Where readers buy their ebooks? Week 4 of our 10-week survey: Google eBookstore? Nada!

This is the fourth week of our ebook experiment. Like all experiment, it begins with a question: Where will readers look to buy their ebooks? Following the launch of Google eBookstore, its relationships with independent bookstores and Amazon's reply, the competition between ebook retailers is getting fierce.

Our assumption is that many readers will look for ebooks using a search engine and will buy from one of the first results in their search. So we randomly chose 10 books of the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2010, opened Google webpage, typed each title with the word ebook and wrote down the first two results we got. We will redo it every Thursday for 10 weeks and see if there are going to be any changes in the search results.

Here are the results for week 4. In brackets you'll see the first week results. If they were the same we just wrote 'same'. And if you click on the titles, you will be forwarded to the first place on the title's search):

1. Girl by the Road at Night by David Rabe
1st place: Simon & Schuster (same)
2nd place: Simon & Schuster (same)

2. The Long Song by Andrea Levy
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Amazon.com (same)

3. The New Yorker Stories by Ann Beattie
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Amazon.com (same)

4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Simon & Schuster (Random House)

5. Big Girls Don't Cry by Rebecca Traister
1st place: Simon & Schuster (same)
2nd place: Simon & Schuster (same)

6. The Price of Altruism by Oren Harman
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Amazon.com (Kobo)

7. INSECTOPEDIA by Hugh Raffles
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: eBooks.com (Random House)

8. Country Driving by Peter Hessler
1st place: Barnes & Noble (same)
2nd place: goodreads (same)

9. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
1st place:Barnes & Noble (Random House)
2nd place: Random House (B&N)

10. Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Barnes & Noble (same)

Here's the summary of the results:

	Amazon		B&N		Publishers		Others
	1st	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	2nd
week 1	6	3	1	2	3	4		1
week2	6	4	1	3	3	3		0
week3	6	2	1	2	3	4		2
week4	6	3	2	1	2	4		2

We give 2 points for 1st place and 1 point for 2nd place:

		Amazon		B&N		Google		Publishers		Others
week 1		15		4		0		10		1
week 2		16		5		0		9		0
week 3		14		4		0		10		2
week 4		15		5		0		8		2

As you can see we didn't much of a change this week. Amazon and B&N gained one point each and the publishers' websites lost 2 points, although you can see that Simon & Schuster is actually performing better than B&N (the points lost for the publishers were because of Random House). There's still no sign of Google eBookstore at the top ranked search results, but who knows, maybe with the new year coming Google will finally make its first point next week.. See you next Thursday!

Happy New Year,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

How an inspired publishing house is taking on the world with words

Aaspirations Publishing, a committed green publisher based in Canada, is collaborating with Eco-Libris for more than two years, planting with us over 10,000 trees to green up great books such as as "The Micro Meanies", "Where the Buttercups Grow", "Under the Desk" and "I Love to Be Me".

Last September, Aaspirations Publishing suffered the sudden and tragic loss of its founder and CEO, Anjali Sondhi, to Dengue fever while working in India. Now the publishing house is headed by her husband, Anil, who is determined to continuing the committed work of this unique publishing house.

The last newsletter of Inc. 500|5000 dedicated an interesting piece to Aaspirations Publishing and their work that I would like to share with you:

In an age when the book business can seem to be guarded, gilded, and, well, way too digital (admit it, an algorithm recommends more books to you than your friends do), here's an Inc. Community company committed to making book selling a community affair. With offices in New York, Toronto and Delhi, India, Aaspirations Publishing is looking to make the world a better place, one book at a time.

The company was founded based on the vision and passion of writer Anjali Sondhi, with the support of her husband Anil. After their daughter experienced the closed doors of many a publishing house in an effort to publish her children's book, the couple decided to open their own publishing house, one with a clear purpose at heart. Their mission? To support good works in the world through books—their authors, their consumers, and their lessons.

According to Anil, "Every book we publish has an important message for the world." And for each book, Aaspirations supports good works projects associated with that book topic that range from tree-planting to fundraising to children's education programs. For Aaspirations, each book becomes the inspiration and driver for change "for people in pain, for people who want to learn, for people in the world who need things". Aaspirations has a concentration on children's and teens' books, and thus supporting global literacy, learning and awareness seems like an appropriate purpose. They also consider themselves a "green" publishing house—they plant a tree for every children's book they print, and all their teen books are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

Sadly, Aaspirations recently suffered the sudden and tragic loss of their visionary founding CEO, Anjali Sondhi, to Dengue fever while working in India this September. In her memory, Anil says that Aaspirations is carrying on full throttle, growing the business toward the fulfillment of her dream under the guidance of her vision. Anil affirms fervently that her memory helps the Aaspirations team push harder toward its goal of making the world a better place—"her vision was that great, and this was her passion."

In the future, Aaspirations hopes to move on to Anjali's long-time goal of making movies based on the books that it publishes. The first one is due to be finished by the end of next year. The team at Aaspirations remains committed to growing the business to scale without losing sight of its challenging dual mission to succeed as a for-profit company and to make a positive impact in the world. Thus, it's a good thing that the folks at Aaspirations don't do anything in the publishing world by the book.

You can find more information on Aaspirations Publishing on their website at http://www.aaspirationspublishing.com/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Our Wishful List of Green Lit New Year's Resolutions (from Jeff Bezos to Oprah Winfrey)

This is the time of the year when people are thinking of their New year's resolutions, so we have couple of our own. This time, this is a wishful list of 7 "green" resolutions we hope to hear from important figures in the book industry.

We believe these resolutions will help the book industry to be not only more sustainable but also more prosperous!

Jeff Bezos (Amazon, CEO): Amazon will publish a full detailed report on the environmental impacts of the Kindle by June 2011. By 2012, we will make the Kindle the greenest e-reader!

Steve Jobs (Apple, CEO): Apple will reinforce its Supplier Code of Conduct on Foxconn, the manufacturer of the iPad. If Foxconn won't be able to commit to the code, Apple will stop using its services by the end of 2011.

Leonard Riggio (Barnes & Noble, Chairman): Barnes and Noble will follow Indigo and by June 2011 we will provide our customers information online and at the stores on books that are printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper.

Mike Edwards (Borders, CEO)*: We will come up with a new strategy that will transform our brick and mortar stores back into an asset and enable us to avoid bankruptcy.

Markus Dohle (Random House, Chairman and CEO): One of our planned biggest-selling nonfiction books for 2011 will be printed on paper containing at least 30 percent post-consumer content. Also, one of Stieg Larsson's books will be printed on FSC-certified paper in 2011.

Jonathan Franzen (Author): I will work with my publisher to make sure Freedom will be printed on 100% recycled paper in 2011, so if by any chance there's going to be another recall because of printing mistakes or any other problem, it will be at least a tree-free recall.

Oprah Winfrey: I will launch Oprah's Green Book Club in 2011, which will include only books printed on eco-friendly paper.

* If you wonder why this resolution entered our "green" list, the answer is very simple - for us, sustainability is not just about the environment, but also has economic, social and cultural layers and therefore the ability of a big book retailer to keep itself in business and thrive is for us not just an economic issue but also a sustainability issue.

If you have any other green lit resolutions for 2011 you wish to see please feel free to add them!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Where readers buy their ebooks? Week 3 of our 10-week survey: still no sign of Google eBookstore

Two weeks ago we started an ebook experiment. Like all experiment, it begins with a question: Where will readers look to buy their ebooks? Following the launch of Google eBookstore, its relationships with independent bookstores and Amazon's reply, the competition between ebook retailers is getting fierce.

Our assumption is that many readers will look for ebooks using a search engine and will buy from one of the first results in their search. So we randomly chose 10 books of the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2010, opened Google webpage, typed each title with the word ebook and wrote down the first two results we got. We will redo it every Thursday for 10 weeks (this week we're a little bit late due to the holiday..) and see if there are going to be any changes in the search results.

Here are the results for week 3. In brackets you'll see the first week results. If they were the same we just wrote 'same'. And if you click on the titles, you will be forwarded to the first place on the title's search):

1. Girl by the Road at Night by David Rabe
1st place: Simon & Schuster (same)
2nd place: Simon & Schuster (same)

2. The Long Song by Andrea Levy
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Amazon.com (same)

3. The New Yorker Stories by Ann Beattie
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Amazon.com (same)

4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Random House (Barnes & Noble)

5. Big Girls Don't Cry by Rebecca Traister
1st place: Simon & Schuster (same)
2nd place: Simon & Schuster (same)

6. The Price of Altruism by Oren Harman
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Kobo (Amazon)

7. INSECTOPEDIA by Hugh Raffles
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Random House (same)

8. Country Driving by Peter Hessler
1st place: Barnes & Noble (same)
2nd place: goodreads (Amazongoodreads)

9. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
1st place: Random House (same)
2nd place: Barnes & Noble (same)

10. Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens
1st place: Amazon.com (same)
2nd place: Barnes & Noble (same)

Here's the summary of the results:

	Amazon		B&N		Google		Publishers		Others
	1st	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	2nd
week 1	6	3	1	2			3	4		1
week2	6	4	1	3			3	3		0
week3	6	2	1	2			3	4		2

We give 2 points for 1st place and 1 point for 2nd place:

		Amazon		B&N		Google		Publishers		Others
week 1		15		4		0		10		1
week 2		16		5		0		9		0
week 3		14		4		0		10		2

As you can see we didn't much of a change this week. Amazon lost two points, but is still in the first place. It will be interesting to see if this trend will continue next week or if Amazon will manage to continue showing a strong performance. Two more things worth mentioning: 1. There's still no sign of Google eBookstore at the top ranked search results. 2. Kobo is showing for the first time.was quite boring with almost no changes. It will be interesting to see if any efforts made towards this Christmas day will change anything next week. See you next Thursday!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

How to celebrate a green Christmas and what to do with your Christmas cards?

It's almost Christmas and we would like to wish you happy, peaceful and of course green holidays!

It's also an opportunity to remind you that if you look for tips and ideas how to green your Christmas (and your holidays in general), you should check the great website of our friends Lynn and Corey of Celebrate Green! Here are some great ideas they have on how to celebrate a green Christmas:



And if you're one of those who already got many holiday cards (which means you've got a big family and/or lot of friends..) and don't really know what to do with them other than just throwing them to the recycling bin, here's a video that might be helpful, especially if you're looking for something creative to do with your kids (source: Do The Green Thing):



Happy Holidays,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Children's Nature Guide, a new educational website, is collaborating with Eco-Libris

We are happy to announce a new collaboration with Children's Nature Guide, a new website for families and children with the goal of making nature study and environmental stewardship as fun as it is educational. The site was created by Joseph Yurt, environmentalist, author, and nature educator.

The new website was launched on December 1st and includes a bookstore with "green" books for children, such as KK's Hope: For Humankind and Home by Josef Partners, Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey, Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik,Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey and Salamander Room by Anne Mazer.

And now the website's bookstore is joining Eco-Libris bookstores program and will offer the store's customers the opportunity to plant a tree for every book they buy there and receive our "One tree planted for this book" sticker with their new book!

Here is more about Children's Nature Guide:

www.ChildrensNatureGuide.comis a new website for families and children with the goal of making nature study and environmental stewardship as fun as it is educational. The site was created by Joseph Yurt, environmentalist, author, and nature educator.

Kids can interact with the site in various fun ways, including following the diary entries of Ari, a young girl gray squirrel. Children can share their comments with her and email her with nature questions. Parents Pages provide guidance, ideas, books and other resources for creating a nature rich environment for kids in the home and outside.

Interactive experiences also include an Animal Icon Click-on Field Trip, a JustForKidsLibrary, submissions to KidsWrite, book and website reviews written by adults and kids, KidServe, giving opportunities and Service Grants to help kids make a difference in their community and in the world, and ChildrensNatureGuide Roots & Shoots environmental stewardship group for families.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting Sustainable Reading!

How book companies performed on the Greenpeace Boreal Marketplace Review?

Greenpeace published last week its 2010 Boreal Marketplace Performance Review. This study evaluates 23 companies using use forest products from the Boreal Forest on their commitments and concrete actions to protect the Boreal Forest and the endangered woodland caribou.

The review lists 23 companies in four performance categories. The eight criteria that were used to evaluate the performance of these customers were: action on protecting endangered forests, recycling, recycled content and reduction, preference and targets for the uptake of FSC fibre, leadership and advocacy on conservation issues and Boreal Forest protection, labeling and marketing of green products, supplier engagement, communication with conservation organizations and "greenwashing”.

Among the 23 companies there were 5 companies from the book industry, so let's see how they did on this evaluation:

In the top performance category (True Leaders) you can find Indigo Books. In the second best performance category (Positively engaged) you can find Scholastic. The third category (Some small steps) includes Pearson/Penguin and Simon & Schuster and the last performing category (Failing Our Forests) includes Harlequin.

The report doesn't include the companies' performance in each of the 8 categories, but includes some bits of information about some of them:

Other companies such as Simon & Schuster, Pearson/Penguin Books, Capital One, Scholastic and BMR Le Groupe have developed purchasing policies or are in the process of doing so. This is a commitment that Greenpeace supports, so long as the policy contains strong language, clear targets and specific timelines. Lowes, Time Inc. and Transcontinental have also started to engaged directly with their suppliers in relation to their supply, FSC certification, high conservation value forests and caribou habitat.

Several companies are making important strides in this area, and have made efforts to maintain communication with Greenpeace. Unfortunately, other companies have continually ignored our requests for information or had an initial meeting and then stopped communicating. Best Buy, Toys R Us, Harlequin, Xerox, and Boise Cascade are all companies that have NOT been communicative.

There are no details about the Indigo Books, which is the only one of this book list ranked in the top category of True Leaders, but you can learn more on their commitment and their performance (including their support of our Green Books Campaign) on Indigo's environment page.

The full report is available at http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/global/canada/report/2010/12/company-ranking-2010.pdf

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting Sustainable Reading!