Online Book Rental Company Continues its Growth as it Enters Acclaimed Business Incubator Program

NEWARK, NJ — BookSwim.com (http://www.bookswim.com/), America’s first and only online service that rents paperback and hardcover books (Netflix-style), has been accepted into the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s (NJIT) Enterprise Development Center (http://www.njit-edc.org). As part of this incubator program, BookSwim.com has moved their headquarters from Aberdeen, New Jersey, to NJIT’s Newark campus.

BookSwim’s acceptance into the NJIT incubator program is the result of the company’s continuing growth, as it is working to become the definitive Web service for renting books. Originally started as an idea between two book lovers, George Burke and his business partner Shamoon Siddiqui, BookSwim was founded after they realized that most people at the local bookstore wanted to stay and read books, but not necessarily purchase them. Since mailing out their first book in March of 2007, BookSwim has sent over 100,000 books.

“We are thrilled to have been accepted to this program which is completely dedicated to the growth and success of New Jersey technology start-ups like BookSwim,” said George Burke, founder and chairman of BookSwim.com. “With our new home at NJIT’s incubator, we will grow our business to reach our goals to put more books in people’s hands and to have 1,000,000 books rented through BookSwim by 2010.”

“The NJIT Enterprise Development Center gives new technology companies the opportunity to develop resources and expand their vision in an environment that aides them every step of the way,” said Jerry Creighton, Sr., executive director, NJIT Enterprise Development Center. “We are happy to have BookSwim join the program as a means to assist this growing company.”

About BookSwim.com
BookSwim (www.bookswim.com), launched in May 2007, is the first and only online paperback and hardcover book rental library club, allowing subscribers to rent books with free shipping both ways, and no due dates or late fees. The site provides book rental service nationwide, offering hardcover new releases to paperback classics, and bestsellers to children’s books. BookSwim subscription plans start at $9.95 per month and allow as many as 11 books borrowed at a time, with an option for members to purchase the books they love.

About NJIT Enterprise Development Center
Since 1988, NJIT’s Enterprise Development Center has enabled inventors to move innovative products out of the laboratory and into the marketplace. A high-tech business incubator housed in two of Newark buildings, the Center provides office and lab space, financial help, business and technical services, and the shared expertise of the center’s managers. The Center is open to for-profit enterprises, operating fewer than four years and that offer new technologies. The companies must have a business plan, and show evidence that they will be likely to benefit from the three-year tenancies available. The Center has graduated more than 75 companies.
NJIT, New Jersey’s science and technology university, at the edge in knowledge, enrolls more than 8,000 students in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in 92 degree programs offered by six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College and College of Computing Sciences. NJIT is renowned for expertise in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. In 2006, Princeton Review named NJIT among the nation’s top 25 campuses for technology and top 150 for best value. U.S. News & World Report’s 2007 Annual Guide to America’s Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities.

Read the press release at Rutgers.edu

NEWARK AND NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — An online book rental service based on the successful Netflix model, and computer classes for young children are getting their start in New Jersey as the winning business ideas in this year’s 8th annual Rutgers Business Plan Competition, hosted by Rutgers Business School and sponsored by the Sales Executive Foundation of New Jersey.

The first-place team, led by Shamoon Siddiqui, age 26, who graduated just last week with his MBA from Rutgers Business School, received a cash prize of $20,000 for BookSwim (bookswim.com). Launched as a pilot program last year by Siddiqui and his partner George Burke, the service is based on the “simple philosophy” of helping people to read more while spending less. Subscribers pay a monthly fee, similar to Netflix, and receive a pool of books limited only by how fast they can read them.

“George and I love to read and used to go to Barnes & Noble everyday, but then it was no longer practical,” explained Siddiqui. “We figured that if we had this problem, then other people also have the same problem.”

The second-place team, led by Rutgers Business School MBA student Leslie Loberger, 38, and consisting of her husband, Glen Fineman (Rutgers MBA ’06), and Phil Bringuier, (Rutgers MBA student) received $15,000 for its plan to launch KMF Classes, LLC. Utilizing software licensed from Imagine Tomorrow, KMF will teach children, ages 2 to 7, computer, thinking and problem-solving skills in a variety of settings. They plan to start holding classes in daycare centers this summer, and then to expand into other locations.

Loberger explained, the purpose of the business is to provide children with “a safe, caring learning environment” while their parents are busy with other activities.

More than just a competition, “it is a reflection of Rutgers Business School’s strong corporate partnerships and its emphasis on preparing its students and graduates to succeed in applying business concepts to real-world challenges,” says Michael R. Cooper, PhD., Dean of Rutgers Business School.

He continued, “the program offers developing entrepreneurs the opportunity to gain one-on-one feedback from prominent business executives and to take part in business planning workshops and networking events, enabling them to further develop their entrepreneurial skills and to cultivate valuable connections and mentoring relationships with alumni and friends of Rutgers Business School.”

The objective of the Rutgers Business School Business Plan Competition, overseen by Finance and Economics department faculty member Fernando Alvarez, Ph.D., is to encourage the development of businesses plans that have the potential to be funded and launched, and become an engine of growth and job creation in New Jersey. The competition is open to all Rutgers students and recent graduates, but each team must include at least one Rutgers Business School student playing a leadership role within the business.

The program is supported by the Sales Executive Foundation of New Jersey, which provides the cash prizes. Serving as judges this year were John Wilson, president and CEO of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of New Jersey, and secretary and treasurer of the Sales Executive Foundation; and Richard Romano, retired corporate vice president of AT&T, president of the Sales Executive Foundation, Distinguished Executive-in-Residence at Rutgers Business School, and member of the school’s Board of Advisers.

When reviewing the business plans, Wilson explained, “The judges are looking for a complete submission, the feasibility of implementation and creativity.” The BookSwim team, he said, “had a fully developed business plan, and are up and running and ready to proceed to the next level.” And the KMF team demonstrated that “this is a group ready for a pilot”

This year’s program drew 34 entries.

Siddiqui said it was those learning opportunities that actually led to the BookSwim team’s success this year. He and his partner originally submitted their plan in the 2007 competition and made it to the final round. They were not selected as a winning team that time, but rather told they needed to further develop their business plan, determine their capital costs and establish their growth strategies.

“They asked the right questions, and we were forced to come with the answers,” said Siddiqui.
For more information on the Rutgers Business Plan Competition, visit bplan.rutgers.edu.

For information about Rutgers Business School and its undergraduate and graduate degree programs, visit www.business.rutgers.edu.

Monroe, NJ — March 4, 2008 — As today’s primary could be the final stand in the Democratic presidential contest, metrics regarding candidates’ popularity are pouring in. Among them, the nation’s leader in online book rental, BookSwim.com (often dubbed “Netflix for books”), reports that books written by Sen. Obama are out-renting Sen. Clinton’s by a staggering 25:1.

The rental demand for Sen. Obama’s 2006 release, “The Audacity of Hope”, combined with his earlier, “Dreams from my Father” (1995), make Obama BookSwim’s top-renting non-fiction author - even beating out best-selling “Eat, Pray, Love” author, Elizabeth Gilbert.

Sen. Obama’s high book-rental volume could mean many different things for the presidential hopeful. Voters may be scrambling to read his works because he is seen as an “unknown entity” to much of America, whereas Sen. Clinton’s public (and private) life is undeniably well-recognized by the American people.

Because Sen. Clinton’s latest book was published three years prior to Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope”, BookSwim’s research additionally combines Sen. Clinton’s two titles, “It Takes a Village” (1996) and “Living History” (2003), with those of husband, former President Bill Clinton, entitled “My Life” (2002) and his recent bestseller, “Giving” (2007). Though a marked shift, Barack Obama’s books still lead by a ratio of 11 to 1.

Even when all Clinton titles are combined with Carl Bernstein’s recent pro-Clinton, “A Woman in Charge”, Obama retains the book lead with a 5 to 1 rental ratio. Though dramatic in contrast, BookSwim’s study of Americans’ reading preference reflects the recent turnaround in the candidates’ polls.

Candidates often hope that book revenue may increase campaign funding, and though BookSwim.com reports purchasing several more copies of Obama’s works in recent months, keeping up with demand from online book rental subscribers, neither Sen. Obama nor Sen. Clinton reap profits from repeat rental of their books beyond the initial purchase.

###

About BookSwim Corporation
BookSwim (www.bookswim.com), launched in May, 2007, is America’s only nationwide hardcover/ paperback online book rental library club with free shipping both ways, no due dates or late fees. Memberships start at $15/month and allow as many as 11 books borrowed at a time. Members can even buy books they love.

MONROE, NJ December 18, 2007 – BookSwim.com, America’s only hardcover & paperback online book rental service, has introduced e-gift cards to relieve holiday stress and reduce post-holiday clutter. With online book rental, done Netflix-style, BookSwim delivers an all-you-can-read buffet of books, while planting evergreen trees to help offset those cut down this holiday season, as well as those cut down, year round, for new book production.

With Christmas banging on our door like an angry downstairs neighbor, we’re all feeling the pressure to get to the store, fight the crowds (metaphorically, we hope), and find gifts that show we care. After waiting on just one line at the local bookstore (and feeling the pain of the sub-total), shoppers are wishing there was a better way. Luckily, BookSwim.com has the holiday blues in its crosshairs.

BookSwim.com’s book rental service gift cards provides gift-givers with the comfort of shopping from home, while ensuring that the subscription they give will never be re-gifted and certainly won’t become moot by December 26th.

A monthly plan, with free shipping, both ways, is cheaper than a new hardcover and subscribers manage their own online book rental pool, so they’ll always get books they want. Like Netflix, when the subscriber is finished with a batch of books, they simply put them in the mail and new books from the customized online pool get shipped. BookSwim offers nearly 200,000 titles, unlimited books per month, no due dates and no late fees, ever.

BookSwim.com even plants evergreens for every gift card sold this holiday season, through a partnership with EcoLibris.net, so it really is the gift that keeps on giving for those of us dreaming of a “Green Christmas”. Contributing to reforestation efforts throughout Central America and Africa, Eco-Libris aims to balance out virgin paper used in book printing production. Encouraging renting rather than buying, BookSwim co-founder, Shamoon Siddiqui, touts the book service as “a great way for subscribers to limit their carbon footprint”, while co-founder, George Burke, adds, “It’s both good conscience and good business to take care of the earth.”

##############

ABOUT BOOKSWIM CORPORATION
BookSwim (www.bookswim.com), launched in May, 2007, is the first and only online paperback and hardcover book rental library club allowing subscribers to rent books, with free home shipping, both ways, no due dates or late fees. BookSwim provides book rental service nationwide, from hardcover new releases, to paperback classics, bestsellers and children’s books. Founded by college friends, Shamoon Siddiqui and George Burke, BookSwim subscription plans start at under $15 per month and allow as many as 11 books borrowed at a time. Members can even buy books they fall in love with.

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.

If we had horns, we’d toot them… hard… because BookSwim.com is announcing the much anticipated release of a 2-at-a-time Unlimited Rental Plan at $9.99 for the first month with the use of promo code 2planfor999. Thereafter, it’s only $14.99 monthly.

Folks, you’ve asked for it. You said “But I don’t read enough to justify the 3-Plan” and so we answered. Let’s offer you 2 books at a time and drop the price.

This is a plan that is meant to entice less-than-avid readers into a rental lifestyle; a try-before-you-buy mindset.

Here’s how the 2-At-a-Time Plan works.

* Receive Your first 2 books and take as long as you want to read.
* When you finish both books, send them back in return for 2 MORE titles from your book list!

Unfortunately, this is the one and only rental plan that doesn’t leave you with books in hand while the other(s) are in transit. Because shipping can take longer (especially further away from our Central NJ warehouse), readers who are new to Swimming may see the value in our higher plans after having a taste of book rental.