Where Are The Book Vending Machines?

As a child of the 70s and 80s, I remember vending machines selling cigarettes, candy bars, potato chips, sodas, etc. Later, we would see vending machines for movie rentals and now we have ones that sell condoms, women’s hygiene products, and Narcan. I thought I had seen it all, and then I came across a pet toy and snack dispensary machine in the Las Vegas airport. It got me thinking: Where are the book vending machines?  

Apparently, some version of this has existed for over two centuries?  

HuffPost.com reports: “The first book-dispensing vending machine was built by Richard Carlile in England in 1822. Carlile was a bookseller who wanted to sell seditious works like Paine's Age of Reason without being thrown in jail. His answer was a self-service machine that allowed customers to buy questionable books without ever coming into contact with Carlile. The customer turned a dial on the device to the publication he wanted, deposited his money, and the material dropped down in front of him. It's unclear whether this was an automated process, but that didn't stop England's own automated process from convicting one of Carlile's employees for selling "blasphemous material."”  

In 1937, Penguin Books launched the “Penguincubator” in London, selling cheap paperbacks for sixpence.  

A more recent version sold 50 titles for a quarter each, back in 1947. The Book-O-Mat helped sell millions of paperbacks. An advertisement back then hailed the machine as “a revolutionary advance” and it boasted of a way to achieve “round-the-clock sales.”  

In the 1970s and 80s, vending machines sold manga in Japan. By the early 2000s, train station vending machines were sprinkled across parts of France.  

The biblio-Mat was created in 2012. A vending machine that dispensed a random used book for a set price.  

Modern-day book vending machines continue to evolve and pop up, but really, I can’t say that I ever see them anywhere. But they do exist. BookVending.com sells book vending machines for schools at a price ranging from $6000 to $7000.  

It would seem that book vending machines would do well where people travel (airports, bus stations, train stops) and where people shop – malls, supermarkets, drugstores, big box stores – or where they have long waits – government agencies, doctor offices, or courthouses. There are book deserts across the nation. A book vending machine can’t replace a book stores, but it’s better than nothing.  

NPR.com recently ran a story about LitBox a book vending machine in Washington, DC. It was created to help promote the books of local authors and smaller presses, which were not getting enough play in town.  

I did find something called Bookworm Vending Machine at bookvending.com that identified how over 11,000 locations have their machines, serving over 5.4 million students each year, and selling some 12.6 million books annually. 

Could we one day see pets up for adoption or sex toys in a vending machine? I would not rule it out, but as for books, it would be cool to see the vending machine concept catch on in a widespread way.

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About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 5,250,000 page views. With 5,400+ posts over the past 14 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs  by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2025.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum