Espresso Book Machine Going Into Powell's

Powell's Books to Install Espresso Book Machine

January 19, 2012

(Press Release) January 18, 2012 (Portland, OR and NEW YORK, NY) – In the early Spring 2012, Powell’s Books, one of the country’s largest and most successful retailers of new and used books, will launch its Espresso Book Machine (EBM) at its legendary City of Books flagship store location.

The EBM brings a revolutionary book-publishing technology to one of the most respected independent booksellers in the world.

The EBM is the only digital-to-print at retail solution on the market. Within minutes, the EBM produces a bookstore quality paperback with color cover, in any standard trim size, at point of sale. The content is fed to the machine via EspressNet, On Demand Books’ growing digital network of over seven million titles.

Much like an iTunes for books, EspressNet retrieves, encrypts, transmits, and catalogues books from a multitude of English and foreign language sources (including public domain sources, traditional publishers, and self-published authors). Through the SelfEspress software, writers can format, design, edit, and upload their book for printing into a physical book and inclusion on the EBM catalog; it also can convert the print file to epub format suitable for e-readers.

The EBM provides a new sales channel for publishers and vastly increases the availability of titles for physical bookstores, thus significantly reducing loss of sales due to books being out-of-stock. Also, the EBM technology offers libraries and bricks-and-mortar retailers the opportunity to become community self-publishing centers, providing a new distribution platform for self-published authors. EBM improves efficiency and sustainability by eliminating shipping, returns, and pulping of unwanted books.

"We are excited to offer this service to our customers, expanding our vast inventory at the City of Books location from one million volumes to nearly limitless volumes," says Miriam Sontz , Chief Operating Officer for Powell's Books. "It is yet another way we can be valuable and relevant to readers and authors as the distribution channels for books continue to evolve. We are thrilled by this opportunity to work with On Demand Books as our business partner in this venture."

“We couldn’t be more pleased to be partnering with one of the truly greatbookstores in the country,” said Dane Neller , CEO of On Demand Books. “To have our Espresso Book Machine in Powell’s is a dream come true. We look forward to working with the folks there to drive actively sales of publisher content.”