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Last week was our first installment of both Monday Mayhem and All Roads Lead to BookSwim. We have seen quite a few crazy things that brought in viewers and we’re going to continue that until we’ve run out of crazy things to tell you about. This past Friday was also Friday the 13th, so in light of that, I will be listing 13 new crazy search terms that led people to BookSwim.
blog 21 day cleanse freston - We have a blog, but does it need to be cleansed of freston? boarsex with woman - With safe-search on, we’re the 2nd result… for a book named Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. boner slang bodypart - Willy? Wang? I couldn’t find our listing, but someone searched that and found us… book swim with the whales - Move aside, swimming with the dolphins, it’s BookSwimming with the whales! brain rules repeat to remember 30s 2 hrs - brain rules repeat to remember 30s 2 hrs, brain rules repeat to remember 30s 2 hrs… buffalo bills player paralyzed - Film at 11? cadaver studies 1800s - Wouldn’t want to confuse them with those done in the 1900s. can wine amplify spiritual focus - I don’t know but I’ll participate in the research. car does not exist - The beginning of that search term was… “Due to the economy…” chicka chicka boom boom - wikkidy wikkdy whack, yo! did mitty kill a terrorist - Mitty the Kitty was a Ditty! does anyone know of a place where you can rent books kind of like renting movies - :: Raises hand :: PICK ME! if you thought the notebook was a tearjerker, get out the hankies, pull up a chair, and get ready - I’m ready, now what?
Do you have a blog? Have you heard about us from a crazy search term? Let us know!
Book marketing in the 80’s and 90’s was, for the big publishers, a somewhat standard ordeal. It started with sending out galleys and ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) to book reviewers and magazine editors. Then traditional advertising spots were bought in the book sections of magazines/newspapers. Upon release, the author was sent around to talk shows and bookstores to talk about the book, all while displays were bought at major bookstores. While some publishers ventured out beyond that, those were the methods that worked - and why should someone do otherwise?
Well, along came the internet to shake up the advertising world. Between facebook, twitter, goodreads, LibraryThing, Shelfari, and book blogs, as well as a slew of other online media, publishers have been playing around with how to best utilize these new tools. One of the most recent trends is my topic for today: the Book Trailer.
A book trailer is almost exactly like a movie trailer - in fact, after watching quite a few of these, I was asking myself, “When is this movie coming out?” Below are a few examples of book trailers:
These are three examples but there are hundreds of these book trailers, drastically ranging in quality and length. Some of them take a humorous approach and talk more about the author, whereas others focus on the book itself.
The effectiveness of these book trailers is questionable at best. It becomes nearly impossible to draw a direct correlation of the increased (or decreased) sales of a book based off a book trailer. While a trailer that has 1,000,000 views may be considered a success when it comes to viewership, many forms of media just do not convert as well as others. That being said, trailers do open books up to a wider audience. With some claiming that the average internet user has an attention span of about nine seconds, book trailers with moving images and sounds better capture the interest of most web browsers. These trailers can reach many non-readers or occasional readers and bring better awareness.
Personally, I would prefer a sample chapter to get me interested in a book. Animation for me stimulates a different section of my brain and desires. I want to see the movie for Stephen King’s new novel (I’m sure they’ll make one) because of this trailer, not read the book. To me, the beauty of a book is that I get to use my imagination, and not be given the exact likeness of a character.
What are your thoughts on these book trailers? Do they make you want to read the book more? Does it give you desire for a movie version?
In an effort to deliver more to our faithful readers, today I introduce you to two new features of the Literary Life: Monday Mayhem and All Roads Lead to BookSwim.
Monday Mayhem is going to be a weekly post every Monday which will highlight things that we find outrageous and enjoyable. All Roads Lead to BookSwim is a short series in which we will outline all of the crazy search terms that lead people to us.
Web search is part of our lives… so much so that the search giant Google has made its way into our lexicon as a verb meaning “look up.” You may not use it in your life, but chances are you’ve heard someone say: “I’ll google it,” or “Did you google your new boyfriend?” While many of us do very simple searches and search for common things such as “chocolate chip cookie recipe” and “book rental website” others search with a very different style. To those people, we now say thank you for providing us with some hilarious content. And now, without further ado, I bring you the first installment of “All Roads Lead to BookSwim.”
(all of the below were gathered from Google Analytics and are all search terms that resulted in a click to the BookSwim.com website)
rakhi - Rakhi is an Indian festival of brothers and sisters. What’s most interesting is that quite a few people came in with this search. big ass girl - I was afraid to repeat this search in google to see where BookSwim actually resulted. To my surprise, we’re on the 2nd page of results, with few adult sites ahead of us. enough to impress a king - You’re dang right we are! big ass black girls - I’m starting to see a trend… police field operations 7th edition - I swear, I didn’t do anything illegal! rent capitalism - At first, I thought: “Duh.” Then I thought, “Irony?” Then I was like: “Ohhh…” unknown naked girls - BookSwim is not an adult website. Google may be confused? antics meaning - Despite the many dictionaries ahead of us in the search results, someone decided to try to search for the definition amongst one of our book descriptions. are you a kid looking for special opportunities? - Oooo. Pick me! Pick me! ass instead of rent - This sentence is amazing. Ass could refer to a donkey or the rear end of a human. Rent could refer to that annoying monthly bill for the dwelling in which you live or for the act of renting - such as what Netflix and BookSwim do for DVDs and books (respectively). Donkey instead of your apartment bill? Human backside instead of Transumerism?
Have you found us through some crazy method? What was the craziest search term that someone used to find your blog/website? Let us know!
Despite being a person who’s been an actor (unsuccessfully), a writer (unsuccessfully), a programmer (somewhat successfully), a businessman (not successful yet), and a husband (my wife says I’m successful but I think she’s just being nice), I’ve been asked the question “How do you know if you’ve made it on the internet?” Until today, I had absolutely no way of answering that. When I first started using the internet, my answer would have been “have your own domain name.” Now, there are 5 year olds with their own domain name with a whopping 1 visitor a day (themselves). A few years later, I would have said “when you get funding.” But, with companies like WebVan.com getting funding (think buying your groceries from amazon… Mmmm Tuscan 2% milk).
Later, I would say that you’ve made it if you’ve made money from your website, but then Google Adsense came around and allowed anyone with a mouse and 10 visitors was receiving a check from Google. Today - I believe I bring to you an ultimate measurement of what it means to ‘make it.’
A…
Tweet…
Endorsing you…
From your biggest competitor…
Today, kindle_blog - the twitter name for Amazon’s Kindle blog service, told the world of our presence. The tweet in its exactness follows:
“BookSwim.com Rental — The Literary Life - by BookSwim Online Book Rental - Kindle Edition. http://bit.ly/nB1FY”
I saw the link scroll by on my TweetDeck (program I use to monitor my drug called twitter) and nearly fell out of my chair. I followed the bit.ly link and realized it went to amazon’s page which allows you to pay for a subscription of ‘The Literary Life’ blog to be downloaded directly to your Kindle. Yeah - I know, we’re in the big leagues now. Well, I’ve gone and made it, I guess its time to retire… Or maybe I should just go back to my day job of keeping bookswim.com up and running.
Have you had an “I’ve made it moment?” I’d love to hear about it!
Bookmarks Magazine’s September/October issue featured a piece on Jorge Luis Borges - one of my favorite authors. His life is well documented on Wikipedia, so I will not go into much detail on that, but a few points of note: he at one point worked at a library and was relieved of his position due to reading and writing too much. He was also a great influence on such major authors as Umberto Eco, Carlos Fuentes, and many other Spanish writers. While his work has widely been translated and he was (and still is) widely read throughout the world, his presence on American readers’ bookshelves is limited mainly to scholars and reading fanatics.
I was introduced to Borges while in college. I took a class entitled “Experimental Literature” which opened my eyes to some very interesting works as well as some writing that was just extreme (for example, a book written without using the word “the”). As I continued my education, I took a series of classes studying this genre and did quite a bit of writing and reading, but I still found that Jorge Luis Borges’ words were most enjoyable. His book Labyrinths is the only book that I have read more than once (in fact, I’ve read it four times). What I love most about his style is how he blurs the line between truth and fiction by creating a story that is so authentic, it is unclear what is made up and what is real.
After being reminded of my enjoyment of Borges, I decided to write a short story. I wouldn’t say it is in the style of Borges, but the inspiration was there. I hope you enjoy it!
Hello readers and writers. My name is Nick Ruffilo and I am the CIO/CTO of BookSwim.com (this great website). I come to you to decide the fate of some very personal details of my life.
My life has been very much career- and education- focused, although I’ve always thought myself a romantic and a writer. And now here is where I am going to ask for your advice. I’ve toyed with being a writer many times in the past, and have written a few short stories, but none of which I was very proud. About 2 years ago, I completed a book of which I was extremely proud. The book was my proposal to my now-wife. My wife is an avid reader and has a book with her at all times (in fact, her purses are filled with books, often 3 or more each). While the courtship of my relationship may not be epic or movie-worthy, it was a bit more eventful than your average “boy meets girl” adventure. In fact, I chased her for nearly 7 years while she kept rejecting me. But, I loved her so deeply that I never let her rejections drive me away and I kept her close until she finally gave me a chance…
The book is about the journey from the first moment we met until the moment where she first gave me a chance. Throughout the 7 years, there were many close-calls with my wife and me, and I share my emotions during the whole journey. Near the end of my chase, I actually employed a few of my friends to help me design the greatest seduction. The book talks about the planning of this conquest as well as the follow through and its many blunders. It is a semi-poetic musing of my emotional journey and never-dying love.
So to all you readers and writers - I ask you - should I publish my proposal book to the world?
I will be reading every response, so please, post your comments as I am torn. There are quite a few personal and intimate details of my life, yet there is a sense that allowing others to see that side of me may be good. Also - as extra incentive to comment - if I do end up publishing, I will give a free copy away to a random commenter.
Thank you all for reading, and I do hope you comment and cast your vote.
Dear readers, I have an author interview tomorrow for an amazing rising author: Cherie Priest. In preparation for the interview, I picked up her latest book - Boneshaker (pictured left, link takes you to the BookSwim title page for that book). Despite my average reading speed, I managed to get through nearly 250 pages of the book in 2 days and am looking forward to the next 150 pages.
There are a ton of great reviews about this book, and most of the teasers really describe it well - so I won’t reiterate too much on that realm. A quote on the cover handles it well, “A steampunk-zombie-airship adventure of rollicking pace and sweeping proportions, full of wonderfully gnarly details. This book is made of irresistible.”
At first, I was expecting (and hoping, as I’m somewhat of a steam-punk guy) a sci-fi steam punk adventure of epic proportions. What surprised me was that it was so much more. In fact, there is a huge element of mystery in this book that I’ve seen left out of many book reviews and teasers. Bare in mind, I haven’t completed the book in full yet, but I am going to very shortly. Below I am going to list the reasons why I think this is a great read. If they seem to fit your fancy, make sure you add this to your pool.
The book has quite a few steampunk elements to it, although not enough to make an inventor drool. If you didn’t go to engineering school but think machines are cool - this is right up your alley. As well - if you DID go to engineering school, you won’t see anything mind-blowing but still worth it.
While I love the concept of a good zombie adventure (Book, Movie, or Video Game), I am not a fan of zombies being the main driving force. Boneshaker splashes in zombies as one piece of an intricate maze - as an accent if you will (as much as Zombies can accent anything). Great for those who love zombies as well as those who don’t.
The characters are very well thought out. Every character is given detail and history that brings them to life. This is a must for any good book in my mind, and this one executes.
It moves and it moves quickly. There is never a dull moment and rarely is there a mention of time - which is something that I found gripping. I’d be reading for three hours straight and a character would mention that night had began to fall. Another character would remark how surprising it was that time passed about the same moment as I would. Not to knock one of my favorite authors of all time (JRR Tolkien) but there is only so many pages of description about Bilbo Baggins’ cuff-links that I can read before I require a nap. Boneshaker has not bored me yet.
It is a great jump into a new genre for those who haven’t dove into science fiction/steampunk. I find that the science fiction books that I recommend to non science fiction readers tend to be received poorly. Boneshaker does a great job of not being too sci-fi as to allow the average mystery or novel reader to jump into the genre and get a taste of it before diving head-first into hardcore science fiction.
I promise to update this review after I have completed the book, but I put this out there now as I am interviewing the author Cherie Priest tomorrow and I wanted to generate some buzz as well as see if there were any questions that our audience wish to ask?
Last week was our first installment of both Monday Mayhem and All Roads Lead to BookSwim. We have seen quite a few crazy things that brought in viewers and we’re going to continue that until we’ve run out of crazy things to tell you about. This past Friday was also Friday the 13th, so in light of that, I will be listing 13 new crazy search terms that led people to BookSwim.
Bookmarks Magazine’s September/October issue featured a piece on 
Hello readers and writers. My name is Nick Ruffilo and I am the CIO/CTO of 
