD. I just don’t see it as being very large, for the reasons I outlined above.
Small print runs of popular titles? If the titles are popular, the major publishers will probably be printing them already, so POD will not likely get much business that way. It will be mostly from unpredictable one-offs… and I realize how absolutely pathetic it sounds, but you are still going to have trouble with customers who just refuse to wait there for a book to print. And when you come into the store, and there are 5 books being printed ahead of yours? Get ready for the howling…
Anyway, if my choice was to wait for a POD book, or download an e-book right now for a fraction of the cost, I know which one I’ll take. And I think I know which one more and more customers will opt for, relegating POD to a boutique industry for the foreseeable future.
But, I could be wrong (as the BMW C1 Executive model on my desk will gladly attest).
The real usefulness of POD machines like the Expresso isn’t local. Most of the time when someone wants a book, getting it in a week or so is fine, and if not, they can order online and pay to have it shipped overnight.
The real benefit comes from having these machines in countries that have many English-speaking people, but that are far removed from the US, Canada, and the UK, where most English-language books are printed. Bestsellers can fill the supply by shipping books to countries such as Australia in advance. But for books with limited demand, POD inside the wholesale distribution system of the country makes more sense.
Also, jump-starting POD in a country with Expresso could lead eventually to large, commercial POD facilities like that run by Lightning in the US and UK. Instead of mere POD, we would have PODATW–Print on Demand Around the World. Even minor authors could publish a book and see it acquire near-global distribution within a few weeks.
And no, ebooks aren’t going to get rid of printed books any more than TV eliminated radio, Both formats have their advantages and will live side-by-side long after all of us are gone.