While-you-wait book printing will soon be available in stores of all kinds.
At least one huge tech company has plans to launch a machine that will print and bind paperback books in just a few minutes. (As an Independent Book Publishers Association board member, I was in on a pre-announcement phone conference with two of the people from the company who are working on this a week or two ago and they asked that our conversation be off the record. Still, it can’t be too great a secret; they are already testing a couple of the machines in university bookstores.)
The book you choose will be downloaded from an Internet-based digital file repository then printed and bound while you finish your shopping—much like having your film developed while you shop. If you want, you can take in your own PDF of a book you wrote and have that printed and bound. Great for family histories and the like.
Look for these machines to be found in bookstores, drugstores, discount chains, warehouse chains, and large supermarkets.
A smaller company, OnDemand Books, has been developing this model for some time now. Maybe it’s time for a buyout?
Just a write thought.