History
Jason Epstein, veteran editor of such writers as Norman Mailer, Philip Roth and Gore Vidal, gave a series of lectures in 1999 in which he reflected on his experiences in publishing. Epstein mentioned in his speech that a future was possible in which customers would be able to print an out-of-stock title on the spot, if a book-printing machine could be made that would fit in a store. At the time, Jeff Marsh, a St Louis engineer and inventor, had already constructed a prototype book printer that could both photocopy and book-bind. A friend of Marsh, present on one of the lectures, informed Epstein. The editor together with Dane Neller, former President and CEO of Dean and Deluca, licensed Marsh's invention and founded On Demand Books.[3][4]
[edit]The first EBM
The first Espresso Book Machine was installed and demonstrated June 21 2007 at the New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library. For a month, the public was allowed to test the machine by printing free copies of such public domain classics as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, and "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake. The public domain titles were provided by the Open Content Alliance (OCA), a non-profit organization with a database of over 200,000 titles.[2]
[edit]Economic consequences
The direct-to-consumer model of the EBM eliminates shipping, warehousing, returns and pulping of unsold books, and allows simultaneous global availability[3] of millions of new and backlist titles. These characteristics may in the future lower prices to consumers and libraries, and allow greater royalties and profits to authors and publishers.[2]
[edit]Distribution
A book can be made available for distribution via the EBM network by placing it with Lightning Source, the world's largest POD printer and a subsidiary of Ingram Book Company, the largest distributor in the US. Once a book is uploaded into the Lightning Source system, the publisher need only check a single box (at the end of the set up pages) to add the book to the Espresso channel.
[edit]Locations
[edit]In Africa
Beta versions of the EBM are placed at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.[2]
[edit]In the Americas
[edit]In the United States
Beta versions of the EBM are placed at the World Bank Infoshop in Washington, DC .[2] Additional EBMs were made available to the public in the fall of 2007 at the New Orleans Public Library, the Boxcar and Caboose Bookstore in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont and the Open Content Alliance in San Francisco.[2] Other locations include the University of Missouri, the Harvard Book Store, the University of Washington Bookstore in Seattle, Third Place Books in Seattle, the University of Michigan Shapiro Undergraduate Library, the University of Arizona Bookstore, the Brigham Young University Bookstore and the Grace Mellman Community Library (part of the Riverside County Library System, Riverside County, California). Mizzou Media at theUniversity of Missouri operates an Espresso Book Machine version 2.0.[5] There is a concession model of the Espresso Book Machine 2.2 located within the Darien Library in Darien, Connecticut.[6]
[edit]In Canada
An EBM has been installed at the University of Alberta, Titles McMaster University Bookstore, University of Waterloo Bookstore[7] McGill University Library[8] and the University of Toronto Bookstore.[9]Simon Fraser University Bookstore.[10]
[edit]In Australia
In September 2008, was installed at Angus & Robertson in Melbourne, Australia by the Central Book Services / DA Group. However, its success was short-lived and the machine was removed in late 2009.[11] A newer version of the Espresso Book Machine (2.0) has now been installed at the University of Melbourne.
[edit]In Europe
[edit]In the UK
In September 2008, the first Espresso Book Machine was installed in the UK. Newsstand, a London based company, uses the machinery to print single copy book runs for publishers and authors.
In April 2009, an Espresso Book Machine was installed with great fanfare in the Charing Cross Road branch of Blackwell's book store in London. Blackwell's also announced that they plan to install the machine across their 60 UK stores.[12]
[edit]In the Netherlands
In November 2010 the American Book Center in Amsterdam installed the first ever Espresso Book Machine in the Netherlands and continental Europe. A second machine was installed in The American Book Center in The Hague in March 2011.
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