Booksfree has made Inc Magazine’s “Inc 5000″ list of the fastest growing privately held companies in America.  Booksfree ranks 1,792 on the overall list and 72 on the top 100 retail companies.  Thanks to all our members for your support over the years and for making Booksfree a success.

We have added over 10,000 titles to the Paperback Book section of our site in the Young Adult and Non-Fiction categories.  Here is a breakdown of the categories and number added:

Young Adult,  1040 titles added
Philosophy,  974 titles added
Political,  1013 titles added
Psychology,  747 titles added
Travel,  2736 titles added

You will notice that we have added 4 new categories in addition to expanding out young adult category.  You will find these additional categories and their sub categories on the Browse page in the coming days.

You can now set the shipping sequence of up to 20 titles.  This new feature is especially helpful for series.  The basic concept is, don’t ship this title until you ship me this title first.  This gives the member control to set the sequence in which titles get shipped to them.

We just launched the new Member Forum. The forum is a place where members can share their thoughts about anything related to books or audiobooks. It’s a great way to interact with other members on a variety of topics.

The forum is set up to be straight forward and simple. Members can access the forum from their homepage under “My Links”. Members must be signed in to use the forum.

You can now sign up for a Booksfree membership without a credit card.  If you have a checking account, you can now use the new “Pay by Check” link during the sign up process.  You will simply be asked to enter the routing and account number from the bottom of your check.

Now anyone without a credit card can sign up, it’s simple.

Don’t forget that this Saturday, April 12th, is National “Drop Everything and Read Day”, or D.E.A.R. day as some like to call it. National D.E.A.R. Day is a special reading celebration to remind and encourage families to make reading together on a daily basis a family priority. I found a good website dedicated to National D.E.A.R. day that is full of great information.

So mark it on your calender and drop everything and read something for 30 minutes this Saturday.

Members will now notice a list of recommendations on the “Search Details” page of some books titled, “Members who rented this title also enjoyed:”  This is not your typical list of recommendations.  These titles are based not only on their popularity with other members, but their relationship with other titles those members have rented.

It works like this:  First it looks at which members rented a specific title (in this case, the Search Details page of the title you are currently on).  Second, it looks at all the other titles those members rented in the same genre.  Third, it looks at what those member rated those titles.  Finally, it weeds out any title you’ve rented, rated, reviewed, or currently have on your list.  The final result is a list of titles that were rented and highly rated (typically 4 to 5 starts) by other members who have also rented the title you are currently viewing the Search Details page of.

Now some members might ask, “Why don’t all the titles have these recommendations on them?”  The simple answer is, not every title has been rented by other members who have read and rated highly other titles in the same genre (like new releases).  Your “My Recommendations” section on our site simply recommends titles that were highly rated by other members in genres from which you have rented titles from.  The recommendations on the Search Details page look at who has rented a specific title in a specific genre, then, the other titles those members have read and rated highly in the same genre.

We recently added a new notification feature that will email members on the first of each month about new releases by their favorite authors. When a member adds an author to their Favorite Authors list, the system will trigger an email notice to that member whenever that author releases a new title that’s available to rent.

No more wondering when your favorite authors release a new title. We’ll send you an email and let you know.

We recently launched our new “Ship Next” feature. Basically, members now have the ability to choose one title (2 for 9 and 12 at-a-time paperback members) ever 30 days that they want to ship in their next order. Normally, our system selects the first available titles on your list. If the title at number one on your list is currently not in stock, but other titles below it are, we take the available title(s) in order to get your next order out as quickly as possible.

By using the new “Ship Next” feature on your list, there may be a day or two delay if the title you have selected is not readily available at the time of your next order. The trade off is, you will get this title in your next order. To learn more about this new feature, please visit your “My List” page.

We just launched our new “A La Carte” section that allows anyone to rent paperback and audiobooks individually.  We understand not everyone is an avid reader.  If you are a casual reader, this section is for you.

There is no membership required, you can rent what you want, when you want, you can even queue up titles you want to read or listen to next.  Orders are triggered manually by you, not automatically like our unlimited rental plans. This gives you complete flexibility and control.

Whether you want a good book to read during some down time over the Holidays, or an audiobook for a long road trip, our “A La Carte” program offers savings, selection, and convenience to the casual reader or listener.