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Arts and cultureYou are in: North Yorkshire > Entertainment > The Arts > Arts and culture > A greener way to read  A greener way to readBy Katy Wright Local writer Jane Lovering, who lives in Ryedale, was green with envy when she discovered the extent and success of e-publishing in America. She's now enjoying the benefits of this publishing phenomenon herself. The paperback book. An innocent little thing, in terms of carbon emissions wouldn’t you say? But that book has been printed, transported, stored, transported again and you’ve probably had to get into your car to get to the bookshop in order to bring it home. That’s… well, a considerable amount of carbon, to say nothing of pollution and deforestation. Not so innocent now, is it? Until now the alternative, e-publishing, has been largely overlooked in Britain. In America it’s a huge industry, working something like this: writers submit their books by e-mail to an e-publisher. No printing, no paper waste, no transport. Those books which are accepted are sold from online shops. The edits, marketing and publicity are done by e-mail. There is no call for the postman’s repeated trundle to the front door, van engine idling in the background, or trips to the Post Office with revised editions, just a patient wait by the e-mail inbox. It’s clean, green and efficient.
You buy online by choosing your required reading and paying by credit or debit card. The book is dispatched, again by e-mail, for downloading onto your desktop computer, PDA, laptop or reading device. Imagine heading off on holiday and not having to choose between that improving literature or the latest bonkbuster, but being able to take an entire collection of e-books, all loaded onto your reading device. No more excess baggage payments because you couldn’t decide between Jilly Cooper and Let’s Speak French! The list of advantages of e-books goes on; they’re cheaper, cover a wider range of subjects, are instantly available and when you’re tired of them you can simply delete them from your machine without feeling the guilt of wasted paper. For me, the British e-book revolution can’t come soon enough. Jane Loveringlast updated: 03/06/2008 at 17:17 SEE ALSOYou are in: North Yorkshire > Entertainment > The Arts > Arts and culture > A greener way to read
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