On Demand Books sells a point-of-sale machine that can print and bind books in a matter of minutes. This past summer, the company's first model, the Espresso 1.5, was displayed at a New York Public Library, where it printed over a thousand free books for visitors. There are only six Espresso 1.5s on the market, five of which are owned by institutions, including the New Orleans Public Library and the University of Alberta. By early 2008 ODB hopes to see revenues from a partnership with Manchester Center, Vt.-based Northshire Bookstore, which plans to lease an Espresso and pay ODB a fee for each book printed.
Next year ODB also plans to release the Espresso 2.0, a smaller model that will be mass-produced and sell for $30,000. Bookstores, coffee shops, hotels, and libraries have all expressed interest in purchasing the new machine. ODB projects that the new model will be ready for retail in the fourth quarter of 2008 and in mass production by 2009. "We ran into some difficulty finding the right combination of engineering facilities to manufacture the product," says book editor Jason Epstein, who co-founded the New York City-based company with Dane Neller.
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