Self-publishing Guide
Espresso Book Machine ver. 1.5
Automated book-making machines such as the
Espresso Book Machine, or EBM, are opening
up new avenues to authors looking to transform
their manuscripts into printed, bound books in a
quick and cost-effective manner. The University
of Michigan Library owns a version 1.5 EBM;
this revolutionary technology is available to
anyone in the greater Ann Arbor area.
How Does It Work?
The EBM is an integrated, automated machine
that prints, binds, and trims perfect bound soft
cover books from PDF files that have been
uploaded to the machine. The book block pages
are printed and glued to the color cover, and
then trimmed on 3 sides to the specified size, all
in 7 – 10 minutes for the average-sized book.
What Can It Print?
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Soft cover books with black and white
interiors, and 4-color covers
Both text and images
Any trim size between a minimum of
4.5” x 4.5” and a maximum of 8.25” x
10.5”
Page counts between ~40 and ~450.
(Books larger than 450 can be split into
2 volumes for printing.)
Permissions
You will be required to sign a permissions letter
releasing the Library from any copyright
infringement liability in connection with
printing your files. This includes both the text
itself and any photos, illustrations, or other
images, whether in the book block or on the
cover. Please be sure you have obtained the
appropriate permissions from the rights holders
if you include other people’s content or images.
You retain all rights to your work, and are free
to also have the book printed and distributed
elsewhere.
Cost
There is a one-time, non-refundable $25.00 setup fee for the self-publishing service. Payment
of this fee and your signed permissions letter
are required before any file processing will
begin. The fee can be paid by cash, check, or
charge, at the circulation desk in the Shapiro
library lobby. The set-up fee covers the
following:
 Preliminary review of book block and
cover PDFs for any obvious formatting
issues
 One round of consultation, if needed
 Uploading (and storage, if desired) of
files on the EBM
 One printed proof copy of your book
Further print copies cost $6.00 each if 150
pages or less, and $10.00 each if 151-450 pages.
Books with page counts exceeding ~450 pages
will need to be submitted in two volumes, at
double the single volume cost. Orders will be
paid for when you pick up the books.
Once the initial files are finalized and an order
has been placed, later uploads of revised cover
or interior files will incur a $10.00 charge per
revision (separate from the print book costs).
Your Files
Files must be provided in “print-ready” form,
which means all layout, editing, proofing, page
numbering, and design work has been
completed and the files are ready to be printed
“as is”. The files may be submitted by email
<lib-ebm@umich.edu>, jump drive, CD or DVD,
or ftp download. If desired, we will keep your
files stored on the machine so that you can
purchase additional copies in the future, but we
will not make the title itself available for sale to
the general public. Only you will be able to
purchase copies of your book. You can request
as many copies of your book as you would like,
at any time. Please keep in mind, however, that
it will probably be more economical to set up
your book with a traditional printer if you desire
large print runs.
Turnaround Time
The length of time it takes to produce your
book or fill your order can vary depending on
the amount of tweaking the files need, other
projects in the print queue, and machine
downtime due to maintenance issues.
Generally, you should allow 2 – 3 business days
from the time you submit your files to the time
we have a printed proof ready for you. For
subsequent orders, the larger the quantity
desired (and the higher the page count), the
more time you should allow for the books to be
printed.
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What We Don’t Offer
We do not provide the following:
 ISBNs
 Editorial or design services such as
copyediting, manuscript critique,
proofreading, book layout, cover
design, etc. Please consult with a
freelance editor, book designer, or
cover designer if you need assistance in
those areas.
 Marketing or distribution
 Shipping; you must be local (or have a
local contact you can coordinate with)
in order to use the service.
Depending on your needs, you may want to
look into one of the many online self-publishing
services available such as Lulu (www.lulu.com),
Blurb (www.blurb.com), iUniverse
(www.iuniverse.com), or CreateSpace
(www.createspace.com) as an alternative to
publishing on the EBM. (No endorsements
implied.)
Requirements and Formatting
Guidelines
• The machine requires PDF format. We need a
PDF file for the book block, and a separate PDF
file for the cover. It is helpful to name the files
“book_block.pdf” and “cover.pdf” to distinguish
them.
• Make sure any fonts are embedded when you
create your PDF files. PDFs can be created with
many software applications, although Adobe
Acrobat is recommended. If possible, generate
a PDF that complies with the PDF/X-1a:2001
standard.
• Trim sizes can fall anywhere between 4.5” w x
4.5”h and 8.25”w x 10.5” h. Keep in mind that
the higher your page count, the smaller your
trim size will need to be due to the spine width.
• Your page must be sized at your desired trim
size (e.g., 6” x 9”; 7” x 10”; 5.5” x 8.5”, etc.). Do
not use the default 8.5” x 11” size. If you look
under File => Properties in the book block PDF,
it will display the page size (i.e., trim size) and
page count. If it says “8.5” x 11”, you’ll need to
go back to your original document and adjust
the page size, then re-generate the PDF.
• Be generous with your margins. The narrower
your margins, the greater chance for content to
get cut off or for text to end up too close to the
binding. Be sure to allow extra width in the
interior margins on both recto and verso pages.
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• For the version 1.5 machine, total page count
should not exceed 450 per volume. Each
numbered page counts as 1, so in other words,
your pages numbered from 1 to 450.
• Be sure to include the entire interior book
contents in one file—front matter, body, and
back matter—laid out as you wish it to appear
in the final printed version.
• Any images used within the book should be
scanned at 300 dpi, either bitonally if line art, or
as grayscale if there are shades of gray within
the image (such as photographs). Cover images
should be scanned at 300 dpi color. Save the
images as TIFFs and scale to the appropriate
size for your book before including them in your
layout.
• Your cover must be laid out so that the back
cover, spine, and front cover form one
continuous image. When completed, center the
cover on a white or transparent background 17”
w x 11” h. Do not include trim or crop marks,
color bars, registration marks, or any other nonprinting marks on the cover or the interior book
block.
• Use the Cover Dimensions spreadsheet to
figure the dimensions and spine width for the
cover. Enter the trim size and page count, and
the spreadsheet will recalculate and display the
total width and height needed, including bleed
and trim. These are the dimensions to use when
creating a new cover document in Photoshop,
InDesign, or whatever program you’re using. Set
the resolution to 300 ppi. You may use RGB
colorspace; if color matching is important,
however, use CMYK. Make sure the background
of your cover extends all the way to the edges
of the cover document. Flatten all layers before
converting to PDF.
For questions or more information, please
contact lib-ebm@umich.edu