The Paperless Book Department (PBD) at Ugly Duckling Presse (UDP) publishes and distributes books which escape attempts to keep them in one place. Though the term “paperless” has been more frequently associated with the possibilities of digital storage of language, in this case “paperless” is meant to address the basic assumptions and structures of book distribution and its relationship to how we read.

To challenge the notion that a book is an inviolable body sprung forth from a singular author, unaffected by multiplication, distribution, and interpretation by readers dispersed in space and time, the PBD seeks to publish and distribute books which call into question their own stability. The PBD hopes that such projects may result in novel ways of reading, writing, and distributing books.

The Paperless Book Department welcomes new authors and projects, and is pleased to receive comments or proposals of any kind.

An Announcement
The PBD announces upcoming projects in 2010:

Phone Books
Authors Julien Poirier and Amy Fusselman create paperless books of their own arrangement. Their books will be written to be transmitted over the phone. Readers get a phone number and appointment and call the author to receive the book. Subsequently, that reader becomes a transmitter of the book, and future readers are given the phone number of that former reader to get their book. Each reader must be a transmitter at least once, but readers (and authors) can make their phone number and time available as many times as they like.

There will be a public reading of Phone Books at PS1 on Sunday March 14th, 2010.
See Events for more details.

If you would like to propose a paperless book project, please contact paperless@uglyducklingpresse.org.