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I thought of putting this in the 'Books' section, but I'd really like to hear from writers, published or not. Most would agree that the book publishing industry has seen better days. TV, the internet, bookstore conglomeration, but still it just won't die, will it? People are still reading, whether on-line or not, people still want to hear a story, a narrative that will both affirm their own struggles and take them somewhere they've never been. The kindle, the IPad, and now Jason Epstein, ex-editorial director at Random House, a guy who edited such heavyweights as Mailer, Vidal, and Roth is now on his own, writing his books on food, while championing his pet project, The Espresso Book Machine, a sort of vending machine for paperback books.
I thought of putting this in the 'Books' section, but I'd really like to hear from writers, published or not. Most would agree that the book publishing industry has seen better days. TV, the internet, bookstore conglomeration, but still it just won't die, will it? People are still reading, whether on-line or not, people still want to hear a story, a narrative that will both affirm their own struggles and take them somewhere they've never been. The kindle, the IPad, and now Jason Epstein, ex-editorial director at Random House, a guy who edited such heavyweights as Mailer, Vidal, and Roth is now on his own, writing his books on food, while championing his pet project, The Espresso Book Machine, a sort of vending machine for paperback books.
This is a good question. I commute to work by train, and I am happy to say I still see hordes of people reading real books every day. I do see an increasing number reading Kindles or other electronic book forms. I'm not ready for that yet--I want to turn pages and smell paper.
Yeah, me too. I like a 'book', the feel, the smell. Though, recently someone gave me one of those new IPads. I just loaded an Elie Wiesel book into it the other night. I'm not too hip on this hi-tech stuff, so actually had to have someone do it for me. I don't think everything, not near every book is available on these things yet. Though, as coincidence would have it, last night Charlie Rose did a segment on this thing, and the entire panel thought that the IPad was going to be a big winner for Apple. My initial feeling is that the Jason Epstein Espresso has a good shot. You get the number off the web page, bring your credit card to the mall, and print your own paperback in less than a couple minutes. It could replace bookstores, I think, as long as there are enough machines to make it convenient, and as long as you can get any book printed that you want, from the classics to the new publications. One thing I think is certain, the book publishing business is in play...
I thought of putting this in the 'Books' section, but I'd really like to hear from writers, published or not. Most would agree that the book publishing industry has seen better days. TV, the internet, bookstore conglomeration, but still it just won't die, will it? People are still reading, whether on-line or not, people still want to hear a story, a narrative that will both affirm their own struggles and take them somewhere they've never been. The kindle, the IPad, and now Jason Epstein, ex-editorial director at Random House, a guy who edited such heavyweights as Mailer, Vidal, and Roth is now on his own, writing his books on food, while championing his pet project, The Espresso Book Machine, a sort of vending machine for paperback books.
Does this system integrate with other software with pre-press software, peer review systems, etc? If someone must edit the material before the final print, is this machine limited to what file extensions it will accept?
The publishing industry is furiously changing and has been since about 2001. This Espresso machine and the time, effort, manpower, etc to run it, rent it or buy it, is probably still costly at this point.
When asked what the machine costs, the answer was .01 a page. Duh, the question was: what does the machine cost??? And there was no direct answer on the demo page.
As a small publisher I would still do it the old fashioned way, hiring a small publisher who already has this machine and is knowledgeable about all of the software and current technology so I could focus on the writing, the cover design, etc. Plus this machine does not produce hard bound books...those are still in demand in a niche market.
Does this system integrate with other software with pre-press software, peer review systems, etc? If someone must edit the material before the final print, is this machine limited to what file extensions it will accept?
The publishing industry is furiously changing and has been since about 2001. This Espresso machine and the time, effort, manpower, etc to run it, rent it or buy it, is probably still costly at this point.
When asked what the machine costs, the answer was .01 a page. Duh, the question was: what does the machine cost??? And there was no direct answer on the demo page.
As a small publisher I would still do it the old fashioned way, hiring a small publisher who already has this machine and is knowledgeable about all of the software and current technology so I could focus on the writing, the cover design, etc. Plus this machine does not produce hard bound books...those are still in demand in a niche market.
I'm sorry I can't answer your technical questions, but when I get a little more time later I'll try to find some more information.
I was wondering what the machine costs too. Jason Epstein was on Rose a few months back, which was the first I'd heard about the Espresso, dumb name by the way. My understanding is that there are/were as of the Rose interview, 25-30 of these machines placed in malls or on college campuses across the U.S. I think UCLA has one, for example. It might be interesting, that instead of buying ten of them and placing them around 'your town', the way a traditional 'vendor' of candy bars and soda would do, it would be much more cost effective to buy one and keep it either in your home or your office, then take orders off your own web page and ship the book to the buyer, which would of course be an additional cost...
I know I'm probably the exception, but I've always preferred a paperback. I like to bend it and fold it and just generally manhandle a book. I'll see what more I can get on the cost of an Espresso, I'm sure it's a bit more than what they charge at Starbucks...
As a small publisher, how do you handle the distribution end? This to me is the question, even more of a question these days, when Crown and Boarder's rule the bookstore world.
Last edited by Mr. Humble; 02-05-2010 at 12:18 PM..
vg66, found this on Espresso's cost... $75K?! Could be one of those things that gets cheaper over the years, but that's a pretty lofty jumping off point.
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This system makes sense on college campuses, even those with their own printing houses, where graduate students need a relatively low-cost way to publish accepted theses. It also makes sense in places like regional FedEx Office (the new name for Kinko's) print shops where a local author may need to publish several copies of a text, but may not have the time to wait for publishing through a site like blurb.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vg66
Does this system integrate with other software with pre-press software, peer review systems, etc? If someone must edit the material before the final print, is this machine limited to what file extensions it will accept?
From what I have read about it, it will only print PDFs of both the covers and leaves. The upside to this is, you can create the layout and design in any program you like (I prefer Quark Express and Adobe Illustrator), export the finished content to a PDF, thus keeping the original layout and content "locked" assuming the PDF file is protected.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vg66
The publishing industry is furiously changing and has been since about 2001. This Espresso machine and the time, effort, manpower, etc to run it, rent it or buy it, is probably still costly at this point.
The up-front cost appears to be $75K from what is listed on Wiki. But that is just for the Espresso box. You still need a duplex printer which for a Xerox is going to be about $26K. That is definitely going to keep out individual people right now. But with the right business plan, mixing a serviceable web presence for online orders from both authors and buyers with a strong marketing plan focusing on providing limited runs of books to local and regional book clubs, publishing minutes and meeting materials for local governments in bound form, and even putting together materials for home schoolers would appear to be a good series of incremental steps to break even relatively quickly and move into the black.
I forgot to ask, what the repair rate was on this?
We had a great Xerox machine that we used in a small business with 9 employees, for various needs and it was nice sending our documents to the printer.... but it was a pain due to the increasing jamming issues on large runs! We invariably would have to call out the Xerox girl for repairs. It broke down every single time we printed hundreds of manuals, even if we only did 10-50 pagers a day. The machine was 2 years old. That was back in 2006, so I have no idea if things are running any better today or not.
amazon.com began shipping my book today. It's now No. 1 on a state list and creeping on on the mid-Atlantic. The book was released more than a month before the announced release date, which itself was advanced by several weeks.
So far it is available only on paper. Here are my thoughts about future.
I have no doubt that e-readers are part of the future. But when we cruised recently in the Caribbean, I was hoping to find someone reading the Kindle because I was curious to see it. Not a single Kindle on the ship, although someone was seen reading another make. Yet plenty of passengers were from the Kindle demographic group -- 45-65.
I haven't bought a Kindle myself because I suspect it's going to be the Betamax of e-readers. Can Amazon's next-gen Kindle take on Apple's iPad? | TG Daily
Until the dust settles, paper is still likely to do well. Print-on-demand for certain types of books; regular printing for others, complemented with short runs.
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Mine is out there -- on paper
Wonderful!
