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How To Get A Children's Book Published
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Today, Roku and MP3tunes announced a partnership that will bring your iTunes music library to your television. MP3tunes, for those not familiar, is a company that provides “secure online music space” and features “unlimited listening.” The company’s website boasts, “With just a couple clicks, Locker users can sync their personal digital music and video up to ‘the cloud’ for enjoying from any web browser and a wide variety of mobile and home entertainment devices.” And starting today, you can add the Roku to that list. MP3 offers 10GB of storage for free — ad supported of course — with paid options all the way up to 200 GB. Hit the jump for the full press release.
MP3tunes and Roku Partner To Bring Personal iTunes Music Collection To TVs
An Industry First: No PC or home server required to play iTunes music libraries on Home Entertainment Systems
San Diego, CA – For the first time, music lovers can play their personal iTunes music collection on their TV without a home server. Roku, the market leader in streaming entertainment devices has added expanded support for personal music collections with the addition of MP3tunes. Available now on all Roku players, the MP3tunes channel connects securely to a customer’s personal music stored online in their MP3tunes Locker. After a few simple steps to connect and sync music to a web-based locker, any Roku becomes a rich music player.
“Now customers can get their music library to their TV without the complexity or cost of a home server,” said Michael Robertson, CEO of MP3tunes. “For less than $100, iTunes users or any music enthusiast can turn a TV into a home stereo and take advantage of the best speakers in their house.”
Roku customers can find the free MP3tunes channel in the Roku channel store. By adding this channel to their Roku, customers can access their song libraries and playlists which have historically been available only on their PC in iTunes or portable players which they sync. The MP3tunes channel defaults to a one-click shuffle mode, which immediately plays a random mix of music along with a visual display of accompanying cover art. Customers may choose to browse their music and select artists, albums or playlists to hear.
All Roku customers receive 10GB of free storage space for their music which, on average, will store music libraries up to 2,500 songs. Additional storage for larger music collections is available with MP3tunes premium locker accounts up to 200GBs. For a limited time, customers may also buy a Roku player with a $20 discount and get a free MP3tunes Premium Locker. See www.mp3tunes.com/rokubundle for more information.
“Roku customers are increasingly taking advantage of streaming music services, and now with MP3tunes we are giving them access to their full iTunes music library right on the TV,” said Jim Funk, vice president of business development for Roku, Inc. “In addition to being a terrific video player with support for Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand, and a whole host of other great sports and entertainment content, the Roku player is also a gateway to rich audio entertainment thanks to MP3tunes.”
By choosing Roku as its first launch partner in the home entertainment category, MP3tunes joins major streaming services like Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), Amazon Video On Demand (Nasdaq: AMZN), MLB.TV, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship®. The Roku digital video player joins a growing family of devices that play music from a secure MP3tunes locker including Apple iPhone, iTouch, Google Android and Logitech radios. MP3tunes’ unique open music API (www.mp3tunes.com/api) allows any net aware device for car, home, mobile to play a personal music collection.
A video tour of the service can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/user/mp3tunes#p/u/6/ctn4Dx0IGPE
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Music Unites has joined with Rolling Stone magazine this summer to present the “In Tune” concert series featuring unplugged performances by emerging and established bands. Brooklyn-based, critically acclaimed indie veterans The Fiery Furnaces, led by brother and sister duo Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger, will kick off the series with an intimate performance this Tuesday overlooking New York City from The Cooper Square Hotel Penthouse. On the road for 12 months, this is the last stop on their tour and the final chance to hear them before they began working on their new album.
“We're honored to have The Fiery Furnaces be part of Music Unites and welcome them to our community,” says Michelle Edgar, founder and executive director. “It's exciting to work with a New York based group that shares the same vision as we do and we're excited to work together and support their charitable endeavors.”
Proceeds from the event benefit Music Unites Youth Choir, made up of children from the city and its five boroughs in partnership with Young Audiences New York. Members practice weekly and are given access to well-known cultural venues for performances and the support they need to follow their dream and form their talent. Music Unites is proud to announce that the first year has been successfully funded for the choir and the organization is hoping to reach its goal of funding it for three years by fall.
“We haven't done a lot of charitable work or fundraisers. When something really special comes along its nice to be able to say yes,” Eleanor says of joining with Music Unites. “The last benefit we did was for Obama before the election so we try to choose carefully. It was hard to say no to this since it's such a great cause.”
Music has always held a special place for the Friedbergers and they have a deep understanding of the importance of choirs. They started Fiery Furnaces in 2000, but were actually involved in music much younger being raised within a musical family. Their 2005 album “Rehearsing My Choir” features their grandmother Olga Sarantos reflecting on her life and interacting with her younger self. “Our grandmother was a choir director of her church for forty years and music was always something that was very normal. It wasn't something reserved for a special occasion. We sang at family holidays. I think it's a really important part of growing up.”
Along with sponsoring a choir, Music Unites also works to keep music education in schools, something that had a deep impact on Eleanor. Despite being four years apart, she and her brother had classes together. “My brother and I both really valued our public school education especially in terms of the music. We were lucky we went to a public school where we had music classes when we were really young from the age of five to sixth grade. We had them every day or three days a week,” she continues, recalling the affect her teacher had on her. “I'll never forget him. He was this old guy who had polio as a child and had a cane and braces on his legs. You would think the kids would be scared of him but we all loved him so much.”
With the Music Unites Youth Choir children are given the opportunity to have this same kind of influence on their lives, helping them develop and grow their skills and give them direction.
“It's a shame that all kids don't have someone like that in their lives who can make music seem fun and not scary, not corny, not–just seem really natural. Our teacher was so encouraging to everyone. I think having a role model like that is really important,” says Eleanor.
Prior to the Fiery Furnaces, Matthew was a special education teacher and incorporated music into his lessons. “My brother's great gift is as a musician so when he worked in Special Ed it came naturally to him to try and use music as a tool for teaching. Some of the kids were nonverbal so music worked to get things across to them. It was a big part of the curriculum.”
Another main focuses of Music Unites is to offer children opportunities for music education, but to engage them in different genres and expose them to the many varieties of music. Eleanor still listens to the music she grew up on, noting memories of Classic Rock Record in Chicago. “I still love Led Zeppelin and the Beatles and The Who and Rolling Stones and all that stuff I've always loved.”
When asked what advice she would give to kids trying to make it in the music industry, Eleanor humbly stated that she thinks they can probably teach adults something. “Things are so confusing right now. Young kids probably have an advantage on us. They are born into this new technology that we knew nothing about. We're trying to get our heads around it still. They're going to be Twittering out of the womb. They're going to be recording on their computers and uploading it instantly to MySpace whereas to us it still feels weird to do that. We're still stuck in the old model of the music industry. I think young people have a lot to teach us in the way that the industry is going.”
Being through management companies in the past and currently without a manager, the brother and sister have even semi-seriously debated hiring a youth. “We were half joking about hiring a really young kid to be our manager, like a 12-year-old. I think that would be really cool. The young kid manager would decide everything from what our album cover would look like to what clothes we were going to wear, what songs we were going to play. Maybe we'll still do that. You have to be on your phone or online constantly. I don't want to do it. I just want to perform and make music.”
The Fiery Furnaces play different from tour to tour, trying to make it a different set. For the last ten shows of the year they have been playing an hour long 30 song medley with quick changes in a way that Eleanor describes to be “like a sporting event.” They days leading up to the charity event, the band had several New York performances at Brooklyn Bowl and Mercury Lounge. They've also moved from using lots of keyboards and synths to just playing guitar, bass, drums, vocals and creating a “rock n' roll dance party.”
For the Music Unites and Rolling Stone event they will be playing an acoustic set. Alexandra Richards will also be performing a DJ set. While Eleanor calls it a “privilege” to play in front of people, the people watching and listening know the privilege is all theirs.
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Material from:anely.ru
As I wrote a few days ago, I was informed that alleged Russian spy Mikhail Semenko had my business card. Turns out I had his information as well in my personal lap top and had hoped to meet him before my next trip to China — as his blog on the Chinese economy interested me.
There are rumors that Semenko applied for jobs at both the New America Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. I've checked with New America's director of human resources, and there is no application — so I can't confirm that he applied. He may have wanted to; New America is a cool place for youngish policy wonks.
But I met Semenko at a meeting I chaired with global strategic risk guru Ian Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group, who was speaking about his best-selling new book, The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?.
The fundamental thesis of Bremmer's fascinating book is that the biggest, most significant new feature of the global economy is the emergence of “state capitalism”. Bremmer argues that his state capitalism — as manifested in its most potent form in China — threatens both firms and states that practice more traditional laissez-faire market capitalism.
This debate on Chinese vs. American approaches to capitalism is what the handsome alleged Russian agent Mikhail Semenko came to learn about when he visited the New America Foundation on May 27, 2010. Fascinating.
Above is a short clip of my exchange with Ian Bremer on that day — and this is a link to the longer program. It would be interesting to see (I haven't had the chance to check) whether Semenko lodges any questions during the Q&A session.
The Washington Post is reporting that all or most of the alleged Russian spies are going to plead guilty and be deported to Russia as early as tomorrow. I sort of hope that Mikhail Semenko keeps up his blog from Russia — because “agent of influence” or not — his interest in key questions on how the world organizes itself is something we should all be thinking about.
– Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note. Clemons can be followed on Twitter @SCClemons
@iKid
I hope they don't fade away. They are awesome technology but I have one problem with ereaders.
The companies that produce them don't advertise like they should. They are letting Apple get away with telling consumers that the iPad is able to read book and is therefore an e reader, a bold-faced lie. Countless people believe that the iPad is better for reading books than ereaders because it can produce color and do so much more than read books.
It is near-impossible to argue an absurd contrast ratio, battery life, and free data to someone set on an Apple product, but the like of Amazon and Barnes and Noble had better find a way to do it before e readers go the way of the Kin.
One way that I think that e reader companies could cut major costs is by consolidating their online bookstores. I don't want to turn in to Gartenburg and start screaming about fragmentation, but if say, Amazon and Barnes and Noble became the only two ebook retailers, than there would be an awesome uniformity throughout the market that is missing from it now.
People are confused about buying ebooks and companies are wasting money upkeeping ebook retailers.
You could liken this revolutionized market with the Android Marketplace (Android Marketplace being the actual ebooks) and HTC, Samsung and Motorola (These companies being the OEMs). These companies make varying hardware and compete like crazy for profit and mind-share while still allowing you to buy apps from one place.
Having Barnes and Noble and Amazon in a fierce competition should keep prices down and other companies would be left with producing awesome hardware.
i also think that Barnes and Noble, Amazon and all the OEMs should agree on some sort of commission to pay to each OEM every time that OEM's ereader has been used to buy an ebook off Barnes and Noble or Amazon.
I'm sure this won't happen because many companies are convinced that their is a lot of money in purveying their own online book retailers but I am sure that consumers are hurt in this because selection is hurt, as is uniformity.
story
Material from:finanseuro.ru
How Does This Story Make You Feel?
Don't make us ask Canada. A group of scientists in Canada is developing a software program that will evaluate the biological responses of internet users, giving us insight into how the internet makes us feel.
I know what you are thinking. Canada has scientists?
Only kidding, of course, but for a brief moment our Canadian friends had a negative reaction to this story that might not have been readily apparent to the naked eye.
Aude Dufresne, a professor at the University of Montreal Department of Communications, is leading a team of researchers in creating computer software that will tell us when Canadians are mad at us. I suppose it will work on other people as well.
The software will measure everything from body heat to eye movement, heart rate to facial expression, collecting all of the data in order to let us know how others react to things on the internet.
Isn't that what forums and comment systems are for? Sure, but a lot of people in forums and comment sections lie.
See? There's that anger again.
The software is currently being tested at the Bell User Experience Centre in Québec. After that, it will likely be sold to marketing firms and internet-based companies for millions and millions of dollars. Unprecedented insight into how humans react to the internet is serious business, after all.
“With e-commerce and the multiplication of retail Web sites, it has become crucial for companies to consider the emotions of Web users,” says Professor Dufresne. “Our software is the first designed to measure emotions at conscious and preconscious levels, which will give companies a better sense of the likes and dislikes of Web users.”
Ah, what powerful biological response reading software you have! The better to market to you, my dear.
Perhaps one day this sort of functionality will be built right into websites, so all you have to do is think about how much you dislike our daily science posts without having to take up valuable commenting space.
New software to measure emotional reactions to Web
Send an email to Michael Fahey, the author of this post, at fahey@kotaku.com.
Concluding a series of posts for Short Story Month, a review of The White Road and Other Stories by Tania Hershman.
Beginning with a café in Antarctica, nothing at first seems more otherworldly than this slim collection of stories. Yet soon it becomes apparent that no matter where the stories take us–from the polar ice caps to a casino in Vegas to the interior of a spaceship–one thing remains a constant: the narratives are defined by the pull of human longings, ephemeral voices clamoring to be heard.
Often inspired by articles from The New Scientist, the sometimes extremely short stories in Tania Hershman's The White Road and Other Stories use scientific principles as a springboard into an exploration of human emotions and dilemmas.
For example, in the title story, the “white road” is that which winds through the Antarctic; the main character is a wisecracking woman from southern United States who runs a café for visitors. But beneath her tough exterior, the café owner has a dark secret that has drawn her to live at the end of the world, and to find a solution to the plague of her memories.
Some of the stories are no more than a paragraph, and could be quoted here in their entirety if it were not a violation of copyright. Yet they contain the emotional complexity and depth that one would expect in much longer fiction; in this regard, the stories are like poems. My personal favorite, Plaits, is a portrait of a romance and marriage, told with such clever nuance that the reader is pulled deep into the intertwining complexities of the relationship, a welter of feelings, even in what amounts to a couple hundred words. Line by line, the language is beautiful, building a silent symphony of images, rhythms and characters' unique voices. In such short fiction–as in a poem–every word is made to count all the more.
Some of the stories are funny, such as Space Fright. On the one hand, it is a story set in the future, when people will presumably fly spaceships with the ease that we now drive cars. On the other hand, it's a hilarious depiction of a date gone wrong–a date that just happens to take place in outer space.
As he floats helplessly near the ceiling, having lost control of the technology,
“Bill felt like he might cry. How long had it taken him to get this woman–any woman, for pity's sake–to take a spin in his new XCOR 5000, which had extra comfort features and a dual spin turbo backdrift with built-in stabilizers; how many times had he run through his space seduction scenario ('look at the view of the cosmos' – slide arm around shoulders; 'doesn't it make you feel small and insignificant?' – go in for the kiss)?” (page 19)
A remarkable thing about The White Road and Other Stories is that for all that there are over twenty stories in this collection, each character possesses a distinct voice, molded by childhood histories and informed with deep-rooted desires and loves. Where the story concepts begin with science, fiction becomes a laboratory for examining the most intimate secrets of the human heart.
writing
Getting a book published and then to hit the Best Sellers list takes a lot of guts, even more determination, tremendous amounts of creative networking and even more persistence. Have you ever wondered how to get your book to be a best seller? I have and now have a book #1 at Barnes and #1 Business Books at Amazon. This is my first published book, Wiley and by working closely with the publishing company, hammering social media and then inspiring my customers, friends and associates it looks like we will hit the NY Times Best Sellers List this upcoming week.
Here is what I have learned:
1) Don't believe anyone when they tell you it can not be done.
2) Remember it is best selling book, not best written.
3) It will require a lot of energy, effort and creativity.
The first thing I did was decide that I could do it despite all the naysayers. The second thing, was write about a book that is personal to me and relevant to many. And then I did everything I could to make sure everyone knew about it.
The book is about the importance of dominating in business and the idea that competition is NOT healthy. This was inspired as a result of the recent economic contraction. This contraction was so severe it terrified me into the reality that individuals and companies are only protected against economic uncertainty by being the dominant player in their market or sector! And don't kid yourself the same thing holds true for book sales, dominant the charts or no one will know you exist!
As we redefined our business over the last 18 months I started writing this most recent book about what I was learning as I recreated and rebuilt my business so that I could get it into a more dominant position with the hopes of being immune from economic conditions. The first title I had was, Screw The Economy, Create Your Own and then I changed it to, Don't Be a Little Bitch but Wiley convinced me those titles might be too aggressive, even offensive to some, so we ended up with, If You Aren't First, You're Last.
I don't pretend to know the exact formula for getting your book to #1 but no one else seems to know the formula either. I can tell you, the most important thing is you have to get people to know about you and your book. Quality of content is critical but getting people to know about the book is senior! This is where a lot of writers seem to err, spending too much time on content and too little time on selling and promotion. In the real world, the quality of the product is meaningless if no one knows the product exist.
The days of going on tour and promoting at book stores are over. The margins for the stores are so small that they can't make sense of the energy it takes to put together book signings. I actually offered to do this at my own expense nationwide and there were no takers! It seems like TV is almost impossible to get without taking your clothes off, cheating on your spouse or overdosing. Today you must utilize social media, blogging and then inspire existing clients, friends and those that could benefit from getting your book sold.
Two years ago I went to my first book fair and walked into McGraw Hill's booth and introduced myself with the hopes of having them publish a book for me. I actually got them interested but because of other commitments to similar books they elected to pass. I went ahead and self-published my first book, Sell to Survive, which sold over 20,000 copies in two years. Only a small amount of these were sold on Amazon and only one book store, One Stoppe Shop in Clearwater carried the book. It's interesting book stores don't seem to like self published books even if they sell – no wonder traditional book stores are having problems. This book was successful because of the efforts of my company selling directly to our clients and at my seminars and then catching on by word of mouth.
I later hooked up with a niche publishing company that focuses on business books. I ended the relationship before we went to press because it just didn't feel right. Some thought I was crazy because I finally had a publishing deal but the same day I canceled our arrangement, Wiley Publications called me. They saw me there writing and liked was I was doing and asked me if I would be interested in them publishing my next book. We made a deal and I got busy selling books.
Here are some things I learned that may help you get your book to be a best seller:
1) Go where bloggers go and write as many articles as you can about the topic of your book.
2) Survey other authors about what they have done successfully in hopes that you can get them to review, comment or involved with your book's release.
3) Consider joint ventures where others promoting your book may benefit them.
4) Build your platform that you are going to sell the book to. Publishing companies want to see that you have a way of selling this book.
5) Build your social media and start talking about the books and then hammer it to levels others would consider unreasonable!
In the three months before the book came out we added almost 10,000 fans to my Facebook page, 3000 or so on LinkedIn and Twitter and starting making entries to inspire this public about the concepts of the book. This was building our platform. The day of the book's release I literally made entries sometimes every ten minutes for 18 hours of where the book was in the rankings as it fell from obscurity to 98,000, to 287 and then to #1 on Amazon Business and #1 overall at Barnes. This spurred more interest and had my clients and friends interested in helping the book move to #1. Understand that a few entries on social networks annoy people and seems self promoting. A consistent and unreasonable pounding of social media will get your audience intrigued and involved in moving your book to #1.
Grant Cardone, Author and International Sales Expert
British Newspaper Has Given Up on Writing Headlines Entirely
The cover of yesterday's British newspaper Times & Citizen never bothered to replace the filler text for its main feature story headline. We know things are rough out there, but here's what happens when you let the copy editors go.
Send an email to Brian Moylan, the author of this post, at brian@gawker.com.
story
FanHouse:
SANDESTIN, Fla. — Making his first public appearance or comment since an investigative report that questioned the eligibility of guard Eric Bledsoe during the 2009-2010 season, Kentucky head coach John Calipari appeared at the Sandestin Hilton as a coach's meeting ended. Standing alongside the downstairs elevators, Calipari took just over three minutes of questions before ducking into an elevator and disappearing.
Read the whole story: FanHouse
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6:36PM Walt: So you had a prototype of one of your products that wound up at a bar…
6:37PM The audience just freaked out
6:38PM Walt: We don't know the whole story… I wanted to ask you about the duality to this. Some people don't approve of checkbook journalism. If what we know is true, but on the other hand the police go and don't issue a search warrant, and they grab someone's computer — there's a lot of stuff, at least with my computer I wouldn't want anyone to have, and they grab this journalists assets…
Steve: Well a guy… who can say if he's a journalist.
6:38PM Wow.
6:39PM Walt: Where do you come down on this?
Steve: There's an ongoing investigation. I can tell you what I do know, though. To make a product you need to test it. You have to carry them outside. One of our employees was carrying one. There's a debate about whether he left it in a bar, or it was stolen out of his bag. The person who found it tried to sell it, they called Engadget, they called Gizmodo.
6:41PM Steve: The person who took the phone plugged it into his roommates computer. And this guy was trying to destroy evidence… and his roommate called the police. So this is a story that's amazing — it's got theft, it's got buying stolen property, it's got extortion, I'm sure there's some sex in there (huge laughs)… the whole thing is very colorful. The DA is looking into it, and to my knowledge they have someone making sure they only see stuff that relates to this case. I don't know how it will end up.
Later in the interview…
7:25PM Kara: What do you imagine the next 10 years of your life will be about?
7:25PM Super long pause…
7:26PM Steve: You know, when this whole thing with Gizmodo happened, I got advice from people who said 'you gotta just let it slide, you shouldn't go after a journalist just because they bought stolen property and tried to extort you.' And I thought deeply about this, and I concluded the worst thing that could happen is if we change our core values and let it slide. I can't do that. I'd rather quit.
7:27PM Steve: You go back 5 or 10 years, what would you do… we're not going into that… we have the same values that we had back then. The core values are the same. We come into work wanting to do the same thing that we did back then — build the best products. Nothing makes my day more than getting a random email from someone talking about how cool the iPad is. That's what keeps me going. That's what kept me going back then, and now, and will keep me going in the future.
