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GigaOM (@gigaom) senior writer Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) reports on 72-year-old Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s (@MargaretAtwood) involvement with Wattpad (@wattpad) (blog) and Fanado (@Fanadoevents).

Wattpad is a Toronto, Ontario-based...online writing community with more than 3 million users and over 5 million pieces of content uploaded to the network....

Instead of just uploading books, many members of Wattpad’s community upload unfinished chapters that are still in development, or pieces of poetry they need feedback on, and then get comments and advice from other users of the service — both other writers and readers....

In addition to her work with Wattpad, Atwood is one of the founding artists involved with a startup called Fanado, which is trying to raise funds through the crowdfunding service Indiegogo (@Indiegogo) in order to launch a kind of digital-community platform for artists....

The idea behind Fanado is to give authors tools that they can use to interact with fans remotely, including the ability to share live video and audio of readings or get-togethers with a community, and to autograph and distribute both electronic books and printed books, as well as CDs and other offerings related to a work. In some ways, Fanado is the logical extension of an earlier project that Atwood was involved in, which led to the development of an electronic book-signing device called the “LongPen (@Syngrafii) — which authors could use to sign physical books in remote locations while on a virtual book tour.

Read this in full.

Read the Fanado news release (pdf).

See book patrol’s (@bookpatrol) post, “Fanado: The LongPen Still Lives."

Also see our blogpost, "Authors Can Now Personalize Messages in Ebooks."

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you plan and execute strategy to bring authors and readers together.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Forbes (@Forbes) senior editor Deborah L. Jacobs (@djworking) offers insights she learned in successfully self-publishing her non-fiction book.

Digital technology has made it possible for anyone to publish a book….But turning that book into a successful commercial venture is far more challenging. For more than one year after self-publishing my book, Estate Planning Smarts, promoting it was practically my full-time job.

I didn’t take the decision to self-publish lightly. In fact, I turned down offers from two big publishers because I wasn’t happy with the money they offered. McGraw-Hill’s offer was missing a zero—and I told them so.

...The reason for publishers’ low offers was that statistics show estate planning books don’t sell well. I had a vision for a book that would prove them wrong, but the big companies would never have allocated the resources to produce it.

My business model involved going against the grain by spending money where big publishers are cutting corners: high-quality paper, two-color graphics, printing on a Web press, rather than print-on-demand. And while big publishers were cutting experienced staff, I retained top talent for editing and graphics, on a freelance basis. The goal was to produce a high-quality product that advisers would give to their clients and friends and family would share with each other.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your content in this fast-changing digital age.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard;especially the Publishers tab that includes links to self-publishing services.

Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America: Volume One The Early Years is a comedy album with music and dialogue written and performed by Stan Freberg and cast, released in 1961. It parodies, in a musical theater format, well known events of American history from 1492 until the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783.

Enjoy it online right now and let it’s puns, jokes, and vigor ignite your creativity! Happy 4^th of July!

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help inspire innovation for you and your team.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Innovation tab.

Remember when chewing gum was typically packaged in a thick, long rectangular casing that caused a bulge in a person’s shirt pocket?

Today gum packaging has taken on a sleek, slim look, more like a matchbook with a flip-top cover. As always, the relevant and fresh look and feel of a product is just as important to its sale as what the product is and does.

This kind of upgrade is happening in the book world, too. According to an article in The New York Times Media & Advertising (@NYTimesAd) section, publishers are wrapping books like Emma and Jane Eyre in new covers: provocative, modern jackets in bold shades of scarlet and lime green that are explicitly aimed at teenagers raised on “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games.”

The new versions are cutting edge replacements for the traditional (read: stuffy, boring) covers that have been a trademark of the classics for decades, those familiar, dour depictions of women wearing frilly clothing. In their place are images like the one of Romeo in stubble and a tight white tank top on a new Penguin edition of Romeo and Juliet.

The covers are intended to tap into the soaring popularity of the young-adult genre, the most robustly growing category in publishing. In the last decade, publishers have poured energy and resources into books for teenagers, releasing more titles each year. Bookstores have followed suit, creating and expanding special sections devoted to them.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you upgrade the cover design and packaging of your titles.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

The Verge (@verge) reports on a publishing/marketing concept that uses disappearing ink to print books whose text gradually fades away over a period of 2 months as it comes into contact with light and air.

Dubbed "The Book That Can't Wait," the format — an intriguing one in a world increasingly dominated by Kindles and Nooks — is being pioneered by independent Argentinian publishing house Eterna Cadencia, which is using it to promote new authors. As the promo video points out, “if people don't read their first books, they'll never make it to a second.”

Read this in full.

If you’re a book lover like we (@smrsault) are, bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

NPR (@NPR) is now co-producing the TED Radio Hour (@tedtalks), a weekly program of interviews and presentations centered on a common theme. A recent program featured the topic of ideas and innovation. Take a break to be creatively inspired.

Is The 'Eureka' Moment A Myth?

People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments, but author Steven Johnson (@stevenbjohnson) says the lightbulb moment is greatly overrated. He says ideas initially take form as hunches. They don't come into the world fully realized.

How Do Introverts Share Ideas?

In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as author Susan Cain (@susancain) argues, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.

What Happens When Ideas Have Sex?

Author Matt Ridley (@mattwridley) says, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas — basically "ideas having sex with each other." The sophistication of the modern world lies not in individual intelligence or imagination, he says, instead it's a collective enterprise. That means it's not important how clever individuals are; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help inspire creativity for your branding initiatives.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Innovation tab.

Flavorpill (@flavorpill) has compiled photos of creative bookshelves...

...and buildings constructed of books.

Also see our previous blogposts

·         “Photos: The 20 Coolest Bookstores in the World”

·         “The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World”

·         “20 More Beautiful Bookstores from Around the World”

·         “Video: What Books Do After Hours”

·         “Bookworm Bookcase”

·         “20 Insanely Creative Bookshelves” and

·         “The Book Surgeon.”

For all book lovers (print and ebook alike), we (@smrsault) invite you to make our SomersaultNOW online dashboard your personal computer homepage (see instructions).

Here’s an example of innovative advertising! Serviceplan Germany built a giant, hand-cranked 3-dimensional organ out of 20,000 LEGO bricks to help promote the 3D version of the Star Wars movie. The instrument toured Germany in January, complete with a QR code. Very creative and true to the brand. Have fun watching.

Bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

In Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly), Joe Wikert (@jwikert), general manager, publisher, & chair of Tools of Change for Publishing (@ToC) (#toccon), asks bookstores, “What business are you really in?” Simply selling books, he says, is too narrow. He challenges sellers to focus on their unique benefits, such as personalized service and community-building.

Despite the sluggish economy of the last few years, some bricks-and-mortar retailers have found ways to grow their business. Apple is a terrific example. Regardless of whether you’re an Apple fan, there’s always something new and interesting to discover in an Apple store. I can’t tell you the last time I felt that way about a bookstore. I’m not talking about eye candy or glitzy merchandising; when you enter an Apple store you know you’re in for a treat.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if customers entering your bookstore had that same feeling? I realize Apple can invest a lot in its store experience because it’s selling higher-priced items, but maybe that means you need to look beyond simply selling $20 or $30 books. I’m not talking about adding stationery and toys, like some bookstores have done over the years. It’s time to think much bigger.

Take a page out of Apple’s playbook and create a genius bar service for customers interested in self-publishing. Establish your location as the place to go for help in navigating the self-publishing waters. Remember, too, that most of the income earned in self-publishing is tied to services, e.g., editing, cover design, proofreading, and not necessarily sales of the finished product. Consider partnering with an established expert in these areas or build your own network of providers. The critical point is to evolve your business into something more than just selling books.

Read this in full.

Also see the Forbes (@Forbes) article by Phil Johnson (@philjohnson), "The Man Who Took On Amazon and Saved a Bookstore," about Jeff Mayersohn and Harvard Book Store (@HarvardBooks). And "Inside Amazon's Idea Machine: How Bezos Decodes The Customer" by George Anders (@GeorgeAnders).

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you “think bigger.”

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

From book patrol (@bookpatrol) and HeraldNet comes this fun photo.

What else would you cover an electrical transformer that sits in front of the Library Place apartments, and is adjacent to the Everett (Washington) Public Library, then with a book sculpture?

Read about it.

If you’re a book lover like we (@smrsault) are, be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.