“The Great Flood of Western Thought,”and "Capitalist Punishment" are two titles scheduled for a January 2012 release from Green Effect Media. GEM released “Journey to the Middle of the Earth: A Photographic Expedition” earlier this year.

Green Effect Media is a local, “micro” publishing house launched in 2009, based in Bolingbrook, Illinois.

GEM released its freshman title, “Why, Mommy, Why?” in 2009. Sales were strong, encouraging the start-up company to move forward with itsradical publishing model.

May people said Green Effect Media (GEM) founder Tom Tortorich was crazy for founding a publishing company focused on hard-copy sales in today’s digital world.

“Someone’s got to take up the pen to defend print,” said Tortorich.

E-books are rapidly eclipsing the sales of hard-copy books, with sales seeing a 159% increase in Q1 2011 alone. Hard-copy book sales declined 23% in the same period.

“If hard-copy books aren’t going to be relegated to the shelves of collectors as they were before paperbacks came around in the 1930s, publishers have to embrace digital technology, not fear it’s the death knell for print,” Tortorich said.

With digital printing, a single copy can be produced at a cost comparable with a mass market edition.

Creative entrepreneurial businesses like GEM, whose business model hinges on smaller volume, community-based sales supports local economies. GEM works with independent bookstores, libraries and other local outlets.

“Short-run publishing will never take any fat cats to dinner. But it just might put new ideas on the table,” Tortorich said. “National chain bookstores and newspapers are failing because their model pursues enormous profits and mass-market sales. When they sink, they bring whole economies down with them. Greed isn’t good.”

“Buying and selling locally is a recipe to help your own community thrive,” he said.

GEM released its freshman title, “Why, Mommy, Why?” in 2009. Tortorich admits it was an experiment. But sales were strong, encouraging him to move forward with his radical publishing model. GEM released “Journey to the Middle of the Earth: A Photographic Expedition” earlier this year, and “The Great Flood of Western Thought,” is scheduled for a January 2012 release.

For more information, visit www.GreenEffectMedia.com or email publisher@GreenEffectMedia.com