Angus & Robertson gets brewing with Espresso Book Machine

Bookstore giant Angus & Robertson knows that Harry Potter isn't every reader's cup of tea; so it introduced an Espresso Book Machine to print a range of out-of-print local and international books.

Believed to be the first EBM installed in Australia, the machine is located at Angus & Robertson's Bourke Street store in Melbourne. The selection consists of a few hundred books and is expected to reach 100,000 by 2010.

David Fenlon, managing director of Angus & Robertson, said that the service will help not only readers, but local authors as well.

"There are more Australian books out of print than currently in print," he said. "Using the Espresso Book Machine will offer opportunities for authors to have their books back in production."

Fenlon (pictured below) believes that the EBM will be well received by consumers. "Print on demand technology has a groundswell of support throughout the publishing industry," he said.

50 EBMs are expected to be installed throughout Australia and New Zealand over the next year. As the number of print on demand machines grows, so too will the catalogue of books available. "There is a great opportunity to offer customers a wider variety of titles and niche genres which are out of publication or hard to find," Fenlon said.

"We believe that the Espresso Book Machine can achieve this at lower cost and higher convenience than ordering from offshore providers."