Books Published in Minutes

Technology is forging ahead so quickly that it’s hard to keep up with new advances. Just yesterday I heard a report about a new machine that is capable of spewing out a printed and bound book in only minutes. Looking for a rare, out-of-print book? You can print one out for only $15.00. Do you have a complete manuscript and want to see it in print immediately with your name on the cover? You can do that, too, although it wasn’t mentioned whether the machine set up the book layout from a typed manuscript, or if you had to insert your manuscript already formatted as a book, or what the cost might be for having a copy printed from a manuscript. It also wasn’t mentioned whether photos or other artwork could be included.

This particular machine is located in a bookstore in London, and so far there are only a few of the machines built, but someday soon we’ll all be able to find them in our own neighborhoods. Then all aspiring authors can create a trial copy of their masterpiece before they ship it out to a publisher (or printer, if they plan to publish it themselves). Or those desiring a small number of memoirs to hand out to friends and relatives can have as many copies printed as they wish.

The best thing about having a trial copy printed is that, once it is in book format (printed and bound) and the author reads through it, any mistakes jump out like huge red flags. For some reason, once a writer reads over their book several times in the same computer format, it’s easy to overlook the little mistakes, and the same is true for proofreaders and editors, no matter how carefully they might read the manuscript. That’s why, when I worked for a publishing company, every line was read by 10 different people ten different times, and in formats from rough draft to final printed format with photos added, just as that particular page would appear in the magazine. And we did find mistakes sometimes right up until that final printed format, but I never saw a single mistake make it into the magazines that were finally distributed to subscribers and sold from magazine racks in stores.

The world of publishing is one of the greatest beneficiaries of new technology, and we’re going to see more and more changes as technology speeds forward. Already, traditional publishers are having to rethink how they will compete in a new world of “print on demand” publishers, and soon, “print on demand” writers, themselves. And already, those publishers are picking and choosing to publish only those books from celebrities or those that have potential of becoming blockbusters. So that means that we all, as writers, have to be thinking about our futures in the book publishing business.

We’ll certainly have more options to see our books come into print, but we’ll all also have to learn how to market our own books and find outlets to distribute them. But wait, don’t most of us, even those whose books are published by major publishers, have to do that already? For quite a few years now, publishers have not budgeted marketing help, book tours, or publicity for anyone but their celebrity writers. And advances have shrunk to almost nothing for all but a few celebrity writers, and by celebrity, I mean celebrities and those celebrity writers who have already proved their success through numerous previous bestsellers. You know their names: Ann Rule, Dan Brown, and many others.