Earth Day Campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason no. 27

We continue with our Earth Day campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers in celebration of the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day!

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we publish here the 41 best replies we receive, one reply a day. All replies are gathered and presented on the Earth Day 2011 page.

Reason no. 27:
I would plant a tree because a tree can be so much more than a book, than an offset for the paper I use or for the emissions I send into the atmosphere. A tree for me defines place, provokes thought, and is a subject of amazement. It is a tiny tick mark in time, like a book is, but forever timeless. - Joost

Thank you Joost for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your books!

Joost, just like all the other readers whose replies we'll publish, is winning one of the great 41 prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, Left Neglected by Lisa Genova and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, Spit That Out! by Paige Wolf and The Healthy Home by Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.

Every day we'll give further details on one of the prizes. Today we present you with the audiobook Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama.

Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama - Meditations and Spiritual Wisdom on Achieving Lasting Happiness from His Holiness the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama inspired millions around the world with his wisdom and compassion in The Art of Happiness. Now, in The Essence of Happiness, some of His Holiness’s most unforgettable insights are presented in a meditative audiobook that listeners will return to again and again. Offering sage advice on defeating day-to-day depression, anxiety, anger, jealousy, and other emotions that get in the way of true happiness, The Essence of Happiness contains transforming reflections on overcoming suffering and obstacles to create a fulfilled, joyous life.

The Essence of Happiness is truly an indispensable guide for living.

If you want to participate in the campaign, we still have some spots available so please send us your reply it to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Interested in borrowing an ebook? Check our comparison of BookLending and eBookFling

As ebook lending becomes a growing trend, we see more websites that fulfill the role of marketplace, matching ebook lenders and borrowers.

But who are these websites? And what they offer those of you who want to take advantage of the feature allowing Kindle and Nook users to swap ebooks with each others? We decided to provide you with a comparison of the three websites that seems to lead the ebook lending market - eBookFling, BookLending and Lendle.

At least that was our initial intention. We contacted the owners of these 3 websites and asked them to answer couple of questions, but only Catherine MacDonald of BookLending and George Burke of eBookFling got back to us. Although we wrote couple of times to Jeff Croft of Lendle, we didn't hear back from him. Therefore it's going to be a comparison between BookLending and eBookFling.

We hope you will find it useful and if you have any information or experiences with one of these websites you would like to add, feel free to add a comment!

First, a short video from each of the two websites and then a comparison between the two:







1. Who created the website?
BookLending (BL): Catherine MacDonald
eBookFling (EF): BookSwim

2. Lending Length
BL: 14 days
EF: 14 days

3. Where you're located?
BL: We are Canadians who are currently traveling abroad
EF: New Jersey

4. How many users you have? Are you serving also non-US users?
BL: We have over 19,000 users and we do serve non-US users.
EF: We crossed the 10,000 user mark in less than a week after launching. We've been growing steadily. These are all US-based members with plans to expand as soon as Amazon/B&N open up lending overseas.

5. Is it only available to both Kindle and Nook users?
BL: Yes, only Kindle users.
EF: Available to both Kindle and Nook users

6. Is it a free service?
BL: Yes. You don't need to pay anything to borrow ebooks, no matter if you make e-books available for loan or not.
EF: Yes, but only if other users borrow books from you. You get one credit point for every book you lend which can be used to borrow another ebook. But if you don't earn credit points (i.e. no one wants to borrow your books..), you will need buy credits for $1.99 per credit.

7. Do you need to loan books to others to be able to borrow?
BL: No. There's no such requirement.
EF: No, but then you'll need to pay $1.99 for every ebook you want to borrow.

8. What's your best user-friendly feature?
BL: Members love our Browse by Genre and "Read It Today" features.
EF: eBookFling.com allows members to manage notifications on books in their wishlist so they're not inundated with "this book is now available" emails for books they're not yet ready to read. Similarly, we send out loan requests one at a time, rather than blast all lenders every time someone asks to borrow a book.

9. How many people operate your business?
BL: Right now, we have a core group of two plus our wonderful development team.
EF: 4 of BookSwim's team initially founded the eBookFling.com service and we're expanding. We just hired a social media manager and are on the lookout for an ad-sales person.

10. What Is your business model?
BL: Commission and display advertising based.
EF: Revenue from credits, commission on ebook sales and in the future selling ad space and providing other services (acting as marketing tool for authors and publishers for example)

11. In one sentence - What differentiate you from the other websites?
BL: We're not just a free, fair and easy-to-use platform, but also a community of Kindle book enthusiasts.
EF: A. We manage the entire lend process by masking a book requester's email address which keeps the privacy of all our members while also allowing us to track when a book has been successfully delivered and reaching out to others if the loan never came through. B. Our use of credits as a swapping currency ensures that there is never any deficit of available books to borrow. C. As far as I'm aware, eBookFling.com is the only service with Nook and Kindle titles, allowing for more availability of books.

For more information visit eBookFling at http://ebookfling.com/ and BookLending at http://www.booklending.com/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Barnes & Noble Bankruptcy Index: No news this week (Only plans for Android Apps on Nook..)

Nothing important happened this week and this week our B&N bankruptcy index is showing no change. Just a short reminder - As Borders filed for bankruptcy, we look at Barnes & Noble, the nation's largest book chain to see if they will follow Borders and also go into bankruptcy and if so, when exactly.

To do it more analytically we launched few weeks ago a new B&N Bankruptcy Index, which is based on 10 parameters, which receive a grade between 1-10 (1 - worst grade, 10 - best grade). Hence we receive a 0-100 point index scale, which we divide into several ranges as follows:

90-100: B&N is in an excellent shape. Couldn't be better!
80-89: B&N is doing great. Bankruptcy is no longer a real threat.
70-79: B&N could do better and has to be cautious of bankruptcy.
60-69: B&N doesn't look too good and bankruptcy is becoming a more realistic threat.
50-59: Bankruptcy is a clear and present danger.
49 and less: Red alert! Bankruptcy is just around the corner and is likely to happen within a short time frame.

We will check the B&N Bankruptcy Index every Thursday, updating each one of the parameters included in the index and will analyze the trend. You can follow the weekly changes in the index from the day it was launched on the Barnes and Noble Bankruptcy Index page on our website.

So here's our update for this week (in brackets is last week's grade):

1. Confidence of the stock market in B&N
This parameter will look at the performance of the B&N stock (symbol: BKS) in the last week. The performance of B&N's stock is an indication of the confidence the market has in the ability of B&N to maintain a viable business.

So let's look at last week's figures:

3/30: $9.75
4/6: $9.58
Change: -1.77%

As you can see, B&N's stock fell slightly down last week (-1.8%). Just for comparison, Amazon went up 1.8% last week and the S&P500 Index also gained 0.55%.

It doesn't look like anything significant happened this week on the stock market and therefore this week's grade for this parameter stays the same: 4.5 (4.5)

2. What analysts say on B&N

We didn't find any references this week (I told you it was a quiet week..) and therefore our grade stays the same: 5.5 (5.5)

3. New strategy to regain sales in the brick and mortar stores
Just like Borders, B&N still doesn't have yet a clear and comprehensive strategy that will transform their brick and mortar stores from a liability back to an asset. Nothing happened this week, but I want to take this opportunity and mention the article I published this week on Triple Pundit, offering B&N to consider a green strategy for its stores. This week's grade stays the same: 4 (4)

4. What B&N is saying about itself
No updates here. This week's grade for this parameter stays the same: 6 (6)

5. Steps B&N is taking
Nothing happened this week (only few development on the digital front, which you can find more details on under parameter 8 - the strength of the digital business). This week's grade stays the same: 6 (6)

6. Competitors
This parameter will mainly look into Borders and how its problems affect B&N. This week Borders, according to the NYT, "presented a restructuring plan to its creditors on Wednesday that promised publishers and landlords a sleeker, more efficient company poised to emerge successfully from bankruptcy through increased online sales and revamped stores." Publishers, according to the article, "characterized the plan as unrealistic and said they were more convinced than ever that Borders would be forced to sell itself or liquidate." Good or bad news for B&N? We'll see about it. In the meantime, our grade stays the same: 5 (5)

7. Financial strength
Couple of weeks ago Barnes & Noble published the results for the third quarter. We don't have any updates for this week and our grade stays the same: 7 (7)

8. Strength of the digital business
This was the most active part in B&N this week - AllThingsD reported earlier today that "Barnes & Noble Moves Forward With Plans To Allow Android Apps on Nook", explainning that "The company released new tools for those looking to create apps for the e-reader and said it plans to offer developers 70 percent of revenue generated through its store, with Barnes & Noble getting the remaining 30 percent. Free apps will also be allowed, as well as the ability for developers to offer trial versions of their programs." CrunchGear reported that "Barnes & Noble just announced that they’re opening their Nook platform to developers and will now begin accepting apps."

Also, TechCrunch reported that "a week after Amazon Kindle New York Times subscribers received word that their subscriptions granted them free access to the paper’s website, Barnes & Noble Nook subscribers will also soon be able to access NYTimes.com for free."

This week's grade stays the same: 8 (8)

9. Sense of urgency
It looks like B&N still think they have time and are not worried at all, or at least not worried enough to begin doing something with their brick and mortar stores (again, we don't believe more toys in the stores and extra room for the Nook is a winning strategy). If we can learn something from the Borders' case, it's how fast things go bad when your reach a certain tipping point of financial distress or distrust of your stakeholders (consumers or publishers for example). This week's grade stays the same: 5.5 (5.5)

10. General feeling
This parameter will be an indication of our impression of all the materials read and analyzed for this index. Our feeling that things are still not looking too good for B&N hasn't changed this week and this parameter's grade stays the same: 5.5 (5.5)

This week's Barnes & Noble Bankruptcy Index: 57 points (57)

As you can see, this week's index is set at 57 points, which means B&N is getting deeper into the 50-59 zone: Bankruptcy is a clear and present danger. It's still not the red zone but it means that bankruptcy is getting closer and is becoming a real threat to B&N. See you next Thursday.

To view the weekly changes in the index visit Barnes and Noble Bankruptcy Index on our website.

You can find more resources on the future of bookstores on our website at www.ecolibris.net/bookstores_future.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Working to green the book industry!

Earth Day 2011 Campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason no. 26

We continue with our Earth Day campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers in celebration of the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day!

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we publish here the 41 best replies we receive, one reply a day. All replies are gathered and presented on the Earth Day 2011 page.

Reason no. 26:
Planting trees helps the environment. It helps offset the damage we have caused to our planet. If we don't take care of our plants and wildlife, movies like "Wall-e" and "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" will become a reality for our great great great grandchildren. I care to plant trees so that future generations don't have to wonder "What's a hummingbird look like? Were butterflies really colorful?Was the sky really blue? - Susy O'Rourke, Barefoot Books Ambassador

Thank you Susy for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your books!

Susy, just like all the other readers whose replies we'll publish, is winning one of the great 41 prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, Left Neglected by Lisa Genova and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, Spit That Out! by Paige Wolf and The Healthy Home by Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.

Every day we'll give further details on one of the prizes. Today we present you with the book Greening Your Small Business: How to Improve Your Bottom Line, Grow Your Brand, Satisfy Your Customers - and Save the Planet by Jennifer Kaplan.

Greening Your Small Business: How to Improve Your Bottom Line, Grow Your Brand, Satisfy Your Customers - and Save the Planet by Jennifer Kaplan - The ultimate resource for small business owners who want to go green without going broke.

Greening Your Small Business is the definitive resource for those who want their small businesses to be cutting- edge, competitive, profitable, and eco-conscious. Filled with stories from small business owners of all stripes, Greening Your Small Business addresses every aspect of going green, from basics such as recycling, reducing waste, energy efficiency, and reducing the IT footprint, to more in-depth concerns such as green marketing and communications, green business travel, and green employee benefits.

For companies too small to hire consultants to draft and implement green policies and practices, this guide is designed for easy use, featuring:

• Simple ways to make the workplace greener
• Two plans of action for going green (divided into two levels)
• Definitions for green terminology and jargon

We still have some spots available so please send us your reply to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Our weekly list of 10 recommended green ebooks - Naked Idealism and 9 more great green ebooks!

We're late in one day (that what happens when you go to a BIEC meeting..), but our weekly update of 10 recommendations on green ebooks is right here!

Just a reminder - Each week we present you here with list of 10 recommended e-books on a variety of green issues - from climate change and conservation to sustainable living and green marketing. Most of these green ebooks are new and were either released in the last month or two or about to be released (but already available as ebooks).

The links of these ebooks are to Amazon.com and I apologize in advance to all the Nook, iPad, Kobo and Sony Reader owners. I hope you can easily find an ebook you'll like on other ebookstores. This is also the place to disclose that we're taking part in Amazon's affiliate program and therefore will receive a small percentage of every purchase made using these links. We hope you don't mind! You can find all the lists published so far on our recommended green ebooks webpage.

Without further ado, here's this week's list of 10 recommended green e-books:

1. Naked Idealism by Dave Wheitner - Divergent Drummer Publications (March 23, 2011)

2. Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs: The Thrivalist's Guide to Life Without Oil by Wendy Brown - New Society Publishers (April 1, 2011)

3. Planning a Green and Ethical Wedding by Denise Duffield-Thomas - Amazon Digital Services (March 27, 2011)

4. Green Facilities : Industrial and Commercial LEED Certification (GreenSource) by Greg Winkler - McGraw-Hill Professional (March 25, 2011)

5. Hybrid Organizations by Brewster Boyd, Nina Henning, Emily Reyna, Daniel E. Wang and Matthew D. Welch- Greenleaf Publishing (March 7, 2011)

6. The Social Entrepreneur's Handbook: How to Start, Build, and Run a Business That Improves the World by Rupert Scofield - McGraw-Hill (April 25, 2011)

7. The Age of Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business by Wane Visser - Wiley (March 8, 2011)

8. How to be a Social Entrepreneur: Make Money and Change the World by Robert Ashton - Capstone (March 23, 2011)

9. The Virtuous Consumer by Leslie Garrett - New World Library (February 16, 2011)

10. Leading Change toward Sustainability by Bob Doppelt - Greenleaf Publishing(March 7, 2011)

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Earth Day 2011 - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason no. 25

We continue with our Earth Day campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers in celebration of the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day!

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we publish here the 41 best replies we receive, one reply a day. All replies are gathered and presented on the Earth Day 2011 page.

Reason no. 25:
Because we need more oxygen for the growing population on this planet and to help the polluted atmosphere - Susan Newman (who also designed the campaign's logo!)

Thank you Susan for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your books!

Susan, just like all the other readers whose replies we'll publish, is winning one of the great 41 prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, Left Neglected by Lisa Genova and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, Spit That Out! by Paige Wolf and The Healthy Home by Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.

Every day we'll give further details on one of the prizes. Today we present you with the book Green Beginnings: The Story of How We Built Our Green & Sustainable Home by Avrim and Vicky Topel.

Green Beginnings: The Story of How We Built Our Green & Sustainable Home by Avrim and Vicky Topel - This book is the first of its’ kind to present the subject matter both experimentally and from a homeowner’s perspective. Using non-technical, easy-to-understand, plain English, the authors identify and define green and sustainable concepts, materials and systems, and explain how these various components come together and relate to each other in today’s green homes.

Their homespun narrative style of storytelling makes readers feel as though they are conversing with two old friends and simplifies learning and comprehension. Following the projects timeline, the authors inject experiential advice at key planning and construction phases when applicable.

Topics include selecting architects, builders and other professionals, the LEED For Homes program, and cite the benefits green homes avail homeowners. Construction activities are illustrated with 100 sequenced color photographs, and a glossary of green and sustainable terms and language provides the reader with a reference guide.

We still have some spots available so please send us your reply to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Earth Day Campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason no. 24

We continue with our Earth Day campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers in celebration of the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day!

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we publish here the 41 best replies we receive, one reply a day. All replies are gathered and presented on the Earth Day 2011 page.

Reason mo. 24:

Planting a tree in honor of the books we create is entirely a selfish decision. For such a small price, the payback for our Earth is enormous…not only do trees provide shade from the sun, a pleasant rustling of leaves in the wind, homes to bugs and birds and mammals, and at the end of their lives new resources for our paper needs, during their lives they provide us with the oxygen our very lives depend upon. As long as we keep producing excessive amounts of carbon dioxide, we depend on nature to right our wasteful ways, and it is our duty to help recreate the forests we have been destroying for centuries.- Penny Eifrig, Publisher, Eifrig Publishing

Thank you Penny for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your books!

We want to mention again the great prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, Left Neglected by Lisa Genova and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, Spit That Out! by Paige Wolf, Menu Dating by Tristan Coopersmith and The Healthy Home by Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.

Every day we'll give further details on one of the prizes. Today we present you with the audiobook American Assassin by Vince Flynn:

American Assassin by Vince Flynn - #1 New York Times bestseling author Vince Flynn introduces the young Mitch Rapp on his first assignment, a mission of vengeance that made him a CIA superagent— and a terrorist's worst nightmare.

Two decades after the Cold War, CIA Operations Director Thomas Stansfield must prepare his people for the next conflict. The rise of Islamic terrorism is coming, and it needs to be met abroad before it reaches America's shores. Stansfield directs his protÉgÉe, Irene Kennedy, and his old colleague, Stan Hurley, to form a new group of clandestine operatives—men who do not exist—who will work outside the normal chain of command. Kennedy finds the ideal candidate in the wake of the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing terrorist attack. . . .

Among the thousands of family and friends grieving the victims is Mitch Rapp, a gifted college athlete, who wants only one thing: retribution. Six months of intense training prepare him to bring the war to the enemy's doorstep, and he does so with brutal efficiency, leaving a trail of bodies from Istanbul and across Europe, to Beirut. But there, the hunter becomes the hunted: the enemy has prepared a trap, and the American assassin will need every ounce of skill and cunning if he is to survive the warravaged city and its deadly terrorist factions.

If you want to participate in the campaign, we still have some spots available so please send us your reply, either by adding a comment here or sending it to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!