It's like an ATM for books...

[wednes]

...except you're less likely to be robbed.

I imagine by now you've all heard about the Espresso Book Machine? It's the wonderful, magical machine that prints books to order, one at a time, for about $10, in about five minutes.

Pretty fucking incredible, right?

Right now it's mostly books that have expired copyrights and are no longer in print. So it's gonna be a gold mine in that way. But my publisher just signed an agreement with the EBM people (also, coincidentally, our printers) and ALL Stonegarden books will soon be available via Espresso Book Machine. They're going to have them in tons of schools, libraries, airports, bus/train stations, all over the place.

As if that weren't great enough, there's a machine right here in Ann Arbor. University of Michigan library, to be precise. So in a month or so I'll be able to toddle over there and see what my books will look like from the machine. It also opens up a whole new world of visibility and marketing opportunities for me. People can get my book in a timely way and without having to pay shipping or using a credit card online. Yay!

So...I'm pretty stoked.

Comments

[rivetkitten.livejournal.com]

Sweet! I'll have to pester Brian into making the trip up there to see it in action. Then again, being able to tell a machine "PRINT ME A BOOK!!!!" will probably be equally exciting for him. :D

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I know, right? I'm excited to see it in action.

[frogdiva.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard of them. How exciting not only to have one so close to you but also that your books are going to be in there!

[wednes.livejournal.com]

It's funny, I keep sort of waiting for just the right thing to come along that catapults my first book to widespread recognition and (possibly) praise. Now I have my hopes up that this could be that thing.

[groovesinorbit]

How cool! That does sound magical. Good luck with the new technology!

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Even if my books weren't in it, I'd still like to see it in action. Plus, there's bunch of out-of-print books I'd love to get.

[sudrin.livejournal.com]

It sounds cool, but working in computers I can just imagine going there, starting to print off a book and getting the error:

"Please add Toner" or "PC Load Letter".

;)

[wednes.livejournal.com]

LOL, I know what you mean. I'm already dreading going all the way to U of M on the bus just to find out that the damn thing is out of order.

Who knew?!

[(Anonymous)]

Sounds awesome... Thanks for the heads up! Though I don't think either BAND FAGS! or DRAMA QUEERS! will be available this way... But maybe.

Frank Anthony Polito

Re: Who knew?!

[wednes.livejournal.com]

My publisher says it's not very expensive to get set up with them. You should totally have your agent hook you up!