I'm sure +Evo Terra, +Jeff Moriarty & +ePublish Unum – Digital Author Education would have comments on this….
Book store owner installed his own on-demand book print/binder (The Espresso Book Machine). The book binder can print nearly five million titles including Google Books that are in the public domain, as well as out of print titles. The bookstore will even locally-deliver same-day printed and bound books by “pedal-truck". EPIC.
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Nice profile of a bookstore that's always been great but is now finding intelligent ways to not only stay relevant, but actually offer things that Amazon and B&N can't (beyond knowledgeable, helpful staff, which is a given but which hasn't been enough for most independents).
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The Man Who Took on Amazon and Saved a Bookstore – Forbes
The story of an independent bookstore with a digital strategy that allows them to compete with industry giant Amazon.
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basically, a bookstore with a specialized 3D printer! 😉
This is very interesting…
For anyone not willing to go up to Boston, the makers of the machine have a list of other locations where you can find it: http://www.ondemandbooks.com/ebm_locations_list.php
I'd be very interested in any links to articles on small family hardware stores who have had similar success in battling the huge chain stores.
Our family hardware store for over 100 years: Putz Hardware in Bay City, MI = struggling. I'd love to give the Putz family some good ideas.
In my neighborhood we're down to Books-a-Million and 2 very small used book stores. The used book stores are fun to browse but they're limited. Every time I walk into BAM I get depressed. The staff (when you can find one) is uninformed. Perky, but unhelpful. They never have the book I'm looking for and the books they have are often misfiled. If you want to read any of the books on the NYT best seller list you've got a good shot at finding it. Anything in genre and you're out of luck. The only thing going for it was the coffee bar and they just replaced it with frozen yogurt. I would LOVE to support them with my checkbook but they make it almost impossible. They have no one to blame but themselves if they go under.
Who doesn't love small business innovation, especially at the local level like this? #greatidea
I think Amazon uses similar machines for their own print on demand services. And at a very reasonable cost also.
Now if only Amazon didn't have a fucking awful proprietary DRM on their ebooks, I might actually buy books from them again 😛 Meh.
Amazon bought CreateSpace.com – but that has to be ordered online & shipped. Works nicely for indie authors for sure. I love the idea of walking into a book store, picking up a eReader on their shelves, finding a book & having it printed right then and there for me.
+++++++1 for the Independent business owner! Its one of the great things still left about America!