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Introducing CANREADS. Premier book review, blurb, and award service

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INTRODUCING CANREADS
Calling all published authors, Self-Published authors, agents, publicists, and Publishers across North America! Prepare to bookmark CANREADS — Your Next Favourite Literary Destination Site!

Launching Fall/2024 CANREADS is Your Ultimate Go-To site for getting vibrant book blurbs, book reviews, and awards.

We Find the Ideal Reviewer For Your Book’s Target Audience.

“I’m early in my career, but have recently finished the process for my first book. While I was asked for suggestions about who to ask for blurbs, a lot of the people I suggested didn’t answer when the publisher solicited them.” — author

Toronto, ON —  CANREADS, a premier book review, blurb, and award service, is proud to announce its launch, this FALL/2024, across major Canadian cities, including CANREADS Toronto, CANREADS Ottawa, CANREADS Montreal, CANREADS Calgary, CANREADS Halifax, and CANREADS Vancouver. Authors, publishers, agents, and publicists can order blurbs and reviews from multiple cities across Canada, written by those who matter the most: avid book readers, book buyers, employees at major Canadian bookstores, indie bookstores, and librarians. Founded by 10x Bestselling Author and Publisher Rebecca Eckler and Acquisitions Editor Chloe Faith Robinson, CANREADS is set to revolutionize and amplify the Canadian review landscape.

WHY DO PUBLISHERS, AGENTS, PUBLICISTS NEED CANREADS?

“I’d rather hear a book recommendation from an avid reader who works at a Loblaws than just another author whose books I haven’t even read.” —reader

Blurbs by authors often fail to sway book buyers. A blurb from the wrong author can even ruin an author’s reputation, an agent’s reputation, and a publishing house’s reputation. In a poll we conducted on 500 readers nationwide, 82% percent of readers said they would trust a book recommendation from their hairdresser over one from an author.

CANREADS reviewers are efficient and will NOT write reviews or blurbs that include:

*Vague Statements:  Our goal is to capture interest in your books, with in-depth blurbs and reviews. A full review will include at least three blurb-worthy sentences, you can choose and use.

*Relying on opinions of other authors: Studies show readers form their opinions based on the book’s description, and reviews, rather than an author’s blurb. At CANREADS, avid readers are selectively chosen to match your book’s target demographic.

*Repetitiveness: Many blurbs sound similar across all genres, making them less effective at distinguishing one book from another. At CANREADS, reviewers write unique, in-depth reviews and blurbs.

*Misaligned Expectations: CANREADS reviewers have all sorts of tastes across all genres, and demographics, and in every major city, as opposed to getting a blurb from even a household named-author, which doesn’t lead to disappointment, more negative reviews, and less than stellar sale.

*Repetitional Risks: If an endorsing authors falls out of favour, their association with your book could have negative repercussions. At CANREADS, books are read by book buyers and avid readers —leading to other book buyers who will be intrigued by a  CANREAD review.

*Blurber’s Influence: Heavy reliance on blurbs from famous authors overshadow your own voice and originality, which is why a review by CANREADS, as opposed to a handful of names, is much more effective and much less-time consuming.

CANREADS FOR AUTHORS…
At CANREADS, “We’re brave, so you don’t have to be awkward.”  Asking for a blurb requires putting one’s work and oneself in a vulnerable position, which can be daunting for many authors. Let us “be brave” and find the right reviewer from your ideal target audience, saving you from potential rejection and embarrassment of asking authors to blurb or review your book, no matter what process your book is in. It’s never too early to start collecting reviews and blurbs. It’s never too late either. Many authors now refuse to blurb or are not allowed to blurb or review books outside their own publishing houses. This limits the chances for authors.

By using CANREADS book review and blurbs services, you will never feel:

Rejection: Authors worry about the possibility of being turned down when asking for a review or blurb from an author, which feels like a personal rejection.

Imposing on Busy Schedules: Authors are hesitant to ask an author to take time out of their busy lives to read and write a review or blurb.

Professional Reputation: Authors fear asking for a blurb could come across as presumptuous or self-serving, potentially damaging professional relationships.

Insecurity: Authors have self-doubts about their own work and worry that an author might not find it worthy of endorsement.

Reciprocal Pressure: Authors may worry that if they ask for a blurb, they will be obligated to return the favour in the future, creating a sense of reciprocal pressure.

Blurbs and reviews play a crucial role in a book’s success, particularly within the industry. Nowadays, securing a full feature review is increasingly difficult, with a limited number of slots available for the hundreds of thousands of books published each year. In this scarcity of critical coverage, reviews and blurbs become essential. Blurbs and reviews are also vital for booksellers who need to gauge a book’s marketability and for event organizers who consider the relationships and communities an author is connected to through their blurbs and/or reviews. CANREADS  professional blurbs and reviews are easy to obtain, with a few short clicks.

CANREADS believes that by using “city-specific bylines” following blurbs and reviews, instead of specific names — such as CANREADS Toronto Book Reviews or CANREADS Calgary Book Reviews — is the future in book publishing to add “credential,” to a book, help it stand out, no matter how many or how few connections the authors has. We believe authors, publishers, and publicists south of the border, will benefit by having Canadian City-Specific Book Reviews to showcase how their titles are well-received “In The North.”

By Ordering Reviews and Blurbs from CANREADS, you’ll see that our biggest strength is our ability to find a reviewer from your ideal target market: This ensures the feedback is relevant and resonates with potential readers, enhancing credibility and marketing effectiveness. In contrast, reviews from those outside your target market often miss the mark, failing to highlight aspects that matter most to your intended audience. By aligning reviews with your target market, you create a more authentic and engaging promotion for your book.

HOW CANREADS BOOK REVIEWS WORK
At CANREADS, you simply make your purchase on our website—prior to publication, before your book goes off to the printer, as you’re promoting a book, after your book has been out for months, or even years, to keep the momentum  going as long as possible . Upon purchase, you send a digital galley or electronic manuscript to info@canreads.ca or upload it to our submissions form on the website, with your order number specified. Standard blurbs and reviews will take 2-4 weeks to be delivered, but we also offer expedited delivery times for publishers, editors, agents, and authors to “up the number” of blurbs, and if needed, last minute blurbs or reviews. Often, requests for blurbs are made author-to-author or otherwise put into motion through their editors or agents ahead of publication, basically as soon as the manuscript is ready to send out— CANREADS can get you that blurb or review sooner than later.

At CANREADS, authors, publicists, and agents, are able to request a specific city, and they can choose their target demographic’s age range of reviewer, request a male or female reviewer, and request a reviewer or blurb from an avid reader well-versed in a specific genre. We will not, for example, get a middle-age white male to review a beach read meant for young females, and we will not have your book reviewed or blurbed from someone who does not understand or love the genre you submit your book in for review, thus upping an author’s chances of getting a great AND honest review.
CANREADS reviewers are vetted so you can ensure you are getting a quality, professional review—avid book lovers, former or current indigo employees, and even publishing instructors. Each reviewer rates the title using a five-star award system. Five-star reviews are automatically entered for free into our annual CANREADS Awards!

“As someone who has been doing book publicity for almost 30 years, I can attest to how grateful we publicists are when we have blurbs to work with when pitching the media.” — publicist

“I think you can probably trace most blurbs back to a connection—the author and blurb writer are friends, or they have the same editor or the same agent – so I tend to take them with a grain of salt.” —bookseller

With a mission to support all authors — from small independent publishers to large publishing houses, CANREADS offer:

  • Sponsored Blurbs: Concise, impactful summaries ideal for front and back covers or other promotional purposes. (starting at $150)
  • Sponsored Reviews: Comprehensive analyses that delve into the strengths of the book, offering valuable insights and the option for a sensitivity read. (starting at $350)
  • Sensitivity Readers/Reviews: In addition to expert reviews and blurbs, CANREADS provides sensitivity readers/reviewers, ensuring that authors accurately and sensitively represent diverse perspectives in their work. This reflects CANREADS’ dedication to promoting authentic and respectful storytelling.
  • Annual CANREADS Awards: Award for outstanding titles submitted for review, spanning 36 diverse genre categories ($100 entry, or free with a 5-star review). Award winners receive eye-catching stickers (which drive sales), as well as a medal.
Our unique pricing model allows authors and publishers to secure reviews from avid readers from bigger cities by way of paying a premium. This innovative approach ensures that each review is crafted with expertise and prominence, adding significant value to the author’s work.  We highly recommend authors and publishers add this into their marketing and promotional budgets. Are you ready to get a review or blurb? Click the link https://canreads.ca/

At CANREADS, we are committed to providing a platform for Canadian authors and books to shine. Our award and review services help promote Canadian books and ensure they find a prominent place on bookshelves around the globe. Canada is full of talent that is unique and wonderful, and it’s about time the world sees it. We specialize in providing high-quality, professional book reviews tailored to enhance the visibility and success of exceptional literary works.

     ###

Rebecca and/Or Chloe are available for interviews. Discussion points:

  • The inspiration behind founding CANREADS and the vision for the company’s future
  • The common pitfalls of Blurbs and Reviewers
  • unique approach to book reviews and its impact on authors and publishers
  • The importance of promoting Canadian literature and supporting all publishers
  • The role of expert reviewers in the literary industry and the significance of CANREADS premium pricing model
  • The significance of the CANREADS Award and its impact on recognizing outstanding literary achievements
  • Rebecca’s journey as a bestselling author, journalist, columnist, and now publisher, and how her experience shapes CANREADS offerings
  • Chloe’s background in editorial, design, and publishing, and her role in shaping CANREADS services and operations
  • Future plans for CANREADS, including potential expansion and additional services
  • The importance of fostering a vibrant literary community in all major Canadian cities
  • The broader trends and challenges facing the publishing industry, and how CANREADS aims to address them

JOIN US IN CELEBRATING CANADIAN LITERATURE
At CANREADS, we believe in the power of promoting Canadian voices. Join us in our mission to elevate Canadian literature and the incredible talent that our country has to offer. For more information about our services, the CANREAD Book Awards, or to order a review or blurb, please visit https://canreads.ca/ or follow us on Instagram at @canreadsbookreview
Together, let’s make a space on the shelves for Canadian books and let the world see the unique and wonderful talent that Canada has to offer. If you’re a self-published author or traditional publisher and you want your Fall titles to get reviewed or blurbed, reach out now!

For more information, visit https://canreads.ca/ or contact us at info@canreads.ca

FOR INTERVIEWS OR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE REACH OUT TO SASHA STOLTZ:
(+1) 416-579-4804
sasha@sashastoltzpublicity.com
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STD epidemic slows as new syphilis and gonorrhea cases fall in US

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6 hours ago

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November 12, 2024

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NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. syphilis epidemic slowed dramatically last year, gonorrhea cases fell and chlamydia cases remained below prepandemic levels, according to federal data released Tuesday.

The numbers represented some good news about sexually transmitted diseases, which experienced some alarming increases in past years due to declining condom use, inadequate sex education, and reduced testing and treatment when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Last year, cases of the most infectious stages of syphilis fell 10% from the year before — the first substantial decline in more than two decades. Gonorrhea cases dropped 7%, marking a second straight year of decline and bringing the number below what it was in 2019.

“I’m encouraged, and it’s been a long time since I felt that way” about the nation’s epidemic of sexually transmitted infections, said the CDC’s Dr. Jonathan Mermin. “Something is working.”

More than 2.4 million cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia were diagnosed and reported last year — 1.6 million cases of chlamydia, 600,000 of gonorrhea, and more than 209,000 of syphilis.

Syphilis is a particular concern. For centuries, it was a common but feared infection that could deform the body and end in death. New cases plummeted in the U.S. starting in the 1940s when infection-fighting antibiotics became widely available, and they trended down for a half century after that. By 2002, however, cases began rising again, with men who have sex with other men being disproportionately affected.

The new report found cases of syphilis in their early, most infectious stages dropped 13% among gay and bisexual men. It was the first such drop since the agency began reporting data for that group in the mid-2000s.

However, there was a 12% increase in the rate of cases of unknown- or later-stage syphilis — a reflection of people infected years ago.

Cases of syphilis in newborns, passed on from infected mothers, also rose. There were nearly 4,000 cases, including 279 stillbirths and infant deaths.

“This means pregnant women are not being tested often enough,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California.

What caused some of the STD trends to improve? Several experts say one contributor is the growing use of an antibiotic as a “morning-after pill.” Studies have shown that taking doxycycline within 72 hours of unprotected sex cuts the risk of developing syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.

In June, the CDC started recommending doxycycline as a morning-after pill, specifically for gay and bisexual men and transgender women who recently had an STD diagnosis. But health departments and organizations in some cities had been giving the pills to people for a couple years.

Some experts believe that the 2022 mpox outbreak — which mainly hit gay and bisexual men — may have had a lingering effect on sexual behavior in 2023, or at least on people’s willingness to get tested when strange sores appeared.

Another factor may have been an increase in the number of health workers testing people for infections, doing contact tracing and connecting people to treatment. Congress gave $1.2 billion to expand the workforce over five years, including $600 million to states, cities and territories that get STD prevention funding from CDC.

Last year had the “most activity with that funding throughout the U.S.,” said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors.

However, Congress ended the funds early as a part of last year’s debt ceiling deal, cutting off $400 million. Some people already have lost their jobs, said a spokeswoman for Harvey’s organization.

Still, Harvey said he had reasons for optimism, including the growing use of doxycycline and a push for at-home STD test kits.

Also, there are reasons to think the next presidential administration could get behind STD prevention. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump announced a campaign to “eliminate” the U.S. HIV epidemic by 2030. (Federal health officials later clarified that the actual goal was a huge reduction in new infections — fewer than 3,000 a year.)

There were nearly 32,000 new HIV infections in 2022, the CDC estimates. But a boost in public health funding for HIV could also also help bring down other sexually transmitted infections, experts said.

“When the government puts in resources, puts in money, we see declines in STDs,” Klausner said.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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World’s largest active volcano Mauna Loa showed telltale warning signs before erupting in 2022

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November 12, 2024

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists can’t know precisely when a volcano is about to erupt, but they can sometimes pick up telltale signs.

That happened two years ago with the world’s largest active volcano. About two months before Mauna Loa spewed rivers of glowing orange molten lava, geologists detected small earthquakes nearby and other signs, and they warned residents on Hawaii‘s Big Island.

Now a study of the volcano’s lava confirms their timeline for when the molten rock below was on the move.

“Volcanoes are tricky because we don’t get to watch directly what’s happening inside – we have to look for other signs,” said Erik Klemetti Gonzalez, a volcano expert at Denison University, who was not involved in the study.

Upswelling ground and increased earthquake activity near the volcano resulted from magma rising from lower levels of Earth’s crust to fill chambers beneath the volcano, said Kendra Lynn, a research geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and co-author of a new study in Nature Communications.

When pressure was high enough, the magma broke through brittle surface rock and became lava – and the eruption began in late November 2022. Later, researchers collected samples of volcanic rock for analysis.

The chemical makeup of certain crystals within the lava indicated that around 70 days before the eruption, large quantities of molten rock had moved from around 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) to 3 miles (5 kilometers) under the summit to a mile (2 kilometers) or less beneath, the study found. This matched the timeline the geologists had observed with other signs.

The last time Mauna Loa erupted was in 1984. Most of the U.S. volcanoes that scientists consider to be active are found in Hawaii, Alaska and the West Coast.

Worldwide, around 585 volcanoes are considered active.

Scientists can’t predict eruptions, but they can make a “forecast,” said Ben Andrews, who heads the global volcano program at the Smithsonian Institution and who was not involved in the study.

Andrews compared volcano forecasts to weather forecasts – informed “probabilities” that an event will occur. And better data about the past behavior of specific volcanos can help researchers finetune forecasts of future activity, experts say.

(asterisk)We can look for similar patterns in the future and expect that there’s a higher probability of conditions for an eruption happening,” said Klemetti Gonzalez.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Waymo’s robotaxis now open to anyone who wants a driverless ride in Los Angeles

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7 hours ago

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November 12, 2024

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Waymo on Tuesday opened its robotaxi service to anyone who wants a ride around Los Angeles, marking another milestone in the evolution of self-driving car technology since the company began as a secret project at Google 15 years ago.

The expansion comes eight months after Waymo began offering rides in Los Angeles to a limited group of passengers chosen from a waiting list that had ballooned to more than 300,000 people. Now, anyone with the Waymo One smartphone app will be able to request a ride around an 80-square-mile (129-square-kilometer) territory spanning the second largest U.S. city.

After Waymo received approval from California regulators to charge for rides 15 months ago, the company initially chose to launch its operations in San Francisco before offering a limited service in Los Angeles.

Before deciding to compete against conventional ride-hailing pioneers Uber and Lyft in California, Waymo unleashed its robotaxis in Phoenix in 2020 and has been steadily extending the reach of its service in that Arizona city ever since.

Driverless rides are proving to be more than just a novelty. Waymo says it now transports more than 50,000 weekly passengers in its robotaxis, a volume of business numbers that helped the company recently raise $5.6 billion from its corporate parent Alphabet and a list of other investors that included venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz and financial management firm T. Rowe Price.

“Our service has matured quickly and our riders are embracing the many benefits of fully autonomous driving,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a blog post.

Despite its inroads, Waymo is still believed to be losing money. Although Alphabet doesn’t disclose Waymo’s financial results, the robotaxi is a major part of an “Other Bets” division that had suffered an operating loss of $3.3 billion through the first nine months of this year, down from a setback of $4.2 billion at the same time last year.

But Waymo has come a long way since Google began working on self-driving cars in 2009 as part of project “Chauffeur.” Since its 2016 spinoff from Google, Waymo has established itself as the clear leader in a robotaxi industry that’s getting more congested.

Electric auto pioneer Tesla is aiming to launch a rival “Cybercab” service by 2026, although its CEO Elon Musk said he hopes the company can get the required regulatory clearances to operate in Texas and California by next year.

Tesla’s projected timeline for competing against Waymo has been met with skepticism because Musk has made unfulfilled promises about the company’s self-driving car technology for nearly a decade.

Meanwhile, Waymo’s robotaxis have driven more than 20 million fully autonomous miles and provided more than 2 million rides to passengers without encountering a serious accident that resulted in its operations being sidelined.

That safety record is a stark contrast to one of its early rivals, Cruise, a robotaxi service owned by General Motors. Cruise’s California license was suspended last year after one of its driverless cars in San Francisco dragged a jaywalking pedestrian who had been struck by a different car driven by a human.

Cruise is now trying to rebound by joining forces with Uber to make some of its services available next year in U.S. cities that still haven’t been announced. But Waymo also has forged a similar alliance with Uber to dispatch its robotaxi in Atlanta and Austin, Texas next year.

Another robotaxi service, Amazon’s Zoox, is hoping to begin offering driverless rides to the general public in Las Vegas at some point next year before also launching in San Francisco.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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