The Literary Life

From the staff of BookSwim.com

Month: November, 2007

Taking stock and giving thanks

November 21, 2007

It’s a quarter to six this Wednesday evening, fifteen minutes before the Bookswim offices close for the night and the Thanksgiving holiday. We’re winding down toward evening and this is the first chance we’ve had in awhile to slow down and take stock of everything that’s happened the past few months. A lot has changed since we first launched this May: we received praise, criticism, requests we hadn’t anticipated, suggestions that couldn’t have been more helpful, and an outpouring of support from avid readers across the country. In the end, we have a lot to be thankful for.

Comments and feedback from many of our customers have helped us improve all aspects of the site: our catalog, our delivery system, our website’s design. Over a thousand readers from Florida to Oregon have chosen to join us and assist our development into what we are today, a dynamic site that continues to adapt to what you want. After many requests, we’re now offering virtual gift cards so you can wrap the gift of reading under the Christmas tree. Just go to http://www.bookswim.com/gift.html and give your friends and family anywhere from a 2-book-a-month plan for your busy college friend to an 11-book-a-month-plan for your speedreading Aunt Edna, from anywhere from one month to six months. You can send the card via email for a classy last-minute gift or print out a physical coupon to wrap and present in person, whichever suits you best. What’s more, we’ve teamed up with an ecological organization called Eco-Libris so for every gift card we sell during the ‘07 holiday season, we will plant an evergreen tree in reforestation efforts around the world. It’s another way we’re trying to make reading a friendlier, easier hobby. See our press release on this at: http://www.bookswim.com/blog/?p=26

Most of all, though, we’re thankful for the patience and enthusiastic support from all the customers who have stuck with us through our rough spots and our golden times. Here are some of the comments we’ve received:

“By the way… I LOVE BookSwim. I tell all my “reading” friends about it. I spent hundreds of dollars a month on books, and found the library to be tedious, with long wait lists. This is such a great site.”

–Maureen R.

“Thank you for being so diligent about following up with me! What great customer service!”

–Anna S.

“Thank you SO much! We really appreciate your willingness to purchase books. We are new members, but so far absolutely LOVE BookSwim.”

–Karen P.

This is what keeps us going through the occasionally long hours as we continue working to give you the books you want, when you want. From us to you, thank you.

From George, Shamoon, Aldon, Olga, Chip, Jules, and Dawn

BookSwim Rental Plants Trees for Holiday Gift Purchases

November 19, 2007, MONROE, NJ—BookSwim.com, the premier online book rental service for hardcovers and paperbacks, today launched a holiday gift card program to sponsor the planting of holiday evergreen trees through the country with the help of Eco-Libris, a service that balances out book production by planting trees. For every online gift card purchased at BookSwim.com for any amount during the 2007 holiday gift season, BookSwim promises the planting of a new holiday evergreen tree in various reforestation projects throughout the world.

“About 20 million trees are cut down annually for virgin paper used in the production of books sold in the U.S. alone,” says Raz Godelnik, Eco-Libris’ CEO. Eco-Libris serves environmental betterment this holiday season by balancing out virgin paper used in book printing production by allowing readers to sponsor tree plantings for the books they own.

“When given as Chanukah and Christmas gifts, every BookSwim gift card purchased will balance out the printing of non-rented books by planting a tree through Eco-Libris,” says chief marketing officer George Burke.

“Book rental gift cards make great last minute gifts for parents, for seniors who may not be able to make it to the bookstore or library, kids who need a constant supply of fresh books, and of course friends and coworkers. And now, the holiday gift giver can be proud of the dual nature of the honorable gifts of both reading and replenishing nature.”

BookSwim’s book rental model is the ideal distribution schema for environmentally conscious readers. “Renting a book instead of purchasing means that less paper is consumed and, ultimately, less trees are cut down,” says chief operating officer, Shamoon Siddiqui.

All trees will be tallied by the beginning of January and will be planted through Eco-Libris’ planting partners in depleted forests throughout 2008.

BookSwim gift cards can be purchased in any denomination at: http://www.bookswim.com/gift.html Consumers can select the plan they’d like or the amount of time they’d like to pay as a guideline; a price then pops up in the price box and the consumer can alter it as they wish.

ABOUT BOOKSWIM CORPORATION
BookSwim (http://www.bookswim.com), established June 2006, is the first full-service 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, 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 $15 to $36 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.

Philadelpia Style Magazine: Nerds Unite!

Look at the Original article as a pdf

Nerds Unite!
Web sites for bibliophiles offer new ways to explore the world of books. BookSwim.com provides a Netflix-style service to those whose power-reading habits can get pricey with frequent trips to the bookstore. For $19.99 a month, BookSwim will mail you three books at a time to be returned by mail (postage paid by BookSwim) whenever you’re finished. Also new online is GoodReads.com,a social networking site like a librarian-loaded MySpace. You can find out what your friends are reading, share reviews about your latest finds and even meet new friends based on your literary tastes.

Real Simple Magazine: “Why Not?” by Suzanne Rust

Look at the Original article as a pdf

Why Not?

Save on Books

The cost of all those best sellers – or the wait for them to show up at the library – can cramp your bookwork style. Subscribe to BookSwim.com to rent classics and new titles, with free shipping both to and from your home. It’s like Netflix for books. Subscription plans range from $15 a month for two books at a time to $36 for 11. Plus, no more library late fees.