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I'm curious, as an author as well as reader: has anyone ever done the "print on demand" thing in a bookstore? There are machines that supposedly do that. I've n

• qohen 4y ago
  FYI, Harvard Book Store, in Cambridge, MA (not affiliated with the university), had a machine they called "Paige M. Gutenborg" towards the back for doing this, which I was going to suggest checking out if ever in the area -- it was on display -- but I just saw on their website that, after 12 years, they stopped doing print-on-demand in April 2022. For reference, this page[0] about Paige on their website states that it was able to create "a library-quality, perfect bound, acid-free 300-page paperback book in roughly four minutes. These books are indistinguishable from paperbacks produced by major publishing houses." [0] https://www.harvard.com/shelves/in_store_book_printing/about/ https://www.harvard.com/shelves/in_store_book_printing/about...
  • qohen 4y ago
    P.S. I actually just called them up to find out what happened -- I was told that a part needed to be replaced which wasn't available any more. Given that they are across the street from Harvard (though not a part of it) and down the street from MIT, one would imagine that perhaps 3D printing could've taken care of it, but for whatever reason that wasn't done. I was told that the machine is still there, though, if one wanted to at least see it.