(no subject)
Sep. 21st, 2009 10:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ltmurnauAn idea that makes sense and which I hope will catch on:
Google digital books can become instant paperbacks
By Chris Lefkow, AFP September 20, 2009
AFPWASHINGTON – More than two million books in the public domain can be turned into instant paperbacks under a deal announced on Thursday between Google and the company behind a high-speed book-printing machine.
Google, which is scanning millions of out-of-copyright books as part of its controversial book project, signed an agreement with On Demand Books that will give the maker of the Espresso Book Machine access to public domain titles.
Like its name implies, the Espresso Book Machine can print and bind a library-quality paperback book with a full-color cover in about the time it takes to brew a cup of coffee.
"In a matter of minutes you can get a paperback book identical to one you can get in a store," On Demand Books chief executive and co-founder Dane Neller said. "A 300-page book can be done in about four, four-and-a-half minutes."
Neller said Google's digital catalog of public domain books -- works published for the most part before the 1920s -- is "rich in all sorts of subjects."
"Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain, Rousseau, Hugo, Balzac... you name it," he said. "The beauty of this is that it goes from the classics to the obscure and in between.
"Yesterday we printed a book on leaves," he said. "We printed a book on how to make candy from the early 20th century."
Jason Epstein, On Demand Books chairman and fellow co-founder, described the machine, which was named one of Time Magazine's "Best Inventions of 2007" and costs less than 100,000 dollars, as "an ATM for books."
"With the Google inventory the Espresso Book Machine will make it possible for readers everywhere to have access to millions of digital titles in multiple languages, including rare and out of print public domain titles," he said.
Espresso Book Machines are currently located in bookstores and libraries in more than a dozen locations in five countries -- the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada and Egypt.
Current locations include the Angus and Robertson Bookstore in Melbourne, the McGill University Library in Montreal, the Blackwell Bookshop in London, Egypt's Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Internet Archive in San Francisco and the University of Michigan.
Neller said the New York-based On Demand Books hoped to have between 35 to 40 Espresso machines in place around the world by early 2010 and was planning on coming out with a full-color model in about six months.
Currently only the cover of a book is reproduced in color.
Public domain books in Google's digital library can currently be read online for free and printed out as a PDF document. They are also available on devices such as Sony's electronic reader.
"Reading digital books can be an enjoyable experience, but we realize that there are times when readers want a physical copy of a book," said Brandon Badger, a Google product manager.
Neller said On Demand Books will not set the retail price for the public domain books from Google's digital library but was recommending eight dollars as the suggested listed price.
He said the cost to produce a book -- the paper, the ink, the glue -- comes out to under a penny a page, or slightly less than three dollars for a 300-page book.
"A dollar goes to us, a dollar goes to Google for providing the digital copy," Neller said, adding that the Internet search and advertising giant intends to give the money earned to public charities.
Neller also said the legal settlement between Google and US authors and publishers "doesn't affect us at all" because the agreement with On Demand Books only concerns out-of-copyright works.
A US District Court in New York is to hold a hearing on the settlement on October 7 and the project is also being examined by anti-trust lawyers at the US Justice Department, which has until Friday to voice its opinion.
The governments of France and Germany, privacy groups, consumer advocates and rival technology companies such as Amazon, maker of the Kindle electronic reader, and Microsoft have filed objections to the settlement agreement.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
No matter what you think about Google and its deals, I hope this idea of print-on-demand will save the book publishing business, because it's not dong well right now. It never made sense to me that publishing companies expended prodigious amounts of all kinds of resources printing hundreds of thousands of copies of books, most of which as it turned out were not wanted, and shipping them huge distances only to have the remainders stripped and shipped back all that way to be destroyed. Why not have a bookstore with two or three copies of everything available for impulse buys, and a big printer in the back to whistle up more when they are needed?
I recently bought a very obscure and long out of print book on wargaming through lulu.com, it was kind of expensive (about $28) but it was that or, well, nothing. I got it in just a few days and was happy with it.
Honestly I don't think electronic books will ever really catch on (it may for textbooks and other reference works), because people who like to read for pleasure want to touch what they are reading. Granted there are fewer and fewer of these every year, though....
Google digital books can become instant paperbacks
By Chris Lefkow, AFP September 20, 2009
AFPWASHINGTON – More than two million books in the public domain can be turned into instant paperbacks under a deal announced on Thursday between Google and the company behind a high-speed book-printing machine.
Google, which is scanning millions of out-of-copyright books as part of its controversial book project, signed an agreement with On Demand Books that will give the maker of the Espresso Book Machine access to public domain titles.
Like its name implies, the Espresso Book Machine can print and bind a library-quality paperback book with a full-color cover in about the time it takes to brew a cup of coffee.
"In a matter of minutes you can get a paperback book identical to one you can get in a store," On Demand Books chief executive and co-founder Dane Neller said. "A 300-page book can be done in about four, four-and-a-half minutes."
Neller said Google's digital catalog of public domain books -- works published for the most part before the 1920s -- is "rich in all sorts of subjects."
"Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain, Rousseau, Hugo, Balzac... you name it," he said. "The beauty of this is that it goes from the classics to the obscure and in between.
"Yesterday we printed a book on leaves," he said. "We printed a book on how to make candy from the early 20th century."
Jason Epstein, On Demand Books chairman and fellow co-founder, described the machine, which was named one of Time Magazine's "Best Inventions of 2007" and costs less than 100,000 dollars, as "an ATM for books."
"With the Google inventory the Espresso Book Machine will make it possible for readers everywhere to have access to millions of digital titles in multiple languages, including rare and out of print public domain titles," he said.
Espresso Book Machines are currently located in bookstores and libraries in more than a dozen locations in five countries -- the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada and Egypt.
Current locations include the Angus and Robertson Bookstore in Melbourne, the McGill University Library in Montreal, the Blackwell Bookshop in London, Egypt's Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Internet Archive in San Francisco and the University of Michigan.
Neller said the New York-based On Demand Books hoped to have between 35 to 40 Espresso machines in place around the world by early 2010 and was planning on coming out with a full-color model in about six months.
Currently only the cover of a book is reproduced in color.
Public domain books in Google's digital library can currently be read online for free and printed out as a PDF document. They are also available on devices such as Sony's electronic reader.
"Reading digital books can be an enjoyable experience, but we realize that there are times when readers want a physical copy of a book," said Brandon Badger, a Google product manager.
Neller said On Demand Books will not set the retail price for the public domain books from Google's digital library but was recommending eight dollars as the suggested listed price.
He said the cost to produce a book -- the paper, the ink, the glue -- comes out to under a penny a page, or slightly less than three dollars for a 300-page book.
"A dollar goes to us, a dollar goes to Google for providing the digital copy," Neller said, adding that the Internet search and advertising giant intends to give the money earned to public charities.
Neller also said the legal settlement between Google and US authors and publishers "doesn't affect us at all" because the agreement with On Demand Books only concerns out-of-copyright works.
A US District Court in New York is to hold a hearing on the settlement on October 7 and the project is also being examined by anti-trust lawyers at the US Justice Department, which has until Friday to voice its opinion.
The governments of France and Germany, privacy groups, consumer advocates and rival technology companies such as Amazon, maker of the Kindle electronic reader, and Microsoft have filed objections to the settlement agreement.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
No matter what you think about Google and its deals, I hope this idea of print-on-demand will save the book publishing business, because it's not dong well right now. It never made sense to me that publishing companies expended prodigious amounts of all kinds of resources printing hundreds of thousands of copies of books, most of which as it turned out were not wanted, and shipping them huge distances only to have the remainders stripped and shipped back all that way to be destroyed. Why not have a bookstore with two or three copies of everything available for impulse buys, and a big printer in the back to whistle up more when they are needed?
I recently bought a very obscure and long out of print book on wargaming through lulu.com, it was kind of expensive (about $28) but it was that or, well, nothing. I got it in just a few days and was happy with it.
Honestly I don't think electronic books will ever really catch on (it may for textbooks and other reference works), because people who like to read for pleasure want to touch what they are reading. Granted there are fewer and fewer of these every year, though....
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-21 07:34 pm (UTC)Subtotal: $18.19
Shipping: $10.48
Tax: $1.43
Total: $30.10
I don't know how much it costs lulu.com to actually produce the book, but the shipping was via regular mail -postage is a bitch, and will continue to be so.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-21 08:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-21 08:23 pm (UTC)I hadn't heard of that Espresso Book Machine before. That could seriously save the handful of publishers who are not too stubborn to adapt-- unless we have to expect ten years of mulish braying and fussiness like we got from the recording industry. If Harper and St Martin's and Random House agreed to sell certain segments of their catalogs via EBM, located in grocery stores, shopping centers, pedestrian arcades, etc., they could find themselves whole new markets.
Of course, it's bad news for book stores, but many book stores are zeroing in and becoming more specific anyway (mysteries, kids books, history titles etc.) which is what the best surviving record stores are doing anyway.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-21 08:47 pm (UTC)I see these book machines in book stores primarily. Books are heavy and bulky and require much storage and floor space that the average book store, which operates on a shoestring at the best of times, can barely afford. But you know more about the business of hawking books than I do.