Last week, On Demand Books announced that their new and improved Espresso Book Machine will be rolled out to select college stores for testing in early 2009. According to a posting on the company’s website, the Espresso Book Machine 2.0 has many advantages over the previous versions and has been specifically designed for commercial use. The new machine’s advantages include: smaller size (now the size of a photocopy machine), lower price, and quicker speed.
With the machines latest improvements and lower cost, it could prove to be a much more viable print-on-demand solution for college stores. Two college stores, the McGill University Library in Montreal and the University of Waterloo Bookstore in Ontario have already signed on as test sites while the University of Pennsylvania Library is also being considered.
According to an article from Book Business, even the earlier version has proved to be very successful for The University of Alberta Bookstore. Todd Anderson, director of the bookstore explains, “When we first looked at the Espresso, we looked at our business to determine how we would use the machine. We came up with three very distinct business opportunities that we could use the Espresso for and 14 different lines of business within those strategies: cost savings for students, for-profit publications and library usage. Since turning the Espresso on in November of 2007, every single one of these lines of business has occurred, some more than others."
The next few years will certainly be an important time for the Espresso Book Machine as additional publishing and retail partners are brought on and more college stores seek print-on-demand solutions.
Additionally, the On Demand Books website features a great video of the Espresso Book Machine 2.0 which shows the complete print-on-demand process.
