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Better World Books on CNN Today (2-Jul), Saturday (4-Jul), and Sunday (5-Jul)

Posted by John on 07.02.2009 at 5:57 am

Just learned Better World Books will be featured repeatedly on CNN today and this weekend. Check it out during the shows that air at one of these times (all times are EDT). Please pass it on!

CNN-U.S.
Thursday 2-Jul: 8:00a, 12:00p, 2:00p
Saturday 4-Jul: 7:00p, 10:00p, 1:00a
Sunday 5-Jul: 6:00a

CNN HLN
Thursday 2-Jul: 12:00p, 2:00p, 4:00p
Saturday 4-Jul: 6:00p
Sunday 5-Jul: 6:00p

Update 12:35pm: Watch It Now:

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Books for Africa’s First-Ever Shipment to Mozambique

Posted by John on 04.09.2009 at 6:00 am

What do you make possible when you shop Better World Books? These photos just came in from Mozambique where Books for Africa shipped a container-load of books funded by your purchases from Better World Books (container = those big metal boxes you see on trains and cargo ships).

The students pictured here attend the Ray of Light School where some of those books went. This container was shipped to the Baptist Convention of Mozambique. It was the first-ever shipment Books for Africa has sent to that country.

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Thanks, Clark Howard!

Posted by John on 03.09.2009 at 6:54 pm

Clark Howard gave us a shout out today as a way of reading books on the cheap. Thanks, Clark! He spotted us in O, The Oprah Magazine. O had us pegged for “How to find Cheap Books Online” along with some other great options.

Who are we to argue with Clark and Oprah? They just may be onto something in a down economy - a story in a used book is just as good as the same story in a new book. ‘Course that’s a bonus above and beyond sparing the environment another printing.

It just so happens we have a couple of Clark’s books, filled with great advice on spending wisely, including Get Clark Smart: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Rich From America’s Money-Saving Expert, Clark’s Big Book of Bargains and Clark Smart Parents, Clark Smart Kids:
Teaching Kids of Every Age the Value of Money. Happy saving and reading and saving (in that order!).

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Free Warm and Fuzzy (not to mention free shipping)

Posted by Chip on 03.09.2009 at 6:31 pm

The only thing better then relaxing with a great book is relaxing with a great book whose purchase funded non-profit literacy efforts around the world.

Every purchase made from Better World Books comes with not only free shipping, but with a free warm and fuzzy.

What is a warm and fuzzy?

A warm and fuzzy is the unique and powerful feeling that is created through bringing hope to others. It is the feeling that comes from knowing your love of books is now going to help bring the magic of reading into the lives of many.

So next time you make a purchase from Better World Books take a moment to enjoy that warm and fuzzy feeling. Now that is what I call “good reading.”

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I just can’t win

Posted by Xavier on 02.12.2009 at 4:27 pm

Close readers of the blog will know that I recently changed a reference in our quirky ship confirmation from “Hamlet (bi-polar)” to “Walter the Farting Dog (oh, the stench)”. I thought my simple reversion to potty humor would be a safe and non-threatening choice. I did not take into account the power of the South Dakota school system’s firewall.

Apparently the word “fart” is a little too racy for their email filter, and our email was blocked as a result. In addition, some of our customers (likely the New Yorker readers out there), think this is a bit too juvenile. So - time to open it up to the public. Post in the comments any ideas for Walter’s replacement in our ship confirmation.

If you’d like to see the whole ship confirmation, you can find it here in my previous blog post.

The following message sent from your e-mail account to “xxxxxx@k12.sd.us” has been blocked because it contains inappropriate language. Please remove any inappropriate language and resend the message.

   From:       help@betterworld.com
   To:   xxxxxxxx@k12.sd.us
   Subject:     Your order has been shipped!
   Message:     B499466660000.000000000001.0001.mml

State of South Dakota K-12 Data Center
http://www.k12.sd.us

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Paging Authors Podcast: Molly Fletcher

Posted by Dana on 02.06.2009 at 9:15 am

Molly Fletcher is a modern day female Jerry Maguire - she is one of the top sports agents in the country and she is one of very few females that job. In between managing some huge names in sports like John Smoltz, Kyle Davies, Lenny Wilkens and Doc Rivers, Molly found time to write Your Dream Job Game Plan.

In her first book Molly Fletcher teaches you how to apply the idea of being a 5 tool player to your job search.

I took my recording equipment to the offices of Career Sports and Entertainment to meet with Molly and talk about the book. The offices were glamorous but Read more…

Standard Podcast [22:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Have your say » | Tagged Author Podcast, Uncategorized, Career Advice, dana barrett, Jerry Maguire, John Smoltz, Lenny Wilkens, Molly Fletcher, non-fiction, Self Help, Your Dream Job Game Plan

Online Shopping

Posted by Chip on 01.28.2009 at 8:26 am

I love online shopping . I find that my Christmas spirit usually dies in
the mall parking lot while I search for a space. Mall parking lots during the holiday season can make anyone say “Bah Humbug.”

This year, I did all my Christmas shopping at betterworld.com. I bought books at low prices while supporting literacy and enjoying free carbon neutral shipping.

This year, I am also proud to say, I got my holiday shopping done early. Generally, I procrastinate and find myself giving out drawings of the presents I intended to buy.

I tend to get into the holiday spirit late.
I get into the holiday spirit around December 26th when all the
Christmas items go on sale. Suddenly, I feel the spirit.

I like to buy holiday decorations on clearance and give them to my relatives as gifts the following year. If you have a relative that enjoys Santa Clause and decorating, a glowing plastic Santa makes a great gift ( especially at clearance price $5.99 from $29.99!).

Sure they can’t actually “use” it until next Christmas but they will never forget what you bought them for christmas that year.

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Letter to the stakeholders of Better World Books

Posted by Xavier on 01.23.2009 at 12:15 pm

This letter went out internally today.

To the stakeholders of Better World Books:

To this point in its history, Better World Books has posted a cumulative loss. In short, more money has been spent than has been earned, sacrificing short-term profitability for long-term growth. We’re hardly the first company to do this: Amazon lost over $1 Billion before it turned the corner. We do not have a billion dollar cushion. We have neither a dot-com bubble nor wealthy founders to draw upon to fund continued losses. As a responsible B Corporation, we have succeeded in many ways: creating jobs, funding literacy, and saving books from landfills. Economically, the company has grown revenue year-over-year in a way that very few businesses have. But towards the goal of becoming a profitable enterprise, we have not yet succeeded. As a management team, we regret it deeply.

In a better economy, we may have grown our way to profitability or raised additional outside funding. As the world looks now, we see the very real possibility of a deepening worldwide recession and have to prepare for the worst. This means making sure that Better World Books supports itself and its future growth solely through the sale of books. As such, we’ve worked since November to implement a “profit improvement plan” that spanned every aspect of the business.

Many aspects of this profit improvement plan have been achieved over the past three months with significant improvements in productivity, decreases in expenses, and growth in sales on BetterWorld.com. Unfortunately, this only gets us part of the way to our goal. While we expect considerable sales growth and future operational improvements, they are far from certain and we can’t bet the company on them. Most of the expenses that are discretionary have already been cut. Regretfully, we have to get the rest of the way to profitability by reducing payroll.

There is no good or painless way to reduce payroll, but we tried to do it in a way that best fits with our company’s values. By instituting across-the-board salary cuts, at the suggestion of some employees, we saved 30-40 jobs. The salary cuts will be in place for at least six months. These cuts will be reviewed in August 2009 and our hope is that we can reinstate compensation to its previous levels if we are running profitably.

Today’s announcements:

1. The salary of the founders and CEO will be cut by 20% for at least six months. VP’s will take a 15% pay cut for at least six months.
2. Other employees, both hourly and salaried, will take a 10% cut if they make over $30,000, or a 5% cut if they make $30,000 or less, for at least six months.
3. We will cut 42 full time positions across Indiana, Georgia and California. In most cases, the reduction will be a capable person who was working in a role that the company can no longer afford. In some cases, it was a relocation of mission to consolidate or save the company money. In no cases was it easy.
4. We are consolidating the marketing team to Atlanta to reduce costs and increase effectiveness.

Along with these announcements, we have refined our strategy to reflect that we will have to do more with less. It comes down simply to some things we will do a lot more of, some we will stop doing, and some we will maintain while focusing on profitability. Your supervisor will share this list with you and can discuss how it may change your role. As always, we encourage you to contact members of the leadership team directly with any questions, big or small.

Again, we empathize with you during these painful changes. We thank you for your continued support during this transition and for being a part of Better World Books.

Sincerely,

David Murphy
Kreece Fuchs
Paul Sansone
Andy Warzon
Dustin Holland
Xavier Helgesen

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Mea Culpa

Posted by Xavier on 01.22.2009 at 12:17 pm

A few days ago, Linda from Santa Clara, CA contacted us and let us know about a problem with our “ship confirmation” email. We try to have some fun with these emails, and made a side crack about Hamlet being bi-polar. Linda correctly pointed out that there’s a great deal of stigma around mental illness, and that it is a poor subject to make light of. Here’s a snippet from the original email (written to you, the customer, from your book):

I can’t wait to meet you! You sound like such a well read person. Although, I have to say, it sure has taken you a while! I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but how would you like to spend five months sandwiched between Hamlet (bipolar) and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics (pyromaniac)? At least Hamlet was an upgrade from that stupid book on brewing beer. How many times did the ol’ brewmaster have one too many and topple off our shelf at 2am?

Here’s the revised version. As an owner of a flatulent canine, I can assure you that he’s not offended.

I can’t wait to meet you! You sound like such a well read person. Although, I have to say, it sure has taken you a while! I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but how would you like to spend five months sandwiched between Walter the Farting Dog (oh, the stench) and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics (pyromaniac)? At least Walter was an upgrade from that stupid book on brewing beer. How many times did the ol’ brewmaster have one too many and topple off our shelf at 2am?

Linda’s original letter:

From: Linda

Created: 1/19/2009 3:53:17 PM

To: Better World Books

Subject: Mental illness - a poor subject to mock

Dear BetterWorld staff:

While I am certain that your email below was intended in a humorous vein, I have to express my considerable disappointment in your making light of mental illness.

I have bipolar disorder and am reasonably sure that my mother had it as well. She, unfortunately, was not properly diagnosed, and committed suicide in January of 1987.

The following is taken from “emedicine® from WebMD: Bipolar Affective Disorder” and was written by Stephen Soreff, MD, President of Education Initiatives, Nottingham, NH; Faculty, Metropolitan College of Boston University, Boston, MA, and Lynne Alison McInnes, MD, Associate Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Department of Psychiatry and Human Genetics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine:

Mortality/Morbidity

Bipolar disorder has significant morbidity and mortality rates. In the United States during the early part of the 1990s, the cost of lost productivity resulting from this bipolar disorder was estimated at approximately $15.5 billion annually. Approximately 25-50% of individuals with bipolar disorder attempt suicide, and 11% actually commit suicide.

If I need to drive the point home further, perform this little test: line up a group of your friends or coworkers and have 1 in 4, or, worse yet, 1 in 2 step forward. In total, they represent the ratio of those who suffer from bipolar who will attempt suicide in their lifetimes.

It serves as a painful illustration that bipolar is an inordinately poor choice of maladies of which to make jest.

As much as I do love a good laugh, I would sincerely hope that you will revise your future shipping confirmations in such as way as to not belittle those who face the challenges of living with mental illness - not least of which is the stigma that mental illnesses are amusing - which they most certainly are not.

In the past, I’d recommended your services highly to friends and colleagues. After receiving this email which perpetuates the stigma of mental illnesses, I regret having touted your services and philanthropic nature to people whose relationships I value.

Should you choose to make a public apology to your customers for this error in judgment, I will continue to do business with you. Barring that, I will not only take my trade elsewhere, but will also notify my friends and colleagues of this less-than-amusing email and suggest that they also consider purchasing their books from other merchants.

Sincerely,

Linda

Santa Clara, CA

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Mensa Word List

Posted by Jack on 01.15.2009 at 11:04 am

[stolen from an email I received]:

Here is the Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. The winners:

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

2. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an _______ (you get the idea).

3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
Read more…