Greening the Publishing Business

A big thank you goes to April at DragonAshes.com for this great guest post on the publishing business and a way it has turned green.  April does a lot of reads on books about to be released, and believe me, she knows her stuff!   Her blog also shares her daily adventures with her pet (Big & Little & the kitties), cooking, her family, and all around interesting stuff. 

Check out what she has to share with us Green Thinkers:

While the dismal economy here and abroad has had big effects on many businesses, one that took a big hit has been the publishing industry.  Publishing is costly and selling books is labor intensive.  So, when the need to cut back spending hit the publishers, did they cut back on books?  Of course, but they did a lot less cutting back than they expected.  They just turned their focus to digital books.  Digital publishing is all the rage now.  Every bookseller and publishing house (it seems) has their own e-reader and a list of books available digitally.  Search Barnes and Noble or Amazon websites and each book will be listed at least twice – in paper and digital versions.  What is so great about these digital versions?  Depending on your reader you can highlight sections, bookmark pages, search for certain text and many other things.  Plus, going on a trip?  You can carry an entire library worth of books in your carry-on bag.  Bored while standing in line at the theater/grocery store/retail store?  Read a book.  Need to take the bus to work as your car is in the shop?  Read a book.  Convenient, inexpensive and lots of fun.

 So why is this an important issue when it comes to sustainability?  Because there are fewer trees being sacrificed for your love of bodice rippers of course!  Less ink, less energy expended in printing – less everything.  And this is a good thing for all sorts of people – People who enjoy reading can get books quickly and cheaply without having to pay shipping or drive to a store.  People who love to write but have never been ‘discovered’ by the big publishing houses can publish their works on their own with minimal fuss.*  Booksellers can sell more books more quickly without even needing a brick and mortar store.  Libraries even have digital books available to lend.  Of course every rainbow has its end – with fewer paper books being printed and fewer brick and mortar stores being needed, jobs for people are fewer. 

 There are some websites that are dedicated to digital books like Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/) which is dedicated to mostly self published authors.  I hear you say to yourself “But self-published authors are no good, that is why a big publishing house won’t publish them.”  You couldn’t be further from the truth.  I know of one author who is now published by Simon and Schuster that started out selling his own, self-published books by himself.  These authors are not publishing’s rejects – they are the authors that have yet to be discovered.  You can get ebooks at both Barnes and Noble and Amazon.  Some publishers will sell them directly from their website (macmillan.com or randomhouse.com).  And there are some publishers now that only publish digital books (Ellora’s Cave, Samhain books, Boston Books for example) Added bonus, they are inexpensive!  This can be very important when you are on a scant budget like I am!  Take a look at this self published author’s works: http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=maria+e.+schneider

 *They have to create their own book covers though, which can be hit or miss.  I’ve seen some terrible ones and some great ones.  But authors aren’t usually artists too so give them some slack!

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