Lightning Source has officially announced their partnership with the Espresso Book Machine company to create a new book distribution channel, via printing of books in-store using the EBM.
The EBM, an ATM for books, is located in bookstores, libraries and other sites. The Espresso Book Machine is the latest pioneering distribution channel to join the Lightning Source family of publisher-to-market pathways. The Lightning Source Espresso Book Machine Channel will give publishers the option to make available the books they have stored in the Lightning Source digital library, and have those titles printed, bound, and delivered at point of sale, on demand, in minutes.
This new move may help offer affordable distribution for Lightning Source customers in markets such as Australia, South Africa and Japan. It might also be seen as one of the few chinks in Amazon's armour as it consolidates its dominance of the book retail market, given that one of the keys to Amazon's dominance over bookshops is its ability to sell and quickly distribute obscure, lesser-known titles. Certainly, at this stage Amazon wouldn't have much to concern them. But one would have to think that with the inevitable advances in technology, this may in the end make Amazon obsolete - at least in terms of 'real' books (it's obvious that they are currently working hard on locking in the other 'advancing technology' book market, with the Kindle).
For the curious, here's a look at the Espresso Book Machine in action:
As an Australian publisher who uses LSI, certainly hope to see more of these machines in other major cities down under (currently its only in Melbourne) - it would definitely be an aid in reaching my market at home.
Comments
Signing up is easy
For publishers who use already Lightning Source, signing up could hardly be easier. I signed up last week. Your Lightning customer service representative can send you a pdf of the contract to be signed. Print two copies, sign and date one and send it to them. Keep the other for yourself.
The basic U.S. print cost seems to the be same as with their larger warehouse-based machines, but along with UK pricing there are now Euro and Canadian printing price lists, so there's likely to be separate pricing in the currency where a machine is placed. I wouldn't be surprised if that proves higher in Switzerland than India.
That raises an important issue. Pricing POD books could get so complicated, it might be best if Lightning allowed publishers to adopt a cost-plus pricing scheme. It'd be weighed, so prices wouldn't fluctuate rapidly, but if costs rise in a country, the retail price would automatically go up to compensate. I doubt any of us want to be adjusting the retail prices for a hundred or more books in dozens of countries in unstable financial times. We'd have little time for anything else.
Also, eventually, it'd be great if LSI's print software were clever enough to print on a book's back cover the current retail price at the time of sale where the book is bein g printed. I imagine bookstores and customers would like that.
At present, the commercial book market doesn't seem to be showing much interest in Expresso. The machines are mostly going into large libraries and other locations as showpiece operations. This idea won't really take hold until places like B&N megastores have machines onsite. When that will happen is anyone's guess.
I also wonder about the last mile/fifteen minutes mindset in marketing these machines. I'm not sure how many more sales that will mean. When customers want a book that they think isn't likely to be stocked locally, I doubt they'll run down to the bookstore on the off-chance it will be available via Expresso. They're more likely to go to Amazon and wait a few days, avoiding the driving altogether.
Like Greg, I suspect the real market for Expresso will be to bridge borders and large distances. Countries where English is widely spoken need POD integrated into their national book distribution systems. For a customer in Australia, New Zealand, India, Israel, South Africa or Hong Kong, a POD book shouldn't have to be shipped from the US or UK. Expresso machines need to be located in the warehouses of major book wholesalers in those countries, where they can supply bookstores. And when demand for POD increases sufficiently, larger, commercial printers of the sort Lightning has been using can take their place. I doubt these Expresso machines will ever match the quality or large-scale efficiencies of their larger counterparts, but they can serve as a bridge between low demand and high demand and get POD into more countries.
--Michael W. Perry, http://www.InklingBooks.com/
Well said
Lots of great points, thanks for sharing your thoughts Michael!