(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.”
*About Powell’s Books and Powells.com*
Powell’s is an independent bookseller serving Portland, Oregon since 1971, with four general bookstores and one specialtystore. Its flagship store takes up an entire city block, offering 68,000 square feet of used, new, rare, and out-of-print books. Powells.com offers the combined inventory of its five retail locations and five warehouses - approximately four million books in all. The site features exclusive authorinterviews and essays, as well as a stable of internationally respected book reviewers and content partners.
*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 storage, shipping, and waste. For more information, go to www.ondemandbooks.com
-XXX-
*Media Contacts:*
Miriam Sontz, Powell's Books, 503-228-4651 x1845, miriam.sontz@powells.com
Erin Hardy, On Demand Books, 212-966-2222, erin@ondemandbooks.com
/Espresso Book Machine, SelfEspress, and EspressNet are //trademark//s// of //On Demand Books //in the United States and/or other countries//./
- Companies:
- Powell's Books
- Xerox Corp.
%0D%0A%0D%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.bookbusinessmag.com%2Farticle%2Fpowells-books-install-espresso-book-machine%2F" target="_blank" class="email" data-post-id="3162" type="icon_link"> Email Email 0 Comments Comments