The news last month that HarperCollins is to be the first major publisher to allow over 5,000 backlist titles to be available on demand at the point of sale in any bookshop with an Espresso Book Machine received little attention in the trade press. However, the Espresso Book Machine could be the answer to the question that is increasingly being asked. How is the bricks and mortar bookshop going to survive in an environment of increasing e-book sales and increasingly powerful online-retailers?
Independent bookshops have always been free showrooms for publishers’ books. The value of this was quantified long ago by the chains that introduced charges for window and front-of-store space. Even the publishers with the biggest marketing budgets admit that they need their books to be seen on the high street (or just off the high street as is the case for many independent bookshops). Without bricks and mortar bookshops, many publishers’ books would only ever be seen on the internet.
In the past, if a bookshop customer spotted a book they wanted on the bookshop’s shelf, they would buy it. More recently, booksellers noticed that an increasing number of customers were browsing the shelves and taking notes of titles and ISBNs. Some even began asking booksellers for ISBN details, happily admitting that they needed them so that they could order from Amazon.
Today, a "customer" can scan a bar code with their mobile phone, get an instant price comparison chart and place an on-line order while standing in a bookshop. The bookshop provides everything the "customer" needs and gets nothing in return. The on-line retailer and the publisher benefits but the bookseller is left with nothing. It has been suggested that the bookseller should approach the customer and negotiate a price which would make it worthwhile for the customer to buy from the bookshop. Unfortunately, as most publishers charge independent booksellers more for a book than Amazon will sell it for, this tactic would have bookshops closing faster than they alrerady are!
HarperCollins has recognised that by supporting the use of the Espresso Book Machine by allowing the use of HC’s digital content, it is supporting bookshops large and small. Larger bookshops will still stock a wider range of HarperCollins backlist than the small shop but, with the ability to print any of 5,000 titles on demand at the point of sale, the smallest shop will be able to compete with the largest. HarperCollins will also benefit from being able to add the digital content of previously out of print titles and to monitor Espresso Book Machine sales to determine whether a title may justify a reprint.
The Espresso Book Machine will become even more important to publishers and booksellers as the level of e-book sales increase in relation to traditional print editions. Already, some publishers are making decisions to only publish certain titles in e-book format. If those same publishers would allow the Espresso Book Machine to use their digital content, a paperback edition could be available on demand at the point of sale, saving the publisher the cost of a traditional print run.
With the Espresso Book Machine’s available content standing at about nine million titles and rising and with its unique EspressNet software ensuring that each publisher knows whenever any of its titles are printed on an Espresso Book Machine anywhere in the world, it shouldn’t be long before an Espresso Book Machine is on its way to a bookshop near you.
