Book Distribution

When Shona Burns first entered college, she was unsure of what she wanted to study. “I started out doing a business studies degree,” she recalls. “I was bored rigid. … I had met a couple of fellow students who were getting a publishing degree and found what they were talking about a lot more interesting than what I was doing myself.”

Digital rights management (DRM) is the most contentious topic in the world of digital media. The battle over DRM shows no signs of abating, and its outcome will shape the digital media landscape for decades to come.

Book manufacturers have been moving in a “green” direction for several years, giving more thought to conservation and the use of recycled materials. Lately, as book publishers and consumers have increasingly been expecting such practices, the green movement has taken on new momentum.

As the second quarter of 2009 drew to a close and a subdued BookExpo America winded to a conclusion, the news from the book publishing industry continued to be mixed at best and, in some cases, downright depressing.

Amid the gussied up romances, male action fables and screenplay-bound interpersonal dramas making up The New York Times’ trade fiction best-seller list, one book stands out like a corpse at a wedding. It’s called “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” currently the only book on the list to combine gory scenes of zombie mayhem with the romantic exploits of a beloved Victorian-era literary heroine. Nothing in the book world in recent months has made the kind of splash (or should we say, splatter) that this title has, from the frantic Internet buzz greeting the announcement in February of its publication to the huge sales following its release this spring. The book has even been added to the curriculum at several university English departments.

David Carr on Google.

An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on an experiment conducted last year by Northwest Missouri State University in which the school provided a Sony Reader to every incoming student.

"We’ve almost become accustomed to an uninterrupted flow of bad news,” said Michael Healy, executive director of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) at the organization’s sixth-annual Making Information Pay event, held May 7 at the McGraw-Hill Auditorium in New York City. Falling sales, shrinking margins, closing bookstores and job losses are among the negatives facing the industry, noted Healy.

Regarding the book manufacturing industry’s commitment to “green” principles, it could be said that a page has truly turned. Over the past decade, consideration of climate impacts and paper sourcing has become central to the industry’s approach, and, along the way, many manufacturers have discovered ways to balance the need to economize, invest in infrastructure and reduce environmental impacts—often through innovative policies and practices that manage to do all three.

Digital content enables distribution on a massive scale. A few examples: (1) the ability to inexpensively and instantaneously spam the known universe; (2) the ability to distribute video content to audiences that a small cable network would find attractive; and (3) most importantly, the ability for Ashton Kutcher to keep a million of us abreast of his every move in real time (via Twitter).