Google to Print Books On Demand
By Jared Newman
If you love Google Books’ library of out-of-copyright titles, but hate reading on a screen, a little money will soon solve your problems. Google will reportedly be teaming up with On Demand Books, a company that, as the name suggests, prints books on demand, to convert its public domain eBooks into paperback form. The idea is that you’d go to a store that has one of On Demand’s Espresso Book Machines, pay $8, and print out your book at a rate of 145 pages per minute. Of that money, Google keeps $1, On Demand keeps $1, $3 goes towards manufacturing and labor and the last $3 goes to the store where you printed the book. Sounds like a good deal, but you’ll have to seek out one of the world’s dozen or so Espresso machines to participate. Try the University of Michigan’s Shapiro Library in Ann Arbor, Mich., or the Bibliotheca Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt. [via ReadWriteWeb]
