Are EBM's the Publishing Industry's Saviour?

Are On Demand Books, or rather ODB's Espresso Book Machines, the Publishing Industry's Savior? That answer comes down to whatever you want to believe. I personally like facts before I decide what to believe and so I've begun researching. Here's what I've learned so far. 


First I'd like to point you to this blog which I found very interesting and intriguing. It concerns a customer's first hand experience with this machine. Click Here for the link if you're interested in reading the article yourself.


One particular line answered one of my questions straight away. The writer of the article states:

"I’ll probably go back and do it again, simply because of how satisfying it is to have a print-on-demand book made in such an astonishingly short period of time."

Priced at well over $100,000 dollars with an almost $1000 dollar monthly "maintenance" fee, a quote I was sent by Xerox, the EBM is well out of most small bookstores price range which means the only bookstores that "might" benefit from it are the large chain bookstores. Sadly they are only around to promote their publishers, or rather large publishers. There have been a few out-of-print titles that some large publishers have decided to make available but nothing significant. Nothing that would make it worth anyone's while to purchase one of these machines. 


Until large publishers open up and make the books that readers have been brainwashed to believe they need to read available, this machine isn't anything other than a glorified small bookstore.  You can go to this link to see just what books are available on an EBM. I can save you some time however and tell you myself. POD books are the only thing available mostly, with Ingram's POD company Lightning Source being one of the main distributors. Go figure. I will go one step further and say that POD books from small publishers are actually the only books worth reading as more of these authors are concerned with quality and presenting something different while large publishers are only concerned with cookie-cutter stories and cookie-cutter edits.


A small bookstore stepping forward to buy one of these machines is sure to sink even faster than they're already sinking. There is a solution to the publishing industry's woes but buddy at this price (and with the "big dogs" holding out to keep customers coming to their sinking "brick &mortar" exclusive bookstores,) the EBM is not the answer. Plus it doesn't do color so all Graphic Novels are out and magazines too. So yes, it still goes back to those large publishers and their reluctance to let go of the past. They seem to be just fine dragging their bookstores down with them . . . the very bookstores they stepped forward to save during the depression. Sorry Xerox. I'm gonna have to hold off on my purchase.