Google to reincarnate digital as paperbacks

The ‘public domain’ books are ones that were published before 1923.

Associated Press

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google Inc. is giving 2 million books in its digital library a chance to be reincarnated as paperbacks.

As part of a deal announced Thursday, Google is opening up part of its index to the maker of a high-speed publishing machine that can manufacture a paperback-bound book of about 300 pages in under five minutes.

The new service is an acknowledgment by the Internet search leader that not everyone wants their books served up on a computer or an electronic reader such as those made by Amazon.com Inc. and Sony Inc.

The “Espresso Book Machine” has been around for several years already, but it figures to become a hotter commodity now that it has access to so many books scanned from some of the world’s largest libraries.

And On Demand Books, the Espresso’s maker, potentially could get access to even more hard-to-find books if Google wins court approval of a class-action settlement giving it the right to sell out-of-print books.

On Demand’s printing machines already are in more than a dozen locations in the United States, Canada, Australia, England and Egypt, mostly at campus book stores, libraries and small retailers.

The books published by The Espresso Machine will have a recommended sales price of $8 per copy, although the final decision will be left to each retailer.

New York-based On Demand Books will get a $1 of each sale with another buck going to Google, which says it will donate its commission to charities and other nonprofit causes.

The high-speed publishing machine itself sells for about $100,000, although On Demand Books is willing to lease the equipment to retailers instead.

Google is only allowing The Espresso Machine to publish from the section of its digital library that consists of 2 million books no longer protected by copyright.

These “public domain” books were published before 1923 — an era that includes classics such as “Moby Dick” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as well as very obscure titles.

Millions more titles could be added to On Demand’s virtual inventory if Google gets federal court approval of a class-action settlement that would grant it the right to sell copyrighted books no longer being published.