Foursquare users can now check in at locations mentioned in some Simon & Schuster books and get information from those books. On Tuesday, the publisher celebrated the program by giving a free copy of Howard Gordon's Gideon’s War to anyone checking in on Foursquare at the publisher’s offices.
eBookNewser has more about the program: “The presence includes tips and trivia on places in the real world from authors. For example, Suzanne Corso, author of Brooklyn Story, tells fans where they can find the best cannoli in her neighborhood."<-- super fun
All this following the news a few months ago that Simon & Schuster, among other publishers, jumped aboard the GetGlue train offering stickers like these for check-ins.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Students Prefer Printed Books
According to a DISG Press Release, despite their fondness for social networking and cell phones, most college students say they prefer textbooks in printed rather than e-text form. Nearly 75% of students said they opt for printed texts, citing a fondness for print's look and feel, as well as its permanence and ability to be resold.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Books For Decoration
Did you catch the NY Times article about people who hire someone to fill their home libraries, so that it looks nice? Turns out many books are being used for decoration, rather than reading material; they're wrapped or placed in designed boxes on shelves, to stage areas. I guess the good news is we'll never see e-books used in this fashion.
"For the spa in Philippe Starck’s Icon Brickell, the icy glass condo tower in Miami, Thatcher Wine was asked to wrap about 2,000 books in blank white paper, without titles, to provide a “textural accent” to the space. He chose mass-market hardcovers that flood the used book outlets — titles by John Grisham and Danielle Steel, or biographies of Michael Jackson, he said — because they are cheap, clean and a nice, generous size. "
"For the spa in Philippe Starck’s Icon Brickell, the icy glass condo tower in Miami, Thatcher Wine was asked to wrap about 2,000 books in blank white paper, without titles, to provide a “textural accent” to the space. He chose mass-market hardcovers that flood the used book outlets — titles by John Grisham and Danielle Steel, or biographies of Michael Jackson, he said — because they are cheap, clean and a nice, generous size. "
Multi-window Executions
Check out Intel's multi-window execution: The Chase above. Created by San Francisco agency Venables Bell & Partners and directed by Smith & Foulkes, it stages a 105-second chase across a wide variety of program windows on a computer desktop including iTunes, Facebook, YouTube, Microsoft Office and the Adobe Creative Suite. But since it's a film that simulates a multi-window environment rather than the real thing and it lacks the engagement provided by including the user's own data that The Wilderness Downtown had.
Which book publisher will be first to promote a campaign with a multi-window execution? I could see this working well for an adventure title like Dan Brown's Angels & Demons.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Cleansed Huck Finn
The new "cleansed" version of Huck Finn has stirred a lot of feathers. Check out the "trending topics" on Twitter and you'll see "Huckleberry Finn." The new edition, to be published by NewSouth, combines both the Huck and Tom books into one volume, but, more significantly, reflects its editor’s controversial decision to eliminate the “N” word from the text. What's your take?
Monday, January 3, 2011
Holiday 2010 Book Sales Trends
- The 2 biggest titles of the season were The Autobiography of Mark Twain and Cleopatra
- Fiction, which lagged behind nonfiction throughout the year, picked up steam
- Picture books outsold YA
- Bookstores are not only cutting expenses but increasing sidelines
Read more here.
Ebook Lending Club
Hey, they read books, this is an intelligent breed- what did you expect? Folks have already started a “Kindle Lending Club” through a Facebook page, which has been liked by 982 people at this point.
In order to lend a book to someone, all you need is their email address. Amazon’s lending period lasts 14 days, and during that period the lender will be unable to access the book, with rights restored to the purchaser once the two weeks are up.
Get the full story here.
Wonder if Amazon can or will stop it?
In order to lend a book to someone, all you need is their email address. Amazon’s lending period lasts 14 days, and during that period the lender will be unable to access the book, with rights restored to the purchaser once the two weeks are up.
Get the full story here.
Wonder if Amazon can or will stop it?
Kick Off The New Year
Catch The Millions 2011 Great Book Preview. While 2010 was given over to the headliners, 2011 may be a year of new discoveries. Here are some of the books they’re looking forward to — 8,000 words strong and encompassing 76 titles, it's the only 2011 book preview you will ever need.
