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Gumball Machines
Aug. 16th, 2006 08:27 pmMy friend ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jeff_duntemann was talking about e-publishing again today. It was in relationship to short story anthologies. I agree with his concept, but I still think that e-books will be a niche market. They have to overcome the "fork factor" to succeed. (Basically, the fork is simple, cheap, and dead reliable. How much would it cost to make an e-book reader like that?)
However, I'm not sure that we need e-books to get to the nirvana of Gumball Machines (GM). We could get there through POD. Lulu, my printer, is close, but OnDemandBooks.com has an automated system that just might be perfect for the Gumball Machine. (Cool Quicktime movie at the link.) The problem is bookstores.
Currently in the US, the book distribution system is perfect for the book sellers, giving them no real incentive to invest in desktop POD. They order a book, it doesn't sell, they return it with no skin lost from their nose. Until somebody can show a way for book sellers to make more money, the Gumball Machine won't fly. Success means getting the GM into the book shop. Two ideas:
1) Physical space costs money. Typical retail rents might be $100 per square foot annually PLUS a percent of gross sales. Having a few "upfront" copies and printing the rest when the upfronts sell might reduce the store's footprint and thus cost. Airport stores might be especially interested.
1a) The novelity of watching your book being printed might be an attraction, at least at first. (Grab a cup of coffee while watching the robot work!)
2) Classics. All the big box stores have to stock Shakespeare, Dickens, etc., but I can't imagine that they make much money off of those titles. Actually, considering that they probably still have to special order titles if they don't have a particular one in stock, (I assume most people go in to buy a specific title) those titles COST money. A way to free up shelf space and reduce special order costs might be of interest. If you could avoid having to split the cost with a publisher, even more attractive.
Once you get a POD machine into the store, it matters not how many titles are in the system. In fact, since the machine could sit on the Internet, the available titles could be limitless.
jeff_duntemann was talking about e-publishing again today. It was in relationship to short story anthologies. I agree with his concept, but I still think that e-books will be a niche market. They have to overcome the "fork factor" to succeed. (Basically, the fork is simple, cheap, and dead reliable. How much would it cost to make an e-book reader like that?)However, I'm not sure that we need e-books to get to the nirvana of Gumball Machines (GM). We could get there through POD. Lulu, my printer, is close, but OnDemandBooks.com has an automated system that just might be perfect for the Gumball Machine. (Cool Quicktime movie at the link.) The problem is bookstores.
Currently in the US, the book distribution system is perfect for the book sellers, giving them no real incentive to invest in desktop POD. They order a book, it doesn't sell, they return it with no skin lost from their nose. Until somebody can show a way for book sellers to make more money, the Gumball Machine won't fly. Success means getting the GM into the book shop. Two ideas:
1) Physical space costs money. Typical retail rents might be $100 per square foot annually PLUS a percent of gross sales. Having a few "upfront" copies and printing the rest when the upfronts sell might reduce the store's footprint and thus cost. Airport stores might be especially interested.
1a) The novelity of watching your book being printed might be an attraction, at least at first. (Grab a cup of coffee while watching the robot work!)
2) Classics. All the big box stores have to stock Shakespeare, Dickens, etc., but I can't imagine that they make much money off of those titles. Actually, considering that they probably still have to special order titles if they don't have a particular one in stock, (I assume most people go in to buy a specific title) those titles COST money. A way to free up shelf space and reduce special order costs might be of interest. If you could avoid having to split the cost with a publisher, even more attractive.
Once you get a POD machine into the store, it matters not how many titles are in the system. In fact, since the machine could sit on the Internet, the available titles could be limitless.
