Monday, April 25, 2011

Vook - An Established Leader In Publishing Content For Tablets, Smartphones And E-Readers Builds On Its Momentum For 2011


Vook is the leading mixed-media digital publisher that lights up the world's content and connects people around stories and ideas they love. A Vook unites words, videos, pictures and interactivity into new media experiences that allow users to engage with content the way they want. Vook publishes titles in a variety of genres, including lifestyle, business, entertainment, cooking, fiction and sports, working with authors such as Seth Godin, Deepak Chopra, Anne Rice, Gary Vaynerchuk, Slash of Guns N'Roses and Karen Armstrong. Vook partners with industry leaders including Simon and Schuster, Penguin Group, Harvard Business Press, Harper Collins and Hachette Filipacchi. Vook is based in Alameda, CA with offices in New York.

Called a Vook, Vook pioneered a digital mixed-media publishing form - that combines video, text, images and social sharing into a single, integrated experience. Vooks are specially created for tablets, smart phones and e-readers.

In 2010, Vook established itself as the leader in enhanced digital publishing by helping publishers, authors, and media companies re-create, distribute, and monetize their existing content in a new form. “We are very enthusiastic about Vook,” said Richard Harroch, Managing Director at VantagePoint Venture Partners, in San Bruno, California. “The opportunity is big in digital publishing and the Vook team is a leader in this new world.”

The company has formed strategic relationships with many of the leading book publishers and literary agents, and published Vooks with bestselling authors, including Deepak Chopra, Seth Godin, Tom Peters, Stephen Covey and Anne Rice. Recently, the company released JFK: 50 Days, a bestselling Vook for the iPad that features content created in partnership with Perseus Books and NBC Universal.

Vook has also launched its own digital e-book imprint, which will deliver as many as 500 ‘how to’ and educational titles to the market in 2011. Vook was recently profiled in The New York Times Magazine, which described the company’s products as “fantastic.”
Given their passion for dating, Vook recently released a new videobook called Meet the Man of Your Dreams.

For more information about Vook, visit Vook. To publish a Vook, please visit publish.vook.com.

Media Inquiries for this Release:
Jesse Odell
LaunchSquad
415-378-8333

To Publish a Vook:

Matthew Cavnar
718-916-0953

Monday, April 18, 2011

An Interview with Geraldine Solon, Author of Love Letters

Geraldine Solon
We are pleased to welcome Geraldine Solon, Author of Love Letters. She was gracious enough to stop by on her virtual book tour, grant us an interview and share some of her food for thoughts when it comes to writing a novel.

Thank you so much for allowing our readers to get a peek inside of your world as a prolific author. Could you please give us a blurb about your book? Bridal shop manager Chloe Rogers will soon marry Richard Foster—so she thinks—until suddenly, she bumps into her childhood sweetheart, Josh Goldman, whom she hasn’t seen in thirteen years. The sparks between Chloe and Josh fly, but Richard provides safety, financial security. Should she follow her heart or her head? The answer comes in a surprise twist. While cleaning her attic, she stumbles upon love letters written to her estranged mother forty years ago from a man she loved. When Chloe secretly brings them together again and sees how much time they’ve lost, she is challenged not to make the same mistake her mother made. Will Chloe opt for security or will she risk her heart and marry her true love?

What approach do you use when developing your characters? I create character sketches before I begin my novel. This allows me to differentiate my characters from each other. I want my readers to have a strong image of my characters and to be able to relate to them. I create characters that are flawed, realistic and have clear goals. Giving them a distinct voice and unique personality counts a lot.

Have you ever had writer’s block, and if so, how did you overcome it.? I take long walks. It helps me clear my mind. Since I write two to three novels at a time, I take a break from one of them and focus on the other one when I have writer’s block. It gives me the excitement to write another story and avoids redundancy on the current one.

When you sit down to start writing a book, what do you do? I write and let the words flow smoothly. It can be between 4,000-10,000 words. I only edit it after the first draft. I get the creative juices pouring and it’s during this moment where I forget all rules about writing.

Are you planning to write any more books in the near future? Yes, my next book Chocolicious is going through the submission process. The story is about love, loss hope and redemption. I’ve provided the summary below.

A week after Blair Nightingale’s husband, Larry, dies, she learns she’s about to lose everything she owns due to a mistake Larry made. In an instant, Blair’s life is transformed from rich, Silicon Valley trophy wife to poor, widowed single mom. Her only goal now is to provide for her daughter. As Blair begins to pick up the pieces, George- Larry’s best friend and the man she truly resents—seems to always be around. When Blair is overwhelmed by all the challenges she faces, she seeks comfort in baking rich, filled, three-layered cupcakes that her grandmother once taught her, and Blair's life is changed forever.

What advice would you give to an aspiring author?
  • Keep Reading – Reading adds to your vocabulary and helps you identify your own style and voice as a writer. It also broadens your mind and gives you ideas. A good writer has to be an avid reader.
  • Write as much as you can – I believe in the saying “Practice makes perfect.” The more you write, the better you become. Writing is like a garden that needs to be nurtured for it to grow beautifully.
  • Network with other writers – Writing can be a solitary experience and it’s vital to meet people who share the same passion as you do. Joining writer’s groups and attending events like Writer’s Conferences, retreats and workshops is a learning experience and good investment to your writing.
  • Build a brand – At this day and age, it’s essential to build an online presence even before you’ve completed your book. Joining social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Red Room are good avenues to promote yourself to the public. Maintaining a website and blog will allow you to interact with lots of people.
  • Never give up – There will be rejections but you have to keep moving forward. Before I got published, I started each day researching, learning and getting involved with other writers—anything that could bring me closer to getting published was my goal. Even best sellers, like Stephen King have faced similar rejections but they chose to keep going. Hard work, inspiration and perseverance are the keys to success.
Where can our readers obtain Love Letters? Love Letters is available in both Ebook and paperback formats and can be purchased at the following sites:

www.amazon.com
www.barnesandnoble.com
www.solsticepublishing.com
www.smashwords.com


How can our readers get in touch with you?

http://www.geraldinesolon.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Geraldine-Solon/181823348524179
http://twitter.com/GeraldineSolon/


Thank you Geraldine, and best wishes in your endeavors.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Searching for Romance



Divine Mills
 I am 37 year old, single  Christian female with brown-black hair and hazel eyes, is seeking a partner, age 30 plus, who is very sincere, caring, understanding, compassionate and honest to share her life with. She is interested in hearing from men worldwide. Please, she is not interested in hearing from prison inmates. Her interests are reading, movies, traveling, cooking, swimming and walking. Contact Ms. Divine Mills, PO Box EF 238, Effia, Takoradi W/R, Ghana.

Monday, April 04, 2011

Betterfly.com Launches: Says 'No' to Companies, 'Yes' to Betterists



Betterfly is the first website of its kind to exclude companies, focusing on people instead, and that gives it a strategic advantage, says founder Joshua Schwadron. "When searching for someone to teach you Spanish, give you a massage or improve your yoga technique, it's more important to know who the best person is, rather than knowing just the name of a language school, spa or yoga studio," Schwadron says. "Imagine if eHarmony.com told you that your future wife worked at Citigroup, but left it up to you to figure out who she is. Now what?"


Betterfly is a site that connects service providers with people who want to learn, look, and feel better. It provides a lot of utility for people who teach or offer a service, everything from dating coaches to dance teachers to beauty stylists.

Users might be interested in finding a dating coach, particularly one that specializes in online dating. Because the site has over 1,000+ services, there are so many options, and is a great place to set up date night. Who doesn't want to learn from a cooking teacher on how to make a romantic meal for two? Or maybe salsa dancing!


Since learning, looking and feeling better often involves finding the right people to help, Betterfly sets out to make that process easier and more efficient for its users and enables users to compare apples to apples, people to people. Users can refine their search based on more than 20 factors such as availability, friends' recommendations, verified reviews and value. "We're thrilled with the power and utility of our search. Most of those features are in place now, and we plan to release the rest when we begin our late-summer campaign to reach out to those on the other side of the equation: the people who want to be better," Schwadron says.


The current campaign is Betterfly's way of recognizing that the site needs Betterists™ to sign up and offer services before potential clients can harness the full power of its search tools. A Betterist is a person on Betterfly who offers a service to help someone learn, look or feel better. "There was no one word to refer to teachers, tutors, coaches, trainers, stylists and all the people who help others be better, so we created our own," Schwadron says. There is no approval process or cost to become a Betterist. "We don't want only experts or seasoned professionals on our site, because many of our users aren't looking for only the best — they're looking for the best for them. For example, a 9th grader who struggles with geometry doesn't need to work with a professional mathematician. Her perfect Betterist may be a classmate who got an A+ and charges only $10 an hour."


While conducting research for the site, Schwadron and his team found that two groups of Betterists each face a unique set of challenges that Betterfly can help solve. The first group, made up of people who work for companies, feels powerless to help themselves and their companies bring in business; they rely solely on their companies for new clients. The other group, people who are self-employed, continually tries to promote and re-promote their services across numerous websites, each supposed to serve a different purpose. Betterfly's free platform is built to give all types of Betterists the tools they need to brand and promote themselves quickly and efficiently, all in one place.


Each Betterist can create a free, highly customizable page that Schwadron says is "like a mini-website that can be made in minutes." Betterists can promote their qualifications, services, locations, special offers and payment policies, upload resources like instructional videos and lesson plans and even create their own blogs. Their pages display verified reviews from clients and have a real-time booking system to easily promote their availability and latest discounts. The availability calendar helps Betterists manage existing clients and attract new ones. Potential clients can even search by available time for a lesson or appointment in the same way that people can search Opentable.com for a dinner reservation at a particular time, without having a restaurant in mind.


Furthermore, Betterfly is unique because all reviews are verified. Only those people whom Betterists have verified as clients can write reviews. Once verified, the client may review anonymously or under his or her own name. "Many sites are plagued by false reviews and character assassinations. On Betterfly, every review you read is from a client the Betterist has personally verified, even the anonymous ones," Schwadron explains.


Betterfly has already attracted a wide range of Betterists who joined during the site's testing phase. Betterists include Christy McIntosh, an actress who has appeared in Law & Order: SVU and who offers acting lessons; Svetlana Vinogradova, a hair stylist who works for the Jean-Claude Biguine Salon in NYC and offers men's haircuts; Simon Boyar, a world-renowned marimba player who gives lessons between gigs; and Joanne Summer, a grandmother of eight who offers healthy home-cooking lessons on the weekends.


Founded in 2009 by Joshua Schwadron, 28, Beterfly is based in New York, NY. For more information, visit http://betterfly.com.