Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Caroling and Winners

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The thing I love most about working in a school is being around the kids. I love their energy and enthusiasm, not to mention the funny things they say.

For instance, this conversation I overheard between two first graders working on a holiday word search.

"Did you find CAROLING?"
"No. What is CAROLING?"
"I think it's Santa's wife."

Love them!

And now, my fellow bibliophiles, some books I need to ship out. The winners from last week's giveaway are:

Myrna Foster: Wisdom's Kiss
Jackee: The Replacement
C.R. Evers: Revolution
Kelly Polark: A Great and Terrible Beauty
Tricia O'Brien: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Woo-hoo!! Congratulations one and all!! Send me your snail mail addy's and I'll get these books to you, maybe even before Christmas :)

Have a great holiday and I'll see you all next year!!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

That Time of Year

The holidays are all about gifts and giving, right? So here's my gift to a few lucky readers: books, of course! I have five to give away:
  • The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff 
  • A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
  • Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
  • Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (ARC)
  • Wisdom's Kiss by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (ARC)

Leave me a comment if you'd like to win and if your profile doesn't connect to your email, be sure to leave it in the comment as well.

LET ME KNOW WHICH BOOK YOU WOULD PREFER!

I can't guarantee that you'll get it, but you have a better chance of winning it if you tell me which one you want to read the most. You don't have to be a follower to win, but followers do get an extra entry. (There has to be some sort of reward for hanging around here!)

Five winners will be announced next Wednesday. Good luck and happy holidays!!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Amazon's Game of Monopoly

Okay, so back in May I facetiously wrote a post called, Amazon Seeks (Publishing) World Domination. It's looking less like a joke every day.

Let's recap. Amazon has six imprints: AmazonEncore (publishing overlooked books and authors), Amazon Crossing (publishing popular overseas titles for English-speaking markets), The Domino Project (publishing "Idea Manifestos" whatever that means), Montlake (publishing romance titles), Thomas & Mercer (publishing mysteries and thrillers), and 47North (publishing science fiction/fantasy/horror). They'll be launching their seventh imprint next year, headed up by publishing veteran Larry Kirshbaum. They have also taken over Audible.com and forged a dubious book-rental partnership with Overdrive (dubious because it isn't clear how authors will receive royalties on some of the rented titles). 

Their latest move? Acquiring more than 450 children's titles from Marshall Cavendish. (Here's a link to the New York Times article.) So not only are they causing unfair competition with bricks-and-mortar retailers by not charging sales tax in many states, they're also competing directly with the very companies that helped establish them as a powerhouse company: publishers.

Amazon has many positives. Their website is easy to use and they've become the go-to site for finding information on books and authors, no matter how obscure. They've also been a great resource for self-publishers. But their growing dominance as a book seller AND publishing company will continue to impact this industry in many ways. And I'm not sure how much of that impact is positive.

What do you think?
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