Latest blog entries

Trailer Tuesday: Escape from Camp 14

mgbuehrlen@gmail.com (MG Buehrlen) — Mon, 28 May 2012 15:39:01 +0000

Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden

A New York Times bestseller, the shocking story of one of the few people born in a North Korean political prison to have escaped and survived.

North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did.

In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence-he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his own family. Through Harden's harrowing narrative of Shin's life and remarkable escape, he offers an unequaled inside account of one of the world's darkest nations and a riveting tale of endurance, courage, and survival.

Release Date: May 29 2012
Click here to read or write reviews of this book!

Rootless Cover Reveal!

mgbuehrlen@gmail.com (MG Buehrlen) — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:24:52 +0000

I've been working with Chris for a long time now, preparing for this cover reveal, and I've been on pins and needles waiting to see the final cover. It finally arrived in my inbox this morning and...

I may have squealed. More than a bit. ;-)

Click here to view it!

Trailer Tuesday: Hemlock and No Safety in Numbers

mgbuehrlen@gmail.com (MG Buehrlen) — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:07:25 +0000

This week we have trailers for Hemlock and No Safety in Numbers. Which do you prefer, based on the trailers?

Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock

Release Date: May 8, 2012

Read and write reviews on this title here!

No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz

Release Date: May 29, 2012

What did you guys think? Which are you more interested in, based on the trailers?

Introducing YABC Indie!

mgbuehrlen@gmail.com (MG Buehrlen) — Thu, 17 May 2012 02:33:03 +0000

I have some good news and bad news.

Good news: YABC's traffic continues to grow by leaps and bounds each month. We are seeing incredible numbers and the YABC Community continues to grow each day. This is AWESOME.

More good news: Because we're growing so quickly, we're receiving hundreds of book listing submissions daily, most of which are small press or self-published books. Which is also AWESOME.

Bad news: The more submissions we receive, the longer it takes to manually approve each one. Some listings are waiting for weeks to be approved. Sometimes months. This is not so awesome.

But there is a fix! Hooray!

To help speed things along and help small press and self-published books gain the exposure they deserve, we've decided to roll out a whole new feature called YABC Indie.

Now, from here on out, anyone who qualifies as a small press or self-published author can bypass the manual approval process by purchasing a paid listing (just $3.99!). The listing will be automatically approved (no more waiting!) and posted live to our site in our new Indie section. (That nifty new link up there in the top navigation bar.)

Why are we so excited about this? Because now small press and self-published books won't get buried among mainstream titles on YABC. They'll stand out, making them more accessible for our readers. And our readers ARE looking for small press and self-published books. I get asked for recommendations all the time. Teens, especially, are looking for the more affordable reads they can download on their e-readers.

We love indie books here at YABC. In fact, several members of our staff have published indie titles, myself included. Independent publishing is a fast-growing market and it deserves a fair playing field. We're happy to make that happen on YABooksCentral.com.

We still have a long way to go, but we'll continue trying to make YABC bigger and better.

Now go check out the new small press and self-published books in the new Indie Section!

And one more celebratory animated gif for the road... (I can't help myself.)

New to YABC? Here's How to Begin

mgbuehrlen@gmail.com (MG Buehrlen) — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:36:32 +0000

Why should you start posting your reviews on YABooksCentral.com and KidsBooksCentral.com?

To win awesome books, that's why! (And to voice your opinion on your favorite -- and not so favorite -- books in our ever-growing community. But that goes without saying, right?)

Back to the winning. There are THREE super easy ways to win books from YABC, and here they are, in no particular order:

#1 - Write reviews!

That's right. All you have to do is write a review and you're automatically entered into our monthly Bag O' Books Giveaway! The more reviews you write, the better your odds!

What do you win? First, you get this awesome YABC totebag! Which, you have to admit, is totes cool. Then you get to pick THREE books from the coveted YABC Shelf to fill your bag! If you win, I'll send you photos of the current YABC Shelf for you to peruse. Pick out the three books you want and they're yours. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. (See how excited I am that you won?)

+ = B O' B!

#2 - Earn Points!

As a YABC Community Member, you earn points each time you interact with the site. Write a review? Earn 20 points! Enter a book into our database? Earn 15 points! Comment on someone's review? 5 points! Add someone as a friend? 5 points! Post a status update or add a profile picture? POINTS!!

Each month, the Community Member with the most points gets to pick a book from the YABC Shelf. Yes, the same shelf behind me in that ridiculous photo above, which is always stacked to the BRIM with the latest young adult and middle grade books from your favorite publishers.

You can check on your current points total on your profile page at any time. Here's what your points bar will look like:

If you enter a book into our database and your points don't show up immediately, don't worry! Your points will appear once the book has been approved by our staff. To speed things up, make sure you fill out the book listing formcorrectly and include a cover image of the book. (Missing info like release dates, ISBN numbers, or cover images will slow down the process.) Make sure to do a search for the book first! If you enter a book that is already in our system, you will not earn points for that listing entry. We don't want to take up your valuable time entering a book if it's already in our database.

You can watch your progress on the Points Leaderboard, which is located at the bottom right of every page. It looks like this --->

If you're just starting out on YABC, don't feel discouraged if you are behind in points. If you don't win this month, there's always next month!

BONUS!

The Top YABC Community Member can reign supreme for anunlimited number of months. That means if you're #1 for two, five, ten months in a row, you win a book EVERY MONTH!

That also means other members might be gunning for your spot. So come back often, write reviews, and win books!

#3 - Enter our Monthly Giveaways!

Every month we host amazing giveaways with prizes from your favorite publishers and authors. Make sure you come back each month and enter! Just fill out the entry form and you're done. We'll contact you if you win.

The fine print:

Remember, YABC is a fun-loving community with a positive vibe. If you don't win this month, there's always next month. Everyone has an equal opportunity to win, so no complaining if it isn't your lucky day.
You are always welcome to write a negative review if you don't like a certain book, but flaming reviews that attack authors or give away too many spoilers may be deleted at our discretion.
Reviews must have some merit to be eligible for our giveaways. Simply saying, "I liked it!" isn't enough.
Every giveaway is 100% legit. Winners are chosen randomly using Random.org.
Your privacy is very important to us -- we will NEVER sell your info. It will only be used to contact you in the event of winning. We will not add you to a mailing list or newsletter without your consent. Your address will only be used to mail prizes to you.
All giveaways are US only unless otherwise specified.
If you win a book from YABC, we'd love it if you wrote a review of it, tweeted about it, or posted about it on Facebook. That would be BOSS. :)

Good luck!