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The BookMachine: On-Demand Book Printing in 3-5 Minutes

Posted by michael on from the pulp-fiction dept.

Photo_Designer writes "Engadget has an article about these cool BookMachines that spit out on-demand books in just a few minutes. Sounds cool. Forget eBooks.. get the real thing!" The company website has some more information, though it's a bit suspiciously skimpy on hard specifications.

13 of 332 comments (clear)

  1. Excellent! by rfernand79 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Excellent! No more "Out of Print" (Hopefully). I don't know if only a few of us have encountered more than one reference book that has been out of print since the mid-80s and is virtually impossible to find.
    Yes, "no more eBooks" sounds good, but I'd say "Finally, a great balance".

  2. Great for students by daringone · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Library checked out of the book you need for that paper? Just make a copy! I can't think of how many times back in high school where we got assigned a paper on a given subject and I got to the library only to find that most if not all the relevant books were long gone. Of course, it'd only work so long as it was extremely cheap. Most students I know are poor :-)

    1. Re:Great for students by SquadBoy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think the idea is that you could go to a store and get a copy. The theory here being that material cost is rather low. Say for example you wanted a copy of say one of the old Burroghs (sp?) Mars books. Since the text is public domain you could go to a store pay for the materials and a reasonable service charge and walk out with a copy. With something out of print but not public domain they could set a fee of a few dollars for the content. (Think about clearly they are making nothing off of it if it is out of print so they are ahead of the game either way) The same could go for music right now I'd pay up to $20 a cd for some early Swans but you can't get it for anything. Now granted I'm a freak and so they can't make any money keeping it in print in a traditional way. But if they built a system where I could go to a Borders (or whatever) and burn a copy for myself they would make, not a lot, but more than they do now and it would have little to no marginal cost for them. All in all this tech could be a win win.

      --

      Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
  3. Bibliography by Eberlin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It would seem a bit strange when the bookmobile prints your books for you. Imagine doing research or a book report and having to cite your sources. Do you cite that it was published a couple of days ago at the back of someone's tour bus?

    The idea of print-on-demand does seem attractive, though. No real inventory to keep track of. No shelf space, no warehouse needed, and no unsold books. A similar promise brought out by e-books, except that you actually get a tangible book in the end. It can't be all bad.

  4. Is this good or bad for current book stores? by toetagger1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Will stores such as Barns & Nobels or Borders addopt these machines, or try to prevent them? Looks like this is a great way for them to reduce inventory and floor display size, but this might in the long run open up more competition by stores such as UPSStore or Kinkos, or even Walmart.

    To make it even more interesting, would Amazon benefit by just printing the book, and automatically shipping it, w/o the need for a warehouse, profit from this kind of operation? I know that this produciton mechanism can't be as cheap as mass printing, but if Amazon can eliminate (or not needing) a few (new) warehouses, that can cancle that cost difference quickly.

    --
    who | grep -i blond | date cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger; mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount; sleep
  5. $15 million from Amazon.com by awallgren · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder if it's coincidence that ODMC was recently awarded $15 million by a jury in litigation with Amazon.com:

    http://www.capv.com/Store/publications/pub00722.ht ml/

  6. Collectors by powerpuffgirls · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is POD limited to certain books? At the moment, some out-of-print books are commanding huge price tags, what happens when you can now print a copy of the 'last copy found on earth' book?

    Another way is to serialize all POD books, so someone will always get the F(irst)P(rint)!

  7. Re:Balancing act. by kfg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    People actually buy used books by the foot for decorative purposes. Many books are purchased just to possess and display them, sort of like trophies. Just about every upper middle class home has a copy of Moby Dick in it somewhere. I'd guess about 1 in 100 has actually been read.

    I habituate estate sales and such looking for "used" books, many of which have obviously never been read, especially those in shrink wrap. I once got free first pick of an extensive private library with dozens of unread books in it, and it had belonged to a history professor. The commemorative editon of the Feynman Lectures, still in the shrink wrap, was a nice bit of booty, it went very nicely with the unopened recordings of the same.

    KFG

  8. POD is great. by John+Meacham · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have been working with authors of out of print technichal books on functional programming and type theory to get the books published via print-on-demand services. It is absolutly great for academic interest books which a traditional publisher will refuse to carry or charge an obscene amount for because of the limited demand.

    See my shop

    --
    http://notanumber.net/
  9. Re:Balancing act. by itwerx · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Many books are purchased just to possess and display them...

    I actually have a number of books which have never technically been opened but which I have read not just once but often several times. They are classics which I frequently lend or give away. I then purchase replacement copies to have on my shelf should I wish to either A - re-read them, or B - pass them on again.
    Things are not always what they seem...

  10. Nobody reads anymore...unfortunately by Harpua22 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Nobody reads anymore, huh? So all these giant Barnes and Nobles they're building are just for decoration?" From the most recent issue of Newsweek: from '93-'03 there was a "58%increase in titles published" From '92-'02 there was a "12% decrease in fiction readers" So that giant Barnes and Noble exists because there are more books bieng printed each year than ever before. Unfortunately, fewer people are reading them.

  11. Re:Balancing act. by kfg · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Things are not always what they seem...

    Including the purchase of books. That's my very point.

    And I too gave away my previous copy of the Feynman Lectures. A nice bit of booty to the recipient.

    KFG

  12. Internet Bookmobile by EricEldred · · Score: 3, Interesting

    More stable because not so automated is the Internet Bookmobile. Extend an invitation for a free visit at http://www.archive.org/texts/bookmobile.php

    The system is cost-effective for low print runs. There are more than 25,000 public domain or non-commercial licensed Creative Commons books available. We help authors do custom books as well. All free, supported by the Internet Archive and Anywhere Books.

    July 8, 2004, we printed "Walden" at Walden Pond, until we were threatened with arrest. See
    http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/200 4/07/ 19/fighting_to_be_free/