The trade association Book Industry Study Group (BISG) has released version 1.0 of its BookDROP technical specification, a new standard intended to support the search and discovery of digital book content on the Web.
According to BISG, BookDROP defines a set of HTTP transactions between a publisher’s digital-book archive and the Web sites of the publisher’s syndication partners. The overall goal of the standard is to encourage the discovery, search, browse and distribution of digital book content across the Web, while allowing publishers to manage the quality and availability of their content.
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) began the work that led to BookDROP, and subsequent development was managed by BISG’s Digital Standards Committee, a cross-industry group comprising representatives from publishing companies, book-sellers, search engines and other organizations.
“The central idea behind BookDROP is a simple one: to standardize a set of HTTP calls that allows a publisher’s channel partners to connect easily and efficiently to a publisher’s digital book content," says BISG Executive Director Michael Healy. "It’s the result of a lot of effort from a lot of different people—not just publishers, but booksellers, systems and service suppliers—and the product of cooperation between the AAP and BISG.”
"The $64,000 question is whether these standards are still relevant in light of Google Book Search, particularly with the Google-AAP case [now] settled," commented Andrew Brenneman, Book Business columnist and managing director of Finitiv, a digital media consultancy. "Has the issue of discovery already been solved?"
The BookDROP technical specification may be downloaded at http://www.BISG.org/committees/digitalstandards.html
Borders Group Inc. has agreed to accept books from HarperStudio—the HarperCollins imprint started by former Hyperion Books publisher Robert S. Miller—on a nonreturnable basis, according to The Wall Street Journal. When Miller, who serves as HarperStudio's president and publisher, joined HarperCollins in the spring to develop the new publishing group, one of the goals of the group was to eliminate the practice of allowing book-sellers to return unsold copies of books.
Under the terms of the deal, Borders will receive a greater discount on initial orders of books published by HarperStudio—58 percent to 63 percent off the cover price instead of the usual 48 percent—in exchange for not returning any unsold books to the publisher.
"The idea of taking inventory and then shipping it back isn't a good idea for anybody. We're open to all publishers to discuss alternatives to the traditional return model," says Robert Gruen, Borders' executive vice president of merchandising and marketing.
"Returns have never made sense in our business, and with the recent economic downturn, publishers and book-sellers are more open than before to experimenting with models that might decrease waste and increase profit," says Miller.
The 3rd Annual SustainPrint Awards, produced by Publishing Executive and Book Business magazines, will recognize two book and two magazine publishing companies for their achievements in environmental sustainability. Nominations for this year's awards are currently being accepted (visit www.SustainPrint.com for a nomination form); the deadline is Dec. 31. A 'green' celebration of the award winners will take place Monday evening, March 23, 2009, at the New York Marriott Marquis, Times Square, N.Y., during the 2009 Publishing Business Conference & Expo.
Established in 2007 by SustainPrint.com, the awards are given in two categories:
• Newcomers of the Year: Acknowledges companies that have recently implemented substantial corporate sustainability policies or practices
• Longtime Leaders: Recognizes companies who have had environmental policies or practices in place for several years
Past Newcomer of the Year recipients include:
• Everyday with Rachel Ray, published by the Readers' Digest Association
• Nickelodeon, published by the Nickelodeon Magazine Group
• Scholastic Inc.
• Random House Inc.
Past Longtime Leader recipients include:
• Chelsea Green Publishing
• Lantern Books
• Fast Company magazine
• The National Wildlife Federation
Nominations are evaluated for their use of recycled-content paper and use of paper certified as forest-friendly by an environmental certification organization. Also considered are the bleaching processes used, the company's energy conservation efforts and carbon-footprint-reduction efforts, among other criteria.
Margo Baldwin, publisher and president of independent publishing company Chelsea Green, has worked for a quarter of a century not only to publish books about sustainable living, but also to run her business with the same strong environmental focus. An example of this environmentally focused mission, the company's Green Partners program offers discounts and other perks to retailers that purchase books on a no-returns basis. According to Baldwin, the response has been extremely positive, and she hopes the program will continue to grow as more book-sellers sign up in the coming year. Here, Baldwin discusses details behind the program with Book Business Extra:
Book Business Extra: How did the idea for the Green Partners program develop?
Baldwin: … The idea came out of our desire to start to solve the returns problem and make the environmental consequences of returns more visible [to] retailers as well as other publishers. We were involved in the [nonprofit advocacy organization] Green Press Initiative, but felt that we needed to go further than the use of recycled paper. …
We launched [the program] at [BookExpo America] in 2007, with our in-house sales team leading the outreach, [and] I reached out to the trade media to publicize it ….
Extra: How do retailers benefit from the program?
Baldwin: … [Program participants] get a 50-percent discount and free freight. Or, you could get 52 percent off and not get free freight. …You get a special mailing. You [are] first in line to get your shipments. You really do get treated well. You also get first dibs on author events.
… I don’t think [retailers] would do it [without the incentives]. … I do think there’s a strong commitment from the book-sellers, but they wouldn’t do it without the discounts. You have to marry the two things together. They’re having a hard time surviving, too. … It takes time, energy and money to send books back. If the industry ever looked at that, they’d see the economic benefits [of a no-returns policy].
Extra: How have book-sellers responded to the program so far?
Baldwin: … I think we’re up to 42 retailers that we’re doing it with currently. I think everyone considers it a success. Certainly, we feel it has been. … We just like anything that reduces [returns]. In these hard economic times, the industry needs to look at those returns to see if it’s [a practice] that needs to survive. …
… Our business with our Green Partners is up something like 80 percent over the business that we were doing before. I would say that's definitely a win-win situation.
Extra: Do you hope to do away completely with returns?
Baldwin: … Would we like to see our direct retail go nonreturnable? Sure. … The biggest thing is how you would be able to do business with a national chain. Amazon is already nonreturnable. Most of the key independents are nonreturnable. You're really talking about the last remaining segment of the retail sector—the national chain.
Extra: What other environmentally friendly actions have you taken as a publisher that you're particularly proud of?
Baldwin: Mainly publishing important and inspirational books about the environment like, "The Man Who Planted Trees," "Limits to Growth," "An Unreasonable Woman" and "Not One Drop." Our long-term commitment to using recycled paper, starting in 1985 with the publication of "The Man Who Planted Trees," with a portion of the royalties [going] to Global ReLeaf to plant trees. ...
Check out the January/February issue of Book Business magazine for an in-depth interview with Margo Baldwin, including a discussion of her decision to sell “Obama's Challenge” exclusively through Amazon.com for the first few weeks of its release and the subsequent backlash from other book-sellers.