This post is also available in audio format on the Modern Evil Podcast, if you’d rather listen than read.

Modern Evil Press intends for all its books to be available forever. No “out of print,” no “backlist” as such. As long as I’m able to keep Modern Evil Press going, I’m going to keep all my titles in print.
 
Whatever else you know about the big publishers, know this: They print huge, huge print runs of every book they put out knowing they will not sell them all. Three to six months later, depending on how bad sales are, unsold copies are “returned” to the publishers and a full refund is paid to the book stores for every copy. (That’s right: book stores all operate on consignment!) So-called bestsellers are a little different; sometimes they actually sell through their first (or first several) print runs, but whichever one is the “last” print run – you better believe they overprinted it. Those returned books may be sold off to liquidators, but more often than not, they’re “pulped.” Presuming they recycle the paper itself, that’s still a huge waste of energy producing, shipping out, shipping back, and recycling books no one ever wanted.
 
After that, if the book was in hardback maybe it gets a paperback run with similar basic structure, and after that… It’s probably out of print. There’s no shelf space for it in book stores (because there are always new books coming out, right?), there’s no storage space for it in warehouses (for the same reason – not to mention storage costs money), and because of how book marketing works, there aren’t a lot of buyers for a title after its big 3-month push at launch. So that’s it. *poof* Gone.
 
Modern Evil Press has a different philosophy about books. I believe that if you like one of my books, you’d probably like my others. Not just future books, but past ones as well. I believe in discovery; when a new reader discovers my work, they should be able to read all of it – not just what’s new in the last year. I believe that the print-too-many, pulp-the-rest basis for the publishing industry is bizarre and wasteful, and there’s a better technology available.
 
I contract with a Print On Demand printer (Lightning Source) to have my books printed, and to keep them “in print” indefinitely. When you order a copy from any bookseller (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, or your local independent bookseller like Changing Hands or Powell’s), Lightning Source prints you exactly what you order and gets it shipped to you – about as fast as the same order could have been fulfilled from a warehouse. I order a small quantity of each title to sell direct, through this website and face to face at Art Fairs and Art Walks (I’m also an artist) and to friends, but otherwise no more copies than people have actually ordered are ever produced, and none need to be “pulped.”
 
There is an even newer technology on the verge of being placed in bookstores and libraries everywhere, called the “Espresso Book Machine” with which any book (pending publisher approval) in Lightning Source’s database and any book otherwise in the EBM network (currently millions of titles) can be produced in a few minutes with the touch of a button. I’ve already contacted Lightning Source to have my books made available, though there’s no EBM near me to try it out with. Which is to say: You can walk into a book store with one of these machines, ask for my book, and they’ll print you a copy right there, on the spot, while you wait. Within a few years, these machines should be broadly available, publishing will be turned on its head – and Modern Evil Press will be there, ready and waiting.
 
No energy wasted; no books overproduced, shipped back and forth across country, and pulped. No such thing as “out of print” and as the tech becomes more broadly available, even our print on demand copies won’t have to be shipped to you from a central facility; they’ll be printed where you are, while you wait. Want to be even more environmentally friendly? Buy the eBook version and start reading in seconds with no paper, no printing at all!
 
Modern Evil Press books are available forever, and green.