I just finished watching Bronwen Blaney print an on-demand book.
A customer came in to the Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, MA wanting an obscure 1860s-era work by a legal scholar he had found online, (scanned, conveniently, by Google). Bronwen selected the title from a database, previewed the PDF output on a screen with the customer watching, and sent it to the book machine, which was effectively a high-quality copy machine hooked up to an automatic bookbinder. The cover printed first - four color on a thick stock, and then she started 'heating up the glue.' The book downloaded in about three minutes, software converted the PDF to a printable format, and the sheets spit out into a receiver.
When complete, the stack of paper was painted by a roller coated with binding glue and folded into the cover in a special jig to keep it straight and let the glue dry. A few slices with some industrial-strength paper cutters later and the book chunked out into the output slot, looking indistinguishable from the paperbacks on the shelves behind us.
Yesterday, Bronwen said, they printed sixty copies on the machine. The only flaw we saw was that whoever scanned the original got their fingertips caught in the scanner on pages 79 and 347, so if anything, this copy has some character. Whoever they were they had a nice manicure.
Direct printing has been around for some time, but this kind of one-stop device at the consumer level is pretty new. The machine isn't home-grade yet, but honestly that's just a matter of time (as Google and Amazon have long figured out). Bronwen was pretty convinced that the short-term impact of these machines would be on back-list titles - out of print, copyright-expired ones, and eventually the titles owned by publishers who have determined that the demand is not enough for a full printing run. It's probably still cost-effective for front-list titles to be offset-printed centrally and distributed in boxes and palettes - although ask any bookseller about the environmental consequences of "no return" policies and they'll grimace. Wouldn't it be nice to keep a couple of centrally-printed copies on hand for display purposes, but if you suspect you'll sell fifteen copies tomorrow, why not print out that inventory locally the night before? No waste, and zero shipping or storage costs.
I started musing immediately about self-publishing. A simple model for a new business: give us the URL of your blog, we'll pull down the archives, source freelancers to lay out and convert your work to PDF, send you a proof, and then get Bronwen's machine to output a dozen copies for your friends or organization - or you can tell people to drop by Harvard Bookstore and get one printed out whenever they need one. Plus, we'll add your title to the online distributors so people can download it PDF style on their desktops or Kindles, and we'll set up a search-engine optimized marketing site and place a few keyword buys to drive the public to your title. Voila - disintermediation of the publishing industry - albeit on a low level - and every dollar not spent on paper and glue goes right to the author.
One thing is for sure - bits are separate from atoms, now more than ever. iTunes showed us the long tail for music; YouTube for video; now we have it for books. Real books, not just content. I would think that the economics would support these devices (smaller and slicker, perhaps, at a lower pricetag) in local bookstores within a few years. How a "YouTubed" book industry would look is an open question.
Want one at home? Any title ever written, whenever you want it, good enough to put on your bookshelf for future reference and intellectual bragging rights? Not a bad unique selling proposition. Bronwen, get on it.
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