Why HarperCollins decision to limit their ebook lending will not help their ebook sales

HarperCollins announced last week that new titles licensed from library ebook vendors will be able to circulate only 26 times before the license expires. This is the first time a publisher is restricting the use of e-books in libraries - so far, as the NYT explained yesterday, libraries that have paid for the privilege of making a publisher’s e-books available for borrowing have typically been granted the right to lend an e-book an unlimited number of times. What it means for many libraries.

HarperCollins explained in a statement they " believe this change balances the value libraries get from our titles with the need to protect our authors and ensure a presence in public libraries and the communities they serve for years to come."

HarperCollins clearly wants to limit sure ebook lending so it won't jeopardize its ebook sales, but are they taking the right step? At least from a business point of view, I believe the answer is No.

HarperCollins are definitely right that it's much easier to borrow an ebook than a paper book - you don't even have to go to the library. Many times you can just go to your library's website and get the requested ebook in a minute or two without leaving your chair for a second. This convenience is observed by HarperCollins as a threat to their ebook business - if it's so easy, wouldn't a growing number of people choose to do it instead of buying the ebook?

The answer is probably Yes, but the problem of HaperCollins is that they can't stop it by limiting the number of times libraries can loan their ebooks.

Why? Because libraries are not the only ones lending ebooks. With both the Nook and the Kindle providing the option to borrow and lend ebooks for two weeks, we see a growing number of websites that provide convenient platform for readers to exchange ebooks. Today you have websites such as BookLending.com, Books for My Kindle, Books for My Nook and eBookFling.com (not operating yet), where you can borrow and lend ebooks easily and for free.

Now, I'm not sure if HarperCollins' restrictions will apply also to individual lending, but even if this is the case, with a growing number of exchange platforms and users, these restrictions will become meaningless. You can stop tens of thousands of libraries, but you can't stop millions of ebook readers that would like to borrow and lend books to each other.

The bottom line is that HarperCollins not only made libraries rightfully angry, but to my opinion also made a poor decision from a business point of view. If they want to increase their ebook sales, they need to look for real creative marketing ideas and forget about limiting the lending options of their ebooks.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Our website is down due to a technical problem..

As you may have already noticed, our website is down at the moment. We apologize for that and are working hard to get it back up again as soon as we can.

If you have any questions please contact us at info@ecolibris.net.


Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Green book of the week - Unleash Your Full Potential by James Rick

Today we review a great book that is dealing with a common problem - wasting resources. But this time it's not about mother nature, but our own human resources. Still, just like with our relationship with mother nature, author James Rick wants us to make the most of the resources we have and in his unique book he shows us how it can be done.

Our book is:

Unleash Your Full Potential: The Secret For Revealing Your Hidden Power

Author: James Rick
At the age of 4 James had a knack for entrepreneurship, selling finger paintings in the drive way, of their small Florida home. His best (and only) customer was his mother who bought them all. His first profitable business would open up a year later in the form of a lemonade stand near their home, which raked in $5 a day.

Fast forward some years later, James Rick Stinson was awarded Young Entrepreneur of the Year by Southern Utah Chamber of Commerce in 2001, for starting his first major venture with less than $1,000 at the age of 17. By age 18 he had gotten into as much as $30,000 in credit card and personal debt but somehow managed to get out of it. Over the next 3 years he grew that business to half a million dollars in sales and expanded to build an office in Noida, India where he lived and worked for 3 months before returning to the US. James learned the hard way that you can’t do it all yourself. He had been the top sales person at his company and when he stopped selling to focus on building out the office, things took a turn for the worse. He ended up closing the business a few months later due to losses. “It crashed and burned but I was still alive”.

Undeterred and excited after getting his first taste of Asia, James started his second major enterprise a call center outsourcing business in Manila, Philippines, where he would live and work for the next five years. He was interviewed by Fox News Business for his role in outsourcing, starting his company Global Sky in the Philippines at the age of 20, and growing it to more than 200 employees, and $2 million in revenue annually.

Publisher: Full Potential

Published on: February 2010

What this book is about?
"Unleash Your Full Potential" is the newest book in the "Full Potential" book series, which is the product of James Rick's quest to take thousands of hours of research and distill it into clear, concise, immediately useful information. What began as a desire to have more good days than bad days, and a curiosity about dreams and meditation, evolved into thousands of hours of research and experimentation in the areas of personal development, philosophy, biology, physics, psychology, evolution, religion and spirituality, naturally altered states of consciousness, entrepreneurship, economics, and politics. The broad scope of James' experience and study gives him a unique perspective not usually found in other forms of literature or presentation.

What we think about it?

If I thought couple of years ago when I read A Theory of Everything by Ken Wilber that Wilber is pushing the envelope as far as it can be pushed, James Rick proved me in his book that I was wrong. Just like Wilber, Rick explored, learned and experimented almost every area that could provide him with wisdom on life and this book is summarizing this journey, providing the reader with mind-opening insights in a relatively simple language on the most complicated issues we're dealing (or actually not really dealing) with as human beings.

Still, this is not your regular 'self-help' book. Far from it. It definitely doesn't provide you with fish and actually more than it teaches you how to fish, it makes you conscious of how good you can fish. To me, this book is about a journey, where instead of looking a lost tribe or exploring terra incognita, we are joining expedition searching for our lost potential.

Why is it so important? Rick explains that "power is the ability to , do, and have whatever experience we choose". This increased number of options would eventually enable us to choose "experiences that are more enjoyable than others". Wouldn't we like to have only enjoyable experiences or "navigate reality with greater ease" as Rick offers us to dob? Of course we do, which is why this journey of exploration is so important.

This exploration guided by Rick is full of theoretical as well as practical information to manage your resources (time, energy, knowledge, connections and wealth) effectively. It took me sometime to read this book as I found myself stopping many times to think and digest Rick's insights, but it definitely worth every minute. So if you're interested in unleashing your full potential maximizing your own resources, I have a feeling you will enjoy this book.

Disclosure: Rick James is the founder and CEO of Global Sky that partners with Eco-Libris. We received a copy of this book from the author.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Barnes & Noble Bankruptcy Index: B&N's shares are going down by more than 20 percent this week

This week our B&N bankruptcy index is one day late (usually it's published on Wednesdays) due to our need to digest B&N's quarterly report that was published earlier this week, as well as its share's slide in more than 20% in just couple of days. With this hectic week, Borders' bankruptcy looks like old news already..

Just a short reminder - As Borders filed for bankruptcy, we look at Barnes & Noble, the nation's largest book chain to see if they will follow Borders and also go into bankruptcy and if so, when exactly.

To do it more analytically we launched few weeks ago a new B&N Bankruptcy Index, which is based on 10 parameters, which receive a grade between 1-10 (1 - worst grade, 10 - best grade). Hence we receive a 0-100 point index scale, which we divide into several ranges as follows:

90-100: B&N is in an excellent shape. Couldn't be better!
80-89: B&N is doing great. Bankruptcy is no longer a real threat.
70-79: B&N could do better and has to be cautious of bankruptcy.
60-69: B&N doesn't look too good and bankruptcy is becoming a more realistic threat.
50-59: Bankruptcy is a clear and present danger.
49 and less: Red alert! Bankruptcy is just around the corner and is likely to happen within a short time frame.

We will check the B&N Bankruptcy Index every Wednesday, updating each one of the parameters included in the index and will analyze the trend. You can follow the weekly changes in the index from the day it was launched on the Barnes and Noble Bankruptcy Index page on our website.

So here's our update for this week (in brackets is last week's grade):

1. Confidence of the stock market in B&N
This parameter will look at the performance of the B&N stock (symbol: BKS) in the last week. The performance of B&N's stock is an indication of the confidence the market has in the ability of B&N to maintain a viable business.

So let's look at last week's figures:

2/16: $18.77
2/23: $14.70
Change: -21.7%

As you can see, B&N's stock had a very bad week. Just for comparison, the S&P500 Index fell during this period in 2.2% and Amazon fell in 5.3%. This is a BIG change - the stock lost 20% of its value in about one week and most of it happened after B&N announced this week it suspends its dividend to preserve its shrinking cash reserves to invest in the digital side of its business.

Tim Beyers explained the situation on The Motley Fool:
Yesterday, Foolish colleague Matt Koppenheffer compared B&N to Ice-T racing madly through the woods in the B-movie Surviving the Game. To me, the scene feels a lot more like the Colonial fleet trying to escape the Cylons in the Scyfy Channel's excellent reimagining of Battlestar Galactica.

Now what: The competition is just as tough. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has created a store for any device in a move somewhat reminiscent of Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN) strategy to spread its Kindle store far and wide. Barnes & Noble was never going to have an easy time in that environment. It certainly hasn't so far. In the closing episode of Galactica (spoiler alert!), the relative handful of survivors left from the original 50,000 colonists spread across a new planet stuck in a prehistoric age. Their aim? Start over from scratch, or die trying. Barnes & Noble's fate may prove to be no better.

Bottom line: Although some analysts were satisfied with B&N's step to suspend its dividends, the market doesn't like it at all and shows very little faith in the company this week. Therefore this week's grade for this parameter is going down to: 7 (9)

2. What analysts say on B&N

As mentioned, analysts supported the suspension of the dividends. Morningstar analyst Pete Wahlstrom said that, had the company not done so, investors would be asking, "if digital is so important, why are you shipping $57 million out the door annually ... instead of investing that cash?"(New York Times)

Here's another view that was presented this week - "While Barnes & Noble has a brighter future than Borders, the chain has “a long road ahead” before it becomes highly profitable. They aren’t out of the woods either. It still remains to be seen how competitive Barnes & Noble will be with e-books.” Michael Souers, an analyst for Standard & Poor’s in New York. He recommends holding B&N shares. (Bloomberg)

Last but not least, Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew Fassler upgraded Barnes & Noble to neutral from sell ahead of the filing, though he tempered expectations as the benefits are "likely baked into the Street's thinking."

In all there are no big news from the analysts, who stay somewhat cautious and wait to see what the long road ahead will bring with it - bankruptcy or sustainable growth. This week's grade stays the same: 7 (7)

3. New strategy to regain sales in the brick and mortar stores
Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom said that the Borders bankruptcy filing does little to change the fundamental challenges to Barnes & Noble’s business model. Attracting consumers by being the low-price provider in a commodity game is a strategy that the company ceded to Amazon.com years ago, so Barnes & Noble needs to have a differentiated product offering or shopping experience to stay relevant. Walhlstrom added that "the bulk of Nooks are being sold through stores where kiosks and support staff put the device front and center."

According to Forbes, B&N has also made some stride with educational toys and games, but stresses that it does not want to go out of its wheelhouse in an effort to draw in shoppers who wouldn’t normally enter its stores.

Bottom line: Just like Borders, B&N still doesn't have yet a clear and comprehensive strategy that will transform their brick and mortar stores from a liability back to an asset, even though "B&N continues to voice confidence in its own stores, describing them as critical to its digital future." (WSJ) This week showed us that B&N still thinks mainly on its digital strategy, forgetting for a minute that it's Barnes & Noble and not just bn.com. This week's grade stays the same: 4 (4)

4. What B&N is saying about itself
"We intend for Barnes & Noble to be a leader in the exploding market for digital content," CEO William Lynch said on a call with analysts, estimating that his company now commands 25% of the U.S. e-books market. As David Lazarus writes on the Los Angeles Times "that's all well and good, but it doesn't exactly bode well for the chain's brick-and-mortar stores." We couldn't say it better. This week's grade for this parameter stays the same: 6 (6)

5. Steps B&N is taking
1. Giving hints that it will look to possibly taking over locations left vacant by Borders -Thumbs down.

2. Opened its doors to authors in the PubIt! self-publishing program. eBookNewser reports that "since it launched four months ago, Barnes & Noble’s self-publishing software PubIt! has attracted more than 11,000 independent publishers and authors and published more than 65,000 eBooks … To promote this expansion, B&N is hosting in-store events teaching authors how to use PubIt! The first in-store event will take place tonight in the chain’s Santa Monica store.” - Thumbs up!

Bottom line: Nothing to write home (or the investors about). This week's grade stays the same: 6 (6)

6. Competitors
This parameter will mainly look into Borders and how its problems affect B&N. This week TheStreet.com reports that B&N said during its conference call with Wall Street that it may open some stores in the locations being vacated by Borders. "CEO William Lynch said select Borders stores set to shutter "appear attractive to us," and he is hoping landlords may be willing to cut deals on rental costs. This raised questions from analysts about why Barnes & Noble would want to invest more in brick-and-mortar locations. Lynch said Barnes & Noble stores are still profitable and that most of Nook sales occur in stores."

I also don't see the logic here and really don't understand why B&N would put money into new stores instead of investing 110% of its efforts in strengthening the existing ones, and therefore our weekly grade for this parameter is going down in half a point: 5.5 (6)

7. Financial strength
Barnes & Noble published on Tuesday the results for the third quarter. It was a mixed report with both good and bad news.

Here are the good news:
1. Revenue jumped 7% to $2.3 billion.
2. Comparable-store sales, a key retail indicator, grew 7.3% at the superstores.

Here are the bad news:
1. The company suspended its dividend to preserve its shrinking cash reserves - Barnes & Noble previously offered an annual dividend of $1 a share.
2. B&N reported disappointing holiday quarter results - For the third quarter ended Jan. 29, the bookseller posted a profit of $60.6 million, or $1 a share, down from $80.4 million, or $1.38 a share, in the year-earlier period. Total net losses in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year have totaled $14.5 million.
3. Comparable-store sales at the college bookstore division fell 2.2%, with the retailer citing inclement weather as a key reason. That business accounts for just under a quarter of the company's sales.
4. Noting the situation at Borders, Barnes & Noble said it wouldn't issue any sales or earning guidance for the remainder of fiscal 2011.
5. Barnes & Noble reported it had $26.5 million in cash and cash equivalents on hand as of January 29, down from $40.2 million a year earlier. But Chief Financial Officer Joseph Lombardi told analysts the company has "ample financial capacity" to operate and develop its e-books business.

In all, the results were rather disappointing and therefore parameter's grade goes down in half a point: 7 (7.5)

8. Strength of the ebook business
As the Wall Street Journal reported this week, B&N has staked much of its future on its Nook e-reader line, so it was no surprise to hear its CEO William Lynch saying during a conference call to discuss earnings last week that "we intend for Barnes & Noble to be a leader in the exploding market for digital content." He added that "we now represent 25% of the e-book market in the U.S., larger than our share in physical books. We sell twice as many e-books as all formats of physical books combined on BN.com."

He announced that B&N canceled its quarterly dividend to free up $60 million for its digital strategies and other potential opportunities. Good news for BN.com, but is it good news for B&N at all? I am not sure at all..

Stronger emphasis on the digital business adds half a point to this week's grade is: 8 (7.5)

9. Sense of urgency
From the reports on the announcements of B&N this week on and following its quarterly report, it looks like B&N still think they have time and are not worried at all, or at least not worried enough to begin doing something with their brick and mortar stores. We believe this is not the case of course and if we can learn something from the Borders' case, it's how fast things go bad when your reach a certain tipping point of financial distress or distrust of your stakeholders (consumers or publishers for example). Therefore this week's grade goes down in half a point: 5.5 (6)

10. General feeling
This parameter will be an indication of our impression of all the materials read and analyzed for this index. Our feeling this week, after B&N's quarterly report is not too good. I also learned we're not the only one feeling this way when I saw Barnes & Noble in the list of the Next 17 Big Companies That Are Heading Toward Bankruptcy on Business Insider, where B&N's financial distress risk was assessed as 8.23%. This week's grade is going down in half a point: 6 (6.5)

This week's Barnes & Noble Bankruptcy Index: 62 points (65)

As you can see, this week's index is set at 62 points, which translates into the scale of 60-69: B&N doesn't look too good and bankruptcy is becoming a more realistic threat. Definitely not a good place to be at and too close to the red alert zone. Too close. In the meantime, it looks like B&N is still not in immediate trouble. See you next Wednesday.

To view the weekly changes in the index visit Barnes and Noble Bankruptcy Index on our website.

You can find more resources on the future of bookstores on our website at www.ecolibris.net/bookstores_future.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Working to green the book industry!

New e-book for our partner Moon Willow Press: Smoke Ghosts & Other Outré Tales by Anthony Wright

Moon Willow Press, a Canadian publisher that not only publish books sustainably, but also works to help other publishers to do the same and partners with Eco-Libris to plant trees for its published books, has just released a new book: Smoke Ghosts & Other Outré Tales, by Anthony Wright.

This book is released as an e-book and available for sale on Amazon for Kindle owners and on Smashwords for the rest of the world. Although this book is not released as a paper book, Moon Willow Press will plant trees with Eco-Libris for this book, as part of its commitment to the environment and promoting sustainable reading.

Here's a description of the book:

Thirteen journeys transpire in Anthony Wright's new short-story collection, Smoke Ghosts & Other Outré Tales, which features tales from "The South Asia Suite" and "The Trail of My Dead". In this e-book, a collection of dark but humorous short stories, Anthony Wright weaves his past travels in Australia, South East Asia, Mexico, and Central America to create a lively pattern of outré tales, interlaced with the supernatural, in which the author's outsider philosophy is central to the thread of existence.

Sail down the river of time to the Borneo jungle and witness a filmmaker hoping to capture headhunters of lore. Travel to Manila to find yourself lonely beyond lonely, hot, and in need of a beer – and then meet one unique soul in the wheel of time. Find yourself in old cities, tropical climates, dreaming of ancient friends and death. Watch in horror as drowning waters rise in Bangkok, visit the monsoons and calderas of Australia, drift through the snapping perceptions of youth. Meet sages and fools. Float upon hot, dry winds scented by jacaranda and bougainvillea. Wake up to not remembering, and go to sleep under the stars. Explore your past and future on the fingertips of one drunk night in Belize City.

Smoke Ghosts is published by Moon Willow Press, a new small press in Port Moody, British Columbia. Moon Willow Press publishes books that explore science and nature, and prints only on forest-friendly fiber, hoping to help sustain the world's forests. MWP also donates a portion of sales to organizations that help to reforest ravaged woodlands and sustain natural arboreal ecosystems.

Anthony Wright was born in Melbourne, Australia, graduated in film production at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and was employed in various occupations and traveled through 20 countries before settling in Mexico City in 1993. He lived and worked as a journalist before returning to Melbourne in 2001, where he completed an education diploma at the University of Melbourne and began work as a teacher. He returned to Mexico City in 2008. His fiction, journalism, poetry and photography have been published in Australia, China, England, Mexico and the United States.

For more information on Moon Willow Press visit their website at http://www.moonwillowpress.com

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting sustainable reading!

Five ideas that can help Powell's Books avoid bankruptcy

Powell's Books, a nearly 40-year-old book retailer with six stores in the Portland area, including the 68,000-square-foot flagship, Powell's City of Books, which is described as "the most vaunted brand in the independent bookstore world", is in trouble.

According to article on the OregonLive.com, about two weeks ago Powell's laid off 31 employees due to a drop in 2010 sales - In an email memo they sent to their employees, the company explained that "sales for this fiscal year are down and we expect this trend will continue. The largest decreases have been in new book sales". The company also announced it is taking other measures such as suspending company 401k contributions for a minimum of a year and a pay freeze will go into effect July 1st for a minimum of a year.

The problems of Powell's are not very different from other book retailers, both independent and large ones and Tom Gillpatrick, a retail marketing professor at Portland State University explains it very clearly in the article: "The Powell's model that has been so successful is really being challenged by new competitors, new technology and new shopping habits. They need to go back and rethink that business model, otherwise it'll just be ratcheting down and down - unless there's some huge wave of nostalgia."

It's clear that the problems in Powell's Books are structural ones and that if no major steps will be taken in the next year or two, Powell's with their 400 to 600 employees (depending on season) and $68.4 million in revenues (source: Hoover's), will be in a much more difficult situation that might jeopardize its future.

So what Powell's Books can do to reverse this unfortunate but nevertheless foreseen trend? I'm not sure we got all the answers but here are five ideas that might be helpful:

1. Make a better use of your strengths - Integrate your digital and brick and mortar strengths - If you offer great service in the stores, try to offer it online (how about online live help to find the right book)? If you offer a great web experience on your website, why not make it even greater for your stores' customers with exclusive materials available only for those who visit Powell's stores (just like Starbucks for example)?

2. Provide local incentives - It's obvious that Powell's can't compete on price, and it's also clear that Powell's want to increase sales at stores as they don't want to stay an online business. To get there they need to extend their best comparative advantage - being a local business in Portland. The problem is that just being a local business is usually not enough and works in very few places (see Greenlight Books for example).

Powell's should adopt a strategy that is based on providing local incentives - for example partnering with other local businesses and offering discount coupons for customers who purchase in Powell's stores (get a $5 discount in a local coffee shop for every 3 books you buy for example) and in these local businesses (get a $10 discount at Powell's for every 5 coffees you order in your local coffee shop). This way customers will know they support local businesses and profit out of it at the same time.

3. Get POD into your stores (at least to one of them at first) by adding the Espresso Book Machine (check at McNally Jackson in New York). This machine can print in minutes affordable, library-quality paperbacks and can also print anything in the public domain, increasing the store's inventory by over 4 million potential titles. This is something that can really increase the value of a visit in your stores for your customers.

4. Offer a CSA-based program - If there's a place for a local supported bakery and a local supported beer, there's definitely a place for a local supported bookstore program. Just find the right way to make people enthusiastic and involved just like with CSA programs.

5. Find other uses for your space or reduce it - In the near future bookstores will see a decrease in their brick and mortar sales - more people will buy online both e-books and paper books. Therefore, Powell's should look for alternative uses of its space and will provide real value, or if there's no other choice close some of its stores. No matter how you look at it, supply must adjust itself to demand.

We want to see Powell's Books thriving and continuing to be "the most vaunted brand in the independent bookstore world", so I hope our ideas might be helpful and in any event I hope Powell's will consider and implement new and innovative ideas because it has to in order to survive.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Working to green the book industry!

Dr. Anne Hallum, founder and director of our planting partner AIR was named one of CNN’s 2011 Heroes!

We are very happy (and proud!) to update you that Dr. Ann Hallum, the founder and director of the Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR), our planting partner, has been named one of CNN’s 2011 Heroes!

Dr. Hallum was named as a CNN hero due to her efforts, with AIR, the organization she established almost 20 years ago with the goal of assisting local communities in Central America to conserve their environment through reforestation, sustainable farming, and education. AIR, which is working mainly in Guatemala has done since then a tremendous work, focusing on planting trees as one of the the most effective ways to achieve its goals.

We congratulate Dr. Hallum on this wonderful achievement. Eco-Libris is proud to have AIR as one of its planting partners and support its important work in Guatemala. Since 2007 we planted more than 60,000 trees with AIR and we hope to continue and plant many more in our quest to balance out as many books as possible by planting trees. These trees have a tremendous value, both environmental and social, and only lately we could learn on their importance, preventing mudslide tragedies caused by tropical storm Agatha.

Hallum explains in the article on CNN's website how it all started:

The effort, nearly 20 years strong, was one Hallum said she never really planned. A political science professor at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, Hallum traveled to the rural town of Nueva Concepcion, Guatemala, in 1991 as an adviser for a university field trip. It was her first trip outside the United States, and despite not being able to speak Spanish, she was moved by a blatant poverty that "broke her heart" and birthed a "new purpose."

"I went into the villages where lots of the trees were cut down, and I held some of the children," said Hallum, 57. "They were listless and couldn't hold themselves up. Their eyes were dull, and it became pretty clear that they were malnourished."

The farms she visited were not sustainable, she said, because the soil was eroded and lacked nutrients. Hallum, a self-proclaimed nature lover, was not formally trained in agriculture, but she knew some basic facts about trees and food products that could be cheaply grown. With the help of a former student, she researched rural resources and learned that many local Guatemalan tree varieties could be strategically replanted to provide fruit, fertilizer, coffee, food and medicinal herbs where resources were failing or nonexistent.

"When we started, it was all about fighting poverty," Hallum said. "We wanted to help families farm better and feed their children better. But we started to notice that in the areas where (pine) trees were planted, the mudslides were no longer occurring. So that brought a new focus for us. Food, shade, fertilizer and mudslide protection -- the trees can do it all."

Nearly 373 square kilometers of trees are destroyed each year in Guatemala, according to the University of Santa Barbara's Department of Geography. Through her group's efforts, Hallum is inspiring villagers to stop chopping and, instead, use trees to safeguard their lives and crops against mudslides. So far AIR has helped 110 rural villages plant more than 3.8 million trees throughout Guatemala.



Check out the Alliance for International Reforestation website at www.air-guatemala.org. More information on our work with AIR can be found on the annual assessments which are available on our planting partners page.

More articles on AIR:

There’s no such as “normal” weather in Guatemala…but trees can help!

Trees planted by our planting partner AIR in Guatemala help to mitigate some damages of Hurricane Agatha

Updates and pictures from AIR's tree planting operations in Guatemala

A great article about our planting partner AIR, or: How to plant the seeds of sustainable future

Our plating partner AIR won U.N. grant for service in Guatemala

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Working to green the book industry!

* All photos are courtesy of AIR. You can see more photos from AIR on our planting gallery.

50 green printing tips!

Last year we had a great series of green printing tips, where we brought you information and advice on green printing in collaboration with Greg Barber, an experienced eco-friendly printer.

Greg's tips are extremely valuable to anyone who is interested in greening up their printing and we have not one or two, but 50 of them! So we would like to remind you of these tips, and here you can find links to all these green tips:

Tip #1 - How about a digital job?

Tip #2 - How using eco-friendly printing practices while printing a brochure or a book will save me money?

Tip #3 - How you make sure everyone knows you're using green printing practices and it doesn't stay between you and your printer?

Tip #4 - What does FSC Certified mean? Is it enough?

Tip #5 - How can I avoid being green washed in being a green buyer of printing?

Tip #6 - Is Spot Color printing environmentally friendly?

Tip #7 - What is the best alternative if you can't afford to buy Seed paper?

Tip #8 - Does it cost a lot more to print my book on recycled paper?

Tip #9 - What to look when selecting a green print vendor?

Tip #10 - Are you buying environmentally sound business cards?

Tip #11 - What are your green options when it comes to promotional items?

Tip #12 - How to prepare files for your next Green Digital run?

Tip #13 - Are you looking for back to school environmental ideas?

Tip #14 - Can directories be green?

Tip #15 - Are PDF files the best fit for every document?

Tip #16 - Can green printing be done on a rush basis?

Tip #17 - How do you save money on your next print job?

Tip #18 - What is rock paper and why is it considered a Green paper?

Tip #19 - How can graphic designers make a difference and green up your printing job?

Tip #20 - How to create a green packging job?

Tip #21 - What new developments have surfaced in Green papers?

Tip #22 - What does I-Tone mean?

Tip #23 - Are there inexpensive Green papers for brochures?

Tip #24 - Can we be Greener in our use of Inter Office Envelopes, Presentation Folders, and Outgoing Envelopes?

Tip #25 - Can you Green your Print Advertising?

Tip #26 - What can we do to reduce the carbon footprint of direct mailing campaigns?

Tip #27 - Can you save money on paper on your next greeting cards order?

Tip #28 - Green printing resolutions for the New Year

Tip #29 - Why environmental views are not always in the core of business?

Tip #30 - How do you become Carbon Neutral in your next print job?

Tip #31 - How to produce the greenest hang tags?

Tip #32 - Is Tree Free Hemp Paper still available?

Tip #33 -Do I have a Green Marketing Give Away for Trade Shows?

Tip #34 -What should we look for in buying copier paper?

Tip #35 - Is Direct mail dead?

Tip #36 - Is Free Tree Bamboo Good for Printing Books?

Tip #37 - What are the best paper calculators available online?

Tip #38 - Can Hip-Hop "GO GREEN"?

Tip #39 - Do I have any new green printing ideas for you?

Tip #40 - How to green up your banners?

Tip #41 - Special tip for Earth Day!

Tip #42 - How to green your wedding with eco-friendly invitations?

Tip #43 - Are there any eco-friendly labels?

Tip #44 - What are the most important points of green printing?

Tip #45 - How to avoid greenwashing?

Tip #46 - Saving money on eco-friendly printing

Tip #47 - Does green printing cost a lot of money?

Tip #48 - What is new in the Tree free Paper markets?

Tip #49 - When do you print offset instead of digital?

Tip #50 - How we can we help your designer think Green on your next print job?

For additional information, please visit www.gregbarberco.com and www.ecofriendlyprinter.com. You're also invited to contact Greg via email at greg@gregbarberco.com

You can find links to all the tips at www.ecolibris.net/greentips.asp

You can find a list of all the other green resources available on our website at www.ecolibris.net/greenresources.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing!

Brighter Books is collaborating with Eco-Libris to plant a tree for every printed copy of their books!

We're happy to announce on a new partnership with Brighter Books, a new independent publishing house dedicated to bringing only the best books to life. A tree will be planted with Eco-Libris for every book published by Brighter Brains, starting with "The Guardian" by C.J. Gosling.

Brighter Books Publishing House was founded by Angela and Dean Jurgensen, a couple with a diverse background. Angela is a Brazilian artist, illustrator, writer and business owner, who grew up surrounded by fiction books, particularly the classics; Dean is a Canadian electronic engineer with a passion for learning new things, who spends most of his free time reading educational books. They have a positive outlook for the world, as long as everyone does their part to make the world a better place; Brighter Books Publishing House is their attempt to do their part.

Here is their mission statement:

At Brighter Books Publishing House, we believe books are alive, and they have the power to change people. Our mission is to make books that challenge and excite our readers; that feed their hungry minds; that expand their horizons and open up the doors to their imagination. We want our books to help make people better, to connect families and to help people grow.

We want to bridge the old with the new by going back to the reason books were first made, making only the highest quality literature and products. At the same time, we want to ensure we do our part to preserve the Earth for future generations, keeping it green and leaving the smallest footprint possible behind.

Brighter Books has already an upcoming list of wonderful books that will be published later on this year. As we mentioned, their first book is "The Guardian" by C.J. Gosling and it was released earlier this week. One tree will be planted with Eco-Libris for every printed copy of this great book, and already, 300 trees have been planted for its printed copies!

Here's more about "The Guardian":

A hidden world, known as the Shadowlands, threatens ours with darkness and magical violence. To protect both worlds, boundary lines were drawn. No one can cross from one to the other without risking open war.

After the fire that killed Tavin’s mother, his grief-stricken father disappeared, abandoning him and his sister Moreanna. Tavin and Moreanna share a secret psychic connection. Sometimes, her presence is the only thing that keeps Tavin sane. When a mysterious sickness threatens Moreanna’s life, Tavin`s connection to his sister begins to fade. With the discovery of a magical universe through a hidden door in his grandfather`s attic, Tavin desperately hopes a cure may be within his grasp.

“No trespassing” becomes an easy rule to break.

The Guardian is an amazing page-turner; everyone will fall in love with the characters, and wonder what will happen in the sequel.

You can find "The Guardian" on Amazon and it's also available for purchase as an e-book. You're also welcome to follow Brighter Books on twitter and Facebook.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Working to green the book industry!

Barnes & Noble Bankruptcy Index: Will B&N follow Borders?

Usually our weekly B&N bankruptcy index is published Wednesday, but since yesterday Borders filed for bankruptcy protection, we delayed it in one day to better digest the sad, although expected news, and see how they reflect on this week's index.

Just a short reminder - As Borders filed for bankruptcy, we look at Barnes & Noble, the nation's largest book chain to see if they will follow Borders and also go into bankruptcy and if so, when exactly.

To do it more analytically we launched 3 weeks ago a new B&N Bankruptcy Index, which is based on 10 parameters, which receive a grade between 1-10 (1 - worst grade, 10 - best grade). Hence we receive a 0-100 point index scale, which we divide into several ranges as follows:

90-100: B&N is in an excellent shape. Couldn't be better!
80-89: B&N is doing great. Bankruptcy is no longer a real threat.
70-79: B&N could do better and has to be cautious of bankruptcy.
60-69: B&N doesn't look too good and bankruptcy is becoming a more realistic threat.
50-59: Bankruptcy is a clear and present danger.
49 and less: Red alert! Bankruptcy is just around the corner and is likely to happen within a short time frame.

We will check the B&N Bankruptcy Index every Wednesday, updating each one of the parameters included in the index and will analyze the trend. You can follow the weekly changes in the index from the day it was launched on the Barnes and Noble Bankruptcy Index page on our website.

So here's our update for this week (in brackets is last week's grade):

1. Confidence of the stock market in B&N
This parameter will look at the performance of the B&N stock (symbol: BKS) in the last week. The performance of B&N's stock is an indication of the confidence the market has in the ability of B&N to maintain a viable business.

So let's look at last week's figures:

2/8: $17.11
2/16: $18.77
Change: +9.7%

As you can see, B&N's stock did very well the in the past week. They did much better comparing to both the S&P500 Index (+0.89%) and Amazon (+1.94%). In other words, the markets believe B&N will benefit from Borders' bankruptcy and will get stronger in the post-Borders' bankruptcy era (see for example Alyce Lomax on the Motley Fool). This week's grade for this parameter is: 9 (8.5)

2. What analysts say on B&N
As mentioned above analysts believe that the bankruptcy of Borders will have a positive impact on B&N: "Although the impact of Borders’s bankruptcy won’t be as great on Barnes & Noble as it would have been five years ago, “the majority of book sales are still physical books,” Michael Souers, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s in New York, said in an interview. “Overall, it’s a benefit for Barnes & Noble.” (Bloomberg)

On the New York Times Michael Souers looked at the bigger picture and was a little less optimistic: “The book retailing industry is very challenging right now. We’ve had significant transformation. Bookstores have gradually been losing their prominence, and the U.S. market is oversaturated in terms of the number of retail stores. So that trend will likely continue as e-books gain more prevalence in the market.”

In all there are no big news from the analysts - it's still about gains in the short-term and structural problems are a threat in the long-term. Therefore this week's grade stays the same: 7 (7)

3. New strategy to regain sales in the brick and mortar stores
Just like Borders, B&N still doesn't have a a clear and comprehensive strategy that will transform their brick and mortar stores from a liability back to an asset. This week's grade stays the same: 4 (4)

4. What B&N is saying about itself
We haven't find any updates here so this week's week's grade for this parameter stays the same: 6 (6)

5. Steps B&N is taking
This week Barnes and Noble's main action (or at least the one that got most media attention) was to post an open letter to Amazon affiliates, seeking to lure them to the retailer's fold. As PC Magazine reported, B&N's letter to the affiliates was posted online on Monday in response to Amazon's threats to cut off its affiliates in states that charge sales tax (i.e. Texas).

Mark Hachman wrote on PC Magazine that "The problem with Barnes & Noble's letter is that the breadth of products Amazon sells - and the number of affiliates it can attract are of a wider breadth than what is on Amazon. For example, Amazon's affiliate site contains promotions for SmallParts.com, Amazon's site for industrial products. Similar promotions push affiliates to Amazon's clothing store - both types of products that Barnes & Noble doesn't sell." I guess he's right and in any case this doesn't seem to be the step that will bring B&N back on the track, as it might help to generate sales on BN.com but not on B&N's brick and mortar stores.

This week's grade is: 6 (6)

6. Competitors
This parameter will mainly look into Borders and how its problems affect B&N. This week Borders filed for bankruptcy and announced it will close in the next couple of weeks about 200 stores nationwide. Unlike most analysts, we feel that Borders' bankruptcy can do more harm than good to B&N, but it's really premature and we'll have to wait at least couple more weeks to know more. Our weekly grade for this parameter is: 6 (6)

7. Financial strength
B&N's latest financial report was published on November 2010 for its second quarter, which ended Oct. 30. Yesterday B&N announced the company will report fiscal 2011 third quarter earnings results next Tuesday, February 22nd. So there's no change here from last week and therefore this parameter's grade stays the same: 7.5 (7.5)

8. Strength of the ebook business
No news on this front (maybe we should call it e-front?), although almost every article on Borders reminded the Nook and B&N's online presence as important factors that helps B&N to avoid bankruptcy ("The largest U.S. bookstore chain, Barnes & Noble, has had success with its and online store, allowing it to stay in contention with online book pioneer Amazon.com." - Yahoo! News). This week's grade is: 7.5 (7.5)

9. Sense of urgency
Maybe B&N think they still have time but this is not the case of course and if we can learn something from the Borders' case, it's how fast things go bad when your reach a certain tipping point of financial distress or distrust of your stakeholders (consumers or publishers for example). Therefore this parameter will try to look into B&N's sense of urgency. No news on this front this week and this parameter's grade stays the same: 6 (6)

10. General feeling
This parameter will be an indication of our impression of all the materials read and analyzed for this index. Our feeling this week, after the bankruptcy of Borders is that B&N still doesn't see it as a wake-up call. This week's grade is: 6.5 (6.5)

This week's Barnes & Noble Bankruptcy Index: 65 points (64.5)

As you can see, this week's index is set at 65 points, which translates into the scale of 60-69: B&N doesn't look too good and bankruptcy is becoming a more realistic threat. Definitely not a good place to be at, but it could definitely get worst as you can learn from the situation at Borders, although we definitely hope it won't! In the meantime, it looks like B&N is still not in immediate trouble. We'll have more information about it next Wednesday after they will publish their quarterly report. See you next Wednesday.

To view the weekly changes in the index visit Barnes and Noble Bankruptcy Index on our website.

You can find more resources on the future of bookstores on our website at www.ecolibris.net/bookstores_future.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Working to green the book industry!