We wrote here in the past about the Espresso Book Machine, the machine that brings POD into bookstores, but it's always fun to see it in action. NPR’s Science Friday (a great show by the way) has a great video on their visit at McNally Jackson in New York checking out their Espresso Book Machine.
According to McNally Jackson's website, their new Espresso Book Machine "can print in minutes affordable, library-quality paperbacks. In addition to those books publishers have given us access to, the machine can also print anything in the public domain--increasing the store's inventory by over 4 million potential titles" To search the books available to print, click here.
Publishers Weekly reported last Friday that "Mass market romance publisher Dorchester Publishing has dropped its traditional print publishing business in favor of an e-book/print-on-demand model ".
The reason? Sales fell 25% last year. According to the Wall Street Journal, the decline is in part because of "declining orders from some of its key retail accounts, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc."This is a very interesting step that has not only business consequences , but also green ones.
By eliminating the traditional print model, it actually leaves the returns model, which is a wasteful system that generates incredibly high return rate (estimates are between 25%-40%) of books that are produced but not sold.
And of course e-books have their own potential to generate savings in carbon emissions - as I wrote here and in other places in the past, I don't think we're there yet, but we're getting closer and closer to the day where e-books will represent a greener option for the majority of readers.
So Dorchester Publishing are going green without actually announcing on going green. I think that it's good they focus on the business advantages of their move, but if they already do something that will decrease their footprint, they might want to think how to use it for their benefit, starting with acknowledging readers on the environmental consequences of their move all the way to branding themselves as a green publisher.
This move generates both opportunities and risks, and here we summed up couple of them:
Opportunities: 1. Regaining profitability by stopping the decline in sales and significantly reducing costs. 2. Offering authors better royalties and attracting more authors who will be interested in working under the new model. 3. Working with Independent bookstores that the company wasn't able to work with in the past. 4. Positioning itself as a green publisher, with continuing steps to increase efficiency and reduce carbon footprint at the same time.
Risks: 1. Authors might won't be satisfied with the offered new model and leave the publisher. WSJ reported that Hard Case Crime, an imprint owned by closely held Winterfall LLC, said it may seek to move its mystery books from Dorchester to another publishing house. 2. Supply problems with the transfer to the new POD model. 3. The e-book segment the publisher is relying on will stop showing “remarkable growth”. 4. Margins might improve, but the move to a e-books/ POD might not be worthwhile from a benefit-cost standpoint, with sales continuing to sharply decline, especially given that the sales force was let go and that the number of titles released monthly will be reduced from over 30 to 25.
Dorchester Publishing's President John Prebich explained to Publishers Weekly that “these are like pioneer times in publishing. We felt like we needed to take some chances and make a bold move."
I'm sure he's not the last publisher we'll see taking such steps and I'm sure many publishers will follow up with Dorchester Publishing to see if it actually works for them. We'll do it as well and keep you posted not only on their business success, but also how they will approach the green impact of their move - will they embrace their new green advantages and use them for their own good or continue to go green without mentioning it?
Rebecca Lerwill is an author and a partner of Eco-Libris, as she plants a tree with us for every sold copy of her books. She has just released her second book 'The Acronym - White Nights of St. Petersburg', which got a great praise from #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Tami Hoag, who wrote “Rebecca Lerwill is a fresh voice with a fresh angle on suspense, destined to keep readers happily turning the pages as fast as they can.”
We agree! We thought that with the release of this new book, it is a good time to interview Rebecca and hear more about the book, her experiences as an author and her thoughts about sustainable reading and the future of the industry.
Hello Rebecca and congrats on your new book 'The Acronym'! Can you tell us what is it about? Hi Raz, thanks so much for this interview. My latest thriller, The Acronym, just got published in April of 2009. It is a sequel to my award-winning debut, Relocating Mia, a romantic suspense. Although a sequel, The Acronym stands on its own and is a story of espionage with a romantic back drop.
It picks up where Relocating Mia left off: Our heroine, Mia Trentino now works for the Acronym, a clandestine agency consisting of former elite members of U.S government and international law enforcement institutions. Mia has to return to Russia to testify against Piotr Lagunov, an affiliation of the Russian Mafia which kidnapped Mia a year ago.
While in Russia, preparing her self to take the stand, Mia’s fiancée and Acronym agent, Douglas Farland, suddenly disappears and is accused of treason. Trying to stay a step ahead of the long and ruthless reach of the Russian Mafia, Mia searches for the truth behind Douglas’ accusation.
#1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Tami Hoag says, “Rebecca Lerwill is a fresh voice with a fresh angle on suspense, destined to keep readers happily turning the pages as fast as they can.”
This is your second book after 'Relocating Mia'. Is the second book easier than the first one? Like I said, The Acronym stands on its own, and I think it’s an easier read. The chapters are short and snappy and keep you on your toes. One reviewer compared reading The Acronym to a race in a luge. Great compliment! The Acronym was easier to write, as well. As an author, I definitely found my niche writing spy novels. Researching the tactics of clandestine operations is a riot. Although I might explore other genres, a great thriller of international crime is hard to beat.
You self-publish your books. Can you tell us a little bit about the process? Today’s market makes it almost impossible to break free as an indie author (Independent author), because with over 2000 books published weekly, nobody pays attention to written art when not promoted by a traditional publisher.
There are some real gems out there, written by indie-Authors which simply get drowned in the sea of books. I only began writing seriously in 2006. Impatient by nature, I didn’t take the time to submit my manuscript to a traditional house, or hunted for an agent. I did some research and chose to self-publish; meaning I paid a self-publishing company to get my book in print.
The opinions and pro and cons on those self-publishing companies is a wide-spread discussion. I’m glad they were available when my time to publish came, but I’m beyond needing help to self-publish. Any future work – if I don’t get picked up by a traditional publisher – will be published by my own pub house, Ivy Leaf Press, LLC.
My suggestion to any new author is: Do your homework before you choose a ‘vanity press’, and do as much as you can yourself but find a professional editor. I can’t stress enough how important it is to get your manuscript edited, and I don’t just mean dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. English is my second language, so I will always need a good editor. But that’s not the only reason; The Acronym was slashed by almost 10’000 words between editing rounds; something I had agreed to. The outcome is a brighter book without unnecessary details and without the change of my voice.
Do you do print on demand (POD)? I don’t. Although I’m proud to be an indie-author, I like my books to stand out. My covers are embossed which isn’t possible if you Print On Demand. My books are also readily available and since the individual cost is much lower than POD books, those off-set printed books are a lot less expensive -- in production and retail.
Of course printing 1000+ copies is an investment, but my royalties are much higher than a POD author’s paycheck and I’m able to sell books directly through my website for a discounted price.
I know that you were looking to print the book on recycled paper. How did your search go and did you eventually use recycled paper? After receiving several bits from different printers, McNaughton & Gunn did a fabulous job printing The Acronym on 50% recovered fiber and acid free paper. I believe this statement from their website says it all: “In ten years' time, while our company experienced 40% growth, we also successfully decreased our landfill waste from 1,660 cubic yards to 120 cubic yards. Our environmentally sound business practices have brought about cost savings to our company while helping reduce our carbon footprint.”
What do you think in general about the environmental footprint of books? how it can be reduced? Although I’m old-fashioned and like the feel of a book in my hands, electronic publishing is becoming very popular and very easy to do. Of course programs like yours are an important part in preserving our environment. I made Relocating Mia, as well as The Acronym ‘Eco-Libris’ books by purchasing stickers. Every book ordered through my website generally gets a cover enhancement with one of your stickers. As of today, I have my own little forest planted somewhere.
Is your book available on Kindle? what do you think of e-books in general? Relocating Mia is a Kindle book and The Acronym will follow as soon as I find the time re-formatting the text. I’m planning on releasing The Acronym on Kindle the end of May 2009. I don’t own a Kindle yet, but I have purchased e-books that aren’t available in print and read them on my laptop.
How do you see the future of the book industry? do you think we'll see more POD and self-published writers and less of the old-fashioned publishing houses? Tough question. As a relatively new author, I’m not sure if I’m qualified to answer this, Raz. My feeling is that the huge wave of self-published books might cease when people finally realize that there isn’t a quick buck or even fame made by publishing a book.
Of course we love those success stories and we always root for the underdog. But those stories of a self-made, self-published millionaire are rare, and an honest writer doesn’t plot for the fame – he/she writes for him/herself and the audience. Maybe I’m too naïve, but I would like to believe that the indie-authors of the future focus more on quality writing. Traditional houses won’t go away, and they shouldn’t. Their work preserves the integrity of literature.
What are your plans for the future? are you working on a new book? I keep telling myself that, after writing and self-publishing 2 novels within less than 2 years, I need a break. But I already started a third thriller and also am working on a non-fiction; Becoming American is my memoir and very dear to me. As a native of Germany, I have become very patriotic to this country over the last years. I have lived an interesting life here in the States since 1996. I think I’m ready to share my experiences in a memoir in essay form.
Thanks Rebecca for this interview. Is there anything else you would you like to add? I would like to invite your readers to visit my website and sign up for my newsletter. Once, sometimes twice a month, I share reviews of books I’ve read, reviews readers wrote about my books, poetry, recipes, and all kind of fun stuff. I give away 2 signed copies of Relocating Mia every month, and also hold poetry contests. Both my books, Relocating Mia and The Acronym, are offered to discounted prices, as well. Of course, they are also available at online book sellers or can be ordered in any brick and mortar store. Thanks for taking the time to conduct this interview, Raz. I hope your readers enjoyed it as much as I did.
Here's the book's trailer:
You can buy 'The Acronym' on Rebecca's website. It's also available on Amazon. We will also have a giveaway of one copy on our upcoming May newsletter this week. If you're not a subscriber yet, you're welcome to join our mailing list by adding your email on the 'Join Our Email List' box on the right column of the blog.
The NYT had an excellent article yesterday about self publishing ("Self-Publishers Flourish as Writers Pay the Tab", Motoko Rich), showing that while traditional publishers are struggling with the slowing economy, self-publishing companies are doing very well.
According to the article nearly 480,000 books were published or distributed in the U.S. Alone, up from close to 375,000 in 2007 (figures are from the industry tracker Bowker).
So POD self-publishing companies such as Blurb, Author Solutions, LuLu and others are flourishing, which is great news, but is it also good news for the environment?
Well, the basic answer is that POD is an eco-friendly printing system in comparison with the regular printing system that produce a lot of waste - in 2006 more than 1 billion books, or 25% of the books produced, weren't sold and some of it ends eventually in landfills, not to mention all the wasted resources (as well as costs). When you print on demand, there's no such thing and you always sell what you print.
Self-publishing is a a small niche - according to the article, Author Solutions sold a total of 2.5 million copies last year, which is a fraction of the total number of books sold (around 3 billion books). Still, it's a growing niche (Author Solutions represented according to the article 19,000 titles in 2008, nearly six times more than the number of titles Random House released last year) and a one that will get more and more attention, and therefore we hope to see more and more self-publishers who go green and adopt eco-friendly practices, including greater use of recycled paper.
It's true POD is not for everyone and it also has its disadvantages, but all in all I'm happy to see it growing and I think it benefits the whole industry by making publishing a more open and creative industry. I also hope to POD will contribute to make publishing more eco-friendly.
Martin Daniels of The Booksellers Association brings us this story about an interesting business model coming all the way from Shanghai, which allows book readers to get their books for free by allowing sponsors to plant advertisings in the pages. Sounds familiar? No wonder, this is more or less the business model that keeps most of the content on the internet free, and many free magazines floating. Only this time we're talking printed books. Yep, it's time for China to teach us something about innovative business ideas, and BookGG may be just the first of many.
So how does this work? Martin Daniels explains:
"The consumer selects the book and then selects the sponsors with their placement on your book until the price of the book drops to zero. The book is then printed and posted.
For every free book, you need to have a book ticket, which you get once you have registered. You then earn further book tickets by referring new users or orders or buying into an account, which will issue new tickets every month.
Every advertising sponsor can only be selected by an individual once so promoting you to spread your sponsors and in effect find out about others. The sponsor receives all personal information.
Finally the books are printed on demand by Bookgg and contain your sponsors adverts."
So although I personally don't relish the idea of flipping through my new book while being annoyed by ads, I do believe that I would go for it to get a very expensive book I really want for half the price. And frankly I don't mind my purchases being sponsored, especially when I can choose the sponsor, and if sponsors are categorized for me with some conscious labels such as "fair-trade" and "organic".
But what most appeals to me from a Sustainable Reading point of view is the fact, that a successful venture like this in the west can also help popularize print-on-demand technology, which is apparently already quite popular in oh so unsustainable, or so they say, China.
Founded in 2007, Eco-Libris is a green company working to green up the book industry in the digital age by promoting the adoption of green practices in the book industry, balancing out books by planting trees, and helping to make e-reading greener.
To achieve these goals Eco-Libris is working with book readers, publishers, authors, bookstores and others in the book industry worldwide. So far Eco-Libris balanced out over 179,500 books, which results in more than 200,000 new trees planted with its planting partners in developing countries.
We wrote here in the past about the Espresso Book Machine, the machine that brings POD into bookstores, but it's always fun to see it in action. NPR’s Science Friday (a great show by the way) has a great video on their visit at McNally Jackson in New York checking out their Espresso Book Machine.
