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Two Penguin Group (USA) authors and their books have been selected as finalists for the 2008 National Book Awards: Aleksandar Hemon for The Lazarus Project in the Fiction category; and Jim Sheeler for Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives in the Nonfiction Category. The announcement was made today at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago.

Aleksandar Hemon’s The Lazarus Project, which follows the stories of two young Eastern European immigrants in Chicago separated by a century, whose lives have both been marked by political violence and dislocation, was published by Riverhead books this past May to critical acclaim. Born in Sarajevo, Hemon came to the United State s in 1992. He is the previous recipient of both the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant, and the Guggenheim Fellowship. In addition, his book Nowhere Man was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

» Donna Eden will discuss her women's guide to using energy medicine to promote and maintain optimal physical and mental well-being .

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Donna Eden, Energy Medicine for Women, Energy Medicine, Holistic Medicine, alternative medicine, holistic healing, chakra, health, vitality, pressure points, women, women's health, energy, medicine, Penguin, books, author, reading, passage

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An e-zine is simply an online newsletter that is sometimes known as an e-newsletter. It's produced in HTML format (with graphics/images) or plain text and is delivered via e-mail at regularly scheduled intervals of time.

While other new media tools attract an audience, an e-zine goes out into the Internet universe and speaks to your audience (your prospects or existing customers) directly in their e-mail inbox. It's an in-your-face marketing tool that is highly effective. According to Jupiter Research (2007), "60 percent of business decision makers said Internet and email are the best ways for advertisers to reach them."

But e-zine marketers should refrain from advertising in a blatant manner. It's not about "buying my widget." It's consistently keeping in touch with your core audience and giving them valuable information. As a result, when you consistently show up with information that addresses your audiences' challenges and needs then you're perceived as an expert in your field.

Your e-zine could be delivered weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. The frequency depends on whether you are using other new media tools in your marketing toolkit. For example, if you blog several times per week, podcast once every two weeks then you may want to send a monthly e-zine. However, if your only point of contact with your audience is with an e-zine you may want to consider producing a weekly e-zine. The idea though is to have a variety of touchpoints where you communicate in different ways.