Do you want to make your holiday cards and gifts a little extra special this year? Give your friends a QR code link to a free Christmas book through Project Gutenberg.

Simply explore one of our free eBook lists (below) and click on the link for the individual books. Every title has its own code–simply click the “QR Code” tab at the top of the page (pictured). You can print the QR code at home and stick it in a holiday card, photograph or gift.

Your friends can scan the QR code with a smartphone and download the free eBook. They can use QR code readers like Kaywa Reader, Zxing Reader, Qrafter and Optiscan to download. If you want to share links to other free eBooks, you can use one of these free tools to generate QR codes: Kaywa, GoQR.me, Zxing, or QR Stuff.

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Who didn’t love Reading Rainbow as a kid?  The iconic 80s show used songs, celebrities and video to actually make literature fun. Well, times they do change. And the show’s onetime host, LeVar Burton, says that Reading Rainbow just wouldn’t work on TV today and, furthermore, the days of printed books are also numbered.

“I don’t know what the time frame is, but I do know that at some point, cutting down trees to make books is not sustainable. It’s just one of those things we’re gonna have to get over ourselves about, right? Like oil consumption, it’s just not sustainable,” he explained in our latest Media Beat interview. ”So, we’re looking at a future, whenever it comes, that we’re gonna consume most of the reading that we do on some kind of electronic device or another. We will still have printed books; they’ll never go away. I think our emotional attachment to them is too strong. What it will do, I believe, though is make the books that we own more valuable to us, more precious.”

(And watch the full interview for a freakin’ awesome homage to that beloved RR theme song.)

Part 2: Tuesday, Burton introduces us to the new Reading Rainbow app.
Part 3: Wednesday, we discuss Burton’s role in Roots and how he achieved longevity in Hollywood.

Just because a book has been published years ago doesn’t mean that authors can’t still garner some publicity for it. So what’s one easy way to give an older release a new push? Run an eBook promo.

“For authors who are less inclined to do a second PR push, eBook price promos have proved to be a great way to boost discovery, word of mouth and reviews,” said Tanya Hall, who directs marketing and business development for Greenleaf Book Group.

She recommends dropping the book price down to $.99 for a month or another low price, which can aid in getting more units sold. She also uses social media ads to build brand awareness. “Obviously, this is more about building awareness and recommendations than revenue, but in a time when discovery is an author’s biggest challenge, those aren’t insignificant advantages,” she explained.

Get more marketing strategies in Old Book, New Tricks: 6 Marketing Tips To Increase Sales.

This article is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, you can register for as little as $55 a year and get access to these articles, discounts on seminars and workshops, and more.

Will airlines begin to offer eBooks on flights the way they offer movies?

Last night I was flying on Virgin America and I was playing around on “Red,” the airline’s interactive entertainment system on the back on the seat and came across a “Read” button. When you push the button is says, “Coming soon,” which it has said since the airline launched back in 2007.

It made me wonder if they had plans to start featuring eBooks or short stories for free or for purchase. There are a number of ways that it could work. Perhaps you could sign in to an existing Amazon or Barnes & Noble account and access your digital bookshelf directly. Or perhaps the airline could sell bestsellers or short stories directly. Think Atlantic Fiction’s monthly short stories in the Kindle store.

It could also be a great place for publishers to market their books and give away sample chapters. I like to catch up on new music videos on Virgin’s entertainment system, so why not read a couple of chapters from a few new bestsellers to decide which ones I might actually like to buy and read.

It is also a good place to read newspapers, magazines or headlines. But there is something about reading books on airplanes that goes hand in hand.

What do you think?