Future of the Book

Some interesting stuff in this speech, including some ever-elusive details about what's really going on in POD land:

Amazon is now attempting to use its leverage as the world's biggest online retailer to claw back some of that POD business from Ingram for their BookSurge operation. But the initial strength of BookSurge, that they worked with printers around the world who were already in place, spawned its weakness. Reports from publishers I have spoken to say BookSurge's quality and flexibility don't compare to Lightning's. And apparently their printing charges are higher. But since Amazon sells so many of the books that are printed on demand, their threats to make those books less available if they are printed outside of BookSurge carry tremendous weight.

      

But neither BookSurge nor a much-expanded Lightning are the last word in decentralized print-on-demand. The next step has been taken by On Demand Books, and their Espresso machine. The Espresso prints and binds one book at a time -- one-color and paperback only, although with a full-color cover -- and is intended for in-store use. There are only a handful of them in place, but they offer the entrepreneurial bookstore some very intriguing opportunities to expand their business. We have encountered a very entrepreneurial bookseller at the University of Alberta in Canada who has made one work profitably in his store within months.

      

Last month, Espresso announced a deal with Ingram by which the Lightning repository of files will be made available for delivery on Espresso. That suddenly makes the Espresso proposition a lot more likely to succeed. Espresso is worth exploring in any place where English-language books are in demand, that is remote from the sources of English books, and where prices for those books are high. In other words, the Danish book trade should look into it.