Novel Rank

Trying to figure out what book to buy? Whether you an author and you want to track your sales or you are a consumer looking for a good book, base your decision on book popularity. Novel Rank provides free Amazon Sales Rank tracking of book sales on Amazon, including Kindle Edition e-books and printed editions.

If you are an author, you can setup an account on Novel Rank to track your book sales. If you are a consumer you can see, the top ten lists of the best selling books on Amazon.ca, Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

http://www.novelrank.com/

Blog Talk Radio: A Reader’s Dream

Looking for a good book? Blog Talk Radio is where readers and writers listen and connect. Listen as authors talk about their new creations and where readers can ask questions about their favorite characters.

Channels on Blog Talk Radio that may interest you:

• Library Love Fest – Lively conversations for librarians
• Romance Radio – Best authors in romance
• The Beyond – Science Fiction authors and books
• Book Girl Club – Book clubs from around the world
• Top Shelf – Top selling authors are interviewed

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/

Write a Novel in November

National Novel Writing Month is here.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Do you write?

Do you Dream of writing the Great American Novel?

Starting at Midnight tonight you can start a month long race to the end of a Novel.

“National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.” From the NaNoWriMo website.

The Prize? Being able to say I wrote a novel this month. (You then have a whole year to edit and revise.)

The site allows you to upload your progress to share and track your progress. Message boards are active and Local groups get together and write through the month as well.

Good Luck

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Reader’s Digest Blog

When I was a kid my mom always had a copy of the Reader’s Digest lying around. After I was done folding the back of my Mad Magazine, I would occasionally open up an edition of RD and amazingly, I would always find something of interest. I really don’t read many physically-printed magazines anymore, except if I am waiting at the local barber or doctor’s office. The other day I opened up a Reader’s Digest to find that they now have a newly launched blog! The blog is work in progress, but I like it.

Reader’s Digest Blog
http://www.rd.com/blog

Parenting, Inc

I was listening to a local radio show and heard the author Pamela Paul talking about her recent book Parenting, Inc. She made some great tips about how to be a good parent.

In the fast-paced world of the Internet, people are conditioned to want quick solutions to be big tasks. To be a good parent, a fast, easy solution is not always available. Learn how you can change the way you talk to your kids by browsing this author’s Blog.

http://www.pamelapaul.com/blog/

Everything2

Everything2 claims that it’s “a collection of user-submitted writings about, well, pretty much everything.” Writers are continually submitting their rants on everything from Walter Matthau, Star Trek, Roman mythology, hockey penalties, Henry VIII, or the Bible to just name a few.

Do a search for your favorite topic and you are bound to discover something new!

http://everything2.com/

Cliche Finder

Don’t put all your eggs in on basket! It looks like you are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Cliches are all around us. Sometimes you don’t even know you’re using one, or perhaps you’d like to incorporate a new one into your vocabulary. Get 10 random cliches or search for a specific one. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel, and more fun than a toothache…

http://www.westegg.com/cliche/

Government Sites Help

When I was a kid, I sent away for a free Government directory that was an incredible list of free services offered by Uncle Sam. I had to write my name neatly on a 5″ x 8″ card, put in the mail and wait 3-5 weeks for my catalog. Today that has all changed with the Internet, now I can just logon to the net and get even more information. Here is a listing of great government sites that I recently found in my local newspaper. The hub of all these sites listed below is the Federal Citizen Information Center website.

Federal Citizen Information Center
Find out information on cars, computers, education, employment, family, federal programs, food, health, housing, money, small business, travel, consumer help, protecting children, recalls, scam and frauds.
pueblo.gsa.gov

Consumer Product Safety Commission
This is where you can find out about product safety and product recalls.
cpsc.gov

Caring For Aging Parents
Federal Trade Commission
Get up-to-date information on how to deter fraud against the elderly and long-term health care.
ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/services/apact/index.html

Protecting Children
Discover how you can control what information your children see.
ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/online/kidsprivacy.htm

Pension and Health Care
Find out tips on how to get the most benefits.
dol.gov/ebsa/publications/protecting_benefits.html

Air Travel
Learn how to travel efficiently.
airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/pubs.htm

Do you FURL?

Today, I was at my local library and in my usual fashion I was admiring the design of some new brochures that were on display. One read, “Do you FURL?”. All I could think of was Don Knots character Ralph Furley from Three’s Company. Please forgive me as I digress. I attempted to decipher what a FURL was, but I still wasn’t sure from the explanation on the brochure.

I walked up to the reference desk to inquire about FURL and to my dismay they really weren’t sure either. So I logged on to the site and discovered that a FURL is like a blog, but for librarians. Everyday a group of librarians post interesting links and new stories on an array of subjects on their website.

Here’s what the site says, “Librarians at Cuyahoga Public Library have saved valuable and interesting news, web sites, and other online information to FURL in the following areas: Health & Medicine, Education, Genealogy and Music.”

Do you FURL? Explore a new way of receiving information online

Playaway, A New Audio Format

During my daily commute, I recently started listening to audio books on CD so instead of mindlessly listening to Howard Stern, I can learn something worth while. I recently listened to Love Is The Killer App by Tim Sanders and The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. Now a company from Chagrin Falls, Ohio has essentially put audio books on an Ipod Shuffle. Findaway World LLC co-founder Christopher Celeste explains that they have created a device called a Playaway which is a book that is preloaded on a digital player. The player is the size of a credit card and they mirror a book cover. They actually look like mini-books.

The player is unique because it works without a separate listening device such as a CD or mp3 player. Instead of downloading a mp3 or buying an audio book on a CD, you just collect these new fangled audio books like you would anything else. Unlike the traditional music player, which give you the ability to load audio onto them, the Playaway player is the book. Why is this a big deal?

It just points to the fact that people are still not ready to give up something tangible to represent an audio book. With explosion of Podcasting, the creation of homemade radio shows that you can download and put on your Ipod, consumers are expressing the fact that they want new unique content. Everything is going digital and now most audio books are being offered on audible.com, but a digital file is not same as an audio book. You can hold your Ipod with the file on it, but you still aren’t getting the artwork you would with a traditional CD or book. Now with Playaway you can the audio, the artwork and the technology!

Look for the Playaway to hit your local bookstores in October this year.http://www.playawaydigital.com/