A Little Zap of Lightning

by Mary Saums

Hmm, after typing that blog title, I wonder if there's such a thing as a 'little' lightning zap. In the mind of one unfortunate enough to be a zappee, probably not. 

What I mean by a little zap is the kind in Disney movies and Terry Pratchett books. Like when the crinkly-eyed fairy godmother waves her wand and a flash of magic comes out, and zing! poof! there's this strange new creation. In fantasy stories, this often involves a frog.

In the real world, it involves a book. No longer must book printers toil and sweat days or months on end to produce their wares. 

Nowadays, books can be printed in a flash by companies like Lightning Source, a division of Ingram, whose plant is just down the road from us in Nashville.

Last night, Jim Patterson, manager of operations at Lightning Source, spoke to our local Sisters In Crime chapter. He talked about how the company works with all types of publishers, from those who print a few books a year to large publishers who may have 1,000 or more titles a year.  

Advances in print-on-demand technologies make it possible for a book to be printed, bound, packed and shipped within 24 hours after the order is placed. Talk about poof, flash. That is fast. It makes you wonder if they've really got some wyrd sisters and a couple of unseen academics with magic wands behind all that machinery which is set up just as a front.

Have you heard of the Espresso Machine? Not the drink one, the book one.

It's a print-on-demand machine in some bookstores that can spit out a book from scratch. Let's say you're looking for a particular book, but the store doesn't carry it. If the book is in the Espresso's catalog, the machine can print it for you right there, right then. Yes. Witchcraft, I tell you.

When writers talk about such technology (nudge, big wink, finger to side of nose) advances in the book world, we usually focus on how they affect our sales or how they help us get our work to readers. We worry so much about promotion that we become obsessed. Possessed. Bewitched and bewildered. Every now and then, we need to smack that whispering demon off our shoulder. Obsess less, step back and look at the big picture more, give thanks more often for all the great books we can enjoy.     

We live in a time when we can have books all around us, can access them easily, regardless of our income or social standing. Let's never forget how lucky we are to live now or how rich our lives are because of the availability of books.

Even if you do believe in the Evolution of Technology theory about how some books came into being, there's still the fact that we are booklovers for one reason, to see and hear and breathe in the little zings of magic coming up off the pages, regardless of their creator.  

 

 

Comments

[Karen in Ohio]

It's a brilliant idea, and one that could potentially save bajillions of trees that would otherwise be sacrificed for millions of books that aren't going to sell, anyway.

And electronic books, too, of course.

I'm waiting for technology that zaps the contents of a book directly into the brain.

[Mary S.]

Karen - So true. In our lifetimes, there has been a whole bunch of book waste. It's great to see Lightning Source and other smart businesses doing so well.

That brain thing - I want the Neo and Morpheus fight downloads! :)

[krisneri]

One of my publishers uses Lightening Source, and I must say the process produces a fine quality book, better than many that come from traditional printers. The one negative, for bookstores in Western states, is the time it takes to get delivered. There's printing time, and it's not always one day, and in addition to that is the delivery time, which is greater than it would be if we were able to get that title from a closer warehouse. But a number of our bestsellers, all from traditional publishers, come from Lightening Source today. Unfortunately, it also makes the self-publication of not-ready-for-prime-time titles easy to produce as well.

As for the Espresso machine...quite an impressive piece of technology. But my understanding is that it costs $250,000. Unless bookstores are hugely successful, something that's tough to do with the discount structure associated with books, or or fortunate enough to attract angel investors, they won't be selling huge numbers of these devices until the price comes down. With new technology, though, it always does.

[Elaine Viets]

When I started writing novels, this was the stuff of science fiction, Mary.
Now, if our indie stores could just figure out a way to get into the e-book market. We want to keep you alive, stores. And I'm sorry to say it's the wave of the future. We need you to handsell our books.

[Mary S.]

Kris - yes, from what I've seen, Lightning Source does a beautiful job on their books. I hadn't thought about time differences for deliveries in other parts of the country.

A year or two ago, I went on a tour of the Ingram plant and the LS facility. Both were amazing. I think I expected the book printing to be total techno - like with robot arms and everything automated. Not so. Of course they did have lots of high-tech machinery, but it was the human element that made it all so interesting. Like watching a lady hand-press spines onto blocks of pages.

The Espresso machine - it's kinda like the atom bomb. Just because it can be thought up, designed and produced doesn't mean it should be. :)

[Mary Saums]

Elaine - I met a friend at a Barnes & Noble yesterday and was stunned at the new humongous Nook pavillion, dead center right inside the front doors. I thought I'd walked into a car dealership and that a spokesmodel would show up any minute to wave her hands around the Nook covers on display.

B&N is stepping up to give readers the kind of books they want. Oh yeah, and grab a big e-slice of the money pie. :) With all the hoopla right now, you're right, things look dark for the indies.

[krisneri]

It is true that this is a dark time for independents, but the chains aren't doing well, either. As evidence of that, they're buying far fewer titles and fewer numbers of each title. But despite the Nook pavilions, I have yet to see any great incentive for an e-buyer to go into a store to buy an e-book. With hardcopy books, there's store browsing, which most book buyers enjoy. And yet, without hand selling of midlist authors, we're looking at a future in which only the twenty or so books featured at warehouse stores today are sold, or the equivalent in e-sales sites. Not a pretty picture, but an accurate one, I fear.

[Kristina L]

This "espresso machine" looks like it might be a great way to get out of print books. Some of those are hard to track down, even books that were in print 10-20 years ago.

[Mary Saums]

Kris, with the e-books, it's true you don't get the personal hand-sell like in a store, but at least it's still possible to have a fun browsing experience online. It's a different buying enjoyment for the reader.

Kristina, like Kris said, those Espressos are so expensive, I don't see how a store could afford one. I guess we'll just have to keep going on book hunts for those elusive out-of-print treasures. :)