Early in the year 2012, something magical happened in Powell’s Books at its W 10th and Burnside location—a book machine appeared! The Espresso Book Machine (EBM), to be more precise.
Created by On Demand Books, a now defunct organization, the EBM was born out of a vision of the future where readers could make their own copies of books that were out of print or hard to find, so long as there was a digital copy of it somewhere. Powell’s wasn’t its only iteration, however—there were versions of the EBM in places as far as France. The 2010s were a time when digital books and e-readers were still a novel idea (pun intended), so books were still mostly marketed in either print or audiobook format. Thus, the concept of a print-on-demand option that could have a book printed and bound in five to ten minutes was still a wonder.
The Powell’s EBM was situated in a prime location at the top of the stairs that lead from the Green Room (where the main entrance is) up to the Purple Room (now the Gold Room). The steps enticed customers upwards with the promise of a book machine emblazoned on them, and they delivered. The tiny beast took up no more than perhaps ten to fifteen feet, perfectly situated next to a help kiosk.
Although it had been marketed mainly for printing public domain titles that were stored in a database of over two hundred thousand, it soon became a great way for independent writers to publish their own work in a quick and painless process. The EBM had much potential for students and researchers who wanted an efficient way to print research papers, for writers to print personal projects, and even for people to have physical copies of their favorite fanfic. Even though the main machine only printed black and white text, there was a separate color printer that could produce quality book covers on a thicker stock of paper. You could even buy a publishing package to allow other people to print and buy a copy of your work. Resulting products may have been simple, but the possibilities seemed to be opening up every day that passed.
Then one day, it was gone. No note; no goodbye. Just an empty floor where the book machine had been. Did it become too cumbersome for Powell’s to maintain? Was there too much foot traffic congestion that created a fire hazard? Did the EBM give up the ghost? To the latter question: yes, and no. The “robotic scribe” itself wasn’t failing, but supplier issues became the death of it according to the On Demand Books website. Just like that, the magic was gone. It seems that its legacy has left a minimal footprint, or at the very least, a mostly forgotten one.
Long live the Espresso Book Machine!
Source:
https://web.archive.org/web/20241204033722/https://ondemandbooks.com/
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/end-of-the-line-for-books-20071004-gdr9kh.html
https://laurastanfill.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/the-espresso-book-machine/