Print on Demand machines have been around for quite a few years. These amazing machines, part copier and part printer, can produce a 300-page soft cover book in about 5 minutes. I published both my books with publishers that used that technology. There is no need to maintain an inventory and the book can stay in print indefinitely.
Now Google has announced this week that it will make its catalog of 2-million digitized books available to On Demand Books "Expresso Book Machine" which it plans to make available to locations around the globe. These paperback books will cost the consumer about $8 each and will have access to the 2 million books on Google that are no longer protected by copyright. This includes titles published before 1923 and includes classics like "Moby Dick" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" as well as very obscure titles.
What a wonderful balance this is between digital books on devices like the Amazon Kindle or Sony Ebook reader and the desire to have a real book in ones hand. For speed readers, it is an excellent development. Speed reading is best served by having access to the entire book, something that e-book readers don't yet do well.
We would all do well to check out these out-of-print older works being made available by Google. Too often these books are ignored since most can't be found during Internet searches. We must always remember that there are thousands of years of human thought that have been written down and we would all do well to explore this vast resource.
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