James Patterson is Santa for Booksellers
Six hundred booksellers will receive $500 holiday bonuses from James Patterson. “Booksellers save lives. Period. I’m happy to acknowledge them and their hard work this holiday season.”
Bookend: Lushness in the Library
The Downtown Reno Library of Washoe County, Nevada, is a boxy building from the outside—this is what patrons find inside. A plan to locate the new library in a park fell through, so Hewitt C. Wells, the architect, decided to locate the park inside the library. Trees, greenery, and a reflecting pool welcome patrons. There is no watering system, so gardener Leon Lewis has watered each plant once a week for twenty years—by hand.
Good news! New Jersey Delivers a Victory for the Freedom to Read—and for Librarians
Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, and Vermont have also enacted Freedom to Read laws. New Jersey’s law forbids pulling books from circulation because of “viewpoint discrimination” and requires schools and public libraries to establish clear policies for challenging reading materials. It also protects educators, librarians, and staffers from civil or criminal liability.
Although many people would find it annoying to be challenged regarding books, the librarian cited in this story was called a pedophile, a groomer of children, and a pornographer—and it was videoed and has been viewed over 6,000 times on YouTube. In addition, she was confronted in public and her car was vandalized, and there have been demands she be fired from her job and be arrested. Work to support Freedom to Read laws in your state.
Baker & Taylor | ePopUp Library
Pop-up restaurants are a popular way for chefs to hear feedback on their menus without the expense of a permanent location. Now, libraries are following the trend by displaying a QR code in places large numbers of people pass by: airports, hotels, restaurants, coffee bars, shopping malls (for those who wait for the actual shoppers), and more. Libraries can share curated e-books, audiobooks, and newspaper and magazine collections—no app or library card required at off-site locations.
Keep a list of research sites you never heard of:
- Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedias, monographies, magazines.
- A search for the contents of twenty thousand worldwide libraries. Find the closest copy of the rare book you need.
- Access to more than ten million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.
- A library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
- Volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost four million publications on economics and related science.
- An American state search engine on 2,200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
- One of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents; 70 percent of them are free.
100 Book Marketing Ideas For Authors – Written Word Media
Categories include: Online Presence, Content Marketing, Social Media Strategies, Traditional Media, Community Engagement, Online Book Promotion, Paid Advertising, Networking, Creative Marketing, Events and Appearances, Online Sales Strategies, Reader Engagement, Partnerships and Sponsorships, Visual Marketing, Content Distribution, Advanced Strategies, Leveraging Data, Author Branding, Utilizing Technology, Cross-Promotion
How to get your book into bookstores from Sandra Beckwith of Build Book Buzz
To Substack or Not to Substack, That Is the Question. Is it better to newsletter? Or both?
Ever think of selling your books in a grocery store? Someone did, and now you can too.
Considerations
Things to consider:
Registrations is $100
There’s a one-time $25 entry fee PER ISBN
Yearly renewal is $75
Program pays 62 percent of your book sales
You must be able to pack in and pack out
Genres include fantasy, romance, sci-fi, fiction, historical, humor, mystery, and self-help.
So far, the program is only available in Alaska, Texas, Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Louisiana, Idaho, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, California, Kentucky, Alabama, Virginia, and Maryland.
Penguin Random House has changed the wording on its copyright pages to help protect authors’ intellectual property against being used for training AI.
Can AI replace employees? Read more, as seen on LinkedIn.
Fintech firm opts for AI over hiring by Kara Reinhardt, Editor at LinkedIn News
The company’s CEO says the number of workers has dropped by 22 percent as employees retire or quit. They haven’t hired anyone in the last year but use AI to do the work of seven hundred customer service agents. He says no one quits because they are paid well.
PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans provides a comprehensive list of books banned in the 2022–2023 school year.
PEN America found 3,362 instances of individual books banned, which affected 1,557 unique titles, an increase of 33 percent from the 2021–22 school year. The bans occurred in thirty-three states, with Florida leading the nation, according to PEN America’s Banned in the USA report.
