E-books and coffee to go

As if the co-dependent relationship between coffee and books isn’t strong enough, today’s Guardian says British bookseller Blackwell’s is deploying the first in a new generation of Espresso Book Machines (EBM’s) in autumn.

The news seals the deal between the printed page and the world’s most popular legal stimulant. After all, print-on-demand technology will print and bind any of a million books at a rate of 40 pages a minute, while you wait—and maybe sip, if coffee’s handy. Photo is of a Blackwell’s on Broad Street, Oxford.

Good for e-books

Does this long-awaited new technology spell disaster for fans of the e-book? No, in fact the outcome will be quite the opposite. The new paradigm of "click and brick" book sales will open up the relationship between content and delivery to the book-buying public, and in the process make the purchase of e-books an everyday event for most regular readers.

Currently most readers familiar with the printed book see content and delivery mechanisms as one and the same thing. The book rolls both elements into one handy package, just as the DVD does for film or the CD for music. But as consumers of those media are increasingly aware, the CD / DVD is only one delivery mechanism for digital video / audio content, one increasingly challenged by broadcast, downloads, on-demand or other delivery mechanisms.

Everything begins in E

As "click and brick" becomes common place, readers will increasingly demand access to alternative delivery mechanisms for the written word. Readers will ultimately make their book purchases in two stages. Stage one will be to select from any book ever made available in digital format. Stage two will be to choose a delivery mechanism – proprietary e-book, click and brick or conventional print will all be options, depending on the consumers need. But whichever choice is made at stage two, stage one will mean that every book purchase begins as an e-book purchase.

"Click and brick" means change across the publishing industry. It might create a flourishing marketplace for small to medium publishers and self-publishers. It’s likely to change reading habits, and impact fundamentally on the format of both novels and non-fiction. But perhaps the biggest change will be for booksellers themselves. It might be that a Starbucks barista is far more qualified to operate an Espresso Book Machine than a professional bookseller, in which case how long before your local bookstore-that-also-does-coffee is your local coffee-shop-that-also-does-books?

Moderator: American English alert! Blame me, not Darien. We use American English just for consistency’s sake, and this may change. I continue to welcome reader feedback on this issue. – D.R.