For anyone on Facebook who is interested in spreading the Sharing Books word, or connecting as a social group and talking about what Sharing Books is doing please check out our Facebook Group. You can get updates on blog feeds, talk about Sharing Books, and connect with the writers, illustrators, readers, and hangers-on who are helping us change the way children's books are distributed and produced.

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Labels: connect, facebook

Every year I go through a Christmas tradition that has become known as 'The Tour of Alberta'. It involves traveling around 500 kilometers of Alberta highways to visit the members of my clan, and the family of my wife. I leave my laptop at home, and step out of 'the office' for a couple days. Between the turkey dinners, my father's eggnog concoctions, and endless Christmas cookies I get some time to clear the cobwebs and mental bitrot that has built up over the year.

One of the things that has come to light in cleaning out the corners of my mind is the opportunities that the current economic situation around the world poses. For the last century or so the business world has been driven by the idea of ever-increasing profits as the metric for success. An idea that the economy will always expand, and that the number one indication of a healthy company ( and stock portfolio ) is profit. But that idea, for the last decade or so, has become increasingly less important to a growing number of people.

We stand on the cusp of a tipping point, where their is a very real opportunity to change how we in North America and the larger global business world chart metrics for a successful company. Technology, when cleverly applied, can shatter existing business models and cost structures, and that allows us to make some serious choices as business people. We can chose to roll those savings into our profit margins, perpetuating an idea that we can always take more, and make more. Or we can take a portion of those savings and we can help create lasting change, expanding the range and scope of what is a successful business to include how we treat our customers, employees, and the world around us.

For me it is the difference between a company that focuses inward in a self-centered manner, and a company that looks beyond it's corporate board room and connects to the world around it in a deep and meaningful manner. We are at a point in time where technology lets smart business people converge social enterprise and profit driven enterprise in new and exciting ways. There is an opportunity for investors to get the pleasure of knowing their investment is being used to drive positive change in the world, while still gaining a return on their investment. Employees get to feel like they are working to build a better world, not just a better company and benefits package. Customers and vendors get to feel like the money they spend on goods and services goes to something more than just a CEO's pocket book.

One of the reasons I work for Sharing Books is because I know that the effort I put in directly correlates to the number of undiscovered authors we publish. I see my effort directly affecting their lives, a group of highly talented people who have been rejected time and again because they did not fit into the profit driven business model that dictates what will and will not get published. I get to see the gift of education and literacy spread to children in the developed world and the developing world. I get to know that my efforts are going towards making lasting social and economic change for a huge number of people, all over the world. I also get to see the potential revenue, and the growing amount of incoming revenue, for Sharing Books growing.

We are at a point where success in business can be about more than profit, and I am excited to go into the new year as part of the vanguard of social entrepreneurs who are in business to make money, change the world, and improve the lives of as many people as possible. I hope everyone out there had a fantastic Christmas, and I hope you are all recovering from your holiday excesses, and I look forward to a new year of working with you all to make sure some of those excesses go towards changing the world through children's literacy.

Labels: business philosophy, Christmas

Yesterday my colleague, Marcus Riedner posted on facebook, a reply to a comment from a published author telling other authors not to publish on Sharing-Books. I am glad we are making a difference and that some people feel challenged by our model. Our publishing model and our business model are meant to challenge the status quo of the children's books industry. It must be working.

Sharing-Books was designed to serve the rejected and the hopeful author.

The Rejected have seen their efforts unappreciated, most of the time for reasonable economic reasons as it is hard to earn a profit with paper publishing of children books. The rejected who are looking for a place that appreciates their effort find a warm welcome at Sharing-Books.

The Hopeful are of two types, unpublished and published. For the unpublished hopeful Sharing-Books can be the vehicle proving the popularity of their works and establishing their personal brand. For the published hopeful who like us have wondered if there is a better way to publish than the traditional way, they have found it. They can join us in establishing a new publishing paradigm.

Technology makes things possible that we did not imagine before. A book is literature. A book is not to be confused with printed paper. Printed paper is just a container for the content of a book - and so is the electronic device you are using to read this post. An electronic literature container permits completely new business models. In the future, the environmentally unfriendly "paper literature container" will be used only when necessary - on demand - one copy at a time - and with not one copy wasted. The paper copy will be ordered from an electronic device.

In his latest book, Tribes, Seth Godin, has a chapter called Watching the Music Business Die. I quote: "Taking a look at the music business is a useful education for any heretic. It demonstrates how exceedingly intelligent people in a fairly new industry willfully ignore the world around them and hid. Those lessons apply to just about every industry you can imagine."

Book publishing is ready for new business models. We started with the books we enjoy the most, children books. Let's see where it takes us.

We have just published an old classic that has been loved by generations of children. One of the most famous of all Christmas tales is Clement Clarence Moore's T'was The Night Before Christmas.

If you have not done so already, be sure to start a family tradition of reading the story aloud together before the children go down for their "long winter's nap". You may also want to print off the black and white pictures. Come Christmas morn, the excited little ones can, like children did in this much loved and read copy, colour the images while you catch up on a few more winks in peace.

This story was first published anonymously on December 23rd 1823, but it was not until 1844 that Moore claimed authorship when the story was included in a book of his poems. We believe the illustrations might be by A. E. Wilcox though we did not find confirmation of this other than the copyright claim. This is a 15 pages book printed by Homewood Publishing in Chicago, 1903.



Another Shared-Book that offers timely reading is Sam and the Five Senses, written by Arlee Gale and illustrated by Colleen Mac Isaac. This is a charming story relating the kind teaching by a grand-mother to her grand-son. reading this book to a child can be expanded into valuable lessons by initiating a conversation that would lead the child to discover other examples of the benefits of our five senses.

NEW BOOKS PUBLISHED SINCE OUR LAST UPDATE
We have now published 37 children books including these new titles added since my last update:

• Bartholomew the Bragging Bullfrog written and illustrated by Thomas J. Bradley. We are delighted to welcome Thomas J. Bradley to Sharing-Books. This is the first of two books Thomas published with us. Bartholomew the Bragging Bullfrog is an endearing story of a big bullfrog’s journey to meet new and different animal friends, but instead returns home with valuable lesson learned. This is an 18 pages picture book.

• High, Low, Over & Under written and illustrated by Thomas J. Bradley. High, Low, Over & Under is humorous story about a forgetful owl’s search for his missing eye glasses. All of us who wear reader’s glasses will smile when reading this story. This is an 18 pages picture book.

• Corn-zee-pop Treats written and illustrated by Eleanor Aspin. This is the latest contribution by Eleanor. This is a whimsical, humorous story of a spoiled girl who has a craving for a favourite treat, and learns how to change bad behaviour in order to receive it. All of us who have been finicky eater or had children who were picky eaters will relate. This is a 17 pages picture book.

• Edward Lear's Nonsense Songs. The parent of nonsense writing, Edward Lear presents another instalment of silly rhymes in Nonsense Songs. You may already be familiar with "The Owl and the Pussycat", and "The Duck and the Kangaroo". However, be sure to read "The Nutcrackers and the Sugar-tongs" as it will answer any questions you are asked by the imaginative ones in your midst who are wondering what exactly table utensils do when no one is looking. This book was published by Roberts Brothers, Boston, 1892. 36 pages illustrated with sketches. Our classics team continues to acquire and scan gems for the enjoyment of those of us who remember them and for the inspiration of new authors.

• Too Many Legs written by Anthony Flavell and illustrated by his niece Kirsty Bouri. This latest contribution by Anthony is a poem about his arachnophobia sister's rather exaggerated view of the world of spiders. This book will please arachnophiles. The very creative illustrations show that Kirsty’s talent is very promising. This is a 24 pages picture book.

• Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Jeremy Fisher. As a writer and illustrator of children's books, Beatrix Potter needs no introduction. In The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher, readers can follow the adventures of a rather unusual fisherman as he prepares for a meal with his equally unusual friends. Published in 1906, this book went on to become a classic and funds from this series went on to fund the protection of a picturesque area in England known as the Lake District. This little gem was acquired in a garage sale. This is a 56 pages picture book.

• The Soxies written by Simon Dorey and illustrated by Megan Parker. Where does that missing sock or stocking go? The Soxies know! Why do they take them? Read on and find out! This is a 15 pages picture book. This is a special book for me. At the very early stage of Sharing-Books, I had phoned Simon to help us with our business model. At the time he revealed to me that he had written several children books. This was a surprise coming from my blue suited finance expert and Chartered Accountant friend. This book will demonstrate that some accountants are creative in very healthy and positive ways... Megan Parker’s beautiful illustrations will make all readers smile and complement very well Simon’s text.

• Thomas J. Bradley web site has been added to our list of authors recommended web site lists. We look forward to more books by Thomas being added to Sharing-Books. Thomas is from Nepean, Ontario, Canada.

• Niina Chebry, of Vancouver, BC, Canada has held a very successful exhibition of 35 paintings that will soon be the core of a new Shared-Book. We are documenting the process of creating her new book on our blog. So check our blog regularly for updates or subscribe to RSS on the “Web 2.0 ghetto” section of the blog.

• Jennifer R. Poulter, from Australia, has become a valuable friend and advocate for Sharing-Books. Jennifer is an award winning author with 10 published books so far. Jennifer has provided us with valuable input for the development of Sharing-Books and we are thankful for connecting with Jennifer through JacketFlap.com, the site we recommend to authors and illustrators looking for colleagues to collaborate on children’s books projects.

• Lucas Spata, from Vancouver, BC, Canada has launched www.lucasspata.com to support his personal efforts to help children facing the challenges of cancer therapy. Lucas is well qualified to understand the hardships as he is himself a cancer survivor. Lucas has been an inspiration to all of us at Sharing-Books. He has been an active supporter who captured well on his site what it feels like to be a new writer and how Sharing-Books helps. Lucas created a foundation that will receive his royalties. Lucas has been with the Vancouver Canucks organization for a number of years and it is great to see the team support Lucas’ initiative. Lucas has been interviewed about his project on The Daily (Channel 10 in Vancouver). The interview is scheduled to air several times on December 10th.

• If you have been on the web site recently, you will notice that over 1,100 books have been downloaded. Passing 1,000 was an exciting symbolic milestone for us. (We discovered that we did not program the comma on the total displayed ) We have had visitors from 40 countries so far. Our traffic is building steadily still only on a referral/viral basis as we have yet to do any promotion, which is confirming out intuition as to the value we deliver to our users. On average, our visitors spend twice as long on the site and see twice as many pages per visit compared to the sites that Google analytics benchmarks with Sharing-Books.

• The Donation button is live and although we are very conservative in our revenue from donations expectation, we are delighted that we will start paying our authors with their first royalties in January. As we say in the tech development world, we are now “post-revenue” which is a good place to be. Of course we invite you all to donate and to suggest the same to your friends and family.

• Our technical team is currently improving the architecture of the back-end of the site, cleaning up details that will not show up on the site but that are nonetheless important for the site’s speed and reliability.

• The next visible change coming to the site will be the Sharing-Businesses button and page(s) which will feature the companies that are/will offer affiliate programs. If you know of any company that would value reaching our audience, please let us know and provide us with contacts details. Your referrals will be much appreciated.