Is Target's book club the new Oprah's book club?

A very interesting article on the New York Times ("Target Can Make Sleepy Titles Into Best Sellers") today about a retailer that is becoming an influential player in the book industry - Target. Yes, Target.

They're not selling maybe as much as Amazon and B&N do, but as Motoko Rich explains in the article "through its book club, as well as a program it calls Bookmarked Breakout, both started in 2005, the company has highlighted largely unknown writers, helping their books find their way into shopping carts filled with paper towels, cereal and shampoo."

Target's Book club picks are sold in 20% discount, which together with noticeable presentation of the books in the stores ("narrower shelves that stand at the front or end of aisles — with specially designed signs") and consistent good picks by the book club, are making these books very attractive choice for customers.

The results? Jacqueline Updike, director of adult sales at Random House says in the article that Target “can sell hundreds of thousands of copies of a book that is virtually unknown in the rest of the marketplace”.

What I like about Target's programs is that they choose many times unknown authors and makes their book a hit overnight, like Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay who sold 145,000 copies at Target in comparison with sales of couple of thousands of copies before that. For each book selected as a Bookmarked Club Pick, the publisher produces a special edition, and the author writes a letter addressed to Target readers.

This is really great news and kudos to Target for their efforts. I hope they will also expand their programs to include a new green book club program that will be solely dedicated to promote green books. With Target's innovative and green approach and proven success to make books bestsellers, I am positive they can help the book industry not only to sell more books, but also to become more sustainable.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green reading

Men-only book club?

Can men actually sit together, sip Cabernet and discuss books?

Apparently yes, according to an interesting article of Don Aucoin on the Boston Globe ("Where the guys Are").

So what brings guys to sit together and discuss books? one of the interviewees in the article explains that book groups offer the best of both worlds "I get a night out," he says. "I get to hang out with a few of my buddies whom I normally wouldn't see. I get to have a few laughs and talk about everything. Plus it forces me to read a book a month, which is something I don't know if I'd do."

Well. who knows, maybe we'll see soon a male version of the Jane Austen Book Club. How about the 69-page book club? (following the rule of one book club presented in the article that "there has to be something pretty sick going on on page 69 for us to read the book, either a sexual encounter or some crazy situation.")

Yours,
Raz@Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing

The green builders' book club

While checking out the website of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), I learned on a new book club they're establishing with Island Press: GreenWorks. It will offer USGBC members the newest and best books on green building.

GreenWorks, according to the news release, will offer professionals a place to connect with others in the field, share their thoughts on various books, ideas and authors, as well as learn more about all things green building.

The books will be selected on a monthly basis by a panel of leading experts in the field, and are available for purchase from Island Press. USGBC members will be able to buy at discounted prices (up to 40%).

The first four books to be featured on GreenWorks are:

1. Emerald Architecture, by GreenSource Magazine, a collection of 24 in-depth case studies of green buildings that are both sustainable and attractive.

2. The Green Building Revolution, by Jerry Yudelson

3. Sustainable Construction, 2nd edition, by Charles J. Kibert

4. The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Created a Sustainable World, by Peter M. Senge with Bryan Smith, Nina Kruschwitz, Joe Laur and Sara Schley.

You can find more details at GreenWorks' website: http://www.islandpress.org/usgbc

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

A special green offer for readers of Oprah's Book Club new selection

I read yesterday on USA TODAY on Oprah Winfrey's book club new selection - The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. This is a great book and a great choice!

Eco-Libris believes that this 973-pages book should not be only a celebration of a great book and the joy of reading, but also an opportunity to discuss the urgent need in sustainable reading, which does not harm the environment. I read in the article that New American Library has printed 612,000 new "deluxe" Oprah editions. That's a lot of paper and a lot of trees that are cut down for this special edition.

Eco-Libris aims to raise the awareness to the environmental impacts of using paper for the production of books and for the need in printing books in an eco-friendly manner.

Therefore, we are having a special offer for all the eco-conscious readers out there that want to buy the new edition of the book:

If you buy the book and you want to help the environment, please send us an email to info@ecolibris.net with your address and the first sentence of Chapter 4 (just to show us you bought the book..). Eco-Libris will balance out the book for the first 50 people who email us with the right sentence.

It means that one tree will be planted by our planting partners to balance out the paper used for the book. And we will send you our sticker made of recycled paper saying “One tree planted for this book” you can later proudly display on the book's sleeve showing your commitment to the environment. And yes, we'll send it in an envelope made of recycled paper.

We truly hope to see Oprah's book club assist in promoting sustainable reading in the same way it helped with a great success to promote reading.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: a great green gift for the holidays!

releasing books at BookCrossing.com

BookCrossing.com is a great way to exchange books - it's creative, fun and eco-friendly.

It is the world's biggest free book club and more than that, it's a community of book lovers who are willing to share with others great books after they have read them, instead of just putting them back on their shelves. The goal of BookCrossing as they write it on their site is to make the whole world a library". Well, they already have 577,368 members and 4,122,405 registered books, so they're on the right way!

So how it works? they have 3 simple steps:

1. Read a good book

2. Register it on their website (along with your journal comments), get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and label the book.

3. Release it for someone else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, "forget" it in a coffee shop, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone comes here and records a journal entry for that book. And if you make Release Notes on the book, others can Go Hunting for it and try to find it.

We, at Eco-Libris love the concept of BookCrossing. We think that it's a great way to maximize the usage of books that are already printed and hence decrease the need in more printing. Therefore, more people using BookCrossing means less trees will be cut down and we're definably for it!

We try to walk the walk and not just talk the talk, so we joined BookCrossing, with a unique promise: we will balance out every book we release and put our sticker on the sleeves of each one them! So far, we released 7 books to the wild (well, actually in NYC). It was really fun and I felt great putting the books in the subway or in a phone booth hoping that someone will find and enjoy them. And actually someone did! I was very excited to hear that one of them ('We were the Mulvaneys' by Joice Carol Oates) was already been hunted.

We'll continue to release more books this weekend. The books are by the way second hand books and we try to choose interesting ones.. so, this weekend, again in NYC, there will be 3 books that will be released by me - check out this link for more details on them.

I am not sure yet where I'll release them, but open your eyes and if you see a book sitting by itself with a note saying 'I'm not lost' and a sticker of Eco-Libris - that's one of our boys!

I'll keep you posted after I'll release them and of course, don't forget to check out and join BookCrossing.

have a great weekend,
Raz