Read the article at RealSimple.com
Real Simple Magazine - BookSwim
Visit Bookswim.com—a Netflix for books. Log on, choose your read, and have it mailed to your doorstep.
RS reader discount: 50 percent off the first month of any monthly plan (plans range from $10 to $60), bookswim.com. Enter the code REALSIMPLE50 at checkout.
Read the full article at TheSimpleDollar.com
Shanna writes in:
You’ve written before about how Netflix is a good deal if you’re an avid movie watcher and Gamefly is a good deal if you’re an avid video game player. You’re an avid reader. Have you ever looked at BookSwim?
……….BookSwim basically functions like Netflix for books. You can check out some number of books at a time (depending on the plan you use). They mail the books to you with a postage-paid return mailer (a bag) and you can hold onto them as long as you want. When you’re done with a book, drop it in a bag and drop the bag in the mail – a few days later, you’ll get the next one on your list. Simple as pie, and exactly like Netflix…………
There’s always a trouble reading memoirs: writers have a habit (and arguably, an obligation– otherwise, why bother paying attention?) of describing things as more meaningful, more beautiful, than most of us would perceive them. Sometimes, this insistence on plot, metaphor, and ultimate significance doesn’t translate from novels, their natural habitat, to real life, where the details are messier, the characters less consistent, and guns we saw in the first act rarely make it to the third act, much less go off. I once read of a regular blogger whose significant other broke up with her over her writing, saying he felt as if the only reason she was in the relationship was so that she would have something to write about. It’s a risky approach, treating real life like a work of art.
Mark Doty begins his heartbreaking memoir Dog Years by explaining his need to apologize for writing, of all things, about his dearly departed dogs. This is the man who wrote another memoir that so clearly evokes the feelings of grief that I could barely read a chapter on the subway without needing to pull up my hood and pretend I had allergies: Heaven’s Coast. That earlier memoir chronicled the last days of his partner Wally, who died of AIDS after they had been together for twelve years. In Dog Years, Doty mentions some of the negative reviews he had received for that earlier work– notably, one British reviewer who accused Doty of being a psychic vampire, living off the corpse of his deceased lover.
Ouch. Most of the reviews of Heaven’s Coast are overwhelmingly positive, but it’s possible to find other readers who agree with the vampire-accuser. “This book,” one anonymous online reviewer writes, “despite the horrors it sometimes documents, ends up reading like one long, shrill assertion of its own marvellous[sic] sensitivity, inviting the reader to congratulate themselves on their special ability to share in it. Sometimes bad writing is also morally questionable, and this is one of those times.”
The detractors seem to agree on a common viewpoint: that it is inappropriate for Doty to write about his loss, at least in the manner that he does; that his writing reflects to them an indulgence, even macabre delight, in airing emotions that should remain private. There’s a revulsion in their negative reviews and the hideousness of their metaphors, aside from their insensitivity– a kind of disgust that we usually reserve for obscene things.
So we come to the problem of memoir: writing about real life to make it interesting (which usually means tragic, challenging, and very occasionally hilarious) without triggering the voyeuristic feeling that we’re reading someone’s diary. I’ve come across this kneejerk revulsion to difficult memoirs, for books from The Glass Castle to Angela’s Ashes. A reader invariably accuses the author of being self-pitying, hyperbolic, whiny, even a liar.
Admittedly, in this case, Doty comes from a background in poetry. This means that when he writes about an emotion, he not only describes it, he lingers, examining the feeling in every setting, from every point of view. So accusing him of melodrama, perhaps, or self-importance, comes easily.
But what do we want when we read memoirs, if not this close examination of feelings we may or may not share but want to see someone else surviving? A man loses his partner of twelve years, a girl born to Mormons escapes after years of physical and sexual abuse, and they write their stories. Do we demand that these writers present brave faces throughout their stories, as if they had always had the strength they do now? Reading these memoirs can be so harrowing, so effective, that getting through the book makes us feel as if we’re undergoing the same difficult circumstances, inviting them onto ourselves whenever we open the pages. Most of us will find the redemption of such difficult reads in the strength and hindsight the protagonists gain after their hard-won triumphs, so our main interest lies in the ‘after’ rather than the ‘before.’ Or are these reactions instead demonstrating a belief that emotions like grief and rage should be kept private, as if they are never warranted in adults, as if we should be ashamed of them?
I wonder sometimes if we’re surrounded by too many media sources, too many stories, so we feel ashamed that our own lives aren’t bigger. Doty lost his partner, and this hurt; he also lost his dogs, and that hurt too, if not as much or in the same way. We look to writers to tell us about our own lives, help us make sense of this pour of babbling experience that never bothers to explain itself to us. Is it wrong to treat the death of a dog as something worth talking about? What makes one life experience worth noticing, the other a kind of private thought reserved for self-reflection?
I say: if a man experiences the worst loss he will endure in his life, and he needs to write about it to put his mind back together… let him linger. Let him stare as long as he needs into the place where we hide our powerful emotions, afraid that if we let them loose, we will never have the strength to navigate our lives again. And if someone else accuses him of making too much prettiness out of private grief?… well, some people drink themselves to oblivion to forget how hard life is. Some people need to tell stories of their own lives so the world will still feel beautiful, still worth inhabiting, despite the pain. What else are writers for?
-Chip
Read the article at Examiner.com
BookSwim offers book rentals for all types of books, including textbooks. The books are rented in a similar arrangement as movie rentals from Netflix.
From their Web site, the company states: “BookSwim is the first online book rental library service lending you paperbacks, hardcovers and now college textbooks Netflix®-style directly to your house, without the need to purchase! We stock all the latest bestsellers, new releases, and classics! Read your books as long as you want – no late fees! Even choose to purchase and keep the books you love! We are now also your gateway for textbook rental.”
The ways BookSwim is similar to Netflix is the books can be returned postage paid and kept for as long as the reader wants. The number of books that can be rented each month varies from one to five, depending on the plan. There is also an unlimited plan available that doesn’t limit the number of books that can be rented each month.
Referrals are encouraged at BookSwim. The BookSwim member who refers a friend gets a $10 BookSwim credit. The friend gets 50 percent off the price of creating a new account.
Read the full article and watch the video at 11Alive.com
Bookworms can read as many books as they like for free just by joining the local library. But nabbing the latest best seller could take a while.
Amber Lawson reads between 15 and 20 books per month and joined Bookswim.com after realizing she was spending $125. every month in new and used book stores.
Now she’s down to $30 per month using BookSwim.com. “You can get as many books as you want for one set price and they send me all the books I want,” she said. Prices at bookswim.com start at 9.95 per month. Bookswim.com has different plans depending on how many books per month you want to read.
The books are mailed to subscribers along with a postage paid return label. “I send back the books I’ve read and they send me the next ones on my list,” said Lawson.
Lawson said she also has the option of purchasing a book she wants to add to her collection rather than returning it.
If you have a money saving tip you can email it to vhoff@11alive.com and follow Valuesval on Twitter.com
For Valentine’s day, I contacted Allison Winn Scotch asking her if she could send me an ARC of The One That I Want so that I could give it as a gift to my wife (who was a big fan of Allison Winn Scotch’s prior novels). A few days later, a copy was in my mailbox.
My Rating: 4/5
My Review:
While I haven’t read any prior Allison Winn Scotch books, I can now say that I’m open to the possibility. I’m a picky reader, and often start a novel and never finish it. Either I have no connection with the characters, it takes too long to move, or moves too fast. I think I’ve actually finished 50% of the books I’ve started. The main character, Tilly Farmer was well painted from the beginning. While I wouldn’t say that I could see any bit of myself in the main character, I could honestly say that she was painted well and I cared about what would happen next.
I read the book in three sittings and closed the book wanting for more – to me the sign of a good book. Now a bit about the book that will hopefully convince you to give it a read:
To paraphrase the summary, The One That I Want is about a hometown girl who grows up to be a hometown woman and ends up married to her high school sweetheart, working as the high school guidance counselor. Everything seems perfect until she’s given “the gift of clarity” when she starts to see that her life wasn’t nearly as perfect as she thought.
The main character undergoes quite a few changes and the reader is taken on a roller coaster ride sitting right next to her. Personally I find that books that include premonitions or any form of fate need to be done with care. Often I see its used as extreme-foreshadowing that leaves any reader with half a brain no need to read the pages in between. When it comes to The One That I Want, this is not the case. Enough is revealed to pique ones interest yet questions are still left unanswered which drives the story well.
When all is said and done, this book will make a perfect summer beach read. Its fun yet serious and has meaning to it if one wishes to extract that kind of thing from reading books.
-Nick
(In full disclosure, I received a free copy of this book. Despite this fact, I provided an open and honest review of the book, because I value honesty above free books.)
Read the full article at SunTimes.com
Can’t turn away the latest best-selling novel even on a budget? Check out five Web sites to help you save and continue your reading habits:
• PaperBackSwap.com — Post books you’re willing to swap and earn credits when other readers take yours. You cash in the credits to grab someone else’s book offer.
• BookSwim.com — This service, similar to Netflix, lets you rent books at different levels of membership. The devout reader might check out the 11-at-a-time $60 plan.
• LibriVox.org — Download free audiobooks.
• ChiPubLib.org — Download e-books and digital books. Must be a member of the Chicago Public Library. Enter your library card number and ZIP code for downloads.
Read the full article at MomAdvice.com
What if I told you that you could read all of these books for free? Well, today we are offering a fun reader giveaway for the avid reader in you! There is a great innovative book program out there called BookSwim that is a book rental program to help feed the bookworms in your family.
For the past few months, I was given a trial membership to share with you the details of how it works. The best way I can describe it is that it is just like Netflix. They send you a stack of books that you can read, you read and keep them as long as you want, and then you drop them back in the mail to return them to the company. They will then ship your next round of books for you to enjoy and the process goes on from there. The plans start at $9.95 a month and up, which is exactly the same price you might be paying for a movie club.
For me, the rental plan would not make sense. My library is the mecca of brand new books and (it seems) has unlimited amount of copies of the bestsellers. When I lived in Massachusetts and had a dated library that was never stocked with current books, I would have given my left arm to have a membership to BookSwim.
Here’s who it makes sense to for me:
1. My readers with small children who don’t have time to enjoy a leisurely visit to the library and are instead keeping their children well-read rather than themselves.
2. My readers who don’t have a great library system or access to great free books.
3. My readers who want to switch out their movie club membership for a book membership that they can enjoy with their whole family.
Lucky for you, I am giving away a free membership to BookSwim to one lucky reader. We will be giving one reader a three month subscription on their 3-at-a-time book plan!………….
Quietly I’ve been watching the e-book pricing debate and the feuds between Amazon and many publishers. I’ve seen quite a few interesting articles on the price of e-books from heavy hitters such as Cory Doctorow (via podcasts) and articles such as this. There are tons of other articles I’ve read lately and all of them seem to be offering perspectives but very few of them (if any) provided an actual step by step solution that publishers can follow to solve this crazy complex question of HOW TO PRICE AN E-BOOK.
The solution is simple – Dutch Auctions. (wikipedia entry)
For those that are unfamiliar with a dutch auction and don’t feel like reading here’s a short summary
1) The seller sets a quantity of an item to sell, the description of the item, and a time to keep the auction open
2) Bidders get to select a price and quantity they wish to buy at. For example, they can say they are willing to pay $50 each for 10 units. Their bid is a contract and should they be a winner, they must pay and will receive the item. (The second part is key to getting people to be honest in their perceived value).
3) When the auction is over, starting with the highest price, quantities are matched until the quantity is met and that is the price that the top bidders get. (Ok, this is a mouthful, see the chart below)
EXAMPLE:
Stated Quantity: 80
Bids:
| Bid Quantity | Bid Price |
| 10 | $100 |
| 20 | $80 |
| 50 | $50 |
| 100 | $25 |
| 1000 | $20 |
| 10000 | $15 |
In this case,the quantity level would be met at the price of $50 (10 + 20 + 50), so the 80 people who bid $50+ would be sold the item at $50.
Got it? Good. Cause now comes the fun part.
If you have ever taken econ 101 or had to sit into a business meeting with a CFO, you’ve seen this before. Its the supply/demand curve. Most of the articles that have talked about e-book sales have mentioned that publishers need to figure out the supply and demand curve for e-books so they can solve the pricing problem. Well, I’m about to explain how dutch auctions will solve that problem, and how to make the data work.
The Information a Dutch Auction Provides
1) The number of people willing to pay a given price for e-books
2) The distribution of people at a given price
3) How scarcity effects price
To keep this discussion short(er) and focused, I will NOT touch upon hardcover/paperback releases or pricing.
How Does a Dutch Auction Solve This Problem?
If you look at the chart above with bid quantity and price, as you see, your quantity increases as your price decreases. In actuality, there will be a cutoff where a reduction in price will not yield a significant gain in quantity. To save on time and screen space, I will use the above table in the rest of these examples. From the data, we’ve learned that we have a demand of 11,180 from the sample size of people who knew of the auction. Based on this data, if we know 10% of our addressable market saw the auction, then we have potential sales of 111,800 (assuming that we sell it at $15). We also see that we have a potential of 11,800 if we sell it at $20. With this, we can actually plot out that supply/demand curve. (I will address data quality issues later). I’ve addressed facts #1 and #2 above. As for scarcity, based on the quantity defined in the dutch auction, you will have different price distributions (which can help address limited editions)
How Can This Be Done With Statistical Accuracy?
I have a reasonable schooling in mathematics and have held quite a few positions being “the stats guy” so I understand the importance (and irrelevance) of limited/bad data. Below are the steps to gather enough data so that the information gathered will be statistically relevant and will provide a reasonable cross section of information.
Providing Diversity Within Data:
1) For all of the following lists, they will need to be repeated for the following groups (Suggested min 5 authors per group):
a) Mass market (high recognition) authors such as James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, Stephanie Meyer
b) Niche market (high recognition within a niche) authors such as Neil Gaiman
c) Mid-market (medium recognition) authors – this would be a multi-published author with some popularity
d) Debut authors. For best results, ignore previously well known figures
e) Celebrities. It seems their putting out books in greater frequency and you can’t ignore them.
How To Collect The Data:
There are a few rules that need to be followed for any of this to work. A failure to follow any of these rules will compromise the data and provide less accurate results
1) There needs to be a limited quantity that will be provided during the dutch auction. This quantity should be less than the total demand (60% or so). Prior sales can be used as in indicator.
2) This must be the only channel in which the e-book can be purchased. There must be at least 3-4 months delay before the e-book will be available outside of this dutch auction.
3) No pricing data should be available in the auction description. Bidders must not be given starting points for comparison with such immediacy.
4) Traffic must be driven to the auction site. Quantity being sold during the auction should be driven by the expected traffic that will make it to the auction.
5) The auctions should be run during the month or two leading up to the release of the book and should end on the day the book is released (so that winning bidders can receive their e-book on the day of release)
6) Bid quantity must be fixed at 1 unit and bidders only allowed one bid. This will keep out people trying to fix results or bulk buyers. The goal is to find out what consumer demand is.
Summary:
1) Publishers should run 20-25 dutch-auctions to gather data on the supply/demand curve of books
2) Publishers should control the supply of those e-books to get an accurate idea of demand distribution
3) After data is collected, a reasonable idea of what specific types of books with different marketing spends/author recognition look like will be gained
I realize this is a blog post, and I’m speaking to a general audience, but I will be available via comments and e-mail (nruffilo@bookswim.com) if you have further questions about this.
-Nick
View the video at CBS13.com
- OR -
Read the article at CBS13.com
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― You’ve probably heard about renting textbooks, now that system applies to all books with a new website called “Bookswim.”
By their own description, Bookswim.com is like Netflix for books. For around $10 a month, you get unlimited book rentals and the shipping is absolutely free!
The books are delivered to your house and you can take as long as you need to read them. Just ship the books back when you’re done.
You can even buy the books you like after you’ve read them.
First, you sign up with the service, and then pick the books you want to read and put them in the “rental pool.”
There’s no checkout, you just wait for the books to arrive and start reading! If you have one of those e-readers, or read on your phone, they offer I-book rental as well, at ten to twenty dollars off the cover price.
And best of all, there’s no contract, and no cancellation fee, you can quit at any time.
So how do you save by renting your bestsellers?
If you bought ten books in one month, the company says this service would save you $175 by using Bookswim!
View the video at CBS13.com
- OR -
Read the article at CBS13.com
Subscribe