Kensington Titles Coming to an Espresso Book Machine Near You

New York, NY (June 19, 2012) – Kensington, the independent publisher known for innovative and wide-ranging publishing, has joined On Demand Books’ growing Espresso Book Machine program (EBM), via arrangement with Lightning Source, making its titles available through EBM’s “digital-to-print at retail” sales channel.

“Kensington is thrilled to be part of the Espresso Book Machine network. Even as digital book sales continue to grow, bookstores remain an important place for customers to shop for physical books. The goal of this initiative is to give the local bookseller the ability to provide customers with a larger selection of Kensington titles in their hands,” said Steven Zacharius, President and CEO, Kensington Publishing Corp. “For authors this is a win-win as their titles—both front and backlist—will be more broadly available.”

“We are delighted to bring Kensington’s large, rich list to the Espresso Book Machine network. EBM operators and customers worldwide will be excited and eager to gain access to their high-quality content, which includes many well-known bestsellers from a wide variety of genres,” says Dane Neller, CEO of On Demand Books.

The EBM is the only digital-to-print at-retail solution on the market today. With the push of a button, a title can be printed with a full-color cover, bound, and trimmed to any standard size. In a matter of minutes, it emerges from the EBM as a bookstore-quality paperback book, which the customer can pay for and walk out the store with right there and then.

Content from publishers is fed to the EBM via EspressNet, On Demand Books’ growing digital network of titles (currently numbering over seven million). Much like an iTunes for books, EspressNet retrieves, encrypts, transmits, and catalogues books from a multitude of English and foreign language content providers, including public domain, in-copyright, and self-published titles. Through the SelfServe software, writers can format, design, edit, and upload their books for printing through the EBM, and for inclusion in EspressNet. SelfServe will soon also be able to convert print files to the 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, significantly reducing loss of sales due to books being out-of-stock. In addition, 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. And of course the EBM improves overall efficiency and environmental sustainability by eliminating shipping and the return and pulping of unwanted books.

About On Demand Books

On Demand Books was cofounded in 2003 by Jason Epstein, former Editorial Director of Random House; Dane Neller, former CEO of Dean & DeLuca; and Thor Sigvaldason, former technology consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Espresso Book Machines have been placed in bookstores, libraries, universities, and other locations in the USA, Canada, the UK, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and the Caribbean. In September 2010, On Demand Books and Xerox announced a partnership whereby Xerox will market, sell or lease and service the Espresso Book Machine worldwide. Made in the USA, Espresso Book Machines are environmentally efficient, reducing production, shipping, and waste. For more information, go to www.ondemandbooks.com.

About Kensington

Established in 1974, Kensington is the largest independent publishing house located in New York City publishing in hardcover, trade paperback, and mass market. Kensington has many sweeping and diverse imprints, and it is well known for women’s commercial fiction, commercial thrillers, African-American titles, young adult fiction, and western titles. Visit www.kensingtonbooks.com.