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Are Alternative Paper Sources Really More Environmentally-Friendly?
Random House of Canada just announced that it has released special editions of two of it’s bestselling books — Life of Pi by Yann Martel and Dear Life by Alice Munro — in order to draw attention to alternative paper sources. The Vancouver-based organization, Canopy, helped produce the books using straw-based paper. The Canopy website explains, “Signed special editions of Life of Pi and Dear Life, printed on paper made from left over straw and post consumer recycled content (1) rather than trees have been launched in...
read more‘On The Count’ Gives a Voice to the Formerly Incarcerated
While promoting Florisbela Inocencio de Jesus’s Indiegogo Campaign, Shed Light on the System, we came across a groundbreaking radio show, On The Count: The Prison and Criminal Justice Report. The show was originally established in 2002 to create a platform for the voices of the formerly incarcerated who have been historically excluded from the discussion and decision making process, yet who are most directly affected by it. On The Count is a 60 minute news and talk program featuring analysis, commentary, policy recommendations and...
read moreTilburg University Looks at the Other Side of the Criminal Coin
As Iguana Books continues to promote Floris Inocenio de Jesus’ Indiegogo campaign, Shed Light on The System, we’ve come across a truly interesting ideology in the study of crime and punishment. When defining these areas of study universities tend to focus on the criminal equation, and not the victims. However, at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, they have recently launched their new MSc Victimology and Criminal Justice Masters degree this past Fall. This revolutionary Masters program is just one of a handful found throughout...
read moreLong List Announced for Women’s Prize for Fiction
The Women’s Prize for Fiction (previously named the Orange Prize for Fiction) is one of the UK’s most prestigious literary awards. It is awarded every year to one woman of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English and published in the UK in the previous year. The prize was established in 1996 to recognize the contribution of female writers, when the founders realized that the achievements of female writers were not being celebrated like the works of their male counterparts. It celebrates excellence,...
read moreThe Underground Library Encourages Commuters to Read
A group of students from the Miami Ad School have created this innovative fictional campaign as a solution to the diminishing numbers in New York Public Libraries. They have proposed bringing the library to subway commuters, in order to remind them that it is still a valuable and free resource. The Underground Library was conceived by students Max Pilwat, Keri Tan and Ferdi Rodriguez. They wanted to take simple subway ads and make them more entertaining and interactive. The campaign would place ads in trains with book titles that would allow...
read moreWhere Do You Stand On Self-Publishing?
According to an article by the Globe and Mail, a not-so-surprising statistic shows that self-publishing has become more common than ever, rising 267 percent in the US since 2006 in both print and ebook format. Despite the naysayers, some self-published books have even become bestsellers. A few notable titles are Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, Still Alice by Lisa Genova and Eragon by Christopher Paolini. These success stories are, of course, very rare. The majority of self-published books are created with the help of large companies such...
read moreGet Your Read On: Books Are Saving Lives!
Proof of what we here at Iguana have always suspected: books do literally save lives. Three boys in the outback of Australia directly attribute their escape from the wilds to a Lonely Planet guide for children. According to Publishers Weekly, the three boys–ages 6, 9, and 11–were on a camping trip in January with their family when they found themselves waist- and neck-deep, respectively, in mud. Nine-year-old Vasco Gonsalves remembers the incident, “The book said to lean back and lift my legs and bring them up, roll over and...
read moreHelp Floris Shed Some Light on the Troubled Prison System that Held Her and Amanda Knox Captive!
Iguana Books is proud to announce that we have just launched the Indiegogo campaign for Florisbela Inocencio de Jesus’s upcoming book, Serving Time with Amanda Knox. In 2008, Floris was sentenced to three and a half years in the same detention facility as Amanda Knox. Her sentence was appealed after only one year but during that time she got to know Amanda well. Amanda Knox was famously wrongly convicted of the murder of Meredith Kercher. She served four years of the 26-year sentence before the conviction was overturned October 3,...
read moreAre Some Authors Buying Their Way On To Best-Seller Lists?
How do you account for a mysterious spike in book sales? In some cases, authors have hired marketing firms that purchase large orders of their books ahead of the publication date in order to land their book on best-seller lists upon release, according to this Wall Street Journal article. According to some authors, the marketing firm Result Source, for example, charges thousands of dollars for its services in addition to the cost of books. Aside from the ethical issues here, these tactics usually result in a spike in sales followed by a rapid...
read moreWho Will Take the Award for Oddest Book Title?
From Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop by Reginald Bakeley to God’s Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis by Tom Hickman, this year’s Diagram Prize for oddest book title has some hefty competition. The Diagram Prize was originally organized to provide entertainment at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1978. Twenty five years later and the award is still going strong. The prize was initially picked by a panel of judges, but since 2000 the winner has been chosen by a public vote on The Bookseller’s website. Controversy has followed...
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