I came across an interesting article today as I was browsing through the news. At first I didn’t think much of it. But the more I thought about it, the more it intrigued me. I’m talking about plans to publish, in print, Wikipedia in Germany (Publisher plans printed version of Wikipedia). Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The media company — whose units include publisher Random House Inc. and music venture Sony BMG — said Wednesday that it plans to publish "The One-Volume Wikipedia Encyclopedia" starting in September with the content made up of 50,000 of the most-searched terms on the German language edition of Wikipedia.

The article goes on to mention that they plan to publish a new volume every year. The article didn’t mention anything about an English version being printed, but I’m sure it’s not far behind.

Here’s my take:

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Everyone is jumping on the "save the earth" bandwagon these days. Why it took so long for a lot of people to actually care about the one and only earth we live on is beyond me. But better late than never, right?

Anyway, I’m happy to see that at least one major publisher is making an effort to cut down on waste, pollution and energy consumption. In a recent article from Publishers Weekly, it appears that Random House has been doing a little metaphorical house cleaning:

The company has been focused on reducing its environmental impact by increasing its use of recycled paper and estimated that by upping use of recycled paper to 16% in 2007 it saved 309,058 trees in the year. RH’s 2007 carbon audit found that 88% of its carbon impacts came from the use of paper, and by using more recycled paper RH prevented greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those generated by 2,970 cars in a year.

Not too shabby, especially for a publishing company that produces large amounts of printed materials, which obviously means large amounts of trees are cut down. Random House also started using the Sony Reader in-house so the sales force and others involved in publication don’t have to lug around those heavy manuscripts.

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The Amazon Kindle might not revolutionize the world of ebooks, but it certainly isn’t hurting ebooks either. According to an article I came across during my hours of web surfing today, the popular Kindle has increased awareness of ebooks and even increased ebook sales. But now the real question remains: To what extent?

Publishing officials are reluctant to discuss sales figures, but say that they have seen double digit increases in e-book sales since the Kindle’s release, including renewed interest in downloads on the Sony Reader.

Of course, Amazon still refuses to release sales figures for the Kindle device itself, which I think is a big mistake on their part. Then again, maybe it’s all part of the Kindle’s mystique.

I will confess that I have only seen pictures and video of the Kindle, but have never actually held the device in my own two grubby little hands. So I really hate to pass judgment, good or bad, on something I have never tried. I already own a Sony Reader and love it. Yes, it does have some flaws – the biggest being an incredibly poor battery life, despite what Sony advertises.

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Amazon.com is making waves in the world of Print-On-Demand (POD) publishing. Essentially, they are requiring POD publishers to use their own BookSurge subsidiary to print all POD books (you can read my original post here).

The large internet retailer finally responded to the outcry, much of which permeated through the blogosphere late last week. Here’s a snippet of what I read on Publishers Weekly:

In the letter from the Amazon.com books team, the company reiterated that by using machines that are located in its own fulfillment centers, Amazon can have a title ready for shipment quicker than if it needs to ait for a book to be shipped to its facility. The extra time will permit Amazon to "marry" a title with another product that will be shipped in the same box, in most cases hitting Amazon Prime shipping times.

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While I’m not getting too excited, but I was very pleased to read that ebooks and ebook reading devices are getting more and more attention from the large, mainstream publishing houses. When I opened up my daily email newsletter from Publishers Weekly this morning, I was pleased to read that Random House is going to be using the Sony Reader for some of the day-to-day work involved with publishing:

According to RH, the company has bought "several hundred" readers for its sales management, reps, and home office sales support staff. The sales department will use the device to read manuscripts and other relevant material in digital form. The company’s goal is to, as quickly as possible, "eliminate altogether manuscript dispersal to our sales group by migrating this reading experience of many thousands of paper pages to the electronic reader," said spokesperson Stuart Applebaum.

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Since the late 1990s, Amazon.com has been a leader in online book sales. Authors who want to get their books out to a wide audience, usually try and get themselves on Amazon. It just makes good business sense for both the author and publisher.

Or does it? New questions are being raised about Amazon subsidiary BookSurge, a small POD publisher and printer, about how they might be forcing other Print On Demand publishers to use BookSurge, or risk their books not being sold by Amazon. Here’s how Publishers Weekly puts it:

BookSurge, Amazon’s print-on-demand subsidiary, is making an offer that most publishers would like to refuse, but don’t feel they can. According to talks with several pod houses, BookSurge has told them that unless their titles are printed by BookSurge, the buy buttons on Amazon for their titles will be disabled.

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Part of what draws me to ebooks is that they don’t waste one of nature’s most valuable (and beautiful, in my opinion) resources: Trees! The amount of trees it takes to print all the books we publish just in the US alone must be staggering. And you add on top of that all those printed books that are never sold and become wasted, it’s pretty sad.

I saw a very brief article (ironically, subscribers to the print edition can read the full report) in Publishers Weekly about how the publishing industry impacts the environment. It had a few interesting tidbits:

The U.S. publishing industry emits over 12.4 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, or about 8.85 pounds per book, according to the findings in the just-released report, Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts: Findings from the U.S. Book Industry.

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One of the great things about ebooks is the potential to place the power of publishing back in the author’s hands. I have always maintained on this blog that digital technology (including the internet, ebooks and even mobile technology) is leveling the playing field for everyone involved.

Thus I was very excited when I came across this press release for a new ebooks self-publishing platform that places publishing power back into the hands of the author. The new startup is called Smashwords and allows authors to easily upload their book (in a variety of formats), chose the price, decide how much of the book can be sampled (up to 99% of the book), and authors receive an 85% royalty on all net sales. But I think the real power of Smashwords is the free marketing tools authors have access to:

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Maybe some publishers are starting to see the light! It has been announced that Random House and HarperCollins will start to use digital media to help push titles in both print and digital formats. Here’s a short excerpt from an article at Publishers Weekly:

Random House and HarperCollins both announced new e-initiatives aimed at using technology to sell more print and digital titles. The Random House Publishing Group is testing sales of a book by chapters, while HC has started a variety of online projects to let consumers sample titles on its site, and, in some cases, get an e-book for free.

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In a world with Print On Demand (POD) publishing, the internet and other digital technology, you’d think that the time between when a book is accepted for publication and the time it’s actually shipped off to the bookstores is shortening. But then you’d be wrong. The time authors have to wait to see their books in print is actually getting longer.

Why? I came across an interesting essay from the New York Times book review section that attempts to answer this very question. The answer is surprising, and also kind of expected at the same time. We’re talking about the traditional publishing route (the key word being "traditional") where things change very little.

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