Hey there all you Swimmers, it’s been hectic on the website these last few days. We were featured on a major blog (Lifehacker.com) and received tons of traffic for it; so much that we had to temporarily remove the homepage and put up an email capture page.

A few were concerned that they were unable to get to the website during this traffic spike. With that being said, unless there is a total tragedy, you should always be able to login to your account by going directly to http://www.bookswim.com/member.php. We will never block that access.

This traffic spike unfortunately comes at a time before we’re ready to unveil our new website, which is what will allow us to be able to handle all visitors and keep everything going zippy fast.

I’m sure the site slowdown has been nothing but an inconvenience to all of you dedicated Swimmers and, pardon the pun, but we don’t want to let anyone drown.

As the site is being redeveloped, I’d like to ask you to give us some feedback on how your experience so far has been. We’re well aware of many of the current issues: faulty search engine, speed of delivery, and lack of selection, but aside from those (certainly pressing concerns) what other sorts of constructive criticism can we get from you folks. Please be brutally honest as we will be able to fix many things and make everyone’s experience at least 4 times more enjoyable.

Thanks for listening… and thanks for reading.

Many people have asked about not seeing the books they want to rent when they search for them. This has been a real issue for all members.

Let me break down how our catalog was intended to function. Our search engine sorts results by default by what we have in stock at that moment. This, along with search technology that is nowhere close to Google, can make even the most popular of books difficult to find.

For our new website, set to launch late next month, we have focused wholeheartedly on bringing our Swimmers a search engine that not only displays our stock and displays relevant results, but also “learns” as you use it to fine-tune each replicated search. We’ll talk more about this later.

“And how to search properly in the interim?”

For now, you can find a book definitively by ISBN. It will either return you the book you want, or else we don’t have it. You won’t have to search a few results pages before realizing it’s not in our catalog. One easy way to know a book’s ISBN is to look up a book on any bookseller’s website and copy and paste the ISBN number into our search engine.

And here’s a note for everyone. We consolidate ISBNs of a particular Title, so that way, even if you are searching for the hardcover ISBN, you should still find our paperback edition. The book we send you may not necessarily be the format you expected. We try our best to send out paperback books (it’s the cheapest to buy, cheapest to ship), but we will give you any edition or format that we currently have in stock or can get our hands on.

Now back to searching — even if the book can’t be found, there’s still good news. We have a Book Request service for all members.

Any books you’d like to rent that aren’t in our catalog, you can request to be added, and as long as they’re easily available, we’ll go out and buy them just for you. They will be available the same or next day your make your book requests; just include ISBN when asking for these books.

There is no other service out there that will go and buy books based specifically on your tastes. We rely on our customers to dictate to us what books they feel are important, otherwise we’re just wasting money on building a library of books no one wants.

But here are a few guidelines for books we can’t accept into our catalog:
No reference books, textbooks, computer manuals, or anything that “editions out”. No puzzles, picture books, art books, oversized coffee table books, game books, coloring books, or anything that anybody might be so inclined to mark up in the book. Basically only leisure reading fiction and non-fiction.

So don’t be shy. If you’ve been dying to read [fill in the blank here with your deepest desired literary masterpiece], make a request. We have a track record of accepting about 90% of requested books into our catalog. Chances are, someone else may just want the book you want.

BookSwim.com has partnered with RecycleBank to provide businesses and households who recycle discounted membership to BookSwim’s online book rental club.

Monroe Township, NJ – August 23, 2007 – RecycleBank, a rewards program that motivates households to recycle has recently struck a deal with BookSwim to give RecycleBank members a discounted subscription to rent books at BookSwim.com. BookSwim is a company that provides monthly book rental direct to members’ homes with no shipping costs and no late fees through their website. RecycleBank is a service that gives businesses and households who recycle rewards points based on the volume of trash they recycle. RecycleBank members can now receive 50 percent off any book rental plan for the first month of membership.

The Philadelphia-based RecycleBank approached BookSwim to become a partnering affiliate because of the environmental savings and efficiency of a BookSwim’s rental model.

“Renting a book instead of purchasing means that less paper is consumed,” says chief operating officer, Shamoon Siddiqui. “What happens to a book when someone is finished reading it? Typically, it sits around collecting dust, using up valuable space or is even thrown away! We can only hope it would be passed along to a friend or donated to charity, keeping that book alive.”

“With a book rental model, when you’re finished reading, return the book. Now other BookSwim members can enjoy that title. One printing of a book could typically satisfy twenty Swimmers which reduces the amount of paper being used and trees being cut down.”, says Siddiqui.

In addition to paper waste, fuel consumption is also saved through BookSwim’s delivery methods. If multiple members in the same location were to drive to a bookseller individually, needless fuel is consumed. The consolidation of the postal service stopping at more that one house to pick up and drop off BookSwim packages saves overall gas usage.

“Aside from the normal pastic/paper/aluminum recycling, we look for ways to become efficient by reusing our own materials. Scrap papers and box packaging now becomes the packing material sent to customers and older, un-rentable books get given to local libraries, says Siddiqui.”

BookSwim has also been on the receiving end of recycling through donated furniture and equipment. “Craigslist has been our best friend,” says chief marketing officer George Burke. Craigslist is a locality-centric classified ads service allowing for exchanges of goods. “We’ve obtained most of our desks, chairs, computers, shipping material — and even tons of books — through people on Craigslist who simply don’t want to throw away good, reusable items.”

RecycleBank sees BookSwim’s program as a step in the right direction. “As a company that was founded upon the belief that environmental initiatives can be both market-driven and simple, RecycleBank recognizes the importance of what BookSwim is doing”, says Lisa Pomerantz, marketing and communications director for RecycleBank. “We applaud BookSwim for its efforts and look forward to rewarding our loyal RecycleBank households with BookSwim’s outstanding program.”

ABOUT BOOKSWIM CORPORATION
BookSwim (http://www.bookswim.com), established June 2006, is the first full-service membership-based online paperback and hardcover book rental library club allowing subscribers to rent books shipped directly to their door with no late fees and free shipping. The company is based in Monroe Township, NJ but offers book rental service nationwide ranging from hardcover new release novels to classics, nonfiction bestsellers to children’s books. Book club subscription plans range from under $20 to $35 per month and allow up to 11 books borrowed out at a time and returned in a pre-paid bag, but members are given the option to buy.

ABOUT RECYCLEBANK
RecycleBank is a rewards program that motivates people to recycle. It does this by quickly and easily measuring the amount of material each home recycles and then converting that activity into RecycleBank reward dollars that can be used at hundreds of local and national rewards partners. RecycleBank is simple to implement, market-driven and proven to work, saving municipalities’ money and rewarding citizens for their environmental stewardship. Visit www.recyclebank.com for more information.