The Kindle is burning up the charts for electronic gifts this Christmas, but where can you get books for someone getting them Kindle? Is there anywhere you can find an online books discount for these popular items? The variety of options is quite overwhelming, so multiple services have been created to help you find the best deals available at any given time. Check these "aggregator" sites before going elsewhere to save yourself time and money; many times they have exactly what you are looking ... |
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The ubiquity of the New York Times Bestseller list and its kin make instant winners out of their powerful voice and subsequent syndication. But what about the publishing companies? How do they choose what books to feature and which ones to throw on the discount books list?
This is all important first step in the making of a popular book writer, but what are publishers looking for? Without delving into specifics, publishers are looking for a product that they believe will become popular. But... |
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The whole retail world seems to be waiting. Waiting for a couple huge buying days that will kick off the holiday season. Black Friday is the store front version of the big day, and Cyber Monday is the online version. But are these great days to pick up your holiday gifts? In a word, yes. These two days are fantastic opportunities to get some of the biggest days of the year, and to do so well before the big rush starts around Christmas time. If you aren't into pushing yourself through the door ... Continue reading ...
The "White Pages" used to be the only place that you could find your neighbor's phone number, but in the digital age, the "White Pages" have become an atavistic approach to finding phone numbers. And while the companies putting out these books haven't yet discontinued their service, they are looking at ways to pull down the extreme cost of producing and distributing these books. One way that companies are trying to eliminate excess liability is to drop the amount of books made. AT&T is trying ... Continue reading ...
As the world marches forward to the future, we are definitely losing some pieces of our past. Book sales are dropping almost daily with the prevalence of e-books with no sign of the trend reversing. This looks to be a simple fact of our "progress" but should we be excited, or abhorred at the way things are going? Questions like these don't have easy answers, but let's explore the question together and we can come to our own conclusions.Paperback books and hardcover books so far have a complete... Continue reading ...
A recent study done by the United Nations found that only 10,000 books have been translated into Arabic in the last 1,000 years, which is roughly the same as the amount of texts translated in Spain last year alone. The biggest obstacles to the translation of Western texts into Arabic is a lack of available translators as well as a significant lack of interest in any books that are not spiritual. Although to many this may seem like a serious error in the culture of any people, a lack of want fo... Continue reading ...
The UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) book
distribution program in Zimbabwe has come up against a wall of logistical
issues that are preventing 13 million books from reaching the hands of school
children throughout the impoverished nation.
After years of civil war and a recently "fixed"
currency crises which sent inflation % to millions per year, Zimbabwe
is receiving a fair amount of attention from the United Nations. This
nation was one of the top economic and political forces in Afr... Continue reading ...
Of all the fantastic features of a e-book device, the greatest flaw has always been the inability to either share or borrow books from friends and family. One of the oldest methods of allowing for others to read new material, e-book lending has so far been in the same category as pirating; but that looks to be changing. The Kindle reader is now allowing users to borrow and lend their e-books to other Kindle users, so long as the publisher and author allow it. This could end up being quite a re... Continue reading ...
The book industry is overcome by the e-book revolution; so far this year Amazon is selling more e-books than hardcover books. And on Friday, BookBrewer announced a partnership with Borders book store, which will give independent authors the opportunity to publish and sell their e-books through Borders' eBookstore.
On the surface this development looks like another of the great partnerships driving self-publishing above traditional publishing methods, but I would argue otherwise.I believe this... Continue reading ...
To put a label such as "book" on the huge spectra of material available in bound pages is almost to degrade this greatest invention of logistics. Thinking through the material available in this hallowed form, Science texts, Historical texts, great novels of adventure and heroism, and even references that have the power to destroy civilization in their pages. But taking aside the great array of books available, all of them share a common connection; the ability to draw your mind to new worlds.... Continue reading ...
There have been numerous studies done over the decades on the effects of reading. Many times a study would be done to find a connection between books and intelligence , using such indicators as IQ. But a recent study was done to determine if there was a connection between reading and income. I believe that before we delve into the results, we should look closely at the merits of the study itself . An obvious problem with the study is that more often than not, a child that reads more in life co... |
Access to books, or information, would seem to be an international "right" by this point in our civilization, but this is not the case. Although huge strides have been made toward universal, unfettered access to books through such mediums as e-books, a major section of our population has been left out. Stevie Wonder is heading a campaign to translate billions of books into a format for blind people. He stated at the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization that more than 300... Continue reading ...
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Ever heard this before ? It's the First Amendment in the Bill Of Rights. One of those sacred texts we like to care for , keep all nice and secure in a government building ; but are we following it ? Maybe they should sell th... Continue reading ...
Ever wonder how much paper is used to issue all the books we consume every year? Americans consume more than 90 million short tons of paper and paperboard annually. That's an norm of 700 pounds of paper products per person each year. Every year in America, more than 2 billion books, 350 million magazines, and 24 billion newspapers are published according to the Technical Association for the Worldwide Pulp, Paper and Converting Industry That's a staggering number, but doesn't mean much to me,... Continue reading ...
Here I am, just another part of the machine , writing story about the Pastor who wants to burn a copy of the Koran on 9/11. But I promise , I'm looking for the trend behind the story, not trumping it up. So why would a Pastor do such a thing? Attention . Had you heard of Pastor Terry Jones and the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville Florida before this story ? Me neither. And you never would have without this story . His 50 member congregation doesn't exactly demand national atten... |
There has been quite a to-do about Stephen Hawking's new book, but does it live up to the hype? Judging by the reaction from the news corp , you'd think Stephen Hawking was a modern day Darwin, but is this really the case? Stephen Hawking called the idea of god "redundant" in his latest book, and writes that his existence is not needed to explain the origin of the universe. Wow...big news...a physicist doesn't believe in god. So, if his theories aren't all that impressive and creative, why all... |
Self-publishing is settling into new levels of influence in the publishing world. With consciousness expanding that the major publishers are nothing more than major advertising networks, a greater number of writers are turning to self-publishing as the smart option for their manuscript . A New York Times Magazine article titled, "Authors Unbound Online" reinforces this point with a quote from Virginia Hefferen which claims, “…book publishing is simply becoming self publishing” and “... Continue reading ...
Amazon reached an agreement with Penguin over the pricing of electronic books on the Kindle e-reader. Penguin is a major book publisher and their commitment was vital for the Kindle's success. Penguin has not been responding to inquiries around the agreement; and the terms have not been publicly disclosed. The two have been arguing over the terms of the agreements over digital book prices. Penguin, founded in Seattle Washington but owned by Pearson PLC from Britain, stopped supplying Amazon w... Continue reading ...
In the Internet Age, book publishers are having a harder and harder time running their company in the black. Even with the gain of hardware such as the Kindle and iPad, publishers must do an excellent job selecting and then merchandising each book they publish. But it seems there are new formats coming on the scene. The Concord Free Press is currently publishing books and then handing them away for free. There is a hitch , but it's a pretty small one at that. The Concord Free Press just a... |
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