Politics & Prose, storied Washington, D.C. bookstore, recently unveiled a new service for its customers: the “Opus” print-on-demand machine. It can produce a high quality out-of-stock or out-of-print book from its online catalog in less than ten minutes, but perhaps more significantly, customers can self-publish their own work on the machine.

Thor Sigvaldason, Co-Founder of OnDemand Books said everywhere he puts one of these machines, writers arrive “with a special glint in their eye saying, ‘Can you make my book?’” The answer is, of course, yes, for a setup fee, a $7 per book fee, and two cents per page.

According to the Washington Post, the Opus, Washington’s first print-on-demand Espresso book machine, developed by OnDemand Books and Xerox, is one of only a handful operating in independent bookstores worldwide. Politics & Prose has a five-year lease on the Opus and it is hoped that this will help the store compete with Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

“We’re getting lots of phone calls indicating strong interest in using the machine,” said Bradley Graham, Co-Owner of Politics & Prose. “We’re still persuaded this machine is going to fill a latent demand for access to out-of-print books and for those who want to publish their own works.”

“Whether it’s a collection of short stories, a set of family recipes, or a town history, anything that’s a few dozen pages or longer can be printed on this machine,” said Graham.