Monday 14 December 2009

On Green Publishing

When Beatdom was first published in the summer of 2007, we made sure that our magazine was an innovation in green publishing. We didn’t want to cut down trees to make magazines that no one wanted to buy, so we made Beatdom a print-on-demand operation.

Print-on-demand is not exactly the most popular option for publishing magazines. For one thing, it pushes printing costs higher. For another it brings with it the stigma of an ill-conceived, under-edited vanity operation.

But print-on-demand allows our readers to purchase a copy of Beatdom whenever they wish, anywhere in the world, simply by using the internet. Our magazine has maintained its professional standards, ultimately pushing the boundaries of print-on-demand publishing. We don’t believe that damaging the environment is necessary to prove that you have a quality product.

Furthermore, we are very much aware of the sensitive issue of price. Beatdom is an expensive magazine and we wish it wasn’t. In an ideal world it would be free, but we have to pay the printers. What we don’t do, however, is take a cut for ourselves. The editors and writers of Beatdom are unpaid. This is a non-profit organization.

Beatdom is available for free online – through Lulu, through our website, and through Google Books. We don’t make aim to make money – we just want people to read and enjoy our product without hurting the Earth.

If you like what you read online, we encourage you to buy a copy of Beatdom. But we won't stock our magazines in stores and let the trees that made them go to waste. When you are finished with Beatdom, we invite you to share your copy with your friends and family.

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