Hey there A Story Before Bed fans (I think we might need a shorter name for this group. Story Fans? ASBBers? My BFFs? Hmmm… I’m taking suggestions):

My name is Hillel, and I’m one of the founders and owners of A Story Before Bed. Last week I talked to you about how much I enjoy answering our customer support line (1-888-947-8679 in case you have a question – it rings my personal cell phone). I realized that this week it might be good to tell you about some of the lessons I’ve learned from talking to those of you that have called. My guess is that for every one of you that has called, there are a bunch of you who have the same problem but haven’t had time to get in touch. I’ll focus on one topic today and then introduce some new books. (Everyone loves new books!)

When you run a website, you get statistics on how it’s being used. We’ve noticed that once you folks get your camera and microphone configured, you almost always finish your recordings. But we’ve also noticed that a significant portion of the attempts to record a book never get the camera and microphone set up properly. We have two guesses as to what’s actually happening:

1) you started to try and record a book and only then realized that you’d need a webcam to do it. (I’ve done this myself, so I get it.)
2) you tried to configure your webcam and microphone and couldn’t get it to work.

Either one is a ‘show-stopper’. I get it. The solution to the first one of course is to get a webcam. I realize this is not a small investment. I’m on the lookout for special deals on webcams for our customers. Once I find one, I promise to share. As for the second one, it can be complex. However, if you don’t mind, I’m glad to try and help you figure out how to get your webcam working. As usual, my suggestion is to call our customer support line and I’ll do my best to walk you through the problem (1-888-947-8679 or just e-mail me at hillel@jacksonfish.com). I spoke with a very nice customer the other day from a ferry (seriously, I was on a ferry between Seattle and one of the nearby islands). She had both of the problems. She didn’t have a working webcam so she bought a new one. And once she got her new one, she couldn’t get it to work. She was on WindowsXP and we figured out the problem and now she’s happily recording stories. :)

Now on to fun stuff… new books! Let me tell you about Chronicle Books. Specifically Sarah and Laura at Chronicle Books. Sarah does the deals, and Laura gets us the electronic versions of the books. I spent months bugging Sarah to let us sell Chronicle’s books on our site. You need to understand, Chronicle makes absolutely beautiful children’s books. Simple, refined, I’d even say elegant. Some beautiful examples include the whole Little Pea series (Little Pea, Little Oink, and Little Hoot) from the super talented Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace. The illustrations are simple and lively and perfectly support the main concept. A vegetable that has to eat its dessert. A piggy that has to be messy. And an Owl who isn’t allowed to go to sleep. Essentially every argument you have with your kid turned upside down. You can instantly relate to the stories as can your little one (and even your not so little one). And like the best learning opportunities they educate with a healthy does of humor, in this case the absurdity that being messy or eating dessert or not having a bedtime are mandatory.

You can see from the Little Pea series why I spent so much time bugging Sarah. And lucky for us, she took time out of her busy schedule and became a fan of A Story Before Bed. That brings us to Laura. Laura’s responsible for getting us the books in digital form. And this is harder than you might imagine as publishers across the globe (especially publishers of children’s books) are just starting to find venues for their books in the digital realm. (Realm sounds a little too regal… I’ll try using a different word next time. I swear I’m not wearing ermine robes… and if I did, they’d be synthetic of course!) Anyway, it’s hard work getting the books all ready for us to publish, so we’re deeply grateful for her efforts. Lucky for all of us, she’s spent a bunch of time helping us get some new books onto A Story Before Bed… specifically the Mr. Magee series – not to be confused with Mr. Magoo (Mr. Magee wears glasses but can actually see.). Mr. Magee is sort of an outdoorsy guy. He and his dog Dee have all sorts of outdoor adventures where they inevitably get into trouble (and of course get out of said trouble). The text is reminiscent of Seussian ryhming and the illustrations positively POP! In the two installments that we’re adding to our store Mar. Magee is at the ocean – Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee, and he’s going camping – A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee. (Laura’s hard at work getting us installment #3 where Mr. Magee goes skiing, but that’s not quite ready. Hang tight.)

Everyone likes free. What’s not to like. :) Last week we made A-Z at the Earth Museum available for free in addition to the perennial Itsy Bitsy Spider. And tons of you recorded it. However, there are still some of you who haven’t done it yet. So we’re going to leave it up for free over the weekend. If enough of you record it for free, then we’ll put up another book for free next week. I promise! So get busy recording the freebies. :) And remember, just because one parent or grandparent has recorded a book doesn’t mean you can’t keep taking advantage of the free books. Maybe grandpa read it already, but wouldn’t a recording done by grandma also be nice for your virtual shelf? And with the price of Itsy Bitsy Spider and A-Z at the Earth Museum at zero, it’s hard to argue. (OK, maybe it’s not that hard to argue, but hopefully you get my point.) The more response we get to our free books, the more time we’ll spend trying to arrange new freebies for everyone. Jenny’s busy working on a whole slew of new books right now. I’m sure some of them would be perfect for your collection.

I hope you have a great weekend. And while we love it when you use A Story Before Bed, if the weather is nice, you should probably spend some time outside. Maybe take the laptop outside and record in the backyard. I bet it will make for a well lit recording. :)

Some books to browse (i.e. the ones mentioned above)…

• Record ‘The Itsy Bitsy Spider‘ for FREE.
• Record ‘A-Z at the Earth Musuem‘ for FREE.
• Record ‘Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee‘.
• Record ‘A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee‘.
• Record ‘Little Pea‘.
• Record ‘Little Oink‘.
• Record ‘Little Hoot‘.
• For extra children’s book goodness see which books are included in our value packed subscription offer. (It turns out that I love using the phrase ‘value packed’. And if you’re wondering what ‘value packed’ means, how about two bucks a book?)

And finally, as I believe most kids (at least in North America) are done with school this week, enjoy the kickoff of summer vacation everyone. Also, Jenny and Walter say hi! :)