Wednesday, July 22, 2009

A winner on our giveaway of "What Do You See?: A Lift-the-Flap Book About Endangered Animals"

We also had a giveaway following our review of "What Do You See?: A Lift-the-Flap Book About Endangered Animals" by Amy Schimler, and we have a winner!

We asked you to share with us what is your or your kid's favorite animal and got many many great replies - from dogs and cats to giraffes and rats! The chosen animal of our winner, Jayne @ Misplaced City Girl was no other than frogs. Here is what she wrote:

Tosha likes tree frogs. And she'll jump around the house like a frog. Especially after her grandparents have given her bag of Starburst to take home.
Congrats Jayne! You won a copy of this great book and we'll also plant a tree for it and send you with it our "One tree planted for this book" sticker.

Thank you to all the other participants who shared their favorite animals with us. And of course thanks to Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing that contributed this book. We'll have more Little Green Books reviewed on our blog (and giveaways!) so stay tuned!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green reading

And we have a winner on our giveaway of "The Green Year"

We had a giveaway following our review of "The Green Year: 365 Small Things You Can Do to Make a Big Difference" by Jodi Helmer, and we have a winner!

We asked you to share with us a tip of your own - one small step to go green that you successfully adopted. We got great tips and our winner is Annie who adopted what seems to be (at least to fathers like me) a very challenging though rewarding green practice - cloth diapers. Here is what she wrote:

Well- we have been trying to go green by adopting cloth diapers last year! They are making a come back!!!

Since our decision to do the cloth diapers, our whole look on waste has change naturally. We use cloth napkins at dinner time and we use dish towels more than anyone I know! The little things you do can make a huge difference!

Congrats Annie. You won a copy of this great book and we'll also plant a tree for it and send you with it our "One tree planted for this book" sticker.

Thank you to all the other participants who shared their great stories with us.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green reading

Is Target's book club the new Oprah's book club?

A very interesting article on the New York Times ("Target Can Make Sleepy Titles Into Best Sellers") today about a retailer that is becoming an influential player in the book industry - Target. Yes, Target.

They're not selling maybe as much as Amazon and B&N do, but as Motoko Rich explains in the article "through its book club, as well as a program it calls Bookmarked Breakout, both started in 2005, the company has highlighted largely unknown writers, helping their books find their way into shopping carts filled with paper towels, cereal and shampoo."

Target's Book club picks are sold in 20% discount, which together with noticeable presentation of the books in the stores ("narrower shelves that stand at the front or end of aisles — with specially designed signs") and consistent good picks by the book club, are making these books very attractive choice for customers.

The results? Jacqueline Updike, director of adult sales at Random House says in the article that Target “can sell hundreds of thousands of copies of a book that is virtually unknown in the rest of the marketplace”.

What I like about Target's programs is that they choose many times unknown authors and makes their book a hit overnight, like Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay who sold 145,000 copies at Target in comparison with sales of couple of thousands of copies before that. For each book selected as a Bookmarked Club Pick, the publisher produces a special edition, and the author writes a letter addressed to Target readers.

This is really great news and kudos to Target for their efforts. I hope they will also expand their programs to include a new green book club program that will be solely dedicated to promote green books. With Target's innovative and green approach and proven success to make books bestsellers, I am positive they can help the book industry not only to sell more books, but also to become more sustainable.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green reading