Obama becomes publishing world “divider”

U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama is at the center of a burgeoning publishing world brouhaha, with Barnes & Noble on one side and Amazon.com on the other. According to the Associated Press:

Chelsea Green Publishing, a small, liberal publisher based in Vermont, is releasing Robert Kuttner’s Obama’s Challenge, a call for Obama to enact a bold, progressive economic agenda. It plans to distribute copies at next week’s Democratic National Convention, where Obama is expected to get the party’s presidential nomination.

Angering both Barnes & Noble and independent sellers, the publisher also will distribute coupons that can be redeemed exclusively through Amazon.com’s BookSurge, a “print-on-demand” service that through digital technology enables books to be printed in small quantities.

[...]

The biggest response came from Barnes & Noble, which had ordered several thousand copies. It told Chelsea Green it would not stock Obama’s Challenge, but only make it available through special orders or its website.

Chelsea Green restricted the book’s availability by giving one company a two-week exclusive, Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said Monday.

“Our initial order was based on the book being available to all booksellers simultaneously – an even playing field,” she said.

Rycroft in her own words

As Quillblog recently reported, Nicole Rycroft, the executive director of Markets Initiative, took part in a pro-Tibetan demonstration late last week wherein she and four others spread a banner that read “Free Tibet” over an Olympic billboard in Beijing.

Rycroft was arrested and immediately sent home to Vancouver. She recounted her experience for Quillblog today.

We unfurled a banner at about six o’clock in the morning, Beijing time, on Friday to bring attention to the continuing grave human rights situation in Tibet…. We needed to remain flexible [regarding the location] because security is very tight in Beijing at the moment…. The billboard [we chose] was outside the China Central Television building. That building is very striking architecturally and is part of the modern face of China. You see it a lot in new promotional material about Beijing, and also its being the CCTV building is symbolic from a freedom of speech perspective because it’s the [centre for] state-controlled media, or propaganda mouthpiece, of the Chinese regime.

I rappelled down the front of the billboard alongside the banner and another climber, Phil from the U.K., rappelled down the other side of the banner. We were down stabilizing the banner because it was very gusty, probably for 25 minutes to half an hour. The CCTV building is on a fairly major thoroughfare in downtown Beijing. There were probably 20 or 30 police in front of the billboard, and most of those had cameras or video cameras. There were a couple of international film crews. On the back side of the billboard where the scaffolding was there were another 15 to 20 police and then an equal number of paramilitary personnel that arrived on the scene. We had two people on the ground on the back side and a support person on the top to make sure our ropes stayed safe.

[We decided to come down] when the plainclothed police reached the top. Our support person at the top gave us a very clear signal that it was time to come up. At that point, we weren’t in danger, but it was clear that we needed to move.

We were treated well. Obviously, the Chinese authorities are handling this quite smartly. There’s obviously a lot of international attention on … the Chinese government and how they will be treating dissenting voices.

I was held for six or seven hours and then I was put on a plane that I had already booked for that afternoon…. The support I’ve received on returning home has been very heartwarming. I’ve been really appreciative – from small notes to phone calls… But really, [...] as an individual, as a person of conscience, as a former athlete, I was willing to put my personal safety on the line to bring world attention to the situation in Tibet. It’s terrible – people are being tortured, Tibetans are literally dying for the most basic human rights. More than six million have been engaged in a non-violent struggle for their independence and their homeland for more than 60 years. Largely, the rest of the world has watched the Chinese military machine roll over the Tibetan people…. I’m under no illusion that things are going to change overnight in Tibet, but if we look back on history, change does happen.

Another interview with Rycroft can be found on The Tyee‘s website.

Nicole Rycroft of Markets Initiative busted in Beijing

Nicole Rycroft, the executive director of Markets Initiative, has been arrested in Beijing for her part in a pro-Tibet demonstration. According to her spokesperson, Bruce Walsh, Rycroft scaled a wall near the China Central Television building in downtown Beijing and unfurled a banner, which read “Free Tibet” in English and Chinese. Swaddled in a Tibetan flag, she then rapelled back down again.

Along with four other activists, Rycroft was picked up by the Beijing police shortly after the stunt took place in the early morning hours. Students for a Free Tibet, the group that organized the demonstration, has been closely monitoring the situation since then. According to the official release, the activists’ whereabouts are “currently unknown,” though Walsh says he expects that Rycroft has been released and put on a plane home. “They want the protesters to go away as quickly and quietly as possible,” he says.

In her native Australia, Rycroft was an elite track athlete who competed on a national level. She was on track to join the Olympic team before a back injury scuttled those plans.

Since then, “she’s put all her drive as an athlete into being an individual activist and humanitarian,” says Walsh. “It was really important for her to [go to Beijing] because she has strong feelings about the ideals behind the games, which she feels have been totally corrupted by what China represents.”

This isn’t the first time Rycroft has put her own safety on the line in pursuit of humanitarian goals. Before joining Markets Initiative, Rycroft worked to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in western Burma, which she blamed in part on China’s support of the Rangoon regime. “She smuggled refugees through the Burmese-Thai border jungles under mortar attack,” says Walsh. “China has been in her sights for some time.”

Walsh stresses that Rycroft took part in the demonstration as an individual, and not in her capacity at Markets Initiative.

(Below is a picture of the event, courtesy of SFA.)

BookMooch making a killing

We’ve linked to stories about BookMooch – a website that allows book lovers to swap books free of charge – before, but here’s a more in-depth look at the site and its creator, the young high tech millionaire John Buckman.

From CNET.com:

Even though BookMooch is free to members, the site generates an estimated half-million dollars in annual book sales for Amazon because of a browser plug-in called the Moochbar, which matches members’ book wish lists to Amazon’s retail inventory. For every 25 books swapped on BookMooch, at least one person buys a new book on Amazon through the Moochbar. BookMooch collects 8.34 percent on each of those Amazon sales.

“We’re making money by accident,” said Buckman, who spoke recently at a technology luncheon near his home in Berkeley, Calif.

[...]

What’s more, within the next nine months, Buckman expects to have the inventory of books–distributed among its members–that would rival that of the largest book wholesaler in the United States. BookMooch now has an inventory of about 480,000 books among its 70,000 trading members, but at its growth rate it should rival Ingram Book Company’s 1 million books by early 2009, Buckman said.

DK goes green

As part of the U.K. publishing industry’s eco-kick, Dorling Kindersley has released a series of green books – greener than all those that have come before.

The four new titles are printed using non-toxic glue and vegetable inks on recycled card, and a tree is planted for every one pulped in the process. (And, for a limited time, David Suzuki comes free with every purchase.)

The Times Online notes, though, that while green publishing is certainly admirable, it’s not cheap, and until it becomes cheaper, it may not be sustainable financially:

Manufacturing the books will cost the publisher twice the usual price, largely because DK, part of the Penguin Group, is printing it in Europe instead of the Far East to cut down on unnecessary travel.

“We are launching the range at a bit of a loss leader to see how it goes,” said Gary June, DK’s chief executive.

“We are hoping to pass some of the cost on because people will pay for ethical goods. The demand is there.”

Most publishers are trying to go green. Hachette Livre’s Little, Brown imprint already uses nothing but Forest Stewardship Council-accredited paper, whereby a tree is planted for every one used. However, demand is outstripping supply.

June also aims to produce fewer books, cutting down on the number of unsold copies that are pulped.

No more bubble envelopes

New books are not particularly fragile. Everyone knows that. In fact, that’s one of the big reasons why paper-and-ink texts are still preferred by such a wide margin over breakable, expensive-to-replace e-books and e-readers.

So it’s a bit of a mystery why the vast majority of publishers choose to send out review copies and sample copies of books in bubble envelopes.

Here at Q&Q, we try, as much as we can, to re-use these envelopes, but there’s only so much we can do. Here’s a shot of just some of the envelopes that infest our offices:

We re-use them and give them away, but they just keep piling up. They’re like Tribbles. We’re certain the situation is the same, if not much worse, at other media outlets. The most likely result is that the majority of these envelopes – which are NOT recyclable – just end up in landfill.

And so we’re asking – pleading, really – that publishers switch to using strong paper or cardboard envelopes for review and sample copies. Most warehouses do this already. It’s the most sensible, economic, and eco-friendly thing to do.

David Leonard, the book campaigner for Markets Initiative, agrees. “Obviously, the biggest environmental footprint from the publishing industry comes from the paper that the books are printed on,” Leonard told Q&Q in an an e-mail, “but environmental action with integrity should incorporate all aspects of a company’s practices. A simple shift from non-recyclable bubble wrap envelopes to recycled and recyclable cardboard packaging is a fast and easy way for a publisher to reduce their footprint, and help reduce pressure on our forests.”

So please, if you won’t do it for your bottom line, or for the environment, do it for us. Trust us: the books won’t break.

Coming up in the May Q&Q

The May 2007 issue of Quill & Quire is on its way to stores and subscribers now. It features a Science Fiction Spotlight, which includes a cover profile of star SF novelist Robert J. Sawyer, as well as a Library Special Report, which includes a look at the problem of collection management in the blockbuster era. All this plus a profile of Dundurn Press, a survey of green publishing practices, a look at the problem with (some) cookbooks, our wide-ranging selection of reviews, and more. The full contents are listed below; for subscription information, go here.

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Left of the dial

Jennifer Nix, editor-at-large at American indie press Chelsea Green Publishing, takes a shot at a number of bestselling leftist authors who publish their books with the very media conglomerates they attack in their work. The editorial appears on the AlterNet site and begins with a challenge to such authors as Michael Moore and Al Franken: “How about putting your money and ideas where your mouths are? Why not work with independent book publishers to share with the public your thoughts about progressive politics, social justice, sustainability and media reform … instead of lining the pockets of the corporate publishers (and ultimately the five or ten rich white men who control nearly every media message we read and hear in the U.S. today).” Nix then goes on to explain how Chelsea Green recently published well-known progressive author George Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant! and managed to help put the book on The New York Times bestseller list, in spite of the house’s small advertising and promotion budget. How did they do it? “We published a book about new, progressive ideals,” Nix writes, “and rather than going the traditional and lengthy turn-your-hair-gray publishing route (calling on galleys, sales reps, early reviews, and ads), we went directly to progressives to get Lakoff’s book out into the world.” This process involved, among other things, partnering with progressive media outlets to get the word out about the book.

Related links:
Read Jennifer Nix’s piece on AlterNet