Long Distance Relationship Can Be Either Good Or Bad

Long distance relationship is one of the trending topics of all times in the relationship talk. It is so much talked about since there are lots of things to understand, handle, deal with and overcome. It is really a challenge.

Apart from thinking of stuff to deal with in a long distance relationship, there are lots of things to talk about just for fun and also lots of things to learn from.

I should say that I have learned so much when I was in a long distance relationship, and there is also lot of fun if I recap those moments even today. One of the interesting things to talk about in a long distance relationship is the pros and cons of the it. Here are some:

Long Distance Relationship Pros

The Space

Yes, while you feel lonely, miss your partner and are overwhelmed with emotional bombardments, you can also simply enjoy the space you get in the relationship. Not to mention, this can not be guaranteed in a relationship without distance. This is a blessing, I would say.

You do not get into space related issues in a long distance relationship since space is granted by default. You have time of your own, you have your own decisions to make (at least the less significant ones that don?t meddle with your relationship) and you can cook for yourself and not be worried about the outcome .

Even though loneliness is an issue in a long distance relationship, it is also a blessing, because everyone needs some time alone.

You can be filthy

Yes you can be as dirty as you wish. You can leave your table messy, you can wash your dishes tomorrow, you can have your dinner with yesterday?s left over and you can get up as late as you can in the morning. There will be nobody to question you.

Even if your partner is not of a questioning type, you need not worry about his thoughts. As long as you keep the range of your area within the view of your web cam clean, you are fine.

Stronger bond at distance

Bonds grow stronger at a distance rather when close. When you miss somebody, you feel for them and your love for them increases. I am not saying that you don?t love the person who is near you, but in a long distance relationship, the distance itself helps to get you closer at heart.

Everything happening over there reminds you of your partner and since you are at a distance and you don?t have the chance to express much of your feelings the bond grows stronger.

Save some money

Of course! While you guys are not together you spend lesser on shopping together, dating, eating out, travel and so on. For some who are away for work and who tend to come back and get committed soon the responsibility to save money comes in.

You have in mind that you are going to become a family soon or at least you are going back to your place to live with your partner and hence you make yourself financially strong. You tend to cut down a lot of expenses.

Long Distance Relationship Cons

Spend more money

Well this might happen if you can?t overcome the urge to see your partner. You might decide to travel to and fro and make frequent trips to your partner?s place. In addition you may also overspend on your mobile bills.

Long distance relationship can be unhealthy

Having said that, you always hold a cell phone over your ear which is very very unhealthy. Your ears get heated up. If you prefer to go on an online chat then you put a headphone over your ear. Even if you decide to use your computer?s inbuilt speakers and microphone, you still have to sit at one place for a long time.

All these, I guess, are unhealthy. Apart from these there are lots of emotional stress in a long distance relationship that makes one unhealthy.

Minus intimacy

It is normal to feel that you are quite far from your partner (indeed you are!) both physically and mentally. Your emotional needs are poorly met. You also miss the intimacy between you and your partner which the online chats and phone calls can never give you.

That is not all. I have only given here a very few of the pros and cons. Do you know any?

Source: http://www.merryrelationships.com/long-distance-relationship-the-pros-and-cons/

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Xapsis: Brand commitment

By Clay Deal, Integrated Marketing Specialist at Xapsis Integrated Marketing??

I, Clay, take you, Apple Inc., to be my lawful wedded?Brand? Believe it or not, or in some cases, like it or not, consumers form relationships with brands.? It?s true.? I am currently involved in a courtship with Apple through my MacBook at work. How, you ask? It?s really very simple.? I was handed a MacBook Pro, and told, ?Here is your new computer!? At that time, it felt very much like an arranged marriage instead of a courtship. We didn?t know each other; we had never really even been introduced. But here we were joined together, neither one of us having a say in the matter. ?Clay here?s MacBook. MacBook this is Clay.? You two go enjoy your lives together.? Much akin to a first date, or a courtship, I was apprehensive about going out with Apple.? I had never used an Apple product before, I always used PCs or Android based devices.? I was nervous, shy, even a bit scared.? Slowly, after a few dates, I began to warm up to Apple.? I guess you could say we are going steady at this point.? I think about the future with Apple every once in a while.? iPhone 5 crosses my mind sometimes, or iPad 3 will pop up in my dreams.? Am I ready to make that type of commitment to Apple?? I?m just not sure Apple and I are ready for marriage yet. Our relationship is still so young?. OK, so the above is a bit exaggerated, but the principle is true. Consumers form bonds and relationships with brands, more so than they do individual products.? As a business, you want to strive for that marriage relationship.? A marriage relationship between an individual and a brand is much like one between two adults.? It is a long lasting, mutual relationship that involves trust and commitment.? A marriage relationship between a brand and a consumer is the ultimate goal for firms. This means repeat business, this means forgiveness for an accidental hiccup in quality, this means referrals to other possible consumers, to get down to it, this means profit.?? This brand/consumer relationship must be nurtured.? It cannot be a simple give-take relationship (you give them product, and you take their money).? Brands must be open to communication with consumers; otherwise, a brand will find itself in divorce court. Brand performance has a great deal to do with establishing these healthy brand relationships; the products produced must perform as advertised.? Additionally, how these brands are advertised play an extremely important part to the relationship. What thoughts and feelings does your brand evoke in its current marketing measures? How have you positioned your brand in the market versus competing firms? Does your firm give the message of being a ?fling?, high short-term rewards, but low commitment and little future promise?? What can you do to help get more ?marriage? relationships with your clients? Easy? contact your New Media Marriage Councilors. Contact Xapsis. *Research and information on brand relationships can be found in the following source: Fournier, Susan (1998), ?Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research,? Journal of Consumer Research, 24 (March), 343?73.

Source: http://xapsis.blogspot.com/2012/02/brand-commitment.html

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How to Pick an Exotic Pet | Articles Effect

If you?ve moved beyond the typical household pets and are thinking of taking a step toward getting something a little different, an unusual pet may be the perfect fit to suit your needs. An exotic pet is a unique or strange animal kept within a domestic home that?s not commonly considered as a pet. Frequently living in jungles, swamps and wildernesses around the world, exotic pets can be extremely fascinating, but also hazardous to ignorant owners. Consequently if you want to move beyond the typical house cat or dog it?s recommended that you perform a little research to better grasp exactly what it is that you?re getting into. Hence, let?s take a look at several crucial considerations that you need to make when contemplating an exotic pet.

The Amount of Care Necessary for Your Exotic

As an accountable pet owner you?re answerable for the well-being and health of your pet, so you should start the selection process by first knowing your own capabilities in the care a maintenance of a pet. When there are lots of elements that can affect the type of exotic that might be the right match for you, some of the most basic include: Who will be handling the pet? If the pet will be maintained by a child, then wildlife that are more combative or venomous are not a good option. Can I easily afford the proper care for my animal? is yet another good question, since you should be able to buy food, supplies and medical treatment to keep your pet healthy. Lastly, Will I have the ability to provide proper care? is another big question. Exactly like a dog should be walked every day, you must be able to perform the necessary duties to ensure that your pet is well taken care of. So you must ensure that care and maintenance is thought about when deciding on an exotic pet.

Suitable Maintenance: Can You House Your New Exotic?

Exotic pets can be found in all shapes and sizes, so it?s crucial that you thoroughly determine if you have the capability to adequately house & keep your pet. Clearly if you have restricted space, then a large animal may not be the best choice for you. But over and above size, there are several more considerations that must be made. For instance, reptiles are cold blooded animals that utilize the ambient temperature in their environment to manage their internal temperature, so this requirement must be met. Another example is the availability of unique foods, since some exotic animals may require items that are not easily available in your location. Lastly, many exotics require special housing to allow them to roam without escaping; a perfect example might be anything from an exotic bird to a larger carnivore, such as a tiger. Therefore, anytime an exotic pet is under consideration, you?re capacity to accommodate the animal should be thoroughly evaluated.

Local Laws Limiting Exotic Pets

Though there are a lot of exotic pets that are perfectly appropriate, you should consult your local laws to make sure that the type of pet under consideration is allowed in your town. Typically, many aspiring exotic pet owners find that their preferred type of pet requires paperwork and licensure necessary to keep the animal in a residential setting. An unexpected example is one of roosters, because usually these birds crow early in the morning and can easily disturb everyone within earshot. For many exotic pets that may be dangerous to humans, some local governments might require specific inoculations or even the elimination of teeth or a body part to prevent injury to other people within the community. Finally, it?s not uncommon to hear of would-be owners of large animals being forced to post a bond, so ensure that you?re aware of any additional requirements. Not surprisingly, make sure that you understand the local laws before you bring home an exotic animal.

Impact of an Exotic on Your Current Pets

If you presently have one or more domestic pets, then you should consider how the addition of a new exotic pet will impact them. In a perfect world there would not be an effect, but this seldom happens in reality. First, existing pets often demonstrate an emotional reaction that can manifest itself in many different ways including erratic behavior, change in eating habits and associated issues. Second, segregating your existing and new pets may be needed depending on the possibility of conflict. Clearly mixing a boa constrictor with a small mammal like a cat may mean that kitty will eventually go missing. With such significant potential affects, it?s no wonder that you need to understand how a new exotic pet will impact your existing animals.

Moving past the typical dogs and cats can be an easy transition, however by using these tips you should avoid making a bad choice.

Regina T. Roby maintains dog insurance on her pet Dalmatian Dolly and promotes the many benefits of Pet Plan pet insurance to whomever that will listen.

Source: http://www.articleseffect.com/how-to-pick-an-exotic-pet.html

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Historic black church rises from ashes of Civil War

Like most blacks in the pre-Civil War South, the African Americans of the old Colonial town of Hampton, Va., had few choices when it came to worship.

Enslaved or free, illiterate or learned, they crowded shoulder to shoulder in the rear balconies of the white churches, forced there by laws that barred them from gathering by themselves. And despite outnumbering their white brethren by 9 to 1 in such places as Hampton Baptist Church, they had little say over how they practiced their faith.

Those long years of silence and submission came to an end with the upheaval that rocked this historic town during the Civil War.

Founded by a pioneering band of free and enslaved blacks, one of the first independent African American churches born in the conflict between North and South rose from the ashes of a place that had been abandoned and burned by its rebellious white population. So deeply did the roots of First Baptist Church take hold in this seemingly unpromising soil that its legacy can still be felt nearly 150 years later.

"I don't know how they viewed sitting in the 'Negro pews' back then. But the fact is that they did fill the balcony. They wanted a place to worship," former Hampton University historian and church member William Wiggins says.

"But there was always this longing for a church of their own where they could worship in their own way. And when the war gave them the chance, they took it right away."

Few Southern locales had a black population more prepared to exploit a white power vacuum ? and the crowds of runaway slaves ? than Hampton, located in southeastern Virginia.

More than 200 free African Americans lived here in 1860, says historian Robert Engs, author of a groundbreaking study of Civil War Hampton called "Freedom's First Generation." And many were literate and skilled property owners.

Among them was Thomas Peake, husband of pioneering free black teacher Mary Peake, who died in 1862 after founding one of the first schools to teach the town's burgeoning numbers of runaway slaves.

Also prominent was free black preacher William B. Taylor, a carpenter who hired out his time to purchase his own freedom and that of his wife and daughter.

For many years before the war, Taylor had served as the de facto head of Hampton's "colored Baptist Church," where he'd earned permission to perform nominal marriages between slaves. He'd also won fame as a "fiery exhorter," practicing his oratorical skills at the 1856 dedication of Williamsburg's black First Baptist Church as well as in clandestine worship meetings held in and around Hampton.

In his audiences were many literate, self-employed slaves who hoped to imitate Taylor's example.

"Hampton was very different ? almost cosmopolitan in some ways ? compared to other places in the South, and the blacks here were very different too," Wiggins said.

Meeting first in the ruins of Hampton in 1863, the congregation soon began building in the Pee Dee section of town on land obtained from the daughter and son-in-law of free black Revolutionary War hero Cesar Tarrant.

They moved to a new and much larger structure on North King Street not long after the war ended, providing more than 1,000 members with not only spiritual guidance but also a pathway to political power and economic independence.

During the Reconstruction Era, Deacon Thomas Peake won posts as deputy sheriff, school trustee and head of the county poorhouse. Deacon R.M. Smith served as Commissioner of Revenue and Deacon Isaiah Lyons sat in the state Senate.

Sister Harriet Taylor co-founded the United Order of Tents as the nation's oldest fraternal benevolent group for black women. She was later was buried alongside her husband ? the charismatic and widely admired Rev. Taylor ? in the graveyard of the town's most prominent white church.

Pastor Richard Spiller helped establish the People's Savings and Loan Assn., which financed hundreds of black homes, in the church's basement.

Such post-war influence has led scholars like Engs to note "that there was more prestige to being a junior deacon at First Baptist Church than a senior deacon somewhere else."

"There's this great myth about what slavery did to blacks ? this distorted idea that it left them unprepared for freedom," he adds.

"But people here showed that wasn't true. They knew exactly what to do when they got the chance."

merickson@dailypress.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/nationworld/nation/~3/DqI3KYlLYb8/la-na-baptist-church-20120226,0,1577595.story

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India has evidence against Iran in Delhi car bombing: Israel

Police forensics experts collect evidence after an explosion tore through a car belonging to the Israel Embassy on Feb 13, 2012 in New Delhi.

JERUSALEM: Indian intelligence agencies have "considerable evidence" of Iran's involvement in the February 13 attack on an Israeli diplomat's wife but are not releasing it in a bid to avoid public confrontation with Tehran, a top Israeli security official has claimed.

The senior Israeli official told daily Ha'aretz that the Indians are "close to fully solving the case but they are not saying so publicly".

However, Indians have not "concealed the information in their possession" in quiet contacts with Israel and the United States, he was quoted as saying by the paper which said he was close to the investigation.

The Indians have located the motorcycle used in the attack, have identified who purchased it, and know how and when the attackers arrived in India, it said.

"The Indians received a great deal of assistance in the investigation from the United States and Israel and did a lot of work themselves," the daily quoted the official as saying.

The Israeli official reportedly noted that the Indian security services have decided to characterise the incident as a case that, until further notice, is under investigation.

This has lowered the pressure for the release of details, and the need to make serious decisions on how to proceed has been deferred, the source pointed out.

Indian investigators were sent to Georgia and Thailand, where there were failed attacks, a short time after the New Delhi blast, to compare findings over the explosive charges used and evidence was found of Iranian involvement in the attempts, the daily said.

Source: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/33039/f/555218/p/1/s/4806513e/l/0Ltimesofindia0Bindiatimes0N0Cindia0CEmbassy0Ecar0Ebombing0EIndia0Ehas0Econsiderable0Eevidence0Eagainst0EIran0Esays0EIsrael0Carticleshow0C120A45160A0Bcms/story01.htm

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Cairo court adjourns trial of NGO workers

CAIRO?? An Egyptian court on Sunday adjourned the trial of 16 Americans and 27 others who for pro-democracy groups until April? 26.

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Thirteen Egyptian defendants were in court for the opening hearing. They were held in a metal cage, as is customary in Egyptian trials.

Of the 16 Americans charged in the case, seven have been banned from leaving Egypt. They were not in court Sunday.

The NGO workers have been charged with operating without a license and using illegal foreign funds to foment unrest.

Hundreds of lawyers and reporters crammed into a chaotic Cairo courtroom as the trial of those who work for pro-democracy groups opened in the Egyptian capital.

The case has severely strained Cairo's relations with Washington, and U.S. officials have threatened to cut off $1.5 billion in aid to Egypt if the dispute is not resolved.

US presses Egypt to find deal for 16 Americans

The NGO workers have been charged with operating without a license and using illegal foreign funds to foment unrest.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who arrived in the Moroccan capital after visits to Algeria and Tunisia, has met Egypt's foreign minister Mohamed Kamel Amr twice in the last three days, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Retaliation?
Rights campaigners say the case is retaliation by Egypt's ruling generals against pro-democracy groups that have been among the army's harshest critics since it took power when Hosni Mubarak was overthrown a year ago.

"The whole basis of this case is unfair," an Egyptian activist working for one of the organizations told Reuters.

The U.S. pro-democracy groups whose staff have been charged deny they have done anything illegal. They say the crackdown is an attempt by Egypt's military rulers to derail democracy.

Egypt says the case is a judicial matter and all groups must heed Egyptian law.

Negad al-Borai, a lawyer representing the accused in Cairo, said the charges referred only to a short period in the groups' activities and could therefore be argued against.

"The charges made involve only the period from March 2011 to December 2011," he told Reuters. "These groups have applied for permits before that period."

Some Egyptian officials have linked the funding of civil society initiatives to a U.S. plot to undermine Egypt's sovereignty ? accusations the United States and the civil society workers deny.

Among those accused is Sam LaHood, Egypt director of the International Republican Institute and the son of the U.S. transportation secretary.

The crisis escalated on Dec. 29 when Egyptian authority swooped the offices of American groups International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, confiscating documents and computers and cash on the premises.

The government and the ruling military council say the case was initiated by the judiciary and is out of their hands.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46530284/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Web Banner Advertising ? The Very Best Web Marketing Strategy ...

Previous few years noticed the explosive progress advertising. Outside the many techniques useful for web based promoting, banners is often a foremost just one. World-wide-web banners helps plenty of individuals and also firms to save lots of huge amounts of dollars and as well reaching potential clients Ciasta that were once after dark area of their hands. A lot of firms has widely used world-wide-web banners and is becoming still used by many of those for both their personal prerequisites as well as linked marketing prerequisites.As we know, there are numerous web based marketing strategies offering. Hence a world wide web banners alone won?t make for good business in terms of your promoting wants. You are unable to stay in front of your personal computer wanting the possibility end users to simply click your advertisements devoid of developing another
tactics way too. A budget or low-priced aspect at the rear of the online world advertising banners won?t inform you to stay without having done anything. The following guidelines will assist in creating a beneficial, constructive targeted visitors circulation to your website and allows you to work with your online banners to the central.First of all, you should be further watchful in relation to the identify or subject matter of the marketing. It is because internet users have become versatile and in order to attract them towards your advertisements in order to just struck those market, you?ll want the top ideal brands. Your advertisement should never offer an not worthy time for you to the crowd. In fact the marketing, its contents every thing must be set up and made you might say so as to meet the requirements of these focused visitors.Increasing the fascination within the heads of those and finding and catching their care about simply click your banner advertising is to try and good results is. What you are saying and estimates found in the advertising banners must be strong ample to stimulate or set off the final shift with the readers to make their acquire selection. In easy phrases, we could claim that, the ability to influence your focused marketplace is in which your making success depends upon.There Smak greckiej kuchni also needs to be a feeling of friendliness and expertise within the contents of your advertising banners. It is because this expertise definitely makes the end users think convenient in straight communicating with you.When you influence persons on internet to speak to your providers presented, they often think rather critical of their selves and gives earlier factor towards the business proposal. Making the global neighborhood acquainted with the support made available from you can help you accomplish your small business good results shortly. Your banner advertising are lone more affordable solutions to accomplish these.Generally gry logiczne bear in mind an internet site alone can never help you accomplish your small business goals and good results. You need to also add essential promoting tactics to accomplish this. World-wide-web
banners is the easiest way to accomplish these goals devoid of shelling out a lot time and cash. Remember, the lowest priced approach when employed correctly could be the landmark of the business good results.

Source: http://www.casaskolping.net/web-banner-advertising-the-very-best-web-marketing-strategy-previously/

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Cheap Engagement Party Invitations: Should You Give a Broken ...

With all of the celebrities breaking up and getting back together lately, it seems like second chances are in the air. There is no question that sometimes couples break up for the wrong reasons, and that the second time around can be the charm. There are also times when a relationship ending is for the best. Learn how to decide when you should give a broken engagement a second chance.

Working in a bridal salon, I witnessed more than one broken engagement. Happily, I also saw a few reconciliations. The best wedding planning advice in those situations is that if the marriage is meant to be, you will work out your differences and re-kindle your romance. If that does not happen, just be glad that you broke up before tying the knot. Better a broken engagement than a divorce or a bad marriage.

The couples who renewed their engagements were typically those who broke up because one of them was not quite ready to commit to marriage. They were often younger people, perhaps engaged just out of college. It is easy enough to get swept up in the excitement of bridal jewelry, wedding gowns, and love and then start to get cold feet as the actual wedding day draws near. Sometimes it is very helpful to back off and gain some perspective on the situation. You might even realize that the relationship is indeed the right one for you, just that things needed to progress a little more slowly. That is a situation where giving a broken engagement a second chance can be a good idea after some time has passed.

Some couples call off an engagement because they are working through things from their past or current traumas. The man who proposes shortly after learning his girlfriend has a serious illness might find that she worries he proposed out of pity. The same is true when a couple becomes engaged shortly after losing a loved one. Those doubts can start to set in, and the person affected by the trauma pulls away. If the proposal was offered in the spirit of true love, not out of sympathy, this is a relationship that stands a decent chance of being saved. Time starts to soften the wounds, and the couple start to realize that they have always belonged together.

There are other relationships that should not be renewed. If you broke off your engagement because your fiance was cheating on you, it is best to make a clean break and move on. There is no point in taking back someone who is not trustworthy, and in doing so you might be sending the message that he can treat you badly and get away with it. Definitely not a good thing for a relationship! Other engagements are broken because the man starts to realize that his fiancee is more interested in the trappings of a wedding like fancy gowns and sparkly bridal jewelry than in being married to him. This again is a sign that the engagement should not be renewed.

Not everything is so clear cut when it comes to relationships. Sometimes a man and a woman are just very different people. They might love each other passionately, but also have a lot of conflict caused by their differences. If you broke up during an argument over something silly, there is a possibility that the relationship can be salvaged. The real thing to decide is if you are happier with the other person, despite your differences, or happier and more relaxed away from him or her. Distance and time will help you figure this out. Ultimately, only the pair of you can decide when it is right to give your broken engagement a second chance, and when it is best to go your separate ways.

Ask Bridget for wedding planning advice in areas of relationships, etiquette, or bridal jewelry. She writes numerous articles providing information for the customers of Silverland Jewelry.

Original article

Source: http://cheapengagementpartyinvitations.blogspot.com/2012/02/should-you-give-broken-engagement.html

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Singer Charlotte Church settles phone hack claim (AP)

[unable to retrieve full-text content]AP - Lawyers have told Britain's High Court that singer Charlotte Church has settled her claims against the publisher of the News of the World over alleged phone hacking.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120223/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_phone_hacking

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Writing on the Ether | Jane Friedman

1. Authors: Like lambs to it?
2. Amazon: Speaking softly in sticky times
3. Libraries: Nowhere near eye to eye
4. Big Data: Mind if we read along?
5. Industry hysteria: No, you started it
6. Confabs: The ?unconference? ahead of ToC
7. Social media: Obey Anne R. Allen
8. eBooks: Is your Jeremy Lin ebook out yet?

Is this industry ready to talk about its writers yet? You?re invited to start chatting it up.

On Friday at 4p Eastern (1p Pacific, 2100 GMT), I?ll be joined by Dan Blank of We Grow Media in co-guest-hosting the weekly #FollowReader Twitter chat, at the invitation of Kat Meyer, co-chair with Joe Wikert of the O?Reilly Media Tools of Change Conference (ToC) just held in New York last week.

Our theme will be the wide-open question ?How are authors faring in the new world of publishing??

Finally found the opening.

?

This is not a gripe-?n'-snipe fest, nor a Kumbaya campfire about the glory o? story. No, this is business, exploratory business, and it?s open to anybody who has a stake in publishing. I hope you?ll consider coming by and hashtagging with us.

Here?s one thing I?m wondering: Can real sense ever be made of the digital disruption of publishing ? mothership retailers hovering in cyberspace over flocks of woolgathering independents in pastures below ? if the core industry?s relationship with writers isn?t addressed?

During discussions of the new incident between Amazon and the Independent Publishers Group (more on that below), I?ve been reminded by our colleague, Andrew Rhomberg in London, of the phrase ?creative destruction? from economic theory.

Wouldn?t it be smart to take advantage of the fact that the wheels have fallen off the publishing wagon? New models and vehicles are being tried and tested. Why not embrace this question of the industry?s dependence on a class of workers who don?t always feel? recognized as peers by publishing professionals? ? and sometimes live down to that condition?

?

Rich Adin, in The Failure of the Gatekeepers at An American Editor, writes this week:

The?function?of nourishing new writers, has been falling by the wayside in the last decade. Financially, traditional publishers are struggling?the competition has turned fierce. ? Fewer blockbusters are being published so there are fewer blockbusters available to generate the kind of income needed to nourish non-blockbuster authors. And authors are increasingly going their own way because they get to keep more of the money and don?t need to worry about publisher rejection.

As I wrote in last week?s Ether, I left ToC concerned that the best discussions about the industry?s future are going on largely without the authors, the people who might form an unprecedented robust and innovative part of the answer to publishing?s dilemmas if they had the chance to engage in the conversation.

Writing community specialist and University of Cincinnati professor Jane Friedman, who hosts the Ether here at her site, posted her excellent warning, Authors: Don?t Pay Money for BEA Book Promotion, just as I?d been reading an arresting series of comments on a blog post titled Who Controls Your Amazon eBook Price?

I?ve seen, first-hand, what Friedman is warning writers about. I?ve had self-published authors approach me at BEA, asking me to take a copy of their book to review ? because even in the best spot in the outback of BEA?s perimeter, nobody ?can ignore 10,000 other things happening at the same time,? as Friedman puts it. Your book may as well lie under the brightly-colored carpet of one of the Big Six pavilions.

#publishingeuphemisms "the novel never quite reached the huge potential of its promise" = your pitch letter was better than the book

?

And in Jim C. Hines? piece on Amazon ebook pricing, you meet an author who writes fantasy, both in traditional and self-publishing circumstances ? the ?hybrid? publishing approach.

What Hines describes is a relatively mundane but annoying experience at Amazon. The price of a self-published ebook title selling for $2.99 at other outlets was reduced inexplicably by Amazon for some time to 99 cents, although no rival site was underselling it.

A couple of points are involved here:

(1) Amazon?s contract apparently allows the company ? to quote Hines on the Kindle Direct Publishing terms ? ?sole and complete discretion to set the retail price at which your Digital Books are sold through the Program.?

And (2) the famous 70-percent royalty an author is paid in this setting by Amazon seems to be figured on the actual price of the sale (in this case, 99 cents) rather than the author?s list price ($2.99), despite the fact that the author didn?t know about the discount that doesn?t seem to have been in response to any competitive price pressures.

Hines explains that KDP responded promptly to him and restored the list price he had set, once he pointed out to them that there was no low-ball seller requiring the 99-cents sale price. However, he writes:

Self-publishing puts you in charge of every aspect of your career. Meaning when Amazon messed with one of my books, it was on me to challenge them and get it fixed. They did restore the price, as I said, but what exactly would I do if they said ?Deal with it.? Sue them?

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My purpose in bringing this to you is not to focus on Amazon?s terms and conditions with self-publishers. I?m more interested in what I see in reading through the 54 comments lodged in a couple of days? time on Hines? post.

Here are authors, some angry and bewildered, some savvy and sardonic, some represented by agents, some not, some traditionally published, some not, but all of them engaged, either questioning Hines further to follow his arguments, or offering guidance, or worrying aloud for their own publishing situations.? Some phrases:

?they are the best game in town for selling my backlist. Still, with terms such as these I start to twitch when some authors sing their praises with such enthusiastic fervor?

?I?d like to expand on your statement about anyone thinking Amazon is in it for authors being a fool?

?They fixed the price. They have not fixed the royalties, and according to their terms of service, they don?t have to?

?I think we authors should advocate (and I have) that Amazon give us more control over our promotional pricing, so that this happens less often. Kobo is infuriatingly slow to change?

?While this sucks, I see the same thing in traditional publishing contracts all the time?.

?Actually, regular contracts ARE better because the publisher is constrained from changing the rules as it goes along?

?Do you have a publishing contract that actually specifies the price your book will be sold for? Because I?ve been around awhile and I?ve never seen such a thing?

?It?s a competitive environment, and if you believe otherwise you have spent too much time on Joe Konrath?s blog. Amazon, however, controls 70% of the ebook market?

?Jim do you know if other self-publishing platforms (Smashwords, Lulu, etc.) have had the same issues?

?I?m working on my first novel and self publishing was the route?

?I have published 15 books through traditional publishers. Never once was I asked what price I wanted to set for my books?

It takes a lot of time to wade through the whole raft of comments. But taken as a whole, they offer a striking, alarming overview of how profound is the confusion among writers, including authors published many times over, about (a) where they stand in the industry, (b) what the new ?freedom? of digital publishing really means for them,? and (c) how the core industry is debating the business? future.

I seem to be on an Arthur Miller jag of late. At some point ?attention must finally be paid? to this Internet-swollen army of talent. So come talk with us Friday afternoon. #FollowReader.

Don?t make me send the sheepdogs out to round you up.

I've said it before: it appears Jan/Feb is when SHIT GOES DOWN, apparently, in publishing.

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?It?s a gutsy move and we?ll see who blinks first, but I applaud Mark (Suchomel) and wish him and IPG?s clients luck because this is only the first of many of these battles that distributors and those who sell direct will face on this front.

Following Michael Cader?s write Amazon Removes Kindle Versions of IPG Books After Distributor Declines to Change Selling Terms at Publishers Lunch ? and Laura Hazard Owen?s extensive update at paidContent, Update: Amazon Yanks 5,000 Kindle Titles In Fight Over Terms ? Don Linn quietly opens the tackle box at Bait ?n? Beer to reel in some context on what he gauges ?a significant move by both parties.?

In simplified terms, what has happened is that the Independent Publishers Group?s (IDP), which reps some 200 smaller publishers to Amazon, didn?t like renewal terms Amazon has asked for on ebook pricing. IDP president Mark Suchomel has decided to say no to those terms. ?Amazon, in turn, has removed IDP client-publishers? ebooks (not print, just ebooks) from its online store.

Linn?s post, You Had Me at ?No,? is worded in a way I hope you?ll allow to throw some balance into your thoughts about the situation. More and more, we need level heads on the field of Amazonia. Industry hysteria misleads the amateurs and exhausts the pros. Here is Linn:

Those of you who?ve been reading this blog for a bit know I?m no Amazon hater and in fact I?ve been a booster some of the time. But ALL of the time, I?ve said if you don?t like how they compete, then change the game. Mark Suchomel, who?s a friend, has decided to do that by refusing to be forced into new terms that he knows will ultimately make it difficult for him to maintain his business. He also apparently has the support of his publisher clients, which is huge. Amazon can hardly say it is selling ?any book you want in print or digital format? if they don?t carry digital titles from IPG?s 200+ clients.

For his part, Suchomel writes in a memo to the client-publishers ? included in Owen?s report ? several very clear requests for how customers can be directed to outlets still selling the ebooks in question. Among them, he asks publishers to inform consumers: ?This book is available in print or electronic edition at your local independent bookshop,? www.BarnesandNoble.com, www.indiebound.org, iTunes, Kobo, and elsewhere. It is not currently available in a Kindle edition.?

Because IDP?s print editions are still sold by Amazon, we can assume that the publishers served by IDP can ill afford to have those print sales lost in the anger of an ebook standoff. And so Sumochel goes on in smartly measured tones:

Remember that Amazon continues to be an important account that sells a lot of units. This is a business decision on Amazon?s part, and hopefully they will soon decide to reverse it and buy at our standard terms.

And for his part, Linn helps us all see that this is not just a staring match over ebook pricing. It gets us into an arena of distributor resistance. Some key values beyond just the price of ebooks are at stake. As Linn writes:

Distributors play an important role in maintaining the vitality of smaller, independent presses and their disintermediation would be an unfortunate event in the lives of those presses (who seldom publish books about Snooki or Justin Bieber).

Cader has some info on the scope of the yanked ebooks in A Little More On IPG and Amazon:

IPG president Mark Suchomel told Crain?s Chicago and the WSJ that ebooks comprise less than 10 percent of the distributor?s revenues. And he told the Chicago Tribune ?that the e-books sold through Amazon?s Kindle tablet account for about 5 percent of the company?s business.? (Their lists are not particularly deep in leading ebook categories like popular fiction and romance.)

There?s also a write from the Times? David Streitfeld, Amazon Pulls Thousands of E-Books in Dispute, in which Streitfeld reminds us of a driving Amazonian perspective.

The only two essential parties in the reading experience, Amazon executives are fond of saying, are the reader and the author.

More than I want to know.

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Amazon: Readers don?t shop the spine

If big authors jump ship to Amazon or elsewhere, readers will follow them. If the Big Six collapse entirely, most readers will not care, provided they can still find decent books to read. So publishers: it?s time to embrace technology, put your customers first, and entirely revamp the logistical architecture of the industry, or Amazon?s publishing arm will do it for you (and nobody wants that).

As the power of Amazon comes into deeper focus in incidents like the IDP disagreement above, the consumerist basis for that strength can never be overstated.

Nico Vreeland is here in a post that Paul Biba put up at Teleread. Despite the bark of its headline, It?s time to start blaming publishers for the troubles of the publishing industry Vreeland is getting at something too fundamentally correct to overlook:? As with television networks, recording labels, and potato-chip manufacturers, the public?s loyalty is not to the corporation behind a show, an artist, or a Dorito. The public follows the actor, the singer, the flavor.

@ Interesting. Sounds like Amazon wants to remove another middleman; makes sense, actually.

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In a responding post from one ?Joanna,? a Canadian ? Is Amazon evil, or are they just really good at business? ? there?s a 1-Click understanding of why Amazon holds the power it holds today. She sees not ?predatory? or ?monopolistic,? but smart:

Amazon is not evil. They have just figured out what the customers want better than anybody else has so far, and they are giving it to them. Vreeland points out, correctly, that customers don?t buy ?Random House books? or ?Penguin Books.? They buy Stephen King books or James Patterson books or whomever?The way to beat Amazon is not to complain about how evil they are. It?s to build a better website. If you want to compete, compete! Build a better website. Nobody is stopping you.

These two posts capture how the fray of the day might look to an MOS, the ?man on the Street? interviewed by the media after the bomb goes off. The MOS is the one who?s going to tell us in a deeply Southern dialect, ?It sounded like a freight train went through here? right after something in pinstripes goes off the higher ledge.

These posts are reminders of how much fire big publishers are playing with if they yell, ?Seattle did it!? However you may see the rise of Amazon, James Patterson, by any other imprint, would sell as sweet.

IPG: "If anyone from AMZN calls you, please let them know that you are distributed by & contractually tied to IPG" http://t.co/t7Axe0za

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Because libraries are, at most 5% of a publisher?s business and far less of the ebook business, and because the market is changing so rapidly and because every retailer except Amazon can be said to be struggling to carve out a sustainable position in the global ebook marketplace, there are many legitimate reasons for the biggest publishers to take a wait-and-see attitude about libraries and ebooks.

Coming at a good time, Mike Shatzkin?s Libraries and publishers don?t have symmetrical interest in a conversation helps remind us that whatever the lay of the playing field, the stakes in the ongoing confrontation between libraries and publishers are not even.

Of course, libraries view this differently because the big books from the big publishers are a lot more than 5% of their patrons? interest. This is an imbalance that would explain the difference in attitude of the parties, for anybody who cares to accept the reality of it.

Shatzkin gets very quickly in this essay to an even more defining statement, not easy for many to read, maybe, but important to consider:

We already face the possibility that we?re headed for a single retailer for ebooks and print online called Amazon. Every other channel to the consumer, libraries and retailers both (whether they know it or not) are ultimately fighting for their digital lives.

Going on to get at some specific points of tension with Amazon, Shatzkin stays close to his underlying message, and its a good one. ?These aren?t moral decisions? being made in various offices of publishing from New York To Seattle, he writes, ?they?re commercial ones (even when they?re being made by not-for-profit entities).?

I always expect an entity to act in its own self-interest, particularly when survival could be involved. (And Amazon, trading at 135 times earnings and facing the likelihood that their sales tax advantage in the United States is on the verge of being eliminated, is entitled to think that way too.) I think we should all understand that intelligent people on all sides feel that they are fighting for their survival. That includes Amazon, the publishers, the competing retailers, and the libraries. Our problem is that the interests don?t align and what I think people sometimes have trouble accepting is that it is possible they never will.

My Kindle Touch has arrived. So far it has been abducted by about 14 coworkers, all of whom seem to want to fondle it. #publishingfetishes

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I haven?t seen librarians so upset about anything since the Patriot Act?(Publishers) say that lack of ?friction? really changes the business model. And right now there is no uniformity across the publishing industry as a business model.

That?s WCAI Senior Reporter Sean Corcoran (working on series of reports about libraries for WCAI and WGBH) on The Takeaway with John Hockenberry.

A slide from Barbara Genco's ToC presentaion.

Of course, in her keynote address at ToC last week, Barbara A. Genco of the Library Journal resoundingly rejected the ?friction? argument: ?Friction is fiction.? At about 7.5 minutes into the video of her talk at ToC, Genco explains that the publishers use the ?friction? argument to say that over-the-air transmission of ebooks is ?too easy,? creating an uncontrolled distribution model.

Now, Corcoran and Jill Erickson, a librarian at the Falmouth, Massachusetts, Public Library, are heard in this audio clip, Library Access to E-books Worries Publishers, with Erickson describing some perfectly verifiable friction, the frustration of library patrons and librarians with publishers:

Look at yesterday?s New York Times bestsellers. Top 10 fiction hardcover bestsellers. Of those 10, five we can?t buy (as ebooks). Four we can buy. And one we can buy but we can only have 26 circulations, which is crazy?It?s very hard to explain why we don?t have Stephen King?s new book as an ebook, because people want it as an ebook.

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Up until now, the ability to track when e-reading devices are being used, how much time is being spent on entire books and sections within the books, whether readers are finishing the book and other data has been limited to device manufacturers who typically have shared only very limited data with publishers. The benefits of mining this data could be very important for acquisition editors, marketing departments and to senior management in making decisions about what and how to publish.

Just what the collection and eager parsing of Big Data might mean to an author?s work ? and maybe to her or his future contracts ? comes into handy focus in the busily writing Don Linn?s latest contribution to Firebrand?s Whiteboard, Looking at the Cloud (from Both Sides?Now).

With cloud-based reading rapidly becoming a reality, it will be possible for publishers to track this data themselves if they choose to operate (or outsource on the right terms) their own cloud readers.

There?s a kicker, though, to Linn?s concise write: ?We?ll leave you with one open question: How will readers respond??

I?d just add: And authors. Wonder how they?ll respond?

Been cranking this week. Like super productivity. I deserve a big big drink when I get home tonight.

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Publishers eager to blame Amazon for eBook price wars forget that it was their insistence on DRM, coupled with a disinterest in promoting open standards, that handed the retailer its significant market share in the United States.

Oh yeah. ?Forgot? that, huh? Brian O?Leary helps jog our blame-game memories in I?m not angry (anymore). Basing his comments on Mathew Ingram?s piece, Debunking the ?original sin? of online?newspapers, in which he?d written of how newspaper executives talk of the ?original sin? of not charging for content early in Web life. And O?Leary, on the way to Elvis Costello, goes on:

It?s folly to think that industries fail because they collectively made a single bad decision or were done in by a single bad actor? For a while we could pretend that the disruptions were limited or temporary. ?In media today, we can no longer pretend, and that seems to be making a lot of people angry? We?ll make progress when we can say, honestly, ?I?m not angry (anymore).?

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Someone noted that there were few references to platforms like Copia, Small Demons and Pinterest throughout the day, and there?s a good reason for that: none have proven themselves to be more than technological curiosities for which there is little to no consumer demand. Meanwhile, Goodreads is approaching 7 million members ? READERS OF BOOKS!!!! ? and people are still wondering how publishers can build conversations around their books and connect with their readers?!?! #cmonson

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, a veteran of the Book^2 Camp series of ?un-conferences? in New York City, was at the most recent edition. It was un-held on the day before ToC 2012 began its workshops, and gamely hosted by Chris Kubica and Ami Greko (with a tip of that hat to Nick Ruffilo and others for lots of help).

Do have a look at DanBlank?s Virtual Tour of Book Camp to glimpse ?Ami-with-an-i? Greko-on-furniture. And here?s another wrap, Book Camp Feb 2012, from Babette Ross. Funny how that post-event drinks table keeps getting pictured in these roundups. Un-alcoholic, of course.

@ I'd never pass up another #book2. They're too much fun. @ and you did a great job last time.

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In Moving Beyond THE BOOK: Three Takeaways from #Book2, Gonzalez opens with a resonant ?Stop It With the New Shiny!!!!? (that?s four exclamation points, I counted). He moves to ?Think Beyond the Book.? And he closes with ?Remember the Fundamentals.?? Could there be three better instructions for us about now?

Book^2 ? which I thoroughly enjoyed, myself ? is ?un? in the sense that attendees put forward and choose their topics of discussion, then divide a six-hour afternoon among sessions on those subjects. Gonzalez, never one to shy away from the harder tasks, writes (note the reference to the author pool):

I pitched and facilitated?a session on (re)Building the Perfect Business Model, starting with the premise that it has to allow for relationships with booksellers, libraries, and direct engagement with readers, and account for a royalty-based system, not just work-for-hire. (Few were comfortable with the idea of turning authors into straight freelancers.)

I was particularly pleased with a session led by Kristen McClean of Bookigee on how we use data. Her premise for discussion had to do with whether we?re taking care to let readers tell us what they need and want, in an industry that for much of its history has tended to announce to readers what they needed and wanted.

And let me offer you this write from Philip Turner, Book Camp?Fostering Innovation Since 2010, who has a wise insight into the impromptu nature of these ?un-events.?

Here, people aren?t sure what they think about a publishing question until they?ve had a chance to say it aloud, or listened to a colleague talking about it.

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Sign of a highly successful conference: new reflections on aspects of O?Reilly Media?s Tools of Change Conference, covered extensively in last week?s Ether, continue to be published.

Many of the events of the conference have bearing on elements of our coverage in the new Ether upcoming. Meanwhile, some recent highlights you may want to review include:

• Lessons in non-fiction from TOC 2012 by Gayle Feldman at TheFutureBook on Michael Tamblyn?s session about Kobo and ebooks
• The Tools They Are a Changin?: The Ins and Outs of TOC NYC by Ed Nawotka of Publishing Perspectives with references to O?Reilly?s Roger Magoulas, the upcoming O?Reilly Strata Conference (Making Data Work), Copia, Kobo, Jesse McDougall, Clay Johnson,? Bill Patry, Jeremy Lin (I don?t remember that keynote),? LeVar Burton, and Baratunde Thurston.
• Nawotka also points us toward the clever artwork of various ToC speakers by the busy Xpectro
• It?s Half Time in Publishing and We?re Changing Forward Fast: Notes on the 6th Annual Tools of Change Conference by Eugene G. Schwartz does a handy job of summarizing some themes of this year?s ToC. This is Part 1 of 2, by the way, so be sure to check back at Book Business.
• I?m not angry (anymore) by Brian O?Leary gets at the ?figure out how to adapt? spirit of many moments at the conference.
• Building Local and Global Communities Around Your Brand, one of the sessions I covered, has been Storified extensively by Chronicle Books, represented by Guinevere de la Mare on the panel, which also featured Bethanne Patrick and Julia von dem Knesebeck
• At Last, They See: E-Books ?Democratize? Publishing by Lynn Neary on NPR?s Weekend Edition Sunday with input from O?Reilly?s Joe Wikert , Smashwords? Mark Coker , Sourcebooks? Dominique Raccah , and designer/author Peter Meyers

Using a mobile hotspot in the boonies. Feels like 14.4 dialup.

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DO post your Twitter handle somewhere prominent on your home page if you tweet. Don?t just use one of those birdy icons. Make sure you put your whole @twittername up there. I spend way too much time using Twitter?s iffy search engine (why is it so useless?) trying to find the handle for somebody I?m quoting or want to reach. If it?s right up there on your blog home page, people are much more likely to be able to tweet you or follow.

Nobody knows the trouble a busy tweeterina has seen when it comes to trying to find people?s Twitter handles. St. Anne R. Allen clearly had what remains of my sanity in mind when she wrote How to Blog Part V: 12 Dos and Don?ts for Author-Bloggers.

I mean, do you want your stuff tweeted? If not, don?t worry. Make it utterly impossible to (a) guess or (b) find your Twitter handle.

But if you?d like me and other social mediators to schlepp your deathless prose around le tweeterie, you really must put your Twitter handle ? the @twittername ? out there front and center. Not a link to your page on Twitter (though it?s fine to make your @twittername? a hotlink). Don?t make me or Lady Anne waste time clicking through to Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey and Noah Glass? and Evan Williams? ?house to find your @twittername and properly credit you with your own work. (And I?m sure Santa Anna is talking now to that comely quartet right now about their funny search engine.).

For now, Allen has more good advice on her list, including this wise note I?ve never come across before:

DON?T die intestate. No matter how young and healthy and immortal you feel?Make sure somebody besides you has the passwords to your blog so if anything dire should happen, they can attend to it and/or take it down?You could get into a parasailing accident while you?re on that vacation in Mazatlan. Or get stuck without power for 2 weeks in darkest Connecticut. Be attacked by angry bees.?You don?t want your blog hanging unattended in cyberspace as it collects Ukrainian porn and fake Viagra ads.

What?s wrong with Ukrainian porn?

#publishingeuphemisms "though, at times, an exhilarating read, I found the tone of the novel to be uneven" = hysterical nonsense

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The book was written in 72 hours, and built on the powerful Vook platform in 36 hours, and distributed globally in 24 hours. 7 days after Lin?s game-winning three-pointer that made even non-sports fans grin, this book was polished and released.

That particular Lin-grin is on the face of Movable Type Management chief Jason Ashlock as he writes a post, Linsanity: The Improbable Rise of Jeremy Lin, about author Alan Goldsher?s Vook shot of the same title.

That 15,000-word monograph is, we learn from GalleyCat?s Jason Boog, just one of seven (7) Jeremy Lin Books for Your Kindle.

Surely, the most inspiriting title among them is The Zen of Jeremy Lin: 17 Nuggets of Wisdom from Confucius to Jeremy Lin about Basketball and Life.

And while you?re studying the wisdom of the young zen master, you?ll be edified to know from AP Sports, I?m sure, that Hachette has thrown Timothy Dalrymple onto the court, to lavish a glacial three months on something called ?Jeremy Lin: The Reason for the Linsanity,? due in stores in May.

That one might be copy-edited.

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Seeking to advance the narrative that the Nook Tablet is a true multimedia tablet and not just a big expensive e-reader, Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said in an investor call today that apps are the company?s fastest-growing content area, and ?within apps it?s entertainment, movies, Netflix, games, kids.?

From deep inside darkest Confused eBook Sales Land, our intrepid Laura Hazard (good name for the job) Owen reports to us at paidContent on the rather bizarre moves that Barnes & Noble?s Monsieur Lynch is making these days to try to get a Nook into every garage. Her story, headlined with an understated Apps Are ?Huge? For Barnes & Noble, lowers the entertainment boom on our literary heads, children, helmets on: ?Angry Birds is still the company?s most-downloaded app, while Netflix ?toggles between #2 and #3.??

But take heart, maybe it?s not all going to the gamers. Yet. Owen?s story goes on, with quotes from Lynch:

Lynch said that customers who buy Nooks also spend more on print books, echoing the sentiment expressed by B&N?s Jim Hilt at Digital Book World last month. ?They not only buy the hardware, accessories, warranties and, more meaningfully from a margin standpoint, the digital content,? he said, ?but they also continue to buy phsyical books. The idea that people who are digital readers just stop buying physical books is?not true.? This contradicts recent Bowker research suggesting that the majority of e-book ?power buyers? switch to digital books exclusively within a year.

I wrote on my calendar for March 2nd "don't schedule anything" but I have no idea why!

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In its recently filed answer,Open Road neither denies nor admits that its digital version of Wolves competes directly with the sale of the book in paper form. As I wrote previously, while the grant of primary rights did not mention eBook rights, a court might find it unfair for Ms. George to collect royalties from HarperCollins, while, at the same, time enjoying a royalty stream for the same work from Open Road. There is, however, scant law on the enforceability of non-compete clauses found in publishing contracts.

Lloyd J. Jassin of Copylaw publishes and comments on the response of Open Road Media to HarperCollins? lawsuit over the right to publish Jean Craighead George?s book Julie of the Wolves in ebook format.

What?s next?? Briefs will be prepared and a?parade of industry experts will be asked to submit expert affidavits in support of either HarperCollins or Open Road, stating under ?penalty of perjury,? that the ability to read text on a screen [did] [didn't] date back to 1971 (or earlier).

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Article Sommelier here with a pairing representative of many pieces we?re seeing these days. They reflect the recent Franzenian trend for established literary writers to pan e-literature and cling to their papier like overwrought community theater actors who can?t learn their lines and drop their scripts.

Alternate subhead for this section: Hey, do you think that Internet thing is going to last?

First,?Nathan Bransford ?s nod to the issue. Here?s a line from our earnest friend?s hand-wringer Why Are So Many Literary Writers Technophobic? In it, Bransford includes Jennifer Egan?s apparent unease about things-tech. It?s on display in Dan Rosemblum?s coverage at Capital of Egan?s talk at Columbia University, The last thing on Jennifer Egan?s mind is the needs of e-readers (although she does say that if HBO can do ?something great? with her A Visit From the Goon Squad).

An exasperated Bransford writes:

Doesn?t it seem like there?s some nexus between literary writers and technophobia? Are literary writers more likely to fear our coming robot overlords and proudly choose an old cell phone accordingly (if they have one at all)? Do they know something we don?t?

I doubt they know anything we don?t. They?re just nostalgia-heads. And they?re not happy with electric waffle irons, either.

Which is why I?m grateful for a comparatively eloquent opinion in The New York Review of Books from Tim Parks, E-books Can?t Burn.

The e-book, by eliminating all variations in the appearance and weight of the material object we hold in our hand and by discouraging anything but our focus on where we are in the sequence of words (the page once read disappears, the page to come has yet to appear) would seem to bring us closer than the paper book to the essence of the literary experience?In this sense the passage from paper to e-book is not unlike the moment when we passed from illustrated children?s books to the adult version of the page that is only text. This is a medium for grown-ups.

And while Parks is gracious enough to shrug amiably at the end ? ?it becomes harder and harder to see why the literati are not giving the phenomenon a more generous welcome? ? one fears that he has answered the question with his own reference to maturity.

I can?t help but return to Henry Miller?s The Cosmological Eye (curses, no Kindle edition yet) for a kind of textual outburst:

You want to communicate. All right, communicate! Use any and every means.

Can?t we just let the Franzenians and Eganites prattle along while we get on with things? Who cares if some of our literary fictionists ?are stuck in the muddle of older technology? What shall we do? Back the car over all those e-readers and just stop this digital nonsense?

I?m not tossing out my Albert Camus books just because they?re on paper, don?t be ridiculous. But I am duplicating that collection as fast as editions become available for my Kindle Fire. I want Camus closer to me than paper. My mind hums only a? pixel?s breadth from his in e-life.

Here?s a bit from near the end of his life, a passage in the cahiers of Camus, who could take Franzen and Egan with The Plague tied behind his back. The translation is Ryan Bloom?s:

These twenty days of racing through Greece, I contemplate them now from Athens before my departure, and they seem to me like a lone and lengthy source of light that I will be able to keep at the center of my life. For me, Greece is no more than a long glittering day extended over voyages, and also like an enormous island covered with red flowers and mutilated gods endlessly afloat on a sea of light, beneath a crystalline sky. To retain this light, to return, to no longer give in to the darkness of days?

You just read that digitally. Online. What were you saying about paper?

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This column?s wooly image is an iStockphoto by Lee Torrens

Porter Anderson is a Fellow with the National Critics Institute, and a producer and consultant formerly with the United Nations World Food Programme in Rome and INDEX: Design to Improve Life?in Copenhagen. As a journalist, he has worked with media including three networks of CNN, The Village Voice, and D Magazine. He reviews literary fiction, is a regular contributor to Writer Unboxed, and is based in Tampa.?

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Source: http://janefriedman.com/2012/02/23/writing-on-the-ether-26/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=writing-on-the-ether-26

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Autoresponders ? How To Make Money With An Autoresponder

Are you an affiliate marketer that sees the value of building a list?

One of the most exciting things for an affiliate marketer is to go online and see that you have sales.? I don?t know about you, but it just makes my day to make money online.? But, did you collect this person?s name so that you can sell to them in the future?? If not, you just lost a valuable opportunity.

Or, let?s say someone visits your site and is about to purchase something from your affiliate site.? But, something happens and this person exits out without making a purchase.? This person is lost to you forever, unless you got an email address and you can follow up.? This gives you the chance to make the sale at a later date.

Autoresponders are your money line in the business of affiliate marketing.? You need to build lists so that you can keep in contact with your past customers and to try and convince visitors to buy from you in the future.? A well written autoresponder series will turn a tire kicker or a casual visitor into a customer that is profitable for you.? I don?t know about you, but I became an affiliate marketer to make money.

So, how can you use an autoresponder to make money?? Let?s go over a few of the best ways to profit from your list and provide useful information to your subscribers.

Put together a newsletter for your subscribers.? It doesn?t have to be long and fancy.? A well written newsletter will give you credibility and help establish you as an expert in your subscriber?s minds.? In your newsletter, you can provide valuable information as well as try to sell them on your products.

If you have affiliates promoting your products, put together a newsletter just for them.? Give them tips on selling your affiliate products, how to increase sales and give them updates on new products you have coming out.? You want your affiliates to be successful so you need to support them.

You can also write reviews of the products that you are promoting.? You should actually use the product first of course and then write an honest review of it.? You can then insert your affiliate links into the review and drive traffic to your products.

Article writing is a great way to provide information to your autoresponders.? You can write on any topic that is relevant to your subscribers and provide useful information.

If you have an ad online, put your sign up box there to get people to subscribe to your e-newsletter which is in your autoresponder.?

As you write more and more, you will find that you have enough information to put together an online course.? You can send out a new lesson every day or two and send it to your list.

You can even set up a poll to see what kind of information they would like to see more of and taylor your course around that.

There is no end to the way you can use your autoresponders to provide useful information to your list and in the process make money.? Look for more tips on using your autoresponders to increase your affiliate revenue.

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Source: http://www.1directory.net/internet-and-businesses-online/autoresponders-how-to-make-money-with-an-autoresponder-7520.html

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Adele Gets Cut Off at Brit Awards, Flips Off Producers on Stage

Who knew M.I.A. had anything in common with Adele?

After being honored with Best Album at the Brit Awards tonight on London, this beloved superstar barely started her acceptance speech when host James Cordon interrupted her to introduce 90s British pop band Blur. The crowd booed, and Adele did this:

Adele Flips Off the Brit Awards

"I flung the middle finger," she later told the BBC. "That was for the suits at the Brit Awards, not my fans. I'm sorry if I offended anyone but the suits offended me."

Adele spent most of the night cuddling up to boyfriend Simon Konecki, with the exception of her other time on stage, when she belted out a rendition of "Rolling in the Deep." Watch it below.

Adele - "Rolling in the Deep" (2012 Brit Awards)

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/02/adele-gets-cut-off-at-brit-awards-flips-off-producers-on-stage/

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Develop A Vital Plan With These Personal Finance Strategies

February 21, 2012 Francisco Personal Finance,

You need to make sure you break down your expenses into categories. Separate your monthly expenses that are the same and those that change. Your necessary expenses will serve as the foundation for your budget. By having an idea of the amount of money needed for each expense, you will be able to closely monitor your budget and have success with your goals.

When working on personal finances, patience can help you save a lot. A lot of people will rush out to buy the newest model or latest edition of electronic products as soon as they hit the shelves. The costs of such gadgets tend to drop both rapidly and significantly, though. These savings will really add up and allow you to eventually get much more for your money.

Always read letters sent to you by credit card companies, even if they are tediously long and boring. The law says that they have to let you know 45 days ahead of time. Look at these changes to figure out if you should keep the account. If they are not, then close it!

740 is a good credit score for you to hope to achieve if you want to get a mortgage. With a high credit score you get better interest rates too. If you must wait a little to get this score, it will be worth your time. When your credit score is low, you should not apply for a mortgage unless you have no other choice.

Make organizing your finances an everyday effort. You can organize all of your insurance documents, receipts, healthcare statements, and anything else you have that is important so they are easily available come tax time.

Personal finance can be stressful, but by following a few tips, you can make it easier on yourself. Knowing ways to deal with your finances can aid you in lowering your stress. With the information in the above article, you will be able to better control your personal finances and reduce your stress levels.

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Source: http://www.psychologyandmarkets.org/49/develop-a-vital-plan-with-these-personal-finance-strategies/

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Wall Street closes mixed after Dow tops 13,000

Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday.

By msnbc.com news services

Updated at 4:00 p.m. ET:

Wall Street?closed Tuesday mixed?as shares pulled back after the Dow breached 13,000 for the first time since May 2008, the latest big move in stocks' recent rally.

Greece's securing a bailout to avoid a disorderly default initially supported stocks, but investors said the news had been priced in to the market.

The 13,000 level, which the Dow first moved above briefly?in morning trading,?doesn?t hold a great deal of significance to market analysts, but ?it?s nice to see a symbolic number,? Art Cashin, UBS director of floor operations, told CNBC.

The Dow last moved above 13,000 on an intra-day basis on May 20, 2008. It last closed above that level on May 19, 2008.

Climbing oil prices gave investors a reason to sell Tuesday. U.S. crude oil prices rose to a nine-month high amid Iran supply worries.

Signs of improvement in the economy and stabilization of Europe's debt crisis have driven the Dow more than 20 percent higher since late last year, while the S&P has climbed more than 8 percent so far this year.

Euro zone finance ministers agreed on a 130 billion euro ($172 billion) rescue for Greece to avert an imminent chaotic default after forcing Athens to commit to unpopular cuts and private bondholders to take bigger losses.

"We're running into some minor selling pressure given the extent of the rally we've seen," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon, despite the upbeat news on Greece.

Even with the bailout, Greece faces a long road to economic recovery. European Union officials said the Greek economy will only return to growth in 2014 after a recession that will shrink output by 17 percent.

Results from retailers were mixed. Wal-Mart Stores Inc shares were the top drag on the Dow, falling after its quarterly profit came in short of expectations.

Home Depot Inc shares were up after the home improvement chain's quarterly profit beat estimates.

Related:

Top finance professor bullish on the stock market

Reuters contributed to this report.

Can the Dow move higher? Discuss on our Facebook page.

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/21/10466512-wall-street-closes-mixed-after-dow-tops-13000

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Customer Service Outsourcing And Its Effect To The Business ...

Posted: February 20, 2012 in Customer Service | Views: 27 | Rating:

Outsourcing services is now being used by companies around the globe. It is a current trend in the global marketplace and across business industries. More and more companies are opting to subcontract the non-core activities of their businesses to independent providers so that they can concentrate on improving their business strategies and competencies. This makes it easier to achieve growth and development of the company and function with lean and smooth operations. ?Outsourcing is an effective way to lessen company expenditures on overhead and operations. When a company outsources its business activities, the responsibilities of various non-core business activities are transferred to third party vendors. These outsourcing vendors take care of the activities on behalf of the company and carry out all the responsibilities.

There are a lot of business activities that can be outsourced. Some of them are customer service and technical support, finance and accounting support, help desk activities, web design and SEO and ?back office support. By hiring independent providers to take care of these non-core business activities, company owners are able to redirect the focus of their businesses and their key staff to the core activities of the company that could help in generating income and strengthening business strategies.

Customer service outsourcing is one of the most common outsourcing activities being utilized by companies from various industries. Customer service support is considered a very important business process because it is the meeting point of the company and its customers. Its primary roles are to ensure the satisfaction and retention of consumers and assist in the growth and development of the business. Customer service is the primary contact of the customers to the company. It is the place where customers get assistance about their issues on the products and services provided by the business. Customer service support is very important as it serves as the bridge that connects the company to its customers and end users.

The kind of customer service provided by a certain company is unique to its business. It sets the company apart from other similar businesses. It can be the company?s image and identity to the general public. If customer service is properly managed and efficiently provided, it can be a great help in growing the business by attracting more customers. Every company recognizes the fact that word of mouth is an effective form of marketing the business. When customers are happy with the support provided by the company they will talk about it among their friends and relatives. Customer service creates goodwill of the company and it determines the ability of the business in supplying the wants and needs of their consumers.

Customer service outsourcing brings a lot of advantages to the business. Companies must give it proper attention because good customer service leads to an efficient and effective business. When a customer is happy with the customer service provided by the company there is a better retention. By having an efficient business partner that can effectively deliver the customer service support of your company, your business will be able to gain a competitive edge in the industry.

Source: http://www.articlesxpert.com/customer-service/customer-service-outsourcing-its-effect-to-the-business.htm

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