Independent publisher survives against odds - The Columbia ...

In an industry rife with change, some publishers have struggled to maintain profits in the digital age. Random House and Penguin, two of the world?s biggest publishers, announced Oct. 29 that they are merging to stay afloat. But small presses are less vulnerable to these pressures because they cater to artists, not stockholders.

Elephant Rocks Books, an independent publishing house founded by Jotham Burrello, an adjunct faculty member in the Fiction Writing Department, recently released a book that takes the stories of the 2nd Story literary performance group from stage to page. Courtesy JOTHAM BURRELLO.

Jotham Burrello, an adjunct faculty member in the Fiction Writing Department, founded Elephant Rocks Books, a branch of the multimedia production company Elephant Rocks Productions, in fall 2010 after author Patricia Ann McNair, interim chair and an associate professor in the Fiction Writing Department, came to him with a collection of stories she wanted him to publish about a fictional small town. She had struggled with traditional publishing companies and decided the hands-on approach of an independent publisher would better suit her book. Burrello published her book, ?The Temple of Air,? which was a finalist for the Society of Midland Authors Award for adult fiction.

?We?re just like Random House, without the Pulitzer Prize winners,? Burrello said. ?We do the same kind of stuff?we promote and publish good literature.?

On Nov. 12, Burrello released ?Briefly Knocked Unconscious by a Low-Flying Duck: Stories from 2nd Story,? an anthology of short stories and personal essays written by Chicago?s 2nd Story, a performance-based storytelling group.

Megan Stielstra, an adjunct faculty member in the Fiction Writing Department and literary director of 2nd Story, said the organization had an archive of more than 200 essays and wanted to find a way to distribute them to the public.

Stielstra said Burrello played a large role in compiling the anthology. After much editing and rewriting, the book now has 23 essays, ranging from the humorous, like the story for which the book is titled, to the emotional, such as Stielstra?s experience dealing with a suicidal student.

?Some of our storytellers had never had any training, and they had these really amazing stories,? she said. ?Part of the mission of our organization is to help support them in sharing [their stories].?

Burrello said one of the advantages of being a smaller publishing company is being able to work closely with authors. Because he?s seen the storytellers perform, he knew what needed to be fixed on the page, such as endings he felt were rushed.

Stielstra said 2nd Story decided to use Elephant Rocks Books as its publisher because the group knew and trusted Burrello, and their personal relationship played a large role in the publishing process.

?[Burrello] really believed that our stories could live on the page with the same strength that they live in performance,? she said. ?You always need someone like that in your corner, someone that really believes in what you?re doing.?

Despite the advantage of close relationships, Cynthia Sherry, publisher at Chicago Review Press, a local independent publisher founded in 1973, said smaller publishers face challenges, such as keeping pace with technology and raising capital.

?Generally speaking, independent publishers can?t afford to buy expensive ads in magazines and newspapers,? Sherry said. ?They rely on good book reviews.?

Burrello said Elephant Rocks Books has run into financial problems and therefore is unable to give advances to writers. He can?t afford to hire anyone other than part-time staff and interns, so he does much of the work himself. The company also can?t afford to put out as many books as Burrello would like.

?Right now, we?re doing maybe [one] book a season,? he said. ?We just don?t have the investment capital to put out a number of books.?

Even so, Stielstra said another reason 2nd Story went with Burrello was because of his success as an independent publisher. Burrello said he?s able to take more chances than larger publishers, which sometimes pays off. He said he has already asked his distributor for 500 more copies of the book.

Sherry said many of her company?s biggest successes have come from ?quirky and odd? books that large publishers wouldn?t give a second thought to, such as ?Outwitting Squirrels,? a list of 101 ways to keep squirrels out of bird feeders, which has sold more than 1 million copies.

Burrello said he feels personal satisfaction in publishing independently, and the Nov. 12 release party for ?Briefly Knocked Unconscious? was a highlight for him.

?When you?re editing, you?re editing,? he said. ?When you?re selling, you?re selling. To pause and celebrate is kind of the best part of the whole deal.?

Source: http://columbiachronicle.com/independent-publisher-survives-against-odds/

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White House: Tax hike threat could hurt retailers

FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012, file photo, shoppers wait on a check-out line in the Times Square Toys-R-Us store after doors were opened to the public at 8 p.m., in New York. U.S. shoppers hit stores and websites at record numbers over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, according to a survey released by the National Retail Federation on Sunday. They were attracted by retailers' efforts to make shopping easier, including opening stores on Thanksgiving evening, updating mobile shopping applications for smartphones and tablets, and expanding shipping and layaway options. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012, file photo, shoppers wait on a check-out line in the Times Square Toys-R-Us store after doors were opened to the public at 8 p.m., in New York. U.S. shoppers hit stores and websites at record numbers over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, according to a survey released by the National Retail Federation on Sunday. They were attracted by retailers' efforts to make shopping easier, including opening stores on Thanksgiving evening, updating mobile shopping applications for smartphones and tablets, and expanding shipping and layaway options. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Despite early signs of robust sales, White House economists warned Monday that the uncertainty of a potential hike in taxes next year for middle class taxpayers under the looming fiscal cliff could hurt consumer confidence during the crucial holiday shopping season.

In a new report that coincides with Congress' return after the Thanksgiving holiday, the White House says that if lawmakers don't halt the automatic increase in taxes for households earning less than $250,000, consumers might even curtail their shopping during the current holiday season.

"As we approach the holiday season, which accounts for close to one-fifth of industry sales, retailers can't afford the threat of tax increases on middle-class families," the report by President Barack Obama's National Economic Council and his Council of Economic Advisers says.

The report comes as official Washington dives back into negotiations on how to avoid tax hikes and deep spending cuts scheduled to begin taking effect Jan. 1.

White House and congressional leadership aides said Obama spoke separately with House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over the weekend. The aides would not reveal details of the conversations. Obama last met with the bipartisan congressional leadership to discuss the fiscal cliff on Nov. 16. No new meetings have been announced.

Meanwhile, the stock market edged lower in the morning as the outcome of the budget talks remained inconclusive.

Retailers such as Macy's, Target and Saks were down in early trading, amid fears that consumers might cut back this season. But the National Retail Federation reported earlier that 247 million shoppers visited stores and shopping websites during the long Thanksgiving weekend, up 9 percent from a year ago. They spent an average of $423, up 6 percent.

The White House report also says a sudden increase in taxes for middle-income taxpayers would reduce consumer spending in 2013 by nearly $200 billion, significantly slowing the economic recovery.

The figures echo estimates by private forecasters and by the Congressional Budget Office.

Congress and Obama have until the end of the year to avoid across the board tax increases that would do away with rates set during the administration of President George W. Bush and restore higher tax rates in place during President Bill Clinton's administration when the economy was robust and the federal government had a budget surplus.

Many middle income taxpayers also would be exposed to automatic tax increases under the Alternative Minimum Tax, which is designed to guarantee a certain level of tax payment by wealthier taxpayers.

According to the report, a married couple earning between $50,000 and $85,000 with two children would see a $2,200 increase in their taxes.

Obama wants the Bush-era tax rates to remain at their current level for households earning less than $250,000. He is calling on Congress to increase taxes for families earning more than that threshold.

Obama's plan is part of an overall deficit reduction package that would increase tax revenue by about $1.5 trillion and reduce spending by a similar amount over 10 years.

Congressional Republicans, led by Boehner, have said they are open to including discussions about additional revenue but have balked at any plan that raises tax rates on the wealthy. They argue that the higher rates would also hit some small businesses, stifling economic growth.

Instead, they have advocated changes in the tax code that would eliminate tax breaks and loopholes that primarily benefit the wealthy. Several key Republican lawmakers have also said they would not be bound by a no-tax-increase pledge that they have adhered to in the past.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Monday the urgency of finding solutions intensifies as the end of the year approaches.

"If we don't do anything, on Jan. 1, 2013, there's a lot more people paying a lot more," the Virginia Republican said on MSNBC.

Cantor said the rapidly approaching deadline accounts for the more serious tone to the debate, but also reaffirmed the GOP's opposition to raising tax rates for the wealthy. "We've got to have the president step up and say, here's my position on how we reform these entitlements and start managing down the deficits," he said.

"What should be on the table is a recipe to fix the problem and not give away growth," Cantor said, when asked whether Republicans would agree to have increases in tax rates considered.

"We were re-elected to fix the problems, get the economy going again," he said. "Well, the president got re-elected and we know at the end of the year taxes are going to go up on everybody, rich and poor alike," if no action is taken to avert the hikes.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-26-Fiscal%20Cliff-Obama/id-1a1068731c9b4ba9851a3049fcecbc5d

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Larry Birkhead Defends Dannielynn Modeling Gig

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/11/larry-birkhead-defends-dannielynn-modeling-gig/

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Israeli PM Netanyahu suddenly seems vulnerable

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who appeared to be cruising to re-election a few weeks ago, suddenly appears vulnerable as the country prepares to go to the polls in January.

The political comeback of a popular former foreign minister on Tuesday, coupled with the ruling Likud Party's selection of an especially hard-line slate of candidates, has suddenly raised questions about Netanyahu's prospects. Eager to portray Netanyahu as an extremist, opposition parties see an opportunity to mount a formidable challenge to the Israeli leader.

Ousting Netanyahu remains a formidable task, but the return of Tzipi Livni, who served as Israel's foreign minister and chief peace negotiator from 2006 to 2009, injected a high-profile name into what had been a lackluster race. Well respected internationally, Livni immediately took aim at what she called a "leadership vacuum" and promised an aggressive push for peace with the Palestinians.

"I came to fight for peace," she said. "And I won't allow anyone to turn peace into a bad word."

During Netanyahu's nearly four years in office, peace efforts with the Palestinians have remained frozen.

The Palestinians refuse to resume talks unless Israel stops building settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, occupied areas that the Palestinians claim for an independent state.

Netanyahu blames the Palestinians for the deadlock. The prime minister imposed a partial freeze on settlement construction early in his term, leading to a brief attempt to resume negotiations. But Netanyahu refused to extend the construction slowdown, and the talks quickly collapsed. He says talks should resume without any preconditions.

The deadlock has pushed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to head to the United Nations this week to upgrade the Palestinian observer mission to "nonmember state" status. The General Assembly is expected to pass the request.

The Palestinians believe the international endorsement, while largely symbolic, will bolster their position if negotiations resume. Israel, backed by the United States, opposes the bid and has been furiously lobbying allies to oppose it, saying all differences must be resolved through negotiations. In a setback for Netanyahu, France announced Tuesday that it would vote in favor of the Palestinians.

At a time when there are no talks with the Western-backed government of Abbas, Israel this week opened an indirect dialogue with Abbas' rival, the Islamic militant Hamas movement, as part of a cease-fire that ended an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip last week. Israel considers Hamas, which seized control of Gaza five years ago, a terrorist group.

"Everything is upside down: a government that negotiates with terrorists and freezes all dialogue with those who work to prevent attacks," Livni said.

Livni told the audience that the fighting in Gaza, in which her youngest son was mobilized to Israel's southern front, had factored into her decision to return to politics.

"A week ago when my youngest son, today an officer in the Paratroopers, went down south, I sent him a text message that I had decided to fight on my turf, politics, so that he maybe won't have to fight on his turf, the battlefield," she said.

Throughout his term, Netanyahu relied on a handful of moderate figures in his Cabinet to blunt international opposition. Following a pair of events this week, Netanyahu appears to have lost this political cover.

On Monday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak resigned from politics. Barak, a former prime minister, had often served as Netanyahu's unofficial envoy to Washington to ease tensions with the White House.

Then Monday night, Netanyahu's Likud Party announced its slate of candidates for the Jan. 22 election.

The list was dominated by hard-line supporters of West Bank settlements. Some candidates have alienated mainstream Israelis with failed attempts in parliament to stifle dissent and rein in a Supreme Court that they believe is too independent. In addition, several prominent moderates were effectively ousted. Netanyahu's decision to join forces with the ultranationalist party headed by his foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has added to concerns that his next coalition will be too hard line for many.

Menachem Hofnung, a Hebrew University political scientist, said the Likud could have a hard time appealing to centrist voters with its new list. "After seeing the Likud's results, the race is (wide) open," he said.

Livni, 54, joins a field that includes the centrist Labor Party, led by former journalist Shelly Yachimovich, and the centrist "Yesh Atid," led by former anchorman Yair Lapid.

While largely similar in ideology, these rival parties have focused largely on domestic economic issues. Livni made clear her new party, called "The Movement," would focus on resuming peace efforts.

"I decided to give an answer to people who don't have anyone to vote for," Livni said. "This party will return this hope that was lost."

It won't be an easy task. Recent polls have predicted Likud would be the largest party in the 120-seat parliament and in a strong position to cobble together a majority coalition. The centrist parties remain divided, and their leaders have been reluctant to join forces.

A survey published Tuesday predicted that Livni's new party would garner just nine seats, Labor would win 20 and Lapid's Yesh Atid would get only five. That would leave the centrist bloc far short of the 61 seats needed to form a coalition.

In contrast, Netanyahu's Likud would win 37 seats, making it by far the largest single party in parliament, with hard-line nationalist and religious parties giving it a majority.

The poll by the Maagar Mochot agency surveyed 504 people on Sunday and Monday and had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. However, the poll was conducted before Livni's comeback and Likud primary results were announced, so the numbers are expected to change.

Livni herself is the daughter of one of Likud's founding fathers and entered politics in 1999 as a Likud lawmaker.

But like many other former hard-liners, she has moved over to Israel's dovish left to confront what many believe to be a demographic time bomb. If Israel continues to control millions of Palestinians, they say, it will cease to exist as a democracy with a Jewish majority. The solution, they say, is establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

As foreign minister, Livni forged a strong relationship with her American counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, as well as the Palestinians. The sides claimed to have made great progress.

Although her legacy was tarnished by criticism over an Israeli military offensive in Gaza in 2009 that left hundreds of civilians dead, she nonetheless remains popular internationally. She has been identified by Time, Newsweek and Forbes magazines as one of the world's most influential women.

But she has stumbled as a politician. Livni led centrist Kadima Party in 2009 elections after then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was forced to resign because of a corruption scandal.

While Kadima won the most parliamentary seats in that election, Livni was unable to form a coalition and confined to the opposition. Early this year, she was ousted as party leader and left politics. Kadima has steadily lost support since then, and recent polls have forecast Kadima may not win even a single seat in parliament.

___

Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg and Daniel Estrin contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-pm-netanyahu-suddenly-seems-vulnerable-185845308.html

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Cisco Linksys Smart Wi-Fi AC 1750HD Video Pro EA6500

Cisco's entry router into the pre-draft 802.11ac space is the Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Router AC 1750HD Video Pro EA6500. The EA6500 is the fastest performing router I've tested to date at the 5GHz band, besting even Buffalo's speedy pre-draft 802.11ac router, the AirStation AC1300/N900 Gigabit Dual Band Wireless Router WZR-D1800H. The EA65000, however, does not sustain range as well as Buffalo's router nor does the EA6500 match the Buffalo's?2.4 GHz throughput. Still, the EA6500 features an improved Cisco Connect Cloud interface and wonderful management tools that makes it an Editors' Choice award winner.

Specs
The EA6500 has a similar look to Cisco's other top-tier consumer router, the EA4500, except it's wider at 10 x 1.1 x 7.5 (WHD) inches versus the EA4500 v2's (7 x 1.1 x7.4) (WHD) inches. The EA6500 features the same attractive black case with metallic decorative overlay as the EA4500 v2. The EA6500's Cisco logo has a soft white glow and also serves as an LED for the router's status (for example, the logo blinks when a WPS connection is initiated).

This is a dual-band router that supports to a theoretical 450 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band and 1300 Mbps at 5 GHz. Inside are six antennas with 3x3 transmit/receive rates for both bands. To get the maximum performance from the EA6500 a client machine with a 3x3 wireless adapter is required.

The rear panel accommodates four Gigabit LAN ports, a WAN port, a WPS button, a recessed reset button, and two USB 2.0 ports.

Setup
The router ships with a CD containing setup software and other resources including the user guide. Setup is simple; just insert the CD which will auto-run and click on the link to "Setup your Linksys Router." Those with networking know-how can also setup the router manually by connecting it to a broadband connection and PC and then going straight into the local interface.

A graphical tutorial demonstrates how to correctly connect cables. The setup wizard also automatically creates the SSID, router password, and wireless password (all of which you can change). By default, the automatic setup gives you WPA2 security and a strong password.

One small issue I had with setup?by default, the router uses the same SSID for both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. I like to manually control which devices connect to which band, so I added a "5" to the 5 GHz network name to distinguish it from the 2.4 GHz network.

The entire setup process lasted exactly two minutes from connecting the router to my DSL modem to having a laptop wireless connected to the SSID. Few consumer routers this powerful make setup so easy.

Local Versus Cloud Management
Cisco has taken pains to clean up the mess that was the Cisco Connect Cloud software which previously forced users to upgrade to the Smart Wi-Fi cloud firmware, and in some cases, rendered some users' routers unmanageable. Many users had to rollback the firmware update.

The EA6500 gives users the best of both worlds: the ability to manage the router locally by pointing a browser to the IP address of the router, or by using the Cisco Connect Cloud interface. Both interfaces look identical which is important for maintain management consistency.

There is one small, albeit important, difference, though. If you point a browser to the router's IP address, you get to the local interface. The local management screen features a light blue bar at the top of the home page of the Linksys Smart Wi-Fi dashboard. When you access the router's cloud management page, the same bar is colored dark blue. These color differences are important in letting a user know if the router is being managed locally or remotely.

How do you get to the cloud management? After setup, a shortcut is placed on the desktop of the machine used to setup the router. This shortcut goes to ciscoconnectcloud.com where you create an account and register the router.

?The interfaces are visually identical, except you have access to a few Smart Wi-Fi apps Cisco offers to extent the router's capabilities.? Some apps include Gemini IP Camera Viewer for remotely monitoring IP cameras and Device Monitr which allows seeing who is online on your home network and for how long.

The Smart Wi-Fi cloud platform also allows managing multiple Linksys Smart Wi-Fi routers. So if I have an EA6500 at home and I setup my Dad with an EA4500, I can connect to his router and perform any updating and troubleshooting.

Admittedly, if I hadn't read in my review notes supplied by Cisco that the way to tell if you are accessing the local interface from the cloud is by the color of the top bar on the dashboard page, I may not have noticed. Cisco should make the difference clearer even just by adding something like "Cloud Interface" to the dashboard screen when you are managing the router via the Internet. Still, I like the consistency of both interfaces' design and did not notice any latency applying any settings' changes whether I was managing locally or through the cloud.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/Upm41WQ_TyE/0,2817,2412486,00.asp

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lindayueh: Finance Minister Urpilainen: Finland's stance is no new ...

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Video: Shopping smart this holiday season

>>> this morning in today's consumer, how to avoid overspending. the holiday shopping season is in full swing and your favorite stores have a few tricks up their sleeve to get you to shell out some big bucks . carmen is here to reveal what they are. good morning to you.

>> good morning, carl.

>> why should people be more worried about having the retailers sort of figure out this whole game of how to get us to spend more?

>> they are fighting for your money, right? because we're the most savviest consumers ever. we've got shopping apps on our phone, promo codes, shopping sites. we know how to shop and we're much more likely to have a budget. since the recession, we cut down on credit card debt , and we'll spend a little bit more, but we want to stick to our budget.

>> you've laid out a few of the strategies that they use. the first one is called the decoy effect .

>> here we go. here's the decoy. let's say you have two choices of the same item. different in quality, but it's $50 for that coffee maker versus $100. if only those two choices existed and you're on a budget, you'll choose the $50 coffee maker . the decoy is brought in in the middle to get you to spend more, because once that decoy is there, you're more like tlly to buy the one in the middle. the middle range in price and quality, because it goes from just a savings decision the a value and quality decision. oh wow, $70. for an extra $20, i can get closer to that $100. that's what happens in your mind, even if it blows your budget. just be mindful of that.

>> this works because we think we're getting a deal?

>> exactly. our perception has topped. if you have a bottom and a top, that's your only choice. the decoy makes it seem like oh, i got a deal.

>> i like this next one. it's the scarcity effect.

>> okay, what is black friday? why do people line up and all that? because when you have a limited timeframe and a limited amount of items, we go nuts. this is black friday. this is also, though, the flash sales on site. i call this the guilt effect for guilt.com, which really started these flash sales. it's new. we've got to go in. it's a limited quantity. we've got to buy. this goes back to 1975 , behavioral economists found that women with two sets of cookies -- they called this the cookie effect. simply because one set of cookies, there was a smaller amount. women rated them higher. the cookie effect is the scarcity effect. going back to hunting and gathering .

>> this last one, the reciprocity effect.

>> freebies. women at the makeup counter. you get free. if you spend $50, you get free. now online, too, if you buy from online retailers , they'll send you free samples . here's the thing. 90% of us say if we get a freebie, we'll be very likely to buy from that person again. it's the "you owe me one" effect.

>> the best defense against all of these are what?

>> to know that they exist and to know how they work, and just be very mindful of what's going on. that time pressure, ban yourself from those sites if you have a problem with it, and with the freebie effect, just because someone gives you something doesn't mean you owe them anything.

>> that masters in psychologist is

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/49947478/

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