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#29845 - 09/19/09 07:43 PM Google Lets You Custom-Print Millions of Books
Nemesis Offline
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Registered: 09/01/07
Posts: 2175
Loc: US
Apparently, millions of books are old enough to be in the public domain. Google realizes the inherent value in actual BOOKS, not just ebooks that are so convenient to peruse, yet still provide a slightly less-than-satisfactory reading experience. It's partnered up with a company that will allow an individual to search through digital copies of these copyright-free books, select an available bookstore, and have it printed right there. Bound, cut, and fresh off of the machine.

Full article here.
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#29863 - 09/20/09 07:44 AM Re: Google Lets You Custom-Print Millions of Books [Re: Nemesis]
Meq Offline
Banned
active member


Registered: 08/28/07
Posts: 861
For those who want to save trees, but don't like the idea of squinting over a computer monitor to read a 'book', there are always digital book readers like the Amazon Kindle (currently US only):



Then again, such devices are hardly cheap (at least yet), plus there will always be those huge fans of old-fashioned paper and ink.

I wonder what the costs are for Google's custom-printed books when it comes to large tomes? I'll see if I can get a quote for War and Peace ;\)

It shouldn't be long before such books are available for delivery via parcel post, at least if there is enough demand.
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#29869 - 09/20/09 12:31 PM Re: Google Lets You Custom-Print Millions of Books [Re: Meq]
Nemesis Offline
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Registered: 09/01/07
Posts: 2175
Loc: US
 Quote:
I wonder what the costs are for Google's custom-printed books when it comes to large tomes? I'll see if I can get a quote for War and Peace ;\)

...those booksellers that have ordered its $100,000 Espresso Book Machine, which cranks out a 300 page gray-scale book with a color cover in about 4 minutes, at a cost to the bookstore of about $3 for materials. The machine prints the pages, binds them together perfectly, and then cuts the book to size and then dumps a book out, literally hot off the press, with a satisfying clunk. (The company says a machine can print about 60,000 books a year.)

On Demand Books suggests that book stores price the books at about $8, leaving retailers with a $3 profit after both Google and On Demand Books collect a buck-a-book fee.

Since you're not having to pay for the profit that is integrated into copyright-protected books, all you'll be paying for is materials and a cut for the bookstore that's printing them. Pretty reasonable, I'd say ;\)
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#29901 - 09/21/09 08:21 PM Re: Google Lets You Custom-Print Millions of Books [Re: Nemesis]
DistroyA Offline
member


Registered: 02/04/08
Posts: 478
Loc: Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, UK
This is good news by the looks of things. Hopefully, the books I'm after will fall under this service, and that it'll be available in the UK sometime soon.

It'd make things a hell of a lot simpler for me.
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#30213 - 10/02/09 11:39 AM Re: Google Lets You Custom-Print Millions of Books [Re: DistroyA]
mattie Offline
pledge


Registered: 08/27/09
Posts: 94
Loc: Lat: 36.081, Lon: -96.179
Oh, sweet evil Jesus! This is truly wonderful!
Nemesis, thank you for posting this.

If, like me, you don't live near any of these machines, they will ship these books domestically or internationally from here:

http://www.harvard.com/bookmachine/

I'm already making a list!
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#32203 - 11/24/09 01:07 PM Re: Google Lets You Custom-Print Millions of Books [Re: mattie]
Fleur Offline
lurker


Registered: 11/16/09
Posts: 4
Loc: Mexico
Oh too bad, I just checked. They do not send out international orders anymore!

Edited by Fleur (11/24/09 01:08 PM)
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#34073 - 01/16/10 02:36 PM Re: Google Lets You Custom-Print Millions of Books [Re: Fleur]
Axis_Sanctuary Offline
stranger


Registered: 09/28/09
Posts: 5
Loc: Tampabay FLORIDA
 Originally Posted By: Fleur
Oh too bad, I just checked. They do not send out international orders anymore!

If you are truly friends with some one on a network they can mail it too you. Just do a paypal transaction to keep things on the up and up.
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#70965 - 09/17/12 06:00 PM Re: Google Lets You Custom-Print Millions of Books [Re: Axis_Sanctuary]
Le Deluge Offline
senior member


Registered: 08/05/12
Posts: 1790
I did a few searches both via google and the Harvard Bookmachine. If a book is not currently available for print, you can actually make a direct request to the publisher (via your amazon account for one). I'll see what results I render. Clearly not all books in the public domain are currently available in digital format (let alone for reprinting). It is still quite an impressive endeavor.
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