Espresso, Anyone?

I received a news update from Lightning Source the other day. They wanted to know if I'd like to sign up to have my books available on the Espresso Book Machine. It's a point-of-sale book printer/binder. Downloading files from the LSI database when somebody requests a given book, it high-speed laser prints, uses the book's cover (no generic covers), binds, cuts to the proper trim size, and spits the book out. Time from request to finish (depending on the state of the high speed connection: about five minutes.

While only dozen of the machines are currently in use, I sure as heck don't mind my book being available to just the current installations:

• New Orleans Public Library, New Orleans, LA
• Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA
• University of Michigan Library, Ann Arbor, MI
• Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, VT
• University of Alberta Bookstore, Edmonton, AB, Canada
• McMaster University Bookstore, Hamilton, ON, Canada
• Newsstand UK, London, England
• Library of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt (my favorite!)
• Angus & Robertson Bookstore, Melbourne, Australia
• University of Waterloo Bookstore, ON, Canada
• Blackwell’s Bookstore, London, United Kingdom
• McGill University Library, Montreal, QC, Canada
Coming soon:
• Brigham Young University Bookstore, Provo, UT (2.0 beta test site)
• University of Melbourne, Australia

Eventually, your huge Barnes & Noble bookstore will turn into a mall kiosk. Drop by to select your reading material, pay, watch the machine run, go home with a freshly printed book of your choice. Cool, eh?

Watch the video and take a look at the FAQ from this page at Lightning Source.