126 Blank Sheets Of Paper From Perseus Books? Give Them Hell(ion)

Dear Seal Press/Perseus Books,

Thanks for sending me a review copy of the book Hellions: Pop Culture's Rebel Women. It looks pretty good. I might have even read it, or, at the very least, skimmed it. That is, until I looked a little closer and noticed the packaging it came in, and I have to say, Perseus Books, I'm appalled. Not only did you send a paperback book in a padded envelope, but you just might win the award for Greatest Environmental Crime Ever Committed By A Book Publicity Department because...drumroll...you also wrapped the book in 126 sheets of paper. 126 sheets of blank paper. I know this because my two equally appalled co-workers took the time to count. (Thanks, guys.)

And so I submit exhibit A as evidence:

Exhibit A

126 sheets of paper. That's one quarter of a ream. What the hell were you thinking, Perseus Books? Were you afraid the paperback would break? Do you think climate change is mere myth, fabricated by the treehugging Left? Are you Republicans? (Just kidding on that last point.)

I guess you didn't read the Women's Wear Daily story yesterday about Allure's Linda Wells, who, in her October editor's letter, declared the practice of wasteful packaging "passé": she "believes the industry 'has to move away from the Kimora Lee Simmons approach to luxury.'"

And so do you, Perseus Books.

Comments

[suec03]

It seems like a clever idea. Rather than standard packaging material that gets thrown away, fill the empty space with clean, unused, recycled content printer paper that any recipient can use! It's a bonus gift! However, choosing a smaller envelope would be better. The more weight to each package on a delivery truck, the more gas it will burn (fewer mpg).

[DRaymond]

Stupid, yes. But did you throw awasy those sheets of blank paper? I am guessing that they wound up in your printer tray and later will be recycled.

Its like I have 'green' friends who complain about foam packing peanuts. But does anybody really throw them away? Mostly they put them in a big box or bag and then use them for packing something else sometime in the future. Who knows how many times the packing peanut you get today has been used. Maybe dozens or hundreds. Yet some of the 'green alternatives' do get thrown away.

[PatA]

My local gas company sent out a 15 page letter (both sides) that "justified" the increase
that we were receiving last month. Several pages were from slick paper, with expensive
graphics, and a few pages were in letter form.
I communicated my disgust concerning their waste and I was laughed at.

[Clavis]

That wasn't blank paper; it was a review copy of Dick Cheney's new autobiography.

[Mahi_Joe]

LOL I was thinking similar..Karl Rove's new book on Ethics.

[tres_tragique]

no, no - from Palin's archives: copies of all the news articles she reads.

[JScott]

This is like those kids that roam shopping center parking lots hawking candy for some 'supposedly charitable cause' if you buy the candy it's mostly wrapper with cardboard to make it seem bigger but the candy itself is not very big and these are name brand candy companies who package this in wasteful packaging, they must devote an entire division of their company to these 'charities'.

[NoSillyName]

Sounds like a GIFT to me.

[demfriend]

We should be given the number of the copies of the paperback book they sent out so we can figure out how many trees were killed in the process of sending out the book. You know it would be like the disclaimer the film makers have to put at the end of the films that "No _____ was killed or injured during the making of this film". We should be "fair" enough to have them accountable for the amount of trees and, oh yes, the type of trees killed as that is also important to find out. After all some trees take thousands of years to grow back from the seedling stage.... If we really can whip up some people and bring more examples of this type of "killing" to the light we might be able to show why e books might have a chance of catching on.

[Shaddup]

Can I have the 126 sheets. Seriously, I'm a writer and I can't afford to print half the stuff I need to edit. And they wonder why all these big publishers go out of business... Geez.

[SurrealPumpkin]

Wow 126 mouse/note pads. I use a sheet of paper taped to the desk top for a mouse pad. It comes in handy for making notes and balancing checkbooks. When the paper finally gives up all pretense if being much of anything I add it to the compost heap and start again.

[sedum]

It's only wasteful if you in turn waste it. Otherwise, thank them for their generosity. Who know? Maybe the blank paper has more information than the book.

[annis]

LOL - & absolutely right!