You may want to know more about Libboo or TechStars, so please feel free to contact Halley Tucker  (617-256-1011)  at this email address: Halley@Libboo.com for information about the social publishing start-up Libboo.

If you have inquiries about TechStars or TechStars Boston, try this link

We have some more new features and changes to the site to show you guys this week. Most awesomely, you can now upload Word documents to our editor! To see what else is new, you can watch this video walkthrough of all the changes that we deployed on Wednesday:

More new stuff coming next week!

-Team Libboo

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For more Libboo news, you can follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or add us to your Google+circles.

We’ve got a new front page!

We’ve been doing some super secret work at Libboo HQ to make the site even awesomer, and we’ve finally got some stuff to show you. First off, we’ve got a new snazzy-looking front page, complete with virtual bookshelf:

We’ve also got a few new features for authors and promoters. As an author, you can now see who your best promoters are, instead of only being able to see who’s promoting a specific Libbook.

Once you click “See All,” you get a list view of all of the people that are promoting your Libbooks and how well they’re doing.

As a promoter, you now have the ability to see how many more hits you need on a particular Libbook before receiving a badge.

Other awesomeness:

-Libboo is no longer taking 15% of the royalties you receive from storefronts such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Our aim has always been to help authors, and as such, we’ve decided to lower this to 5%, and will soon update our pricing page to reflect this change.

-You can now add a link to your site on your bio. We think this will be especially great for illustrators, since now they can link to their online portfolios and show off their skillz.

-Improvements to the book discovery page are coming soon!

-Team Libboo

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For more Libboo news, you can follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or add us to your Google+circles.

Libboo started in 2009 as a simple pet-project by friends to allow their friends to create written content online together. 2011 however proved to Team Libboo that Libboo can be so much more.

Throughout the last 12 months, Libboo has won various innovation competitions, gained the exposure of the world’s leading press, created works with bestselling authors, and established itself as a forerunner in the new digital publishing age. However these next 12 months are going to be truly exciting and we can finally reveal what all our hard work has been for:

I am proud and honored to announce the launch of Libboo Team Publishing.

Team Publishing by Libboo is a world-first. We have dabbled and experimented these last few months to create a mechanism which will take the best out of the traditional publishing model and combine that with the efficiency of the self-publishing model. It is clear self-publishing is here to stay and the access it brings to authors is unquestionable. However self-publishing lacks the ability to find talent, gain exposure – and once you have self-published – managing royalties and copyright between many storefronts and your team members can be a nightmare. These were the benefits of the traditional model – and these are the benefits we have introduced into Team Publishing. Now you can create content in teams, market it in teams, and sell your work via the major online storefronts at the click of a button. Libboo does all the dirty work letting you and your team focus on creating awesome writing, and then sharing it once it’s complete.

We hope you find our new approach engaging, and I personally am incredible grateful of our team here at Team Libboo – Richard, Fernando, Katherine, Po, Dan, and Joey – for guiding Libboo to what it is now becoming.

Yours sincerely and a happy new year,

Chris Howard
Libboo.com

As September 1st rolls in, the new month says goodbye to the old and hello to the new!  Today’s blog is a very special one. We have two major events happening at Libboo:

Libboo v2.0

&

The Publishing of ‘Paradox’

Welcome to the new, better than ever version 2.0! Visit www.libboo.com to discover the new Libboo – shinier than ever, with new features and easier to use. Here are a few things that you will find:

- An updated cleaner interface, streamlining the whole process of reading, writing and networking.

- A faster site, using a more efficient and streamlined codebase.

- Improved searching for Books and Users

- Event filtering, allowing you to quickly search though and filter a list of books/users/reviews/comments etc, etc…

- Improved writing and versioning when you are working on a Libbook with other team members.

- Updated social links, making it easier to post your favourite Libbook to Facebook, Twitter etc…

- The addition of a score matrix, letting you see exactly what you are successful at and what you may want to focus more on.

- A dramatically improved help system with an updated set of information aimed at getting you started on your Libbook project, reading and networking in no-time.

We are constantly looking to improve – always aiming at bringing you a better experience. Click on the ‘feedback’ button and be part of our design innovation team and help shape the future of Libboo.  We believe in the power of community!

IT’S TIME TO PUBLISH!

September 1st marks the official end of Phase II – With many writing teams working on their version of Paradox, it is time to click the ‘publish’ button. We thank EVERYONE who has read, written and networked to help make this book a reality. The world’s first ‘globally-written’ murder-mystery novel.

Earlier this year, Libboo teamed up with best-selling author Richard Wiseman -who provided the first chapter of this murder-mystery. And then the adventure began! We had hundreds of writers creating their one storyline, making a ‘writing-tree’ which thousands of of people read and interacted with. And then began phase II. Our algorith called KEBL – produced the best possible path for a story based on how people interacted, read and wrote along the ‘writing-tree’.

During the summer, various teams worked and edited their version of PARADOX. And today is the day to publish. We invite you to read, interact with the teams and promote your favorite version Keep an eye out as you navigate the new Libboo – Read and promote your favorite version of

‘PARADOX’

In October 2011 – we will announce the winning version. All proceeds from this project will benefit the:

A UK based non-profit promoting literacy around the globe.

A special thanks to all the writing teams who worked hard to make Paradox a reality. Congratulations!!

And remember, get it written at Libboo.com | now v2.0!!

Enjoy!

-Team Libboo

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Be sure to follow our weekly blogs, bringing you information and news about writing, tips for authors and community info. You can also follow us on www.facebook.com/libboo and on www.twitter.com/libboo

Week six of MassChallenge and it’s proving to be an amazing experience for team Libboo. If I could summarize today’s blog in one word, it would be ‘building’ – We’ve been building partnerships, new writing projects and our online presence! Speaking of buildings, Fernando went to New York City. His first time in the Big Apple and he brings back this photo!

He seems very serious or in deep thought… So, here are some important highlights from this week:

- We have begun finalizing our deals with potential partners. This, of course, is a page 99; so more details to come in the near future…

- We have smashed our target for our first angel round and can now self-support, with the addition of two new team members.

- We are soon to launch a partnership project at MassChallenge. (codenamed ‘The Incubator Project’) – creating the world’s first crowd-sourced book about the life of entrepreneurs. We are inviting all the teams at MassChallenge to join in.

- We have established a technology partnership to improve the Libboo social network experience and create an even larger community. More details to come soon…

- Our metrics are growing. We hit over 400 published works, and in the first week of concentrating an online social presence gained about 50 retweets and mentions on Twitter. A special shout out goes to:

BWBooks – Better World Books is a company that is dedicated in promoting literacy around the globe and helping the environment by recycling used books – 70 million pounds! so that books go to new owner instead of a landfill.

The Muse Daily – A site to find inspiration about literature and humanities, and to help you get creative, find meaning and purpose.

So, we hope you check these sites out and keep a look out for new content aimed at helping you with your writing projects. You can find these on www.facebook.com/libboo and on www.twitter.com/libboo.

And remember – Get it written, at Libboo.com!

-Team libboo

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Be sure to visit us at www.libboo.com and follow our Friday community blog!

For those of us living on this side of the ‘pond’- its 4th of July holiday weekend- USA’s birthday! The BBQ or smoker is out in the backyard, the cooler is loaded with beer or something liquid, sunshine and friends gathered around for a great time. And lets not forget the anticipated fireworks- be it homemade artillery or a professional show- its going to be a blast!

So, this year’s 4th of July has inspired us at Libboo!

We are turning our blog over to you- our community!  A Blog for the people by the people- We want to bring content that is relevant to you! – content that helps you create: to read, network and write as a community.

We’ll bring the fireworks! Every week, we’ll invite you to join our ‘blogging team‘ and ask for about 250 words on a topic. The blogging team will work with me – The Editor to create and publish the blog, which will also be a Libbook series. You can join the team once or as many times as you wish.

Its that easy. Oh, did I mention that you could receive prizes for blogging on our blog!

____________

Be sure to follow our new, better than ever blog and tune in every week for our News from the Cube- to learn about Libboo’s latest innovations and tribulations at MassChallenge.

You can visit our community at Libboo.com. Follow us on Facebook and twitter. And be sure to read the Great Libboo.com Newspaper for articles and content related to writing, publishing, books and other cool and fun things.

-Team Libboo

It’s time to crank up the gears! We have now made it possible to add images to your Libbooks! WOOO!

We appreciate this is such a simple thing to ask for – so Libboo hunkered down in front of their laptops – nerd goggles on – and coded away into the wee hours in order to make this dream a reality! And as Libboo is free and non-profit, we’ve had to make it from scratch!

For an example, head here: http://www.libboo.com/books/example-use-of-images
For instructions, head here: http://www.libboo.com/help.php?type=question&id=19

Team Libboo

Team Libboo are in Sweden!

As we’re based in the UK, and the US, we don’t get many chances to meet up, usually this would happen in either London, or Boston, although today we’re in Stockholm.

The plans worked out quite nicely, giving us a couple of days to actually see each other, rather than having to rely on skype and email, it’s a nice change.

We’re in Sweden exploring what direction to take Libboo in, we have loads of ideas and energy, we just need to decide what we do first, and what we spend our time on.

Since we’ve been here we’ve had a good chance to develop some of our ideas and set ourselves some clear goals for the future, we’re now even more excited (if that’s possible) and really keen to develop Libboo.

We’ve got a bit of an exciting project in the works, we’ll be starting on it soon, I can’t say much, but it’ll change everything!

We’re always to keen to build upon what we have created here at Libboo, and feel it’s time to give something back to our authors.

We are working very closely with a number of prestigious publishers and distributors to get your work out there in the printed world. The system we are working on will allow you to sell your books, both in ebook format, and in print. If you opt to have your books sold on Libboo you will earn money whenever anyone buys them.

We are working on a package that blows all potential competition totally out of the water in terms of cost and benefit to you. There will be a Libboo update closer to the time describing it in detail, however for now – get writing, because soon it could make you money!