PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland's biggest bookstore will soon be launching on-demand book publishing where folks can go online, select a book they're interested in and then have it printed right then and there in just minutes.
Powell's Books announced Wednesday they will be getting an Espresso Book Machine (EBM) for their flagship store in downtown Portland in March.
"We are excited to offer this service to our customers, expanding our vast inventory at the City of Books location from one million volumes to nearly limitless volumes," Miriam Sontz, Chief Operating Office for Powell's Books, said in a news release. "It is yet another way we can be valuable and relevant to readers and authors as the distribution channels for books continue to evolve."
So how exactly does it work? The video shows a demonstration of the machine, an EBM Version 2.0. Here are some more details from Powell's:
In March 2012, Powell’s Books, one of the country’s largest and most successful retailers of new and used books, will launch its Espresso Book Machine (EBM) at its legendary City of Books flagship store location.
The EBM brings a revolutionary book-publishing technology to one of the most respected independent booksellers in the world.
The EBM is the only digital-to-print at retail solution on the market. Within minutes, the EBM produces a bookstore quality paperback with color cover, in any standard trim size, at point of sale. The content is fed to the machine via EspressNet, On Demand Books’ growing digital network of over seven million titles.
Much like an iTunes for books, EspressNet retrieves, encrypts, transmits, and catalogues books from a multitude of English and foreign language sources (including public domain sources, traditional publishers, and self-published authors).
The EBM provides a new sales channel for publishers and vastly increases the availability of titles for physical bookstores, thus significantly reducing loss of sales due to books being out-of-stock. Also, the EBM technology offers libraries and bricks-and-mortar retailers the opportunity to become community self-publishing centers, providing a new distribution platform for self-published authors. EBM improves efficiency and sustainability by eliminating shipping, returns, and pulping of unwanted books.
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