Now Presenting: The Special Edition, Print on Demand, ReadyMade 100 Issue

04/08/2011

Now Presenting: The Special Edition, Print on Demand, ReadyMade 100 Issue

Andrew Wagner

What is this, you ask? I thought you guys already published your April/May ReadyMade 100 issue? What's going on? Well, here's the story: we were bummed we couldn't print all 100 projects from the ReadyMade 100 in the April/May issue. Sure, you got the Top 25 projects in bright, beautiful, colors and true, each project is right here online. But we wanted to see all 100 projects grouped together as they should be: frolicking freely across printed pages, mingling side by side, enjoying one another's company, and bringing joy to all our readers as sometimes only the printed word can do.

But how to do that? Printing magazines costs a lot of money and we had no idea how many of you felt just like we did and would want a special, seventh issue of ReadyMade gracing your coffee tables. We were confident it would be a lot, but just how many? 1,000? 10,000? 100,000? Without some type of solid idea of that exact number, taking the traditional publishing route makes for a very risky proposition.

But what if we could create the pages and have the files ready to go and if you, our beautiful and loyal fans that make ReadyMade thrive, wanted a copy, you could simply order one and have it delivered to your door in a few days? We would only have to print what was actually needed, thus eliminating the guess-work as well as all the potential waste. Or better yet, what if you wanted one you could press a button and have it in your hot little hands in five minutes?

In the digital era there are many options to do something sort of like this. But still, they are expensive and we wanted to give you all of these projects to help keep you occupied throughout the spring and summer for a reasonable price. We searched high and low but still the cost was just too high. And then, one day on a wintery stroll through SoHo, I stopped in to my favorite New York City book store, McNally Jackson, and saw a machine that changed everything.

The Espresso Book Machine looked like a well-behaved photocopier, which I suppose might make sense in a bookstore. At least according to some people. But a photocopier it is not. The Espresso Book Machine is a dandy of a print on demand (POD) contraption manufactured by a fantastic, smart li'l company called On Demand Books. This workhorse, connected to the internet, enables you to pull up any book in the public domain (and even some not) and print it out right then and there. Press print and five minutes later you have a paperback in your hands complete with color cover and perfect bound spine for about the same price as any other book in the store. Amazing!

This got my mind clicking. I tracked down one of McNally Jackson's knowledgeable employees and began grilling him.

"Can this thing print a magazine?" I asked.
"It hasn't been done before but there's no reason it couldn't," I was told.
"OK then, but would it cost like a million dollars?" I queried.
"No, I think we could do it quite reasonably," he responded.
"Alright, so, if we, ReadyMade, gave you our files, our readers could come to your site and order a copy and you could put in their hands in a few days?"
"Absolutely," I was assured. "Better yet," he continued, "your readers could come to the store in person or everntually go to any of the other 50 or so locations that house Espresso Book Machines and order it right there. They could then watch the magazine be printed right before their eyes. It's pretty cool."

See the machine in action yourself in this video by Brittany Weiss:

Pretty cool indeed. And so began our quest to produce the first magazine ever printed on the Espresso Book Machine. Not only is it the first ever magazine printed on the Espresso Book Machine but it is the first ever ReadyMade 100 Project Manual featuring 100 projects: the top 25 from the ReadyMade 100, the 25 Honor Roll selections and 50 projects from our esteemed 10 years of publishing. All of this in one place.

It's called The ReadyMade 100 Project Manual, Volume 1: Special Print on Demand Issue. And all of this in one great publishing experience. Order here now ($15.00, includes shipping and handling) or stop by McNally Jackson ($10.00) in lovely New York City and experience publishing like you (or at least most of you) never have.

16 Comments

TAGS: custom printing espresso pod print on demand readymade 100 rm100

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10/13/2011
reniaanne
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05/03/2011
nhpierce2
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Great idea. Can't wait to try and have shared with my autor hubby... so...Ready Made, here's a thought. One often wants to keep an article in a magazine..and right now, the option is to cut it out and file it. what if, for subscribers, they could go on line, "read" the magazine and be able to download articles to their hard drives? next step beyond POD???
05/03/2011
a4
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No shipping to the UK? =(
04/19/2011
wagner
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Hi Rachel. Yes, the machine at Harvard is great, unfortunately we are not in the system for every machine...yet! That is our next challenge. We are working on it. In the meantime I hope you'll check out McNally Jackson and pick up a copy through them. Edward, in the issue we explained that all 100 projects would be online and they are. You can find them here at: readymade.com/rm100. If you would like the printed form where they exist in one conveniently bound place, ordering through McNally Jackson is the way to go right now. We do fully agree with your go local sentiment and hope to have other options available before long...if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly...
04/19/2011
edward.maney
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This is cool, but in the magazine it was listed that the RM100 would be a downloadable piece. What happened to that? I live in AZ, no where near any of these machines, and I try my best to spend my money locally to support my local economy. If this were a download as originally promised, I could take it to my local university bookstore in AZ and have it printed there, where they too have a cool print on demand machine. Not the cool machine you have found, but cool nonetheless. I would hope you will live up to your word and put up a downloadable copy so that those of us who would like to support our local economies with local tax revenues are able to do so soon. Don't cheat your hometown out of its revenue and buy on the internet when you can buy it local first!