The Last Original Idea is joining the "100 Trees Project" of Infinity Publishing and Eco-Libris

Last June we told you about our new collaboration with Infinity Publishing, a leading self-publishing company. Infinity launched with Eco-Libris the "100 Trees Project,"a new program to promote environmental sustainability among its authors.

Through the program, authors that publish with Infinity will be able to plant 100 trees for the title they publish. These authors will also have the option to add a special "100 trees planted for this book" logo to their book's design, as a way to showcase their commitment to environmental sustainability.

Today we're happy to update you about one of the latest books that joined the program - The Last Original Idea by Alan K'necht and Geri Rockstein. 100 trees will be planted for this book with Eco-Libris and you can also find our logo on the back cover of the book (see photo below).

What's this book about? Here's a description from its website:

The Last Original Idea – A Cynics View of Internet Marketing is a light hearted look at the state of Internet marketing today and traces back each of the elements to its historical roots, clearly demonstrating that companies who understood the mistakes of the past were able to be profitable in the present. Others are a mere memory, lost in cyber-space.

"Wisdom is about context. The Last Original Idea is a chronicle of communication and commerce as seen through the lens of the Internet. It is a must-have reference book for marketing people - if only to get a handle on all of those allusions you've heard, but can't quite place. This book puts the whole Internet phenomenon into perspective, takes the Gee-Whiz right out of it and leaves you with a view point tempered by time and seasoned with history. Just the thing for those who are rightfully fearful of repeating history." - Jim Sterne, Founder of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit and the Web Analytics Association

About the authors: The Last Original Idea is the brain child of Alan K'necht who co-wrote it with Geri Rockstein. So after years of ideas floating through his head, K'necht with the help of Rockstein put his ideas to paper. The end product is this entertaining book.

"The Last Original Idea" as of October 16, 2010 is available (softcover) only from Buy Books On The Web. The authors anticipate it being available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Nobel by November 5, 2010. The ebook version should be available for most popular ereaders before the end of November.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

The green agenda of the Green Books Campaign's publishers - part 1: FIELL Publishing

As promised yesterday, we're starting today to present you with some of the publishers that participate in the Green Books Campaign and their thoughts on why it's important that books will be printed in an eco-friendly manner. Our first guest is FIELL Publishing from the UK.

First, let's get to know the publisher a little bit better:

FIELL publishes beautiful, unique, authoritatively written, high-quality illustrated books that embrace the most interesting, important and pertinent subjects within an enticing rage of disciplines - art, architecture, design, digital culture, ethical, fashion, lifestyle, natural history, photography and popular culture.

Peter and Charlotte Fiell have worked in illustrated book publishing for 20 years, and recently founded FIELL with the aim of making content-rich books that inform, entertain and entrance. Books that inspire and help those who aspire to lead better lives, to understand other cultures, to understand themselves, to contribute more to the world.

FIELL is participating in the campaign with the following books:

The Little Book of Shocking Global Facts’ by Barnbrook (in addition to being printed on FSC approved paper, 1% of the profit from this book is being donated to the Rainforest Alliance). The book will be reviewed on Green Design & Other Ideas.


The Little Book of Shocking Food Facts by Craig Holden Feinberg & Dale Petersen (printed on FSC-certified paper). The book will be reviewed on Victoria Klein's blog.




The Little Book of Shocking Eco Facts by Barnbrook, Mark Crundwell & Cameron Dunn (printed on FSC-certified paper). The book will be reviewed on Business Women Blogging, with opinions.


And now to the questionnaire (all publishers were asked to reply the same four questions):

Why do you believe books should be printed on eco-friendly paper?
We at FIELL are very conscious of eco-friendly and sustainable design – Peter and Charlotte have been writing about sustainable design for years, and now with their own publishing house they aim to highlight and support environmentally friendly and ethical design, and one of the best ways for us to do that is for us to use high quality, eco-friendly paper and processes – it isn’t just important to use eco-friendly paper, what you print onto it is just as important.

We want our books to be something to buy to keep, not to just throw away because it’s only relevant for five minutes, or because it doesn’t feel special or considered. Our series of ‘Little Books of Shocking Facts’ have been real eye-openers for us, and we hope for our readers too – it is about time that we considered our use of materials more seriously and it’s time we take responsibility for what we produce and how we produce it.

What is your policy on using eco-friendly paper?
We use paper from sustainable sources in all our publications. Many people think of the future as being in digital books, because of the issue of the sustainability of printed mediums – one way of keeping printed books alive is to make sure that when readers are buying them they can reassure themselves that they are making an environmentally friendly choice, and we know that we are doing our best to make publishing a sustainable industry – we also see a future of an emphasis on these digital book platforms, and during the production and editing of our books we are constantly thinking of their transferability to digital formats.

Are there other ways you're going green?
The whole concept of something being ‘well-designed’ is that you only have to buy it once. In drawing people’s attention to these designs, to true masterpieces of design, architecture, fashion, and photography, we are encouraging people to think before they buy. It’s what Dieter Rams said: Less but better. We’ve drawn a lot of attention to this idea with our book ‘Tools for Living’, which is a book of ultimate products for the home; the ultimate potato peeler, the ultimate clock, the ultimate set of knives. The idea that you can buy one of these items once and it will last you a lifetime not just because it looks good but because it really works: that drives us.

What's your advice to readers that would like to make their book purchasing more sustainable?
If you really want to make a difference in the way that you buy books, or products of any kind, is to ask yourself, is it necessary? Is this the best book I can buy on this subject? Again it’s the idea of buying once and buying the best.

Thank you FIELL for your work and your participation in the Green Books Campaign!

The Campaign's page is http://www.ecolibris.net/greenbookscampaign2010.asp .You can also follow the campaign on Facebook and twitter.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Which publishers participate in the Green Books Campaign?

The Green Books Campaign includes not just 200 bloggers who will review 200 books printed on eco-friendly paper, but also the publishers that publish these books.

56 publishers from the U.S., Canada, Australia and the U.K. are participating in the Green Books Campaign. This group of publishers is very diversified and includes both small and large publishers, but there's one thing that is in common for all of them - they print books on environmental-friendly paper, such as recycled paper or FSC-certified paper.

In the next two weeks we'll highlight some of these publishers and their efforts to go green and print their books in an eco-friendly manner. In the meantime, here's the full list (in an alphabetic order) of all the participating publishers with links to their websites:

ABRAMS

Allworth Press

Barefoot Books

Channel View Publications Ltd / Multilingual Matters

Cleis Press and Viva Editions

Constable & Robinson

DK Publishing

DunDurn

Easton Studio Press

ECW Press

Ester Republic Press

Fiell Publishing

Firefly Books

Five Mile Press

free spirit publishing

Fremantle Press

Ghigo Press

Gibbs-Smith

Goose Lane Editions

Guernica Editions

Harvard Business Press

Holiday House

HOPS Press

House of Anansi Press

Island Press

Key Porter Books

Lantern Books

Leap Books

Lost Horse Press

Loving Healing Press

Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books

McArthur Co.

McClelland & Stewart

McGraw-Hill

New Society Publishers

NeWest Press

Nolo

North Atlantic Books

Om Baby World

Penguin Group

Picador

Profile Books

Ronsdale Press

Scholastic

Second Story Press

Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing

Sterling Publishing

Texas A&M University Press

Tightrope Books

University of Alberta Press

University of Arizona Press

Wayne State University Press

Whit Press

Wings Press

WSU Press

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Is the new literary App a killer App or just a vague promise?

That's the question that popped into my mind after reading Noam Cohen's article 'Blurring the Line Between Apps and Books' on the New York Times. This interesting article presents couple of interesting literary apps developed lately and their potential value proposition for both authors and publishers.

So what sort of value proposition we're talking about? Well, when it comes to authors, Stephen Elliott, author of "The Adderall Diaries", who produced an app for his book, explains in the article what he's looking for:

“As an author, I want you to have the best experience,” he said. “People want to talk about the books they are reading with other people. Why, with everything we know, wouldn’t you include a chat room with your e-book?”

Once readers buy the app, he says, they are beginning a relationship with him and other readers; they can leave comments and read responses and updates from the author. They may even be told down the line that he has a new book for sale and then be able to buy it through the app.

And what's the potential in literary apps for publishers? Dennis Johnson of Melville House Publishing, who is working with Electric Literature to introduce an app book before Thanksgiving, share his vision in the article:

The attraction is obvious, he said.“If you publish work that is hard to sell in the American market, say literary fiction in translation, this is another format to hardcover, paperback and e-book,” he said. “A fourth line of revenue.”

In an interview, he imagined the possibilities, such as having readers whose devotion is deeper than merely dipping into a title, who would install a piece of software onto a phone or tablet. “I love the idea of putting books on subscription,” he said, “of having a membership in your publishing house, of having a readership invested in your books.”

So far so good and the excitement is obvious, but will such apps can and will follow these kind of expectations? I doubt.

And here's why: First, there's actually nothing new about these propositions. They're out there on other platforms. In the case of authors, many of them already build relationship with their readers on twitter and facebook for example without any extra charge. When we're talking about publishers, you've got many creative ways available today of crowdsourcing, where readers can participate in writing, decision making on which books will be published and even invest in new books. Most if not all of these options do not require a payment in advance like a literary app does.

Second, and this is especially relevant to authors, there's the cost issue. You can buy the ebook of Elliott for $9.99 or pay $14.99 for the app, which includes the e-book and "a dedicated discussion board to talk with other readers...Also features extras like Stephen Elliott's book tour diary, an RSS feed for news and events, a video interview with the author, and more."

I guess the attractiveness of such offer mainly depends on the attractiveness of the book or the popularity of the author, and I'm not sure if popular authors or best selling books need such platform in the first place.

It's true that authors are still looking for ways to generate extra income out of their books, but I'm not sure if these kind of apps will prove themselves to be one of the best ways to do it. I guess the attractiveness of such offer mainly depends on the attractiveness of the book or the popularity of the author, and I'm not sure if popular authors or best selling books need such platform in the first place.

The literary app is described in the article as a growing trend, but I've got a feeling it has a limited potential and we'll still have to wait for a real killer app to pop up.

What do you think? I'll be happy to hear your thoughts about it.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Looking for one more blogger to join the green books campaign!

As we mentioned earlier this week, the 2010 Green Books Campaign will take place soon:

On Wednesday, November 10, 2010, at 1:00 PM Eastern Time 200 bloggers will take a stand to support books printed on environmental paper by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 such books (One of them you can see in the picture here - Make It by Jane Bull, which will be reviewed at http://storytime-storytime.blogspot.com/).

And we have room for one more blogger to join in!! We still have more than 40 books to choose from for review and you can see them at http://www.ecolibris.net/greenbookscampaign_list.pdf.

So if you're interested in joining 199 other bloggers in this unique campaign, aiming to use the power of the internet and social media to promote "green" books and increase the awareness of both readers and publishers to the way books can be printed printed in an eco-friendly manner, choose from the list the book you wish to review and email us the details to info@ecolibris.net.

And don't forget that the campaign has a new Facebook page, where where you can follow news and updates on the campaign. You're also welcome follow it on Twitter at @greenbooks2010.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

The 2010 Green Books Campaign - now on Facebook and twitter!

The 2010 Green Books Campaign is not that far away! In 18 days, on Wednesday, November 10, 2010, at 1:00 PM Eastern Time 200 bloggers will take a stand to support books printed on environmental paper by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 such books.

Launched in 2009 by Eco-Libris, the Green Books Campaign is looking to promote books printed on environmental paper by turning a spotlight on books that are already printed this way. Our goal is to raise book buyers' awareness and create a discussion on the ways books should be printed, using the power of the Internet and social media to create a buzz and get the word out on the campaign.

We want it to be an interactive discussion and therefore we have a new Facebook page, where where you can follow news and updates on the campaign in the upcoming 18 days. You're also welcome to add your thoughts, ideas and questions there! The campaign is now also on Twitter and you can follow it at @greenbooks2010.

And if you want to join the green celebration, we still have room for 5 more bloggers! We still have 50 books you can choose from for review at http://www.ecolibris.net/greenbookscampaign_list.pdf

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Banning phone book litter in Seattle? Not so fast...

Last week the city of Seattle made an important step last week - it voted "on a yellow pages "opt-out" ordinance that would get rid of those phone books." It makes Seattle the first city in the country to set up an opt-out registry if you don't want to receive yellow pages.

We have discussed here before how wasteful are the Yellow/White Pages' practices ('The Yellow Pages are going green, but how about eliminating the wasteful printing in the first place?') and also compared the carbon footprint of a search on Google and a Yellow Pages directory. So any step in the right direction is a reason to be more optimistic.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure if the headline given by our friends at Treehugger to this story (Phone Book Litter Banned in Seattle, Nation's First Opt-Out City) is not a bit too optimistic. Applying Opt-out system is an important step, but it's very far from banning phone book litter. First, you can already opt out system for Yellow Pages (well, right now they're upgrading it so you can't really use it) and second, it's going to be real ban only when it will change to an opt-in system.

I'm afraid that even the most user-friendly opt-out system won't get enough people to move themselves out of the list, even in a progressive city like Seattle. If the city really wants "to allow residents to say no to the books" it should give them the freedom to choose if they want to receive these books in the first place. It's reasonable, better to the environment and will save money to the city (according to the announcement "City Councilor Mike O'Brien says unwanted yellow pages cost the Seattle $350,000 a year in recycling costs").

So I hope that the city of Seattle won't stop in launching an opt-out system and will end the current wasteful practice by creating an opt-in system to get things done. Then, we'll be able to talk about banning phone books litter in Seattle.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!