An Excellent Option…now we need a Kiosk!

Here’s a nice warm and fuzzy, environmentally friendly meshing of worlds, perfect for anybody who’s nervous about leaving the Paperback Age behind. It’s another fantastic option, yah?

Using print-on-demand technology, the Espresso Book Machine can print a paperback in 3 – 5 minutes. That’s so cool!

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I can see this working very well. It will take a bit of thinking, but as long as eBook retailers sell you access to various formats, or if eBook readers get smart enough to convert everything to a format your handheld can eat, it shouldn’t be too complicated. The main point is, eBooks will have to be available in a print-formatted version too. Simple enough, when you consider the number of formats most are already available in.

And it’s a reprieve for book designers, who must have been fearful that the eBook and its nothing fancy, text-o-centric display had them marked for death.

This way, if you buy an eBook to read on your Sony or Slick, and your grandfather wants to read it, just download it to his flash drive so he can take it to the local book shop, plug it into an Espresso or other machine, and come back later to pick up his printed paperback version. I can see there will be some legal headaches to work out, printing rights and such, but this is a huge opportunity for book shops to remain relevant in the digital age.

They’ll also be able to offer out-of-print books, rare publications and the like. And they’ll have a wider selection generally, when you imagine their book display shelves will extend onto the Internet. (I’ll say it again, so cool!) Perfect for paperback book fans. It’s always nice to give a book at Christmas. Yah?

That is really science fiction stuff, right up there with flying cars in my eBooks…

I’m amazed that industry leader Lulu.com hasn’t started placing print-your-own paperback kiosks in the malls. Soon. Soon.

See the whole story here in the Environmental Report.

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