On location

 

I was thrilled to hear that the Northshire Bookstore in Vermont is taking the plunge and (with the Espresso Book Machine) will become one of few bookstores to have a print-on-demand service in their store. An in-store print-on-demand machine means they can print individual books as they're wanted, and thus dramatically expand the number of books the store can offer customers on the spot. This early, the available titles are going to be limited to the public domain (books published pre-1923) and the backlists of a few intrepid modern publishers, but it's a start.

Just a week or two ago, Borders announced that they'd be offering their customers the chance to self-publish with Lulu.com and have the books available on the Borders website and in their revamped stores. Of course, by "available in our stores", they seem to mean that they books can be ordered in-store and shipped. Customers won't be able to get an immediate physical copy in the store because Borders, despite their current push to reinvent themselves and despite the self-publishing initiative with Lulu, will not have in-store print-on-demand capabilities. For me, this makes indie Northshire's initiative all the more impressive.

Even more notable (as quoted in Bookselling This Week) Northshire general manager Chris Morrow said, "We are bringing back into print local histories, and we will be publishing local authors." This intrepid excursion into the realm of distribution and publishing, at the specific, targeted service of the store's local community, is exactly the kind of thing that all indies can potentially exploit to great advantage over big-box competitors like Borders and even over bigger competitors online.