If you have yet to hear about print on demand, you are missing out on a great feature. Print on demand is a relatively new printing technology. Instead of printing a large quantity of books, pamphlets, brochures, etc. all at once and risking having a ton of inventory left over, print on demand only prints those items needed during the time of the order.

For example, let’s say that you’re a new author who just wrote a book. Rather than pay to have millions of copies of your book printed, you can use print on demand. If you are using a website to promote your book, you simply set up the ordering process with the printer. Once an order comes through, your book will be printed and sent to the customer. This allows printing to be done one at a time instead of in bulk.

So what are the benefits of this technology versus older technologies?

1. It’s cheaper.

Having a million copies of one item printed would cost a fortune. And if you weren’t able to sell all of the copies you printed, you would be stuck paying for them out of your own pocket. With print on demand, you are only paying to print the items you need based on orders. For example, if you had an order of 10 books, only 10 books would be printed, saving you a fortune, and allowing your profits to pay for the printing of the book.

2. It allows authors to become published.

There are many aspiring writers out there with great stories to tell, but unfortunately they don’t have the resources to pay for the publishing and printing fees. With print on demand, independent authors can now become published authors through the use of print on demand. This technology does not require any financial risk, so if the author’s book is unsuccessful, they won’t end up losing all of their savings.

3. No more dealing with an agent.

By using print on demand, you can opt to print the book yourself, which means that you will not have to hire an agent to push your book out to multiple publishing companies. This will save a great deal of money, and it will also ensure that your book is published more quickly than it would be using a traditional agent.

4. Creative Control

When you have an agent, you are forced into making their changes in order to have the book published. With print on demand, you have total control over what is said in your book, how the cover looks, how many pages there are and the names of each character, amongst other things.

If print on demand sounds like something that interests you, be sure to do your research and find a company that you like. Each printing company may do things a bit differently than others, and it’s a great idea to be partnered with a company you enjoy working with.

George Simmons lives in Miami.  He likes to write in his spare time and has recently been telling others about the best Florida printing companies.

Enjoy this fun post! I grew up on the movie Psycho and totally agree that there’s a creepy element about hotels that movie-makers have exploited (much to everyone’s delight!).

What is it about a remote hotel setting that compounds the terror in a horror movie? Could it be those corridors, the length of 20 football fields that are seemingly the only avenue of escape from unspeakable horror, but always have a really unpleasant surprise lurking at each end? Is it those closed doors that lead off of a dimly lit hotel corridor behind which anything may be lurking? Fear of the unknown is part of the human condition and having movie characters battle monsters in unfamiliar surroundings adds disorientation to terror. These are not exclusively budget hotels as one might think: Horror haunts the most hallowed of halls.

The 1960’s film, Psycho is a horror classic and has all the elements that make terror so tantalisingly terrible. A young woman on the run after stealing $40,000 chooses to hide out at the isolated Bates Motel that sits vulture-like atop a craggy hill similar in setting to Dracula’s castle, and seeming to rely entirely on a sinister looking moon for lighting. To have someone else go where no sensible coward has gone before and then have our cowardice justified when they are horribly mutilated, somehow reaffirms our self-esteem. This lady gets exactly what this thoroughly creepy motel suggested she would.

The number 13 features in two of the scariest movie hotels and one would think that this alone would give reason enough for pause. The Dolphin Hotel, and in particular room 1408 (adds up to 13 as if Stephen King didn’t know and maliciously assign anyway), is the scene of unrestricted evil gone berserk. Again, a supposedly intelligent individual who is the author of 3 successful non-fiction works based on the paranormal, checks into this notoriously haunted room simply because he has a sudden attack of conscience: He doesn’t actually believe that the paranormal exists and therefore feels like a fraud. The terror of this hotel is that life goes on as normal in the rest of the establishment, while demonic chaos very loudly reigns in that room only. A similar scenario erupts at the Wessex Hotel in the movie, Nightmare on the 13th floor. Guests mysteriously disappear and a reporter who is writing a review takes it upon herself to investigate. The discovery of an unmarked 13th floor immediately kills any intelligence she possesses and she sallies forth unhindered by common sense or travel companions. Some Gothic decorative touches really should have given her some indication of the satanic cult that resides on this floor.

Isolation from the comfort of a crowd also turns The Overlook Hotel in the 1980 film, The Shining, into nightmare accommodation. Long, deserted and eerily quiet corridors will soon explode with the sound of doors being hacked down as a previously sane father attempts to decimate his family with an axe while demonic forces seen only by his young son, write strange messages in blood on the walls. Lonely halls in a murky establishment that is thankfully about to close make The Yankee Pedlar hotel from the movie, The Innkeepers a place to be avoided. Evil manifests here as sound as two employees at the establishment attempt to record the ghosts who have supposedly taken up residence.

The Pinewood Motel from the movie, Vacancy continues the classic horror pattern. A car breaks down and a couple are forced to book into a room that has hidden cameras galore and knife wielding psychopaths watching. Isolation is complete as no cell-phone towers exist. Horror Hotel features a young student doing research into witchcraft with similar results to Psycho. In all cases separation from the comfort of company is what makes these hotels the terrifying residences that they are.

Amy writes about movies and works for Deal Zippy – the hotel deals website.

My husband and our kids from last fall.

You know what’s funny? A lot of people who see the title of this blog will think that I put it there with a sarcastic tone. You all know the one I’m talking about, right? A woman rolls her eyes and says “Men.” in a very condescending manner and everyone grunts or chuckles in agreement.

Well, those moments are certainly valid in certain scenarios, but that’s not where I’m going today. Since Father’s Day is coming up, I just wanted to write about how much men do for us.

I just want men out there to know that they are appreciated. It’s hard to be a good father, and for those of you who make a valiant effort to be there for your children, those said efforts don’t go unnoticed.

My mom was single and raised us. I did see my dad on a regular basis, so I can’t relate to those who don’t have a father in their life, but I think we all turn out just fine if we don’t have a male role model in our lives. However, having a positive relationship with a father figure can make a world of difference for children. It helps them to feel loved, have confidence, and gives them essential coping skills for life. The role of fatherhood is very important and I’m grateful to all those men out there who take their role seriously.

I know of plenty of stories of men dealing with wives who are being irrational for one reason or another. I wonder if they get credit for being able to handle those situations. I mean, let’s face it ladies, we are scary when we’re feeling emotional!

Sometimes I wonder how my marriage survived the pregnancies. I’m generally a level-headed kind of person. Even when I feel emotional, I can usually talk my way into calm if I can logically explain something to myself. But I was a totally different person when I was pregnant. It’s quite embarrassing to look back and see how I reacted to some things. It was like another person had control over my emotions.

Boy, am I glad that stage of life is over for me (and I daresay my husband is too!). But I’m very grateful to my husband for trying to be so understanding, even when I didn’t understand what had me so upset myself.

I know my kids are grateful that their dad takes the time to play with them when he gets home from work. I know he’s probably tired and would love to just sit back and relax when he’s home, but he finds the energy from somewhere to chase after the kids and wrestle with them. It’s so sweet to watch, plus it gives me a little break. 🙂

I know that there are plenty of men out there who do the same for their kids, and I hope they all know what an amazing gift they are giving. Their kids are going to grow up feeling loved. It can’t get any better than that.

Hey everyone, please enjoy this guest post about this brilliant writer!

Ask any English or writing major in college if they have read a book by Thomas Pynchon, and you will often be returned with two responses. The first is from the type of student who fancies him or herself as someone who is all-knowing with postmodern literature and will say “Of course! Who hasn’t!”. Then there will be the student who sighs and will solemnly respond – “Well I tried, but none of it made any sense”, insinuating that they express little doubts about their own adeptness in the understanding of American literature.

Fact is, the second student is more credible in response, partially in honesty, but mostly that Pynchon’s writing often makes little sense. His narratives, while a story is very present, are consistently loose. Narrative digression from paragraph to paragraph is not an uncommon practice, and you will find yourself trying to read the same page over and over again thinking that there must have been something you missed.

His books are all historical, and more so, the events in history are very specific, leaving to question what the reasoning is, and what Pynchon is trying to say about our history. For example, Against the Day (2006) takes place between the years of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and the period following World War I, and contains a story that many people to this day are still trying to figure out. Mason & Dixon (1997), a very loose interpretation of the journey of astronomers and cartographers Charles Dixon and Jeremiah Mason, takes place in the several years before the American Revolution. Oh, and, other characters in Mason & Dixon include talking clocks, dogs, as well as discussions on robots and alien abduction – yes, in the 18th century.

Pynchon’s most famous novel, Gravity’s Rainbow from 1972 is considered by scholars and literary giants to be one of the greatest works of fiction ever written. It has also been a book considered by others as absolutely impossible to comprehend, let alone read in the first place. Taking place at the end of World War II, the story is a mash of complex scientific theories, mathematics, and a plot that only Pynchon would ever think of being appropriate to contain in a historical narrative. It would be unwise to get too much into this story, so all that could be suggested is to tackle the first few pages yourself.

What there is to be said about how Pynchon places his characters, many of which carry an unrelenting dryness and shell that suggests their imperviousness to external events, is how we today perceive our own history. We all want to think of historical figures as romanticized beings, never having committed an error, always honest and true patrons of the formulation of this nation. But we forget that they too were human, and Pynchon aims to poke fun at how we look at history as a fairy tale. It was just as mad and nonsensical then as the events that we bear witness to today, but in the end, it comes to shape us as we are. Funny thing is, if Pynchon were to read this article, he’d probably say I’m dead wrong.

Mike is an avid musician, reader and blogger. He’s always looking for the next best thing in the arts. Also, Mike is a writer for direct4tv.net