The Future of Books, Publishers and BookStores

With all the technology speeding around us what is the future of print communication? Here are some examples of where it might be heading.

Are you a budding journalist and have just written your first book. Wait no longer......BooksOnDemand is a full publishing service for anyone with a couple of dollars in their pocket. Gone are the days of rejections from publishers - this new e-publishing model has taken traditional publishing to the next level...."anyone can publish a book as long as you can pay for it."

Another company that has also developed a unique printing/book store model is OnDemandBooks (if you are very sharp you will have noticed the play on words between the two companies......)

" OnDemandBooks.com offers just what it implies. We print books in the quantities that you need, whether it be a few or a few thousand. We offer a variety of sizes and binding types. They can bind books up to 2,050 pages." They have taken the physical aspect of printing a book out of a huge warehouse and purchasing it from a bookstore into a vending machine. Yes folks you can buy everything from gum to an iPod from a vending machine and now you will be able to buy a book from one. Soon to debut in libraries and bookstores across the US.

"The machine can print, align, mill, glue and bind two books simultaneously in less than seven minutes, including full-color laminated covers. It prints in any language and will even accommodate right-to-left texts by putting the spine on the right." Read more from Fortune Small Business and watch the demo video of the alpha machine producing a book http://www.ondemandbooks.com/perfectbook.mov .


Yet other companies are banking on tachistoscope as a way to read books on mobile devices. Tachistoscope has been around for a few years and was developed as a way to learn how to speed read. Words are flashed on the screen (quickly) one word a time and can be set for the speed of the reader. Andrew Stephens (a programmer from Auckland, NZ) has an online demo of tachistoscope simulation. A UK based company ICUE is banking on tachistoscope being a hit for cellphone users, ".... able to store hundreds of books on your mobile phone so that you can read them whenever, or wherever, you want."