Latest updates on the future of publishing

The publishing industry is one of the most dynamic industries I know, with new products and innovations coming almost every week, if not every other day.

Just think about the last couple of weeks, where we saw the release of two new tablets (Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet), significant reduction in the price of e-readers (again the Kindle and the Nook), introduction of Amazon new e-library and a new innovative book publisher (i.e. iPad editions of children's classics), Ideal Binary, raising $1.03 million in venture capital. And did we mention the upcoming Publishing App Expo?

And these are just the tip of the iceberg.. We keep tracking the most interesting stories on our 'future of the publishing' webpage. Here are links to couple of interesting articles we read in the last couple of weeks:

Amazon lending library and the future of digital publishing - Virginia Postrel, The Washington Post, November 13, 2011

Amazon.com Inc. is at it again. To the consternation of much of the book industry, the online giant is again offering digital titles for less than major publishers think books are worth. And this time, the price is zero.

The future of books? Publishing by numbers - The Irish Times, November 11, 2011

BARELY A week goes by without something – a full-page discursive article in a newspaper, a hefty blogpost on an arch American culture website – declaring the death of publishing. “Books are doomed. Doomed I tell you!” is the general gambit of these pieces, but many don’t share that view. At a time when books are engaged in a paper-versus- electronic tussle between physical copies and e-reader editions, at least people are still reading.

The Future of Publishing - Rocky Lewis, November 11, 2011

Let's talk about the future of publishing. This conversation usually looks like a self publish vs. traditional publish debate. I believe that is not the “bunny” we should all be looking at behind the camera.

Our relationship with e-books: It's too complicated - Mathew Ingram, GigaOM, November 1, 2011

One of the best things about media going digital is that it can be easily shared and distributed to others with just a click — except of course that it often doesn't work like that, thanks to copyright or licensing restrictions and competing platforms. E-books are a great example:

Epstein on the future of the publishing industry - Sophie Rochester, The Frankfurt Book Fair Blog, October 12, 2011

Jason Epstein has had an incredible career in books – co-founder of the New York Review of Books, a long-standing and lauded editorial career working with literary stars such as Mailer, Nabakov and Roth, and a pioneer in the 1950s when he created a whole new category of book publishing – the Trade Paperback. Most recently he has brought us the Espresso Book Machine – named by Time magazine as Invention of the Year in 2007 – which now gives retailers, libraries and other institutions the chance to offer readers a much wider choice of reading through a print on demand service.

Enhanced E-books and the Future of Publishing - Peter Osnos, The Atlantic, October 9, 2011

Enhanced e-books are thought to be the next major threshold in the digital book universe. We are still in the very early stages of the development and availability of these books, which contain audio and video features. An informal count of enhanced e-books, according to a publishing executive who is following the field closely, numbered about one thousand available on a variety of devices.

Will book publishers be able to maintain primacy as ebook publishers? - Mike Shatzkin, The Shatzkin Files, October 4, 2011

Here’s an assumption that is not documentable; it is my own speculation. I think we’re going to see a US market that is 80% digital for narrative text reading in the pretty near future: could be as soon as two years from now but almost certainly within five. We have talked about the cycle that leads to that on this blog before: more digital reading leads to a decline in print purchasing which further thins out the number of bookstores and drives more people to online book purchasing which further fuels digital reading. Repeat. Etcetera.

For more updates visit our Future of Publishing webpage at http://www.ecolibris.net/publishing_future.asp

Photo credit: marklarson, Flickr Creative Commons

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Catalog Choice is launching a new service to combat increasing junk mail

I wonder if there's anyone who is happy to receive junk mail. I really doubt it, but if there's such a person, he's probably going to be happy to hear that the U.S. Postal Service aggressively seeks to increase direct advertising mailings and you probably will see more junk mail coming on the holiday season.

For all the rest (the 99% perhaps?) the good news is that you can take measures to avoid this ridiculous amount of waste with the help of Catalog Choice, an organization that is working to help consumers combat the impending tidal wave of junk mail.

This Berkeley-based non-profit launched last week a new service that you might want to check - MailStop™ Envelopes. The idea behind these envelopes is that users can purchase them for $6.75 each, fill them with up to 15 mailing labels from unwanted mail and send the envelopes back to Catalog Choice. Their staff will then scan the labels, fulfill the opt-out requests and record the transaction in customers’ secure accounts.

Companies have 90 days to honor requests before formal complaints are filed and then submitted to the FTC. Customers can use the envelopes to opt-out of any unwanted mail including catalogs, donation requests, circulars and coupon mailers, as well as phone books. The envelopes are available for purchase at www.catalogchoice.org and can also be gifted to friends and family.

Another option Catalog Choice is offering is free opt-out service - this service has been expanded to include phonebooks, coupons, and other marketing and donor solicitations. Now you can use Catalog Choice to opt-out of postal mail and name sharing from more than 3,000 companies.

So no matter what option you choose, the sooner you act the better for you, your mailbox and the environment!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Book buzz: e-reader vs. print books (infographic)

I wanted to share with you a great infographic created by RetailMeNot.com about e-readers and their economic and environmental impact. With both the new Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire that were released in the last couple of weeks, RetailMeNot thought it might be interesting to take a look at how e-readers are changing the book industry, for better or worse.

In the graphic, titled “Book Buzz”, you’ll find information about e-reader market share, sales figures, but more interestingly, how e-readers stack up to print books. For instance, and a little surprising, only 15% of e-reader owners actually stop purchasing print books.

Please note that in their comparison between the carbon footprint of e-readers and paper books, it looks like they use for the e-reader's footprint a figure taken from a 2009 research. As we wrote here in the past we believe that the results of this research are not reliable and should be addressed as more of a guestimation, which means they shouldn't be used for comparisons. Until Amazon and B&N will disclose the carbon footprint of their Kindles and Nooks, the only figures that should be used for such comparisons are the ones Apple disclosed fro the iPad and the iPad 2.

Other than that, this is a great presentation and I hope you'll find it interesting as well.

Due to the size of the infographic we couldn't upload it to our blog, but you can find it in full size right here.

More resources on the ebooks vs. paper books environmental debate can be found on our website at http://www.ecolibris.net/ebooks.asp.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

My article on Triple Pundit on Victoria's Secret catalogs that get greener

Here's an update on a new article I published yesterday on Triple Pundit on the progress Victoria's Secret catalogs made regarding the paper they're printed on - As of December 2009 the catalogs use of post-consumer waste (PCW) and FSC-certified paper rose to 88 percent from 23 percent in 2007. It is still a relatively wasteful product, but at least there is some effort to make it greener (thanks also to the great work of ForestEthics), which should be commended.

The article is entitled "Victoria’s Secret to Greener Catalogs". Here's the first part of the article:

If you’re receiving Victoria’s Secret catalogs there’s a good chance the paper they’re printed on will not be the part you’ll be most interested with. Yet, I’m sure even those who are more interested in the latest bra models will be happy to know that these catalogs, which for years were a symbol of unsustainability, are becoming more sustainable. Five years after making headlines for partnering with ForestEthics, Limited Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret, reported last week that it has dramatically increased the use of post-consumer waste (PCW) and FSC-certified paper in their Victoria’s Secret catalogues – from 23 percent in 2007 to 88 percent by the end of 2009.

To read the full article go to http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/11/victorias-secret-catalogs-getting-greener/

Links to other articles I wrote for Triple Pundit can be found at http://www.triplepundit.com/author/raz-godelnik/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant trees for your books!

Comparing B&N Nook Tablet, Kindle Fire and the iPad 2 - which tablet is greener?

Barnes & Noble unveiled yesterday its new $249 Nook Tablet, just weeks after Amazon.com released its Kindle Fire tablet, which sells for $199. The timing of both companies is no accident - just ahead of the holiday shopping season, anticipating a growth in sales of tablet computers this year.

Just like when the Kindle Fire was out, you can already see detailed comparisons between the new Nook Tablet, the Kindle Fire and the iPad 2, which are all competing each other in the tablet space this season. As you can see here for example, some comparisons also add to the game the older Nook Color, which can also be considered as a tablet.

We would like to add our green perspective, checking which one among these 3 or 4 options is the most sustainable one.

First, we need to acknowledge the sad fact that currently only Apple publishes information on the carbon footprint of its device, as well as information on its eco-friendly features, such as having an arsenic-free display glass, being brominated flame retardant-free, PVC-free, and so on.

I might sounds like a broken record, but although we have seen so much progress in the tablet market, this situation hasn't changed unfortunately so far. Unlike Apple, Barnes & Noble and Amazon either don't care about the environmental impacts of their devices or just don't think it worth the effort of sharing this information with their customers. Either way, Apple's leadership makes iPad 2 the greener device among the three (or four) by default. Once Barnes & Noble and Amazon will change their mind we will be able make a meaningful comparison among the three tablets. Until then, Apple's iPad 2 rules!

Still, there are three more points to be made:

1. Apple's iPad is green only to some extent - when you look at the manufacturing part, and you have to look at it if you're taking a life cycle approach, the picture is far from being satisfying as we reported here couple of times and was reminded about lately in an article on Fast Company magazine. The only reason it doesn't disqualify Apple's iPad 2 from being considered the greenest among the three devices is that we don't know for sure that B&N and Amazon are doing better - the fact is that we only have information on Apple, but there's a chance that the same unsustainable practices that are associated with the manufacturing of the iPad devices can be associated with the manufacturing of the Nook and Kindle devices.

2. Both Kindle Fire and Nook Color are sold now in $199, which is way cheaper than the iPad 2. Their affordability is actually a sustainable advantage as one of the criticism against ebooks and e-readers / tablets is that it's only an option for rich people, while most people (the 99% maybe?) can't really afford it. With a price tag of $199, which will probably get even lower on the holidays it looks like the tablet experience is becoming more affordable than ever. And if you're only interested in ebook reading, don't forget you can buy a Kindle now for only $79.

3. One of the features of the new Nook Tablet B&N is focusing on is its battery life:

"Barnes & Noble developed revolutionary battery life with NOOK Tablet, enabling 11.5 hours of reading time or nine hours of video viewing – the equivalent of five full-length movies."

This feature has of course environmental implications (better battery life, less need to recharge it and consume electricity), but just don't forget these estimates are given for battery life with WiFi off, which as Geek.com makes very little sense given these are multimedia devices:

"It’s obvious that these estimates were given by companies whose background is in eReaders. While WiFi off estimates make sense there, they don’t with tablets. These are multimedia devices now, and customers want to know what their battery life will be like when using them that way. Who buys a tablet and then leaves the WiFi off? Okay, some will when reading on the train or watching videos in a car, but that’s not going to be the norm. We’ll look forward to some testing to see how both slates hold up with WiFi on."

So the bottom line is that when it comes to battery life the winner is still the iPad 2.

To read more on how green is the iPad, visit our website at http://www.ecolibris.net/ipad.asp

To read more on how green is Amazon Kindle, visit our website at http://www.ecolibris.net/kindle.asp

More resources on the ebooks vs. paper books environmental debate can be found on our website at http://www.ecolibris.net/ebooks.asp.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Pick-a-Woo Woo's new book, The Elf that Flew, is going green with Eco-Libris!

We are happy to announce a new collaboration with our partner, the Australian publishers Pick-a-Woo Woo, on a great new green children's book that was just released: The Elf that Flew.

625 trees are planted with Eco-Libris for this book. As you can see in the picture above, our logo is also added to the book's cover.

Based in Western Australia, Pick-a-Woo Woo Publishers are publishers of Mind Body Spirit books for children. Their inspirational books are designed to help children connect with their intuition and inner guidance, develop their awareness skills and enhance their Mind, Body, Spirit connection.

This book is a green book, not just because of the trees planted for it, but also because of the story it tells and the messages it sends to the readers. Here are more details about The Elf that Flew:

Love and Joy give you wings to fly. A magical tale about Greenleaf the Elf who lives happily in the rainforest surrounded by his many tree friends. A chance encounter with flying flower fairies propels Greenleaf on an unlikely quest to fly like the fairies. Told with humour and warmth, this tale celebrates the importance of being yourself while promoting love for our natural environment.

Author: Lindy Mitchell

Lindy grew up in Sydney at a time when children were encouraged to play outside until dark. The local bush was a place where nature and a child's imagination created magical worlds and limitless stories.Lindy always expected to meet fairies and bunyips and was always surprised when she didn't.

Lindy's love of nature led to a career in horticulture. Later in life she decided to pursue her other love, literature. After completing an English degree, Lindy then worked in Mental Health and volunteered as a telephone counselor. During this time Lindy became aware of society's disconnection from the natural world and the rise in mental illness. Lindy's experience and innate wisdom spoke of how spending time in nature was not only beneficial to mental and physical health but vital for the spirit.

In her new career as Storyteller, Lindy seeks to connect people with the healing essence of nature. Through the written and oral traditions, Lindy uses humour and imagination to tell tales of simple spiritual truths, promoting the love of nature and fostering a sense of stewardship. Lindy encourages children and their families outdoors to explore and reconnect with their environment.

Lindy considers herself blessed to live on the Central Coast of NSW surrounded by her family and friends. The spectacular natural scenery of the region is the inspiration and setting for her stories....and she now meets the fairy folk regularly though the bunyip remains elusive.

Copies of the book are available for purchase on Amazon.

Other Pick-a-Woo-Woo titles that go green with Eco-Libris:

The Boy Who Was Born To Love Frogs
Angel Steps
Ocean's Calling
KC the Conscious Came

Archie Angel to the Rescue
The Star who Lost her Sparkle

More information on these books and other titles published by Pick-a-Woo Woo can be found on their website - http://www.pickawoowoo.com

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Occupy junk mail, or: How to keep Wall Street occupied

Here's an interesting idea on how to combine two just causes in one action (thanks to Grist for letting us know about it!):

You can find more tips and thoughts about it on this video.

So, what do you think?

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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