Is Jeff Marsh the new Gutenberg?

Jeff Marsh may be the 21st Century Gutenberg. I mentioned Marsh's accomplishment last week. Since then, he has been a popular personality in the Print on Demand circles. One error I must correct before I continue. I mentioned that the machine would be in the $3000 range. This information is wrong. The price is reported to be in the $100,000 range. There have been articles in Wired, on the CBC, and in Business 2.0. It seems his MTI PerfectBook-080 machine has hit a cord with printers and publishers around the world. Just before midnight on July 9th, Jeff Marsh placed an order for a book on the Internet from the first fully automated vending machine. Twelve minutes later in arrived in his office from his MTI PerfectBook-080 machine. This was a first. The book was "Mistress Ruby Ties It Together" by Robin Shamburg. It's about sadomasochism. It's from Random House. The irony here isn't so much that it wasn't a bible but a book about sadomasochism but that Random House has complained that Marsh reproduced the book without their permission. Is it size or what that is effecting Random House these days? Marsh says that "the left hand" at Random House sent him the file to print without telling "the right hand" about it. Rather than get into a scuffle with Random House, Marsh has stated that he wouldn't use them anymore and has sent out a request to any publisher who would like to have his book published on Marsh's machine. Maybe someone will send him a bible this time. http://www.marshtechinc.com/

Publishers are divided about Marsh's invention. Some are saying it will create an inferior product, that the print will not be clear, that the binding will not hold up, that it is nothing new, that the technology has existed before and that all Marsh did was put it together in one machine, etc. That all might be true but as time goes on, the product will improve. And who ever said that clear print and good binding made a good book? A finely printed, well bound copy of a badly written book is still a badly written book. It's content not packaging that makes a good book a good read.

As far as quality of packaging goes, there is nothing to stop publishers from creating well bound, finely printed books at a higher price than the "instant books" Marsh's machine will produce. First, bookstores will fear disintermediation again but they can also profit from this if they have machines in their stores. Publishers could do the same but chances are they will only want to sell their own books not the titles of competitors, so the selection will not be as wide as in bookstores. The other sector that can profit from this technology is the wholesaler who will rent or place the machine in public places, like airports and train stations and sell directly to the public.

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