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PUBLISHING WITHOUT PERISHING. Environmental Books Are Alive, Well and Selling Steadily

The market for environmental books as changed considerably since the surge of green book sales that followed the watershed of Earth Day 1990. While the large New York trade book companies have withdrawn from what they see as a glutted market, specialty houses are thriving by filling a niche that has branched into a diverse array of topical estuaries.

After Earth Day's huge success, new and mainstream houses rushed to line up environmental titles, swelling the number of "environmental studies" publishers listed in the industry directory, Literary Marketplace, from less than 100 to some 250. Unlike the smaller environmental presses which have a modest but steadily expanding core readership, the big houses had sales projections that failed to materialize.

Sales numbers aren't everything, of course. The avowed aim of the Worldwatch Institute is to reach a qualified audience of policy and decision makers. "We care about presence, not profits," says Communications Director James Perry, citing a philosophy not shared by many of the large New York houses. The organization tries to have a real policy impact by getting its books to "the right people" through niche marketing and even selected giveaway programs.

State of the World and Vital Signs, Worldwatch's renowned annual reports by writer and editor extraordinaire Lester R. Brown, were presented to President Clinton by media mogul Ted Turner. Who Will Feed China?, a paper adapted from Full House, a book from Worldwatch's "Environmental Alert" series, which warns about diminishing world food capacity, elicited worldwide attention and a denunciation (and subsequent retraction) from the Chinese government. Full House may redirect United Nations agricultural strategies, according to Perry.

Sales of State of the World and Vital Signs have grown steadily since their first publication in 1984, says an editor at W.W. Norton, the New York firm that sells Worldwatch's list to the trade. Perry reports that about half its revenues result from book sales, a high percentage for nonprofit organizations.

Working in the trenches below the mass market range of the big commercial houses are environmental specialty companies, which produce works in such fields as resource management, plant and animal bio-diversity, and management of public lands.

Launched in 1984 and based in Washington, D.C., Island Press is already one of the nation's premier environmental publisher, publishers, with a mission statement of commitment to a broad range of ecological concerns. With a backlist of 150 books, Island Press is publishing 40 titles this year, up from 32 last year, and is well on its way to the 60 per year it hopes to release. Its 1994 sales were $2.5 million, up from $2.2 million in 1993.

Island Press's books provide "solution-oriented information" for people working in the field, says Marketing Director Sam Dorrance. He envisions a growing eco-awareness as public health is affected by worsening environmental conditions, raising issues of law, justice and accountability.

According to Dorrance, textbook adoptions of Island Press titles doubled last year, as many universities added environmental studies programs to their curricula. Saving Nature's Legacy, an Island Press book on how to conserve biodiversity, is used in management courses for the Bureau of Land Management.

To gain more of a retail store presence, Island Press launched its Shearwater Books imprint last year with the publication of Henry David Thoreau's rediscovered manuscript Faith in a Seed. Naturalist, the autobiography of Harvard entomologist E.O. Wilson, received high-profile reviews in the New York Times Book Review and The New Yorker, and is selling well.

Peter Beren, publisher publisher of Sierra Club Books, a trailblazer in environmental publishing since 1960, reports the backlist sales for his company have grown since the advent of Barnes and Noble's 2,550 "super-stores." Based in San Francisco and distributed by Random House to the book trade, Sierra Club Books, the publishing arm of the conservation organization, grosses about $5 million annually in books and calendars, part of which comes through mail order, membership sales and four retail stores of its own.

Sierra Club Books attracted wide attention with last year's Material World, a photographic study of 30 "average" families from around the globe portrayed with all their possessions in front of their homes, produced with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

On a somewhat smaller scale, though no less vibrant, is the Vermont-based Chelsea Green, founded in 1984 by Ian and Margo Baldwin, which will have six titles out in 1996. According to Production Editor Suzanne Shepherd, the company's current bestseller is The Straw Bale House, a "how to" about this ecologically sound, very inexpensive building method. The book has gone through three printings in five months, and Shepherd predicts it will eventually sell 25,000 copies. A companion volume, The Rammed Earth House, will come out in 1996.

"Environmental publishing is a challenging niche," said Shepherd. "Some of our titles have sold well because we concentrate on producing a few very high-quality books." The company's mission statement is publishing books that "try and find new and practical ways to live more lightly--and sustainably--on the planet."

An important dimension to environmental publishing is the K-12 educational-market, which for some firms or divisions accounts for the majority of sales. Yet another component of the industry to watch is interactive media, which has gained a foothold in the education and library markets as well as in the bookstore trade.

Environmental publishing may not represent a pot of gold, but for focused publishers with quality, not quantity in mind, it's a healthy niche.

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