PopSyndicate.com

The color of publishing should be green! Isn’t it time publishers give some serious consideration to what role they play in the environmental crisis we are facing? Are there things that can be done to diminish the damage done for our reading pleasure?

Just so you know, this is not another of my typical rants on the value of POD (that’s PRINT on Demand) books. They are, however, my thoughts on how this remarkable business model can, and is, having serious positive effects on the environment.

First, let me explain clearly to everyone what POD—PRINT on Demand—is. POD is a technology utilized by printing houses with digital printers to produce books in a limited quantity, as opposed to the traditional print runs of 45,000-50,000 copies.

I remember the days when I was a new author and I prayed for the time when I would get a 40,000 print run from a big publishing house. Those days are long gone for me. Why? Because reality has set in. I know now—and let me tell you, it took me a darn long time to get this—that just because I get that many books printed with my name on it, does not mean I will sell those books. In fact, a good majority of new authors don’t even come close to reaching their sell-through. It’s not necessarily their fault, many things play into this, the largest of which is the economy, followed closely by the competition of the best sellers and established authors. This does NOT make them bad authors. It just means that when 40,000 copies are printed and sent to stores, and only 5,000 of them sell, then 35,000 of them are stripped and the covers returned for credit, those pages under the cover have to go somewhere.

Does anyone out there not see this as a blatant waste of our natural resources? With POD technology, those same books can be printed in a much smaller quantity; in fact, they can be printed one at a time, and then distributed as they are sold. Yes, I know there are arguments that are correct in stating that POD is more expensive per unit, but isn’t that something the industry can adjust? If more bookstores, retailers, etc. open their minds and shelves to these books, which are often of a higher quality than mass produced print runs, the economy of it could be easily adjusted. If the POD sales go up, then perhaps there is room for industry negotiations in the price per unit going down and both sides still make a profit, perhaps even a good one.

Now let’s look at the ecological side of it. Our forests are being systematically destroyed for so many reasons. I have no idea how many trees must be destroyed in order to print a 50,000 run of books, but you multiply that number times the hundreds of thousands of books being published each year and this is a tremendous amount of damage to our environment. Think of all the important roles trees play in our lives. The very air we breathe.

Isn’t it worth a little bit of change and adjustment on the part of the publishing industry to help sustain our environment so that our children’s children will have fresh air to breathe and tress with lovely leaves to shade their yards while their children play beneath them?

Isn’t it time, we take a good long look at what we need to do as an industry to help keep our planet alive and thriving?

I, for one, will continue to advocate for the acceptance of POD books as well as eBooks (that’s a whole different column) with the sole purpose of making our lives a little easier, a little fresher, and a little less cluttered.

I’d like to remind readers and everyone that POD is not a determinant of the quality of a book; it is simply how it is produced. Let’s keep our minds and hearts open to the possibility that less is more, especially when it comes to waste.

As a reader or writer, what do you do to help the environment? Tell us your ideas so we can all work together to make a positive difference!