The Espresso Book Machine (EBM) was a print on demand (POD) machine created by On Demand Books. It printed, collated, covered, and bound a single book in a few minutes.
Introduced in 2007, EBM was small enough to fit in a retail bookstore or small library room, and as such was targeted at retail and library markets.[1] The machine took a PDF file for input and prints, then made the readers selection into a paperback book.[2][3]
The manufacture of the machine has been discontinued as of January 2024 due to the closure of On Demand Books.
History
Jason Epstein gave a series of lectures in 1999 about his experiences in publishing. Epstein mentioned in his speech that a future was possible in which customers would be able to print an out-of-stock title on the spot, if a book-printing machine could be made that would fit in a store. He founded 3BillionBooks with Michael Smolens, an entrepreneur from Long Island living in Russia, and Thor Sigvaldason, a consultant at Price Waterhouse Coopers. At the time, Jeff Marsh, a St. Louis engineer and inventor, had already constructed a prototype book printer that could both photocopy and bind. Marsh was working on this project for Harvey Ross, who held U.S. Patent 5,465,213.[4] Peter Zelchenko, a Chicago-based technologist and a partner of Ross in a related patent effort, worked with Marsh to prove the concept and also helped bring Marsh and other players together with several venture interests.[5]
Ultimately Epstein, together with Dane Neller, former President and CEO of Dean and Deluca, licensed Marsh's invention and founded On Demand Books.[3][6]
The first Espresso Book Machine was installed and demonstrated June 21, 2007, at the New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library. For a month, the public was allowed to test the machine by printing free copies of public domain titles provided by the Open Content Alliance (OCA), a non-profit organization with a database of over 200,000 titles.[2]
As of January 2024, the company behind the Espresso Book Machine has been closed.[7] However, some machines continue to remain in places that had purchased them prior to the closure of the company.[8]
Distribution
The direct-to-consumer model supported by Espresso Book Machine eliminated the need for shipping, warehousing, returns, and pulping of unsold books; it allowed simultaneous global availability[3] of millions of new and backlist titles.
EBM books were also available for distribution through Lightning Source, a subsidiary of Ingram Content Group.