Espresso Book, Coming Right Up!

First, I'll get the obvious out of the way.

There are hundreds of thousands of out of print books out there. They exist now only in used bookstores or on AbeBooks. Many of those books are not as "out" as you would imagine, with many people still needing them for research or pleasure reading or what have you. Some of them will once again gain a publishing contract; they will re-enter new book outlets and be allowed to be found and enjoyed. But many will never be printed again.

The espresso book machine allows those books that very thing—to be printed again.

For instance, if you want to learn how to dye wool in the 18th century Scotland highlands style but that information is in a long out of print $120 rare book from 1910, you can now spend $10 for the espresso book with that same information.

Second, and this might be more obvious, such a machine allows costs to go down.

There is no shipping. It is a point of sale purchase. There are no distributor costs. There is no need to pay a bookseller to take the book out of a box, put it on a cart, to be wheeled out by another bookseller, to be placed on a shelf. Since it is a point of sale purchase, there are higher profit margins for publishers and authors, greater unit sales, no more returns and reduced back-list inventories.

Not to mention fewer books recycled. Gotta protect the trees, don'tcha know!

Last, the option that intrigues me most has to do with self-publishing.

Self-publishing. It gets a nasty vibe from almost everyone. Say what you want about it, but for some self-publishing is a viable way to break into the New York publishers when all hope has been lost. Boyd Morrison, who self-published three books on Amazon's Kindle, sold so many copies that the New York publishers were forced to take another look at his work when they had already rejected him multiple times on multiple accounts.

The Ark by Boyd Morrison will be published in hardcover from Simon & Schuster in 2010.

Sales matter to publishers. Sales allow them to publish more new writers. It's a wonderful cycle.

Since we are having him for an online chat next week, let us use Eragon by Christopher Paolini as another example. Christopher and his family took a chance when they self-published 10,000 copies of Eragon and took them to the road, traveling between Montana and Texas, selling them wherever they could. That effort and Christopher's daily vaudevillian show at libraries and schools paid off when a copy of the book fell into the hands of an established writer's son. With praise from that author, along with solid self-published book sales behind him, Random House quickly snatched up the rights to Eragon—and ever since Christopher has been a bestselling writer.

All from being self-published.

Don't get me wrong. Those kind of stories are few between. But the possibility is there.

I just succumbed to peer pressure and posted my first book, Song of the Fell Hammer, up on the Amazon Kindle. It is a huge sprawling epic fantasy of near 200,000 words that is not good enough to sell hotly in an over-saturated epic fantasy market. But it is also a great deal like Terry Brooks' early Shannara books and for three years many of his fans on his website have been asking me to make Fell Hammer available. They have read several excerpts, you see, and they want more.

I hope to sell a few copies via the Kindle. Mostly because it is fun and I am learning another side to this business. But what would happen if I made the book available on the espresso book machine?

Would I sell hundreds of copies? Thousands?

Would word of mouth spread?

Would the New York publishers take a fresh look at my book again?

The ramifications of the espresso book machine, from the local level to the national level, are immense for new writers trying to break in.

The next few years will be quite interesting. More of these machines will get installed in bookstores and the dynamics of the book industry may shift. Just like the first printing presses by Gutenberg in Germany and the later models used during the Renaissance, we may be on the cusp of a new printing era at the local level. I doubt the New York publishers will become obsolete; these people are professionals and they know more about publishing and publicity and marketing than almost anyone.

But still, this is all quite interesting.

What is your take on the espresso book machine? A good idea? Not a good idea? Reasons?

Just for the recod, I'd love to have a Joe Schreiber Kendall!

More anon!