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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Books / Retail Tomorrow Is a Good Day to Buy Books

Posted by on Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 10:54 AM

airship_manual.jpg
On New Year's Day, every book at the Lake Forest Park location of Third Place Books will be on sale for 20% off. They have these sales every year, but this one is a little special in that it's the first sale in which you can buy books from the brand-new Espresso book-printing machine at Third Place Books.

Over at his blog, Third Place's resident book-printer, Vladimir Verano, has written about a couple of interesting books he's found and printed in the last few weeks. One is a sci-fi adventure from the 1890s in which someone gets a tour of Hollow Earth from "a being that is completely hairless, eyeless, sexless." Another is D'Orcy's Airship Manual: An International Register of Airships With a Compendium of the Airship's Elementary Mechanics, by Ladislas D'Orcy, a guide to experimental airships from 1917.

The variety of books available for publication is mind-boggling. You can look up titles and authors on Third Place Press's website, and get them for 20% off tomorrow. It'd be a great time to introduce yourself to the possibilities of the Espresso Book Machine and how, as I said last week, it "takes the greatest retail weapon in the world—convenience—out of the hands of the internet and chain stores, and places it squarely in the hands of small business."

 

Comments (12) RSS

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--MC 1
I was hoping they could dub me a copy of "Fumes of Formation" by the great Amanda McKittredge Ros. Doesn't look like it.
http://www.bookride.com/2007/05/fumes-of…
Posted by --MC on December 31, 2009 at 11:07 AM
stinkbug 2
Their FAQ indicates that while the machine technically can spit out a book in under 30 minutes, they're quoting a time of "24 hour of less" while the work out the initial kinks of the process.

Is this time frame still true? If I read things correctly, I have to make the trek to Lake Forest (since you can't place an order online or via the phone) and then trek back out there the next day?

How many people are using this? If there are many orders, wouldn't it take days of waiting to get a copy?

I guess I should just wait for the Univ Book Store one.
Posted by stinkbug on December 31, 2009 at 11:10 AM
Will in Seattle 3
isn't the Espresso book machine also at the UW Bookstore?
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on December 31, 2009 at 11:20 AM
4
that book printer is really cool for older academic books that are all sorts of out of print
Posted by Swearengen on December 31, 2009 at 11:25 AM
5
@2: We just don't want to raise your expectations, it's better to over-estimate in case of errors in production (which happens with all technology), than to try to be slick and frustrate you; lately we've been able to print the book in an hour or less, depending on the queue.

It's not true about not being able to order via the phone. The online database has our number in a huge font at the top.

And if you're worried about the looong trek (I live in Ballard & bus to work every day); just email me (press at thirdplacebooks dot com), and I can give you a personal tour to make it worth your while. I guarantee that's something the U-Bookstore won't be doing for a very long while, if at all.
Posted by Vlad on December 31, 2009 at 11:25 AM
Will in Seattle 6
@5 - no, the Alumni magazine says they're doing it in the new year. me, i'm looking forward to getting original french versions of books by Jules Verne and other writers ....
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on December 31, 2009 at 12:06 PM
7
The University Bookstore's machine isn't in just yet. And I'm sure they'd be happy to give you a nice tour if you wanted one, or chat about books and books gone by.
Posted by Zeus on December 31, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Will in Seattle 8
thanks for the info, Zeus. They send the Alumni magazine out, sometimes they talk about what will happen, not what is already happening.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on December 31, 2009 at 1:04 PM
9
@will in Seattle: I just double-checked, but the database doesn't have any original french versions of Verne, etc. I think the problem is that Google is meeting roadblocks in every nation that has books in the various Universities Google has scanned here in the US. So unfortunately, it's mostly English-language at the moment, which is a shame since it's hard to get foreign books into US stores (unless they are in Spanish).

I've spotted a few things on archive.org, and if you're curious, there's a good chance we *can* print those out for you; a bit more expensive than the average Google edition, and the time-frame won't be as short, but it'll be a one-off Exclusive Edition.

If you're interested, let's talk.
Posted by Vlad on December 31, 2009 at 2:21 PM
stinkbug 10
Woo, I just placed an order (via phone) for three titles! So we'll see how this goes.

The only way this could be better would be if they would have an option to pick up printed books at the Ravenna location.
Posted by stinkbug on December 31, 2009 at 4:07 PM
Badger 11
Hey! That is the book I got for Christmas! I really love the books I've gotten from that machine - and since one of my hobbies is book-binding I've made some lovely covers for them.
Posted by Badger on December 31, 2009 at 8:07 PM
12
I was going to post "Hey! That's the book I got my girlfriend for Christmas!" but she got here before me.
Posted by Monty on December 31, 2009 at 8:08 PM

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