Friday, March 26, 2010

Welcome Max and William!

Congratulations to John, LibraryThing's systems administrator, and his wife Lou on their new twins, Max and William!

More photos here.

That both were boys is a surprise—the doctors had believed only one was a boy. (William was going to be Willow.) Together with Baz (5) and Ollie (3), John and Lou now have a four-boy family, and more opportunities for John to perfect his Spiderman cake!

There's a best-wishes thread going here.

John's twins are the first of four LibraryThing births coming up in the months ahead—Mike, Sonya and Chris Catalfo are next! They will join three, now five, other LibraryThing babies. There is clearly something in the water.

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Tuesday, March 23, 2010

March State o' the Thing

I've just sent out State of the Thing, our monthly newsletter. Sign up to get it, or you can read a copy online.

This month's State of the Thing features a round-up of new features, book recommendations from Dexter Palmer and Susan Wilson, and two exclusive author interviews:

Jonathan Maberry is the author of the techno-thriller Patient Zero. His new book, The Dragon Factory, is the sequel. Jonathan is a multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author, magazine feature writer, playwright, content creator, writing teacher/lecturer and LibraryThing author.

Seth Grahame-Smith broke onto the classics scene with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Now he's taking on the biography genre with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. As we all know, Lincoln rises to political power to become one of the most famous presidents of all time for his fight against the injustice of slavery (and vampirism).

Next month our interviews are with Anne Lamott and Alan Bradley.

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Friday, March 12, 2010

Hobnob with Authors

After much discussion, we've introduced the Hobnob with Authors group, a special place for authors and readers to mingle.

Of course, authors are welcome everywhere on LibraryThing. Authors can become LibraryThing Authors, which links their author and member pages and promotes them on their books and on the home page. Many authors participate in Early Reviewers and Member Giveaways. And authors also participate in our existing groups. We even have a special Author Chat group for organized author events.

But, encouraged as they are, we've also found a certain amount of static between some authors' desire to promote their work, and the tendency for that to seem one-way, non-conversational advertising or even spam, both of which are against the site's Terms of Service. Confronted with the request to avoid promotion, many authors expressed surprise that a book site would hinder their efforts to reach potential readers. Members were in turn divided on just how serious the problem was, the line between acceptable and unacceptable author posts, etc. The situation was sticky all around!

So, Hobnob with Authors was born, a "safe place" for authors to chat with readers, without fear of being accused of spamming. While some standards will be enforced, no reasonable author need worry. As a "Community Project" the group is prominent, and its posts will appear in Talk alongside other groups. But sensitive members will also be able to "ignore" the "Hobnob" group.

So, authors, you're now free to shout to the rooftops all about the book you write. Excited readers will be waiting to hear about it. Join, watch or just read Hobnob with Authors, and support authors who help make LibraryThing what it is.

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Monday, March 08, 2010

March batch of Early Reviewer books is up!

The March 2010 batch of Early Reviewer books is up! We've got 82 books this month, and a grand total of 2,477 copies to give out.

First, make sure to sign up for Early Reviewers. If you've already signed up, please check your mailing address and make sure it's correct.

Then request away! The list of available books is here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

Update: You can now opt to win more than one book per batch. Read the details, and how to opt in.

The deadline to request a copy is Friday, March 26th at 6PM EST.


Eligiblity: Publishers do things country-by-country. This month we have publishers who can send books to too many countries to list. Make sure to check each book to see if you're eligible.


Thanks to all the publishers participating this month!
B&H Publishing GroupNorth Atlantic BooksHunter House
Ballantine BooksW.W. NortonDoubleday Canada
St. Martin's GriffinTundra BooksKregel Publications
PenguinBell Bridge BooksPutnam Books
Riverhead BooksHuman KineticsBelleBooks
Bantam DellCemetery DanceJohn Wiley & Sons
Random HouseHenry Holt and CompanyTaylor Trade Publishing
Seven Stories PressNew Village PressSouth Dakota State Historical Society Press
Gefen Publishing HouseDalkey Archive PressQWERTY Publishers
HighBridgeMcBooks PressRovira i Virgili University Press
McClelland & StewartOrca Book PublishersCandlewick
PicadorThe Permanent PressHarperCollins
Doubleday BooksHarperStudioGotham Books
Quirk BooksAvon BooksHarper
CrosswayMIRAHQN
100 Watt PressLUNAWaterBrook Press

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