Google Signs Print on Demand Deal with On Demand Books

I previously reported on the new machine that allows you to print off any book you like, even old out of print books, on demand for around $8 - see the Espresso Book Machine.

Now it appears that Google is getting in on the act.

Google has already scanned millions of old books from deep inside Harvard's library and converted them into documents you can consult online.

Now Google Book Search and On Demand Books have signed a deal that will allow people to print out these old books in bookstores fitted with the Espresso Book Machine. The Espresso Book Machine currently costs around $100,000 and prints out a paperback book in 4 minutes complete with cover, exactly the same as a paperback you would buy in a shop.

The costs of printing the book for the bookstore are $3 and they are expected to charge around $8 - $10 per book to the customer. The bookstore needs to pay $1 to Google (which it will donate to charity) and $1 to the machine company On Demand Books. This is a useful innovation for a bookstore which does not have a copy of a particular book in stock or for old books which you just cannot find anymore. Mrs Beeton' Cookbook springs to mind although there are already excellent e-books devoted to Mrs Beeton's Recipes

Dane Neller, CEO of On Demand Books CEO says “We believe this is a revolution. Content retrieval is now centralized and production is decentralized.”

Neller also says one of the main benefits is allowing local bookstores compete with Amazon.

The Espresso Book Machine has already been installed in a number of retailers and libraries wordwide, such as the University of Michigan Shapiro Library Building in Ann Arbor; the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt; the Blackwell Bookshop in London; Angus & Robertson Bookstore in Melbourne, Australia; the University of Alberta Bookstore in Edmonton, Canada.

The company hopes to have sold around 90 machines worlwide by the end of next year.