Oh, Those Clever Programmers!

I’m no IT guru. I can pretty well get along with word processing, web surfing, email, and the like, but no one will mistake me for a “computer guy”. Happily, there’s techie new a name for me: “Content Provider”. It means someone else does the digital stuff.

Now, when I’m not writing I’m drawing. I’m a cartoonist and illustrator, creator of a graphic novel called “Blender” (not for all audiences, just for the record). Let me tell you how wonderful it is to be working on it now rather than twenty years ago.

First, there’s the Web. What a phenomenal research tool! My work is research-intensive, so that’s a big deal. I’m always looking up how some building looks or the science behind gender expression or culturally appropriate names for Ethiopian women or whatever. It’s all there. I save time, gas and money looking things up or buying books for only one use or even going to the library.

Second, there’s the Web. Instead of waiting to finish all of my story, which may top 1,500 pages, before publishing or breaking it up into 24-page periodicals (“comic books”) I can put it up one page at a time as a ‘webcomic’, thus building readership and potential purchasers for the eventual paper edition. There are hundreds if not thousands of webcomics, many listed on the Webcomic List. 

Third, there’s the Web. I can promote Blender on various websites, talk about it on blogs and boards, email announcements to fans, put up a Facebook page for it, and receive mail and ‘hits’ from fans all over the world, without spending a penny on postage or printing.

Fourth, there’s the Web. When I’m finally ready to print the paper edition of my work I’ll be able to send the pages into the printer digitally, already knowing how many I should print from my online orders and interest from retailers.

Let me put this in context. Back in those days… Geez, I sound old… an artist would do all the work up front and come up with thousands of dollars to print 1000, 5,000, 10,000 copies of his work. Then he would go around to every comics store he could find and try to sell them. After that he would stack the remaining 90% of the cases in his basement and curse his overarching optimism.

As I pointed out in and technology can help make us much greener, and this is another example. It’s not that I won’t print on paper, but that I’ll print the right number of copies, and have few or none to recycle later. It’s not that I don’t need books (far from it!) but I can get by with fewer. It’s not that I don’t need to draw the settings live, but that I can check many details on my computer. It’s not that I don’t like good advertising graphics, but I can save great amounts of ink, paper, and postage by avoiding mass mailings. It’s not that I won’t need to sell my work, but I won’t need to do as much in person with a car and it won’t take as much time overall.

I’ve used my experience as an example, but this isn’t mere self-promotion. These ideas are broadly applicable. Most businesses can benefit from and become greener by using computer technologies more effectively. There are consultants who specialize in the field, such as Tracey Warren of Ready, Set, Grow Marketing, a participant at the a few months ago. Shoreline Green Business Program will teach it all in great detail.

The oft-promised “paperless society” is nowhere near reality, but the closer we get to it in our businesses the more efficient of natural resources we can be.