LitBox vending machine stocked full of books by DC-area authors

LitBox is a vending machine that sells books exclusively by D C -area authors and was the brainchild of Washingtonian Lauren Woods WTOP Jos Uma a LitBox is a vending machine that sells books exclusively by D C -area authors and was the brainchild of Washingtonian Lauren Woods WTOP Jos Uma a In Minneapolis William Henry Fruen patented the first vending machine in the United States which would serve mineral water for a coin Over the next -plus years the vending machine has gone on to dispense sodas snacks sweets iPads and even cars Now in D C s Western Arena near George Washington University a new vending machine is selling something quite different LitBox is a vending machine that sells books exclusively by D C -area authors and was the brainchild of Washingtonian Lauren Woods During a conversation with WTOP Woods explained she was inspired to create the literary vending machine by a monthly reading series she and her family launched from their home in Woods and her husband Andrew Bertaina who teaches creative writing at American University are both writers We have five or six writers every month read from their books or works in progress Woods stated There s so a large number of really really talented authors in this area and I kept not seeing them in bookstores and so I thought we should do something about this Woods commented that it was vital for her to put established authors right alongside people with smaller distributions On a whim she applied for a grant with the Awesome Foundation and won I was kind of in a pickle because it wasn t quite enough to get me over the finish line but it was enough that I knew I was responsible to finish it Woods noted For the funds the mother of four turned to Kickstarter but didn t realize you don t get any money unless you raise the full amount of your campaign which was I again panicked once I set that and realized that I was seemingly not going to make it Woods mentioned The writing locality clutched up and came through with over people donating I was just blown away by the aid for this she added The biggest costs were the machine itself the shipping the moving on top of the shipping website insurance and credit card processing Woods revealed in regard to how much is needed to maintain LitBox I think that with the big up front ones out of the way there s going to be a profitable way to do this Bookstores somehow manage to stay in business even if barely The price of the books in the LitBox are the listed retail price plus sales tax The least expensive book presently is and the preponderance expensive is a guidebook Woods disclosed going forward she wants to have people from the local literary population recommend books So that I can get outside of my own tastes and make sure I m getting ideas from a lot of different people Woods announced I m also really interested in literature that opens worlds builds empathy allows you to occupy someone else s mind for a little while WTOP s Jose Umana contributed to this summary Source