Sunday afternoon I had the privilege of giving a reading from my latest novel, The Storyteller’s Bracelet, at the Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse in La Canada/Flintridge, CA. A major theme of this book is the horrors of the government-mandated Indian Schools in the late 1800s. Children and youth from Native tribes across the nation were forcibly removed from their families and placed in these schools, where they were stripped of their language and culture. These early Indian schools were a shameful time in American history, and one conveniently overlooked in most American history textbooks.
I managed to get through the reading fairly well, considering I have the flu (although my doctor assured me I was past the contagious stage; I would not have risked the health of others by giving a public reading while ill if I were contagious!). Then something happened that, in different circumstances, may have upset any author: I was upstaged.
But I didn’t mind. I wasn’t upstaged by another author stepping into my spotlight. I was upstaged by a machine, the Espresso Book Machine, or EBM, printing copies of The Storyteller’s Bracelet as we watched. IBM, the inventor of the EBM, cleverly encased the machine’s innards in lucite so authors and/or book buyers can watch the book be printed, bound, and glued in a matter of minutes—in the case of my book, about 10 minutes. The EBM has access to the files of more than 200,000 titles: some little-known titles by major publishers; some, like mine, titles by traditional but smaller presses, and some by self-published authors.
When the machine finished printing a copy of my book purchased by an event attendee, I looked at with an eagle eye (well, as much of an eagle eye as a person with the flu who has just talked for 45 minutes can muster up), comparing it to a copy provided by my publisher’s printer. The paper was slightly thinner, but not appreciably so; it was still better quality than some books I’ve purchased. The print was crisp and bright. The color on the cover was just as good as the publisher copy, but the cover stock was thinner. Overall, while I preferred the book from the publisher, the quality of the EBM book was as high or higher than many print books on the market today. I was just as proud to see my name on the EBM book as on the publisher edition.
Two books: the EBM copy on the left and publisher copy on the right
EBMs are not everyday common items as of yet. The one at the Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeeshop is the only one in the Los Angeles area. The next closest machine is in San Francisco, and there are machines in Seattle, Denver, and a handful of other locations around the country. (For the location of the EBM closest to you, click here). I think the technology is probably going to be most useful to self-published authors, especially authors of, say, family genealogies who want only enough print copies for family members. It also should prove useful to people looking for an rare titles; the bookstore employee who ran the machine said she knows you can print geology books written about obscure places, for example. I could see the machine being a great resource for keeping titles alive in perpetuity instead of letting them completely go out of print.
The Espresso Book Machine probably isn’t going to increase sales of my books substantially, because I have a traditional publisher and book placement in the major and usual venues, like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. But no matter. Watching a copy of The Storyteller’s Bracelet emerge all warm and smelling of ink and paper (a smell only a true bibliophile can appreciate), made this author’s day. Anything else is just glue on the binding.
Nothing wrong with being upstaged by a machine printing a copy of your book while you watch. I’m glad your fluy backed off enough for you to go to the reading. I’m guessing that, like large Xerox and other copiers, the EBM is probably going to be leased by the stores. I wonder how many books they have to print every month to break even. It must be a fair number or more of them would be appearing around the country faster. Nice resource.
Malcolm
Malcolm: I believe Flintridge is leasing the machine precisely *to* stay in business. They offer all sorts of package deals to self-published authors who want to print their book on the EBM–everything from cover design to set-up to…geez, I can’t remember what all. But with indie bookstores struggling as they are, the EBM is a hook that just may keep some of these small treasures open. I think it’s brilliant!
I wonder if people will use it to print things other than books…wedding albums, vacation pix, reports. . .
Probably not. While it handles black and white pictures just fine, color pics have to be added in after the initial run, by hand (whatever that means). It costs nearly a hundred dollars to do the basic set up. I guess companies could do reports, but I’m guessing it’s cheaper to do such things at Kinko’ s.
Thanks for the input on the machine. And happy that you made it through the reading. I wonder how much the machine costs and if the stores expect to recoup their expense in a decent amount of time. The only one in TX is in Austin, home to University of TX and it looks like it’s geared toward textbooks.
the machine in Austin may appear to be geared toward textbooks, but that’s just how the university bills it. Any EBM can print any off the nearly quarter- million titles in the system, including your books, Marilyn. If you get to Austin sometime, I highly recommend you check it out. It’ s amazing to watch.
Sounds so cool, watching not only A book being published, but YOUR book! I’ll bet the purchaser was excited, and also for an autograph! Double deal!
Mary
Yes, double deal.
I had heard of these machines but thought they were more for short run/vanity books such as family memoirs or vacation diaries. I had no idea they had titles already available that were in mass circulation. The times they are a-changin’.
I’m just lucky my publisher has foresight enough to have seen the EBM to be the valuable tool it is. Not all small, traditional presses make EBM printing available to their authors.
How cool! Publishers Beware!
Actually, T.K., my publisher put all their books on EBM. They saw it as another marketing tool and took advantage of it. They will be paid and I receive royalties from EBM sales just as they and I do from, say, Amazon sales.
I smiled all the way while reading this blog post. What a kick with the machine printing your book right before your eyes! Happy to know you’re better. You are an expert at recuperation. It’s an art form.