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Archive for the ‘Newsletter’ Category

PBS News: IE8 Accelerator, Market Notifications

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Do you have a need for speed? If you use Internet Explorer 8, you should try the new accelerator plugin for IE 8 that allows you to get around the internet more quickly than ever before! After you install the plugin, all you have to do is highlight some text (a title or ISBN, for example) on any webpage to bring up the accelerator icon.  Click it to reveal a menu of choices, including how to find the book on PaperBackSwap.  You can download the IE 8 Accelerator here, and see a video of how it works here.

Red Alert. Now, if you receive a new Personal Message (PM) while you are using your account, an alert will appear at the top of the page, no matter where you are on the site.  The alert will indicate how many new PMs you have; clicking the alert will take you to your Message Center so you can read your messages.  This new feature also cuts down on the emails we send you – if you read the PMs while you are online you will not be sent notification emails about those PMs.  (If you log out without reading the new PMs, then notification emails will be sent out to you, one for each message.)   You can read more about this feature here. Market Alert emails. These emails will let you know if a book on your Wish List becomes available in the PBS Market.  You will also get an alert if an alternate version of a book you are wishing for becomes available in the Market.  You can opt out of these emails by clicking the appropriate links in the emails themselves, or from your Account Settings page.  Read more about the Market Alert Emails here.

PBS News

Friday, February 5th, 2010

We got more photos from the Books for Schools donation program, showing us the delivery of the books you so generously donated credits to get for them!

Above, Upward Elementary School says Thank You! See photographs from Cloverdale and NIxyaawii in the Photo Gallery on the site. The kids are really happy with the books!  Some of the books will go into the classrooms and libraries, and some will go home with students to keep.  From the first two rounds, member credit donations to the program supplied over 20,000 books to needy schools! Thanks to all who donated credits for this program.  We’ll let the membership know when we’re ready for the third round of Books for Schools – stay tuned!  You can read more about Books for Schools here.

The wrapping always works twice…and three times… We are happy to report that members are recycling packaging materials and not just books here!  One member told us, “I wanted to suggest giving a big WELL DONE to all the people who recycle not just their books, but packaging and printing as well. I just mailed a book this morning that is the third PBS journey for the bubblewrap envelope… I would love to see kudos to all the folks who go the extra mile to recycle.” Yes, kudos to all of you who create sturdy packaging for your books out of already-used materials!  The planet is happier because of it.

The love of reading brings people together.. We have a PBS marriage that we know of, and many many examples of friendships that started here.  We heard from one group of ladies who became friends through PBS. They got together for the first time last December, and had such a great time they plan to make this an annual event. From left to right, we have Liana T (bukwurm), her mom Leilani R (hiker-Leilani) and Ella S  (sls).

Dear Members; Introducing PBS Market – NEW overstock books at bargain prices

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

We are really happy about what we got for you for St. Valentine’s Day this year! It’s a very special addition to the site: the PBS Market. The Market offers NEW overstock books at bargain prices – many of the books are on your Wish Lists right now!
The Market is not like any bookstore you’ve ever been to – we’ve integrated it with your PaperBackSwap account so you can

  • Opt to use a Book Credit for each book purchase to lower the cost of that book even further
  • See at a glance if any of your Wish List books are currently available in the Market
  • Sort your Wish and Reminder Lists to show books available in the Market at the top of the list
  • Use the Buy from PBS Market button wherever it appears on any listing on the site, to buy a book from the Market
  • Support PBS with every purchase you make

Get books for your friends and family, and really share the love! Encourage them to shop the Market too – every purchase supports the club and helps to keep it free. Books are mailed to any valid USPS address. The shipping is Media Mail (in our testing so far the transit times have been quick), and you can save greatly on shipping and handling by ordering more than one book in a shipment.
You can find the Market under the Search option in the grey menu bar at the top of any page on the site, you can see Market books during your regular book searches, and you can also browse Market books on your Member Homepage by clicking the “New Books for Purchase” link below the lower sliding display.
Head to the Market to browse the selection (over 8000 titles)! New books are added every hour, so check back often. Please note – supplies of some books are limited, so if you see a book you want, you might be wise to grab it. You can read more about the Market in the Help Center.

We hope you’ll love this new feature and the newest way to support the club!

Happy reading to you, your friends and your family,
Richard
and the PaperBackSwap Team

News: PBS Gift Certificates, Daily Digest, Reviews

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

One for me, and one for you… If you gave  PBS Gift Certificates this holiday, don’t forget to tell the lucky recipients to enter your PBS Nickname (or the email address you use for your PBS account) when registering, so that you get your referral credit!  Referred accounts must be the first for the household to be eligible for referral credit, of course, and referral credit is granted when the new member has completed registration, including posting the first 10 books.

Are you in the loop? If you don’t get the Daily Digest, you may be missing out on books you would love to read!   The Daily Digest is a daily email that shows you the books posted during the previous day, in the genres you have selected.   We’ve upgraded the feature so that now, only currently-available books are shown to you by default (no more disappointment seeing books other people have already ordered by the time you get the email), and the new, easy-on-the-eyes format includes book descriptions. It’s a great way to start each day – browsing for books with your morning coffee.  Read more about the Daily Digest and subscribe today!

Be a person of influence. Every reader knows the thrill of reading a wonderful book, and wanting to share that feeling with other readers.  It’s easy to spread the news with the club by writing Book Reviews.  Take a few minutes and review a few books every day – review the books on your Bookshelf or Books I’ve Read list, or books you’ve read that you see while browsing your Daily Digest or Books Posted Today page.  Members tell us all the time how much book reviews help them decide whether or not to request a book.  And now, a list of your reviews is linked from any review you have written. So if you read a review you agree with, you should check out that member’s other reviews by clicking the “see all reviews by this member” link…it’s a terrific way to find your next great read!

Books for Schools donation program photos

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

We got some photos from our first round of Books for Schools donation program. Here is Clear Creek Elementary showing us the delivery of the books you so generously donated credits to get for them! Clear Water Creek Elementary was just one of the lucky first round of donations.

What it's all about!

They’re thrilled with the books, and it looks like they had a lot of fun sorting through them. The school received more than a thousand books — some will go into their classrooms and library, and some will go home with students to keep.  From the first two rounds, member credit donations to the program got books for 25 needy schools. We’ll let the membership know when we’re ready for the third round of Books for Schools- stay tuned!  Read more about Books for Schools donation program.  See more photos of Clear Creek getting the books below: (click for a larger image)

books for schoolsbooks for schoolsbooks for schoolsbooks for schoolsbooks for schoolsbooks for schools

News: Customizable Bookmarks, Expand your Wish List,

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Can you expand upon that? Why yes, you can! We’ve made several more tweaks to the Wish List, to make it work even better to get books matched up with new readers.  Since different publishers use different ISBNs to publish different versions of a book, there can be multiple listings for one book in the system.  If you click on only ONE of those ISBNs you might miss out on a more commonly-posted version of the book (or even a currently-available one).  The Wish Expander allows you to see ALL versions of the book that are known to our database at the time you are adding a book to your Wish List – you can browse all the versions, and add any or all to your Wish List quickly and easily.   You can activate the Wish Expander under Options at the top of your WIsh LIst; after you do that, every time you click +Wish on a book listing you will be taken to the Wish Expander page.

Other changes you’ll notice on the Wish List: we moved the Sort and Search to the top of the list  to make them more convenient, and the auto-request setting is there too, so it can be applied to multiple items at once now.  Read about all of the new Wish List changes here.

Bookmarks on Demand. Those customizable bookmarks that you can download from the Spread the Word page are really popular!  Note that you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader (free download here) to print the bookmarks.  Don’t forget that each new account you refer will earn you another book credit.  Read about eligibility requirements for referrals.

And the winners are…. Every author interview in the PBS blog offers not only fascinating insights from the author but also a chance at a signed copy of the author’s book to anyone who comments on the blog!  Bruce Boston was very generous and gave 4.  The randomly-chosen blog commenters are Janet M. (BookwormMoucha), Jennifer C. (mrscasler), Carla G. (readragon) and Shondra W. (shoni). Congratulations!

Store News: PBS CookBook is in, Package Openers & Free Trial of Delivery Confirmation

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

PBS STORE NEWS:

  • The Cookbook is here!  The Cookbook is here! Yes, the PBS Cookbook is shipping!  If you moved since you ordered the Cookbook make sure your account address is updated on your account.
  • And now we can reveal the surprise extra in the Cookbook:  In addition to all the great member recipes, there is a special collection of recipes submitted to us by some of PBS’ favorite authors, including Angela Hunt, Barbara Delinsky, Bertrice Small, Beverly Lewis, Carla Neggers, Charles David, Christopher Moore, Dave Barry, David Anthony, Diana Gabaldon, Elmer Kelton, Joy Nash, Judith Tarr, Julie Garwood, Karen Dinino, Ken Follett, Laura Fitzgerald, Linda Rosencrance, Linda Woods, Lisa See, Lisa Shearin, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Weis, Mindy Klasky, Philippa Gregory and Rob Palmer! We are grateful to these authors who agreed to contribute recipes.   Get your copy in the Kiosk before they’re sold out!
  • Also check out the newly added package openers: These handy-dandy items (one shown below) are just the thing you need to get that well-wrapped PBS package open without damaging the book inside.


FREE Delivery Confirmation. Don’t forget that if you have never used PBS-DC before, you have 3 free trials of the feature until October 24, 2009!  The 19-cent USPS e-DC fee still applies (you pay that with extra postage applied to the package) but the 27-cent PBS fee is waived for three separate shipments if you want to try this out.  PBS Delivery Confirmation comes with Quick Credit -which means that you don’t have to wait for the package to be received to get credit.   To try this out, choose “Print with Delivery Confirmation alone” (the middle option on the Wrapper Settings page) and your wrapper will print out with a DC barcode.  You can read more about PBS-DC here, in the Help Center.  Please note that Printable Postage is not included in this offer –it’s just for PBS-DC.