One of my readers informed me the other day that she had printed out all 16 chapters of my novel so she could read them at home. I received the news with minor horror. I would prefer that people read my book online or have the chapters downloaded to their hard drives then read them offline. Nevertheless, I am thankful that anyone would read my book, and I have no intention of pretending that I'm such a tree lover that I cannot bear to see trees cut for the purpose of printing a mere novel.

Then I started to think about the role that publishing industry can play to contribute to the simple principle that less paper products means more trees get to live longer lives and provide better air quality. A-list writers who have significant fan bases should seriously consider publishing some of their works solely in digitized form either online or offline. And there are ways to make the effort profitable. For example, they can sell advertising spaces on the pages of their novels. Prestigious newspapers and magazines are already carrying advertisements alongside their online articles. I know, there might be a “crass” element about reading a novel online while trying to ignore the ads for dating services; however, consider this: when those best-selling novels are adapted into movies which are later shown on television, we have to tolerate the TV ads too.

Think of the trees they can save and the respect they will gain from environmental groups.

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