By the end of 2010, Harlequin Enterprises will have sold a grand total of more than 6 billion books in the company's 60-year history. But on Dec. 28, Harlequin will try to sell its first personal finance book.
The Frugalista Files, written by former Miami Herald personal finance blogger Natalie McNeal, is a diary of the year that one 34-year old spent trying to pay off her credit card debt -- "without giving up the fabulous life."
McNeal's book is written in a diary format, with all the personal details and emoticons entailed in that approach: "I admit it. My name is Natalie. I am a spending slut." It's certainly not a book that targets my college-age demographic, but many readers will find her story inspiring. If Natalie can do it, so can you.
"My book is for anyone who is a promiscuous spender and is looking for real-life tips on how to be financially chaste," McNeal tells DailyFinance. "It's highly personal personal finance."
Katherine Orr, Harlequin's vice president of public relations, sees the move into financial advice as a logical step for the world's largest publisher of romance novels.
"For 60 years, we've provided escape from problems, and now we can help solve the problems," she says. She calls McNeal's book "very prescriptive. It's clear and simple, and it's helping young singles navigate in a tough world."
Harlequin first began publishing nonfiction in October 2008 with a book from syndicated radio host Delilah. Subsequent titles have included fitness guru Tosca Reno's best seller Your Best Body Now: Look and Feel Fabulous at Any Age the Eat-Clean Way, along with titles like The Happy Baker: A Girl's Guide to Emotional Baking; Life Beyond Your Eating Disorder; The Dog Who Healed a Family; and Queen of Your Own Life.
The market for pink-covered personal finance books for women hasn't been especially strong. None of financial adviser Suze Orman's mega-bestselling money books have boasted a pink cover, and none of the slew of recently released girl-talk guides for women have sold well. Titles like Shoo, Jimmy Choo!; Bitches on a Budget: Sage Advice for Surviving Tough Times in Style; andA Purse of Your Own: An Easy Guide to Financial Security have all failed to register much of an impact in terms of sales.
Kimberly Palmer, the personal finance editor with US News & World Report and the author of Generation Earn, says many financial guides for women are marketed as "simplified [and] dumbed-down."
"Women don't like to be talked to as if we're bad with money, because we're not," she says. "Too many books for women assume that we overspend on shoes and cosmos when we're really just looking for the same kind of smart, solid financial advice that men want."
But if there's one publisher in America that knows what women are looking for when they buy a book, it's Harlequin. Perhaps it'll be able to reach a segment of the population badly in need of financial advice -- one that other publishers have so far been largely unable to connect with.
When Ebooks Are More (and Less) Cost Effective Than Physical Books
While many may prefer eBooks for the convenience they offer (or prefer paper books for the sentimentality), finding out which is cheaper isn't so black-and-white. Personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly shows us how to save the most money when buying books.
Photo by Pen Waggener.
All other preferences aside, it looks like eBooks are cheapest then the books are extremely new or extremely old:
- E-books are great for new releases. For new books, the electronic version is almost always the cheapest way to go. At a friend's house the other day, I noticed he'd paid $29 for the latest John Grisham book. $29!!! That's insane. That John Grisham book costs $16 at Amazon, and the Kindle version costs $10. In fact, most e-books cost between $10 and $12. When the cost savings is combined with the space savings, e-books are the clear winner for new releases.
- E-books are okay for classics. Anything that's in the Public Domain (published before 1923) can generally be downloaded to your e-book reader for free. Sometimes the formatting is goofy, and there usually isn't any supplemental material (like essays and notes), but you do get the books at no cost. (Searching for free Kindle books? Here's Amazon's list of free eBook collections, and here's their best-sellers in the Kindle store, including free books on the right.) Of course, these books can usually be had for cheap (or free) in their dead tree versions, so there's not a huge savings here.
- E-books suck for most titles published between 1923 and, say, 2008. Books from the past century are still priced between $5 and $10 in electronic editions. This is ridiculous. You can borrow these for free from your public library. Or you can go to a used bookstore, a garage sale, or a thrift store to pick them up for less than they cost in digital format. Plus, tons of popular books aren't evenvailable electronically. (A real-life, typical example: Cry, the Beloved Country costs $12 on the Kindle. A brand-new paperback copy from Amazon? $9. The mind boggles.)
It's a rather interesting pattern, though good to know if you don't particularly have a preference for one over the other. Of course, if you find eBooks are just too darn convenient and instantaneous (or you prefer to have the physical copy for sentimental, ease of lending, or other reasons), you can always stick to your preferred media and we won't yell at you.
Note that the above also doesn't take into account the cost of buying an e-reader, which only pays for itself if you read a lot of books, so unless you use it for other things anyway, you'll want to keep that in mind as well. Hit the link to read more, and if you've noticed a similar patter, share how you manage your book buying in the comments below.
robert shumake detroit
Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.
Small Business <b>News</b>: Starting Your New Business In A New Year
Whether your starting a new business or rethinking an existing one, 2011 offers fresh possibilities and a new start. If you're launching a new business, there.
Are Korea's “Bending” away from Bluster? « Liveshots
LONDON After a 2010 that saw the Korean peninsula edge towards the brink of nuclear Armageddon,
robert shumake detroit
Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.
Small Business <b>News</b>: Starting Your New Business In A New Year
Whether your starting a new business or rethinking an existing one, 2011 offers fresh possibilities and a new start. If you're launching a new business, there.
Are Korea's “Bending” away from Bluster? « Liveshots
LONDON After a 2010 that saw the Korean peninsula edge towards the brink of nuclear Armageddon,
robert shumake
By the end of 2010, Harlequin Enterprises will have sold a grand total of more than 6 billion books in the company's 60-year history. But on Dec. 28, Harlequin will try to sell its first personal finance book.
The Frugalista Files, written by former Miami Herald personal finance blogger Natalie McNeal, is a diary of the year that one 34-year old spent trying to pay off her credit card debt -- "without giving up the fabulous life."
McNeal's book is written in a diary format, with all the personal details and emoticons entailed in that approach: "I admit it. My name is Natalie. I am a spending slut." It's certainly not a book that targets my college-age demographic, but many readers will find her story inspiring. If Natalie can do it, so can you.
"My book is for anyone who is a promiscuous spender and is looking for real-life tips on how to be financially chaste," McNeal tells DailyFinance. "It's highly personal personal finance."
Katherine Orr, Harlequin's vice president of public relations, sees the move into financial advice as a logical step for the world's largest publisher of romance novels.
"For 60 years, we've provided escape from problems, and now we can help solve the problems," she says. She calls McNeal's book "very prescriptive. It's clear and simple, and it's helping young singles navigate in a tough world."
Harlequin first began publishing nonfiction in October 2008 with a book from syndicated radio host Delilah. Subsequent titles have included fitness guru Tosca Reno's best seller Your Best Body Now: Look and Feel Fabulous at Any Age the Eat-Clean Way, along with titles like The Happy Baker: A Girl's Guide to Emotional Baking; Life Beyond Your Eating Disorder; The Dog Who Healed a Family; and Queen of Your Own Life.
The market for pink-covered personal finance books for women hasn't been especially strong. None of financial adviser Suze Orman's mega-bestselling money books have boasted a pink cover, and none of the slew of recently released girl-talk guides for women have sold well. Titles like Shoo, Jimmy Choo!; Bitches on a Budget: Sage Advice for Surviving Tough Times in Style; andA Purse of Your Own: An Easy Guide to Financial Security have all failed to register much of an impact in terms of sales.
Kimberly Palmer, the personal finance editor with US News & World Report and the author of Generation Earn, says many financial guides for women are marketed as "simplified [and] dumbed-down."
"Women don't like to be talked to as if we're bad with money, because we're not," she says. "Too many books for women assume that we overspend on shoes and cosmos when we're really just looking for the same kind of smart, solid financial advice that men want."
But if there's one publisher in America that knows what women are looking for when they buy a book, it's Harlequin. Perhaps it'll be able to reach a segment of the population badly in need of financial advice -- one that other publishers have so far been largely unable to connect with.
When Ebooks Are More (and Less) Cost Effective Than Physical Books
While many may prefer eBooks for the convenience they offer (or prefer paper books for the sentimentality), finding out which is cheaper isn't so black-and-white. Personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly shows us how to save the most money when buying books.
Photo by Pen Waggener.
All other preferences aside, it looks like eBooks are cheapest then the books are extremely new or extremely old:
- E-books are great for new releases. For new books, the electronic version is almost always the cheapest way to go. At a friend's house the other day, I noticed he'd paid $29 for the latest John Grisham book. $29!!! That's insane. That John Grisham book costs $16 at Amazon, and the Kindle version costs $10. In fact, most e-books cost between $10 and $12. When the cost savings is combined with the space savings, e-books are the clear winner for new releases.
- E-books are okay for classics. Anything that's in the Public Domain (published before 1923) can generally be downloaded to your e-book reader for free. Sometimes the formatting is goofy, and there usually isn't any supplemental material (like essays and notes), but you do get the books at no cost. (Searching for free Kindle books? Here's Amazon's list of free eBook collections, and here's their best-sellers in the Kindle store, including free books on the right.) Of course, these books can usually be had for cheap (or free) in their dead tree versions, so there's not a huge savings here.
- E-books suck for most titles published between 1923 and, say, 2008. Books from the past century are still priced between $5 and $10 in electronic editions. This is ridiculous. You can borrow these for free from your public library. Or you can go to a used bookstore, a garage sale, or a thrift store to pick them up for less than they cost in digital format. Plus, tons of popular books aren't evenvailable electronically. (A real-life, typical example: Cry, the Beloved Country costs $12 on the Kindle. A brand-new paperback copy from Amazon? $9. The mind boggles.)
It's a rather interesting pattern, though good to know if you don't particularly have a preference for one over the other. Of course, if you find eBooks are just too darn convenient and instantaneous (or you prefer to have the physical copy for sentimental, ease of lending, or other reasons), you can always stick to your preferred media and we won't yell at you.
Note that the above also doesn't take into account the cost of buying an e-reader, which only pays for itself if you read a lot of books, so unless you use it for other things anyway, you'll want to keep that in mind as well. Hit the link to read more, and if you've noticed a similar patter, share how you manage your book buying in the comments below.
robert shumake
robert shumake
Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.
Small Business <b>News</b>: Starting Your New Business In A New Year
Whether your starting a new business or rethinking an existing one, 2011 offers fresh possibilities and a new start. If you're launching a new business, there.
Are Korea's “Bending” away from Bluster? « Liveshots
LONDON After a 2010 that saw the Korean peninsula edge towards the brink of nuclear Armageddon,
robert shumake
Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.
Small Business <b>News</b>: Starting Your New Business In A New Year
Whether your starting a new business or rethinking an existing one, 2011 offers fresh possibilities and a new start. If you're launching a new business, there.
Are Korea's “Bending” away from Bluster? « Liveshots
LONDON After a 2010 that saw the Korean peninsula edge towards the brink of nuclear Armageddon,
robert shumake detroit
To understand you own personal finances an income statement and a balance sheet can be helpful. The income statement (shown below in simple English) can help you accomplish Step 1 (evaluating your personal finances) written about in my previous article on this topic. We will get to the balance sheet in the next article.
Personal Finance Income Statement: Part I
On a plain piece of notebook paper list the following items under "Take-Home Pay":
1) Total income (that would be your gross wages on your pay stub).
2) Total income taxes (for right now just lump everything deducted from your check here, including insurance deductibles).
3) Now subtract the total income taxes from the gross wages and we have your net income (what is known as 'take home pay', as I'm sure you already knew).
I apologize in advance to anyone already familiar with this step in the process, but there will be some individuals who aren't, so this is for them.
Personal Finance Income Statement: Part II
This is where the personal finance evaluating gets a little more in-depth; but not too bad. List your living expenses beneath the data you just wrote down about your income. I know, I know, you probably think you have a handle on that without doing this step, but you may come away surprised that you actually have more expenses than you thought.
Here are some personal finance income statement category suggestions for analyzing your expenses and breaking them apart:
Housing expenses (include them all, from rent or mortgage to trash bags, but don't include insurance here); next is food expenditures (groceries and eating out, and that birthday cake for your daughter); clothing and personal items you buy (that includes makeup and toothpaste); transportation costs (auto, repairs, gas, oil, taxis, but not auto insurance).
And then calculate your total recreational expenses (movies, books, magazines, concerts), medical expenses (but not insurance costs), and then all your insurance expenses (home, auto, health). If you have any other expenses that you are aware of (child support), put them under the "other expenses" category. Now total them all up.
If your expenses outweigh your income don't get discouraged. A little work is in order, sure, but it is not a mountain you can't climb.
Personal Finance Income Statement: Part III
Some of you may not have anything to put down in this last category (especially if you are living from hand-to-mouth--or worse), because it deals with money you have available for savings and investments. So don't feel bad! It will eventually come—just learn the steps to get there.
But for those who do have even a small amount left over after they subtract their total expenses from their total income, this is one asset that you have that we are going to use to improve your personal finances. So list your total income from net pay on one line in this section of your paper, then list your total expenses on the next line and subtract. This is the amount we now have to work with to improve your personal finances.
And if you haven't heard about the magic of the time value of money, just sit tight. It is a comin'. But let's look at the balance sheet first.
Resources
Personal Finance: Turning Money into Wealth by Arthur J. Keown (5th edition)
robert shumake
Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.
Small Business <b>News</b>: Starting Your New Business In A New Year
Whether your starting a new business or rethinking an existing one, 2011 offers fresh possibilities and a new start. If you're launching a new business, there.
Are Korea's “Bending” away from Bluster? « Liveshots
LONDON After a 2010 that saw the Korean peninsula edge towards the brink of nuclear Armageddon,
robert shumake
robert shumake
By the end of 2010, Harlequin Enterprises will have sold a grand total of more than 6 billion books in the company's 60-year history. But on Dec. 28, Harlequin will try to sell its first personal finance book.
The Frugalista Files, written by former Miami Herald personal finance blogger Natalie McNeal, is a diary of the year that one 34-year old spent trying to pay off her credit card debt -- "without giving up the fabulous life."
McNeal's book is written in a diary format, with all the personal details and emoticons entailed in that approach: "I admit it. My name is Natalie. I am a spending slut." It's certainly not a book that targets my college-age demographic, but many readers will find her story inspiring. If Natalie can do it, so can you.
"My book is for anyone who is a promiscuous spender and is looking for real-life tips on how to be financially chaste," McNeal tells DailyFinance. "It's highly personal personal finance."
Katherine Orr, Harlequin's vice president of public relations, sees the move into financial advice as a logical step for the world's largest publisher of romance novels.
"For 60 years, we've provided escape from problems, and now we can help solve the problems," she says. She calls McNeal's book "very prescriptive. It's clear and simple, and it's helping young singles navigate in a tough world."
Harlequin first began publishing nonfiction in October 2008 with a book from syndicated radio host Delilah. Subsequent titles have included fitness guru Tosca Reno's best seller Your Best Body Now: Look and Feel Fabulous at Any Age the Eat-Clean Way, along with titles like The Happy Baker: A Girl's Guide to Emotional Baking; Life Beyond Your Eating Disorder; The Dog Who Healed a Family; and Queen of Your Own Life.
The market for pink-covered personal finance books for women hasn't been especially strong. None of financial adviser Suze Orman's mega-bestselling money books have boasted a pink cover, and none of the slew of recently released girl-talk guides for women have sold well. Titles like Shoo, Jimmy Choo!; Bitches on a Budget: Sage Advice for Surviving Tough Times in Style; andA Purse of Your Own: An Easy Guide to Financial Security have all failed to register much of an impact in terms of sales.
Kimberly Palmer, the personal finance editor with US News & World Report and the author of Generation Earn, says many financial guides for women are marketed as "simplified [and] dumbed-down."
"Women don't like to be talked to as if we're bad with money, because we're not," she says. "Too many books for women assume that we overspend on shoes and cosmos when we're really just looking for the same kind of smart, solid financial advice that men want."
But if there's one publisher in America that knows what women are looking for when they buy a book, it's Harlequin. Perhaps it'll be able to reach a segment of the population badly in need of financial advice -- one that other publishers have so far been largely unable to connect with.
When Ebooks Are More (and Less) Cost Effective Than Physical Books
While many may prefer eBooks for the convenience they offer (or prefer paper books for the sentimentality), finding out which is cheaper isn't so black-and-white. Personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly shows us how to save the most money when buying books.
Photo by Pen Waggener.
All other preferences aside, it looks like eBooks are cheapest then the books are extremely new or extremely old:
- E-books are great for new releases. For new books, the electronic version is almost always the cheapest way to go. At a friend's house the other day, I noticed he'd paid $29 for the latest John Grisham book. $29!!! That's insane. That John Grisham book costs $16 at Amazon, and the Kindle version costs $10. In fact, most e-books cost between $10 and $12. When the cost savings is combined with the space savings, e-books are the clear winner for new releases.
- E-books are okay for classics. Anything that's in the Public Domain (published before 1923) can generally be downloaded to your e-book reader for free. Sometimes the formatting is goofy, and there usually isn't any supplemental material (like essays and notes), but you do get the books at no cost. (Searching for free Kindle books? Here's Amazon's list of free eBook collections, and here's their best-sellers in the Kindle store, including free books on the right.) Of course, these books can usually be had for cheap (or free) in their dead tree versions, so there's not a huge savings here.
- E-books suck for most titles published between 1923 and, say, 2008. Books from the past century are still priced between $5 and $10 in electronic editions. This is ridiculous. You can borrow these for free from your public library. Or you can go to a used bookstore, a garage sale, or a thrift store to pick them up for less than they cost in digital format. Plus, tons of popular books aren't evenvailable electronically. (A real-life, typical example: Cry, the Beloved Country costs $12 on the Kindle. A brand-new paperback copy from Amazon? $9. The mind boggles.)
It's a rather interesting pattern, though good to know if you don't particularly have a preference for one over the other. Of course, if you find eBooks are just too darn convenient and instantaneous (or you prefer to have the physical copy for sentimental, ease of lending, or other reasons), you can always stick to your preferred media and we won't yell at you.
Note that the above also doesn't take into account the cost of buying an e-reader, which only pays for itself if you read a lot of books, so unless you use it for other things anyway, you'll want to keep that in mind as well. Hit the link to read more, and if you've noticed a similar patter, share how you manage your book buying in the comments below.
robert shumake
Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.
Small Business <b>News</b>: Starting Your New Business In A New Year
Whether your starting a new business or rethinking an existing one, 2011 offers fresh possibilities and a new start. If you're launching a new business, there.
Are Korea's “Bending” away from Bluster? « Liveshots
LONDON After a 2010 that saw the Korean peninsula edge towards the brink of nuclear Armageddon,
robert shumake
robert shumake detroit
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