Interesting new development indeed
I was at Lifeway Christian Store to get a song to sing Sunday and it was the first time we’ve used Lifeway’s new system to burn accompaniment tracks in house. Several thousand songs that you just look up and if they have it you can listen to it and then burn the track right there.
Too cool.
It immediately made me think that it won’t be long until books will be printed that way too. A number of larger stores can already do it. I was talking to the Mardel’s rep at ACFW and they are already putting the POD systems in their stores.
It’s a brave new world. Authors or artists still earn their royalties just like a print book and they can AFFORD TO SHELVE AUTHORS THAT THEY WOULDN’T HAVE ACQUIRED IN PRINT FORM because they didn’t have the name identification to merit the expenditure. I think that’s going to be a win-win. Even new authors can be shelved in stores they formerly did not have available to them. Not only that, but it means they will be able to keep our backlist available for sale.
Author who have backlist titles know how difficult it is, even with a new book out, to have places that will allow us to sell backlist titles while we are having a signing for the new one. Now they can go over and have the book run off and bring it right over to be signed.
I know this capability is starting to be available but don’t know how quickly we will start seeing it, particularly outside of the major stores in the large cities. But it is interesting to think about, isn’t it?
10 comments:
An author friend mentioned this becoming more common in the secular publishing world, too. We often don't think about the whole shelf space thing. I don't fully understand how all that works but I DO know how disappointing it is to go into a bookstore and they don't have a certain author's new book (and it could be due to space.) How nice to have them do a POD while you go drink a latte?
I can see that being a huge benefit for brick & mortar stores. The ability to drive over to the local bookstore and pick up any book you want to read, no matter how obscure, is a great concept. It may not be as fast as Kindle, but it gives you a book you aren't afraid to drop and you'll never open up and realize you forgot to recharge it before you left the house. Then, once they get you in the store, you might as well glance through the books they have on the shelves to see what's new.
How about this? How about if stores don't need to stock as many books since they can print some more if they need to so it cuts back on returns?
Wonderful! I'm amazed and excited about this prospect. Thanks for sharing, Terry.
Ah, how the world is changing and I must say, in many ways for the better. Especially this option.
In 2007 New York Public Library had a Espresso POD book machine that printed, bound and covered a book in 9 mins time. It has been a dream of mine to open a coffee shop with this machine.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/21/new-york-public-library-gets-first-espresso-book-machine/
Here is the link for the machine:
http://www.ondemandbooks.com/
Several bookstores in New England have the machine and some on the west coast as well.
Japan has street kiosks that spit out a book for their readers in mins as well. Def the wave of the future.
I'm for ANYTHING to help keep bookstores in business. The Internet sales and e-books are killing our local "paper" stores, especially the small independent Christian ones. They're dropping like flies. Could this new POD process help save them from extinction?
This technology hasn't hit my little town yet, but I hope it does. What a great idea. I know it's one more dependency upon electricity in some form, but I've already taken that leap with my piano and Nook. There's a lot to be said for availability--and the ease of finding a title electronically. No more musty shelves in the farthest dark corner of the old book store. Well, at least not for recent titles.
This such an exciting new development--especially for authors--yay!
Wow! How far we've come! And I love the idea of an espresso while you wait for your "expresso" book to be published... :)
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