The winner of our Battle or Words VIII, “Urban Stories”, contest is:
Congrats to Brian Doswell who wins a $100 Amazon gift card!
See what the jurors had to say and be sure to check out more current writing contests.
In the U.S., Mother’s Day and Father’s Day have become well-established holidays. Children’s Day, on the other hand, hasn’t ever become fully entrenched as an American tradition, even though it (or rather, several different Children’s Days) actually predates Mother’s and Father’s Days.
June 1st was established as International Children’s Day in 1925 at the World Conference for the Well-being of Children in Geneva, Switzerland. "National Child’s Day" was proclaimed by President George W. Bush as June 3, 2001 and in subsequent years on the first Sunday in June. There are dozens of other dates celebrated as Children’s Day around the world (see Wikipedia), but we figured we had to decide on one or two, and since June 1st is when it’s celebrated in Germany, where BookRix headquarters is located, and the first Sunday in June is when it’s official in the U.S., this seemed like the best occasion!
So…later this week we will begin a charity campaign for International Children’s Day. We will be donating $2 for every book uploaded between May 27–31 to First Book, a charity organization that provides new books to children in need.
Stay tuned for more details, but we thought you might like to get a little bit of a head start on your writing (or maybe even spend another day or two editing something you were ready to upload).
Are you attending BookExpo America? If so, be sure to stop by our booth and say “Hi!” – we’d love to meet you! We’re in booth 2122, right across from the IDPF Digital Book Zone Stage, near the Press Office.
As part of our ongoing quest to be a resource for not just authors, but the entire publishing industry, we launched a new feature today: publisher profiles. You can access the new feature via the Publishers tab on the main BookRix menu.
We’re meeting some publishers at BookExpo and expect to have quite a few publisher profiles on there soon. In the meantime, now’s an opportunity for some forward-thinking publishers to get a little extra visibility by being an early adopter. So, ATTENTION PUBLISHED AUTHORS: tell your publisher about this feature and encourage them to take advantage of it. It’s good for you, them, and their other authors.
For more details, see the press release at PR Newswire.
The O’Reilly Tools of Change Conference earlier this year focused on the impact of the digital revolution on publishing. Social media guru Chris Brogan offered his insights as to how authors can make the best use of social media:
There are some other great TOC 2010 videos on YouTube. Here are a few recommendations if you don’t have time to watch all 39 of them:
As our loyal members know, BookRix is all about community – our groups and forums are a vital part of our site. We also know that there’s a whole big social world out there that we’ve just been dabbling in. We know it’s a great way to extend our community, as well as help our authors increase their visibility.
Allow me to introduce myself…I’m Scott Allen, the new Social Media Director for BookRix.com. I’ve been in social media since long before it was even called that. I’ve written a couple of books on the topic and been a contributor to a dozen or so more. I’ve worked with a major publisher, a boutique publisher and self-publishing. I’ve also been a professional writer for the past seven years for sites including About.com, FastCompany.com, Business.com and American Express OPEN Forum. I’ll be overseeing BookRix’s social media presence, and also helping you learn more about how you can develop, publish and promote your books online.
To get started connecting with us outside our little walled garden, you can:
Also, watch this space for additional cool audio & video content, coming soon.
If you’d like to learn more about social media, I invite you to check out my first book, The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online, which, of course, is available on BookRix. It was published in 2005, so you won’t see much about Twitter or Facebook in there, but I think you’ll find it an invaluable resource for learning about how to promote your book or your business on the social web.
And if you have any ideas or suggestions on content you’d like to see, or places you’d like to see us, leave a comment below or contact me directly and let us know.
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