eSignature Presentation for Sales Teams Simple

A sales presentation platform is a tool that helps businesses create, deliver, and manage effective presentations tailored for their sales processes. With features such as eSigning, document sharing, and analytics, it enhances how sales teams engage with prospects, making it a crucial asset for driving sales.

The airSlate SignNow sales presentation platform boosts efficiency by allowing teams to quickly prepare and share professional presentations. It also integrates eSignature capabilities, enabling immediate contract execution, which can signNowly shorten the sales cycle and improve conversion rates.

Yes, airSlate SignNow's sales presentation platform is designed with user experience in mind, featuring an intuitive interface that allows users to navigate easily. This ensures that sales representatives can focus on delivering impressive presentations without getting bogged down by complicated software.

The airSlate SignNow sales presentation platform is versatile and can benefit a wide range of businesses, from startups to large enterprises. Any organization looking to improve its sales presentations and streamline document workflows can leverage this powerful tool for enhanced efficiency.

Absolutely! The airSlate SignNow sales presentation platform seamlessly integrates with various CRM and productivity tools, such as Salesforce and Google Workspace. This allows businesses to synchronize their workflows and maintain a cohesive sales process.

Pricing for airSlate SignNow's sales presentation platform varies based on the features and number of users. There are flexible subscription plans that cater to different business sizes, ensuring that you can find a cost-effective solution that meets your team's needs.

When evaluating a sales presentation platform, consider features like eSigning capabilities, custom templates, analytics for tracking engagement, and collaboration tools. The airSlate SignNow sales presentation platform offers all these features and more to help your team excel in presentations.

I've thought about this since about 2006.As not only a co-founder and CEO of EchoSign, but a Salesforce customer for many years, you do wonder why everything isn't included.  Salesforce is the single largest software expense a sales-focused company will make.  Why doesn't it include e-signatures?  Why doesn't it have real lead scoring?  Why not a sales comp tool?  Why not real drip email marketing?  Why not a more robust email tool, period?  Why not robust de-duping?  Why only a basic quoting tool, not a rich proposal tool?  Why only limited content management tools?  There are so many Why don'ts? that that may be the answer right there ... so my simple answer is Salesforce is focused on its core and strategic expansions to its core, historically to the present.Having said that, there are at least 3 practical reasons:1.  First, e-signatures have a signNow legal element to them.   It's one thing for a start-up to claim their document signing tool is 100% legally E-SIGN complaint and binding under federal, state, European and international law.  It's quite another thing for a Fortune 500 company to take that on.  signNow did in acquiring EchoSign -- and that's not trivial.  It's a big deal.  No other F500 company has done this.  Ever.2.  Second, it's all about the workflow at this point. EchoSign and signNow are 100x richer products than they were 5 years ago, and Salesforce integration only increases that geometrically.  Neither product is just about document signing.  For example, Groupon has over 36,000 different contract generation/review/signature/workflow/trigger combinations using EchoSign. The signature is just the connecting piece.  This is really hard to replicate without a huge effort.  It can be done, but it's many years of effort and building 1000s of features.  Not just a JPEG of a signature.3. Is it really core? Historically contracts and signing them have been related to the core of CRM, but not really core. And Salesforce has often focused on building adjacent to the core (Support, Markering, Chatter, etc.) even more than the well built-out core CRM/SFA.Having said that, what if SFDC does decide to enter the space?  Given the complexity in #2, it makes a lot more sense to buy than build. There are only two serious players -- EchoSign and signNow.  There are other very tiny players, but their Salesforce integrations, if they exist, are rudimentary from a workflow perspective and not fully enterprise-ready, at least not today.  Ok so EchoSign and signNow ... EchoSign was acquired by signNow in 2011, so acquiring EchoSign per se is off the table.  Salesforce could in theory I guess buy just the Salesforce team/integration from signNow.  Actually, that's not a terrible idea.  Buying signNow is even harder.  While Salesforce has made a small investment there, the post-money in the last round was $500m, making an acquisition implausible.  Even if valuation were not an issue, only a small % of signNow's revenue is from the Salesforce integration, making an acquisition to only write off 80% of the customers and revenue (100% if they gave it away), odd.  Salesforce could just offer a very limited functionality and perhaps they will. But a basic functionality won't solve the need for a rich create/dynamic, multi-variable web contract/sign/collaboration/trigger/workflow solution that is what 90%+ of all the EchoSign and signNow Salesforce customers are really using.  For example, Salesforce has basic functionality with Quotes and Content.  But neither really has displaced the need for much richer products like Conga Composer, or even Box.  See, also, the Contracts tab which is very limited, and has in no way displaced the need for any vendors in the contract management space.It's just hard in a large company to build very rich, complex features that aren't in the core.  In the core, it's easy.

Like others in this thread, I agree that it depends on the specific features your industry/company demands. Hopefully one of the following tools will suit your needs.We did a huge crowd-sourcing of the best sales tools out there in different categories. This list of contract lifecycle managementt tools might do some service here. These should help you get your email workflows to be more efficient and easier to track throughout campaigns.The whole list of all 157 tools in different categories is here —-> Sales Tools: The Complete List (2017 Update) | Sales HackerHere are the ones we highligh...

If you introduce yourself to a stranger, what would make them give you their phone number?You want to get in touch with them. Why would they allow you to do that?There are 2 main factors here:How you offerThe actual offerLet’s talk about how you offer.This is about timing and sequence.You can’t just ask someone’s name then immediately ask for their number. Especially in a random place.If it was maybe your friend’s birthday party, they’ll trust that you’re vetted by your mutual relationships.Most of the time, you’re just a random stranger who may or may not be creepy.You want to begin by proving that you’re not creepy, that you won’t cause unhappiness if you acquire their contact information.It starts with a light conversation that demonstrates how fun it is to hang out with you.You can begin by talking about the local sports team. You can talk about some of your hobbies.At some point, you can later ask them to stay connected because it was so much fun.Only after proving that you’re cool to hang out with, you ask for their contact info.It’s about a sequence of warming up.Let’s talk about the actual offer.Sure, you proved that you’re fun to be with.But your prospects aren’t born yesterday…A fun 10-minute chat doesn’t give them evidence that they should marry you.It doesn’t even prove that you’ll be chill if they fly with you for a vacation in Hawaii.Your offer could be super simple:Share with me your phone number so I can invite you to the basketball game we like, the next time I get free ticketsAdd me up on Facebook because I posted an interesting link about this AI subject.Let’s stay in touch because I’ll have to introduce you to a friend who needs your services.What does this all mean?Your offer should be easy, useful, and relevant to the time you spent together.If you talked about your favorite coffee, you have good reasons to continue that relationship at your favorite cafe.It’s logical and desirable. Not weird.IN SHORT:Don’t creep out your website visitors… Warm up the relationship then ask for their contact info to give them something relevant to what they enjoyed with you.Questions? More on this if you visit my profile.

This is a question that I hear frequently, but it doesn’t have a simple answer. As the CEO of a company that sells a product to sales teams (signNow, I’m a co-founder), I meet with a lot of sales leaders and discuss their current sales stack and goals. When discussing sales technology most people want to learn about “silver bullets” for getting prospects to sign. However, It’s impossible to talk about sales tools in a silo, they work together as a system, often referred to as a sales stack. These software collections always start with the same foundation: the CRM, but from there, they are uniquely built out and customized to best support that particular sales organization.Sales stacks are not one size fits all. Let’s say there are two companies:Company A is selling a product to SMBs and is getting thousands of qualified inbound leads a month. Their sellers can close over the phone on the first call after a screen share presentation. Their VP of Sales’ biggest concern is getting inbound leads qualified and into the hands of their closers as quickly as possible.Company B is selling a product that’s extremely valuable, but not many buyers are familiar with the category and many don’t even know it exists. Their VP of Sales is going to be focused on creating as many new leads as possible and creating a process that educates the buyer about why they need their solution.These two companies have very different challenges, and to help overcome those challenges, they are going to build out very different sales stacks. Company A is going to be more focused on getting the right lead to the right rep at the right time, which would mean investing heavily in solutions like lead routing. Company B is going to be more focused on finding the right lead, hitting them with the right messaging and creating a sales process that educates the buyer about their solution. They would need a more outbound focused sales stack since they are going to have to be starting conversations instead of working inbound leads.There’s a ton of different tools an organization can use to accomplish tasks like effective lead routing, knowledge sharing, screen share presentations etc. Each offering on the market has some level of differentiation, or is built to meet the needs of a certain market segment. When it comes time for a company to buy a new tool or replace an existing one, the unique challenges that organization faces are going to influence their purchase journey. It could be a feature that adds new automation that saves their SDRs time, or perhaps one power dialer on the market is much easier to integrate with the existing telephone system. This is why asking “what tools do salespeople use?” isn’t as helpful as you may think, because it’s not about the individual tools, but the end-to-end system created by combining those tools.We recently created an infographic that visually represented a sales stack:We broke it into nine example categories, with CRM being at the center, but realistically, there are dozens of different categories of software that can fit inside your sales stack. Here are a few examples of categories of sales software along with a few best-in-class providers for each:Prospecting: Mattermark, DataFox, Linkedin Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, LeadGenius, KiteDeskPredictive Analytics: Infer, Datahug, Everstring, LeadspacePower Dialers: InsideSales, Five9, SalesLoftSocial Selling: Nimble, Socedo, Charlie, PeopleLinxEmail Prospecting: SalesLoft, OutsignNow.io, PersistIQ, YesWareSales Content: signNow, Seismic, Docurated, LiveHive, HighSpotDemo Presentation: signNow, Join.me, GoToMeetingE-Signature: signNow, signNow, EchoSign, signNowWhen it comes to finding the right tool for your business, the best thing you can do is test them out. Remember that your workflow is unique to your business and its needs — what one peer in your industry may like and recommend, might not be right for you.

Here are the 14 sales tools we at Tint think are the most useful new sales tools for mid-market b2b companies. The details on why each tool is top notch are outlined below. Enjoy!As Tint's first hire, my main goal was to bring in 100k by the end of 2013.  With the tools listed below, I was able to bring in $128,914 by NYE of 2013.  Now that we are on pace to hitting 2MM by 2014, my next goal is to streamline our sales team to set our sales vision higher: How to hit 20MM.  Now, I am firm believer of the saying “under commit, over deliver” but I also believe in setting high expectations that even if I’m shy of the goal, I’ll still be happy with the results.For example in November, I committed 50k to Tim (our CEO) but with 37 web-to-lead inquiries given to me, I was able to get 36 leads to show up to an appointment, which helped me close 21 accounts in 30 days.  I closed the month with $43,300 and was happy with results.  My key performance metrics include a 97% show ratio and 58% closing ratio. This is an average key performance metric for Tim and I, and we are now strategically working to scale it.  However before we do,  I would like to share the 11 tools for our sales success:Basic Marketing Tools for Lead Generation:Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+Context, Blogging & ContentWord-of-mouth/ReferralsEmail Newsletters & Promo CodesSEO & Blogs w/ Content MarketingPowered by Tint logo for free users  1) Olark is an effective way to talk to your customers for sales and support in real-time on your site.If the web visitor doesn’t fill out a form, they usually send a quick question with Olark’s chat box. Because we focus so much on customer happiness, our web visitor will instantly get connected to our CEO, Tim Sae Koo.  He will immediately answer sales questions or help with support inquiries. You’d be surprised at how many closed customers you can achieve by just answering a few questions when the lead/visitor is most interested with your product. If he isn’t around, the inquiry will go straight to sales@tintup.com which our sales team can immediately answer.  9 times out of 10, Tim and I are able set appointments through Olark. If more than 12 hours pass and we still haven’t responded to an inquiry, then the lead loses interest. Time kills deals and Olark is a great solution to nurture your leads, in real time, and let them know that they are very important.2) Hubspot is an inbound marketing software platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers.When a visitor/lead visits www.tintup.com, we use Hubspot to create forms and CTAs that track, score and nurtures leads.  Hubspot has tons of features that we weren’t able to use because we only signed up for a 30 day free trial. But for the most part, we used their a/b testing landing pages, CTA, and Signals.  Signals is Hubspot’s real-time notifications that tell you when and how to follow up with your leads and customers.  The 30 day trial did generate an additional $30k for Tint though!  Although, the results are great, we are eager to learn more about other similar softwares like Pardot, Kissmetrics, and Marketo. 3) Mailchimp is an easy and effective way to send better email newsletters to your customers.Since we never use our blog to advertise ourselves or announce new features (because we believe our readers want to learn more than hear our news), we use Mailchimp to send out our new feature releases, promotions, and our blog posts we write. It’s super easy to import your email lists, set up a template for your email campaign, and time your send outs by bulk or time zone. The email newsletters we send out is a great way to ensure that our customers know we are still working hard for them and communicating with them in mass what we’re up to. We will also segment lists by what plans our customers are so we can send out targeted promotions to them or get them back onto our site to see new developments we’ve released.Sales Tools – Lead Opportunity Stages:Vetting & QualifyingSetting the AppointmentFollowing Up or Closing CallVerbal AgreementClosed WonClosed LostDo not call list4) Rapportive is a Gmail plugin to vet who you’re communicating with and if they are a decision maker you need to close.Ever wonder when a lead comes in if they are just a random person in a company doing research or an actual decision maker? Rapportive is your key to determining who you’re speaking with and the kind of actions you need to take. It’s all super easy to find out as well. After installation, all you need to do is hover over the email address that emailed you and the sidebar of your Gmail will show you the full name, location, title, and social networks from the person you’re speaking with. With that information, you can change your tone/urge to set up a demo to close a deal quicker.5) Boomerang is a Gmail plugin to manage your email responses and remind you when to answer.When I open my gmail, I would typically have around 50 unread messages ranging from inquiries to leads belonging in all of the above ‘opportunity stages.’  My inbox can get overwhelming rather quickly and that is why I use multiple tools to nurture leads.  It took awhile for me to get used to Boomerang because I’m such a Salesforce advocate but as soon as I applied the tool, I was able to cut down my workload by 2 ½ hours.  At my last job, I was conditioned to log all my notes/emails to salesforce and create events, and tasks to remind me who to follow up and which leads need attention – these tedious steps would add 1-2 minutes/lead to my 60-100 lead/day routine.With Boomerang, I can efficiently work all my stages. Whether it’s to set an appointment, to send a summary & proposal, to follow up with a lead, or to set an automatic reminder… it is easy to set up with only 2-3 clicks all within my Gmail. Imagine what you would have to do if 7 clients all asked to follow up with them after 1 week during different parts of the week…I now have a tool that I can set emails to remind me to answer back in 2 days, or 12pm on Thursday afternoon; no more guessing games and no more leads falling through the cracks. 6) Cirrus Insight helps you keep Salesforce in sync with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts.When a lead completes a form on our website or emails us directly, we create an account on Cirrus Insight and convert the lead into an ‘opportunity.’ I use this add-on as much as I use Gmail. It made Salesforce easy to teach and keep up with.  I no longer have to copy and paste everything into salesforce; I can simply ‘log a call’ through ‘activities’, set an appointment through ‘event’ and respond to emails using Salesforce templates through the ‘quick send and add’ plugin.  I’ve watched Tim receive 50 emails (support & inquiry) and respond to all 50, log complete notes on sfdc and get tons of confirmed appointments before he goes to lunch at noon.  The best part about this plugin is its ability to sync your google calendar and Salesforce calendar every 30 minutes.7) Yesware is an email productivity service for salespeople.If Boomerang and Cirrus insight had a child, it would be Yesware.  I just installed Yesware this month and it has similar features like email management, and SFDC/Gmail synchronization.  What I really like about Yesware is being able to send emails at later time.  For instance Fridays are the worst follow up days because everyone is getting ready for the weekend.  However, I also have a lot of time on Friday and so I’ll write my follow up emails and schedule them to be delivered on Monday at 8:30am, which will help me get seen first thing in the morning.  Another feature I like about Yesware is there templates.  Once my templates are setup, it takes 2 clicks to load them and send.  With Cirrus Insight, I will need to click on the icon, then choose the template folder, then choose a template, then look for a contact, then look for an account and send.  Yesware saves me another 2-3 minutes which I can substitute for my tea break.8) Salesforce is best known for it’s customer relationship management product.Salesforce help me keep track of all my leads, where they are in the decision making process, and help me generate reports on performance metrics. Salesforce is important because it will streamline all the information gathered about an account and a lead from beginning to end.  If a lead has support issues, or unpaid balances, your marketing, sales, operations and account management teams should be able to get the full story just by looking at the Salesforce notes.  If an account manager has to ask for more details from your salesperson about a client, this means notes are incomplete.  Incomplete notes will create inefficiencies, miscommunication, wasted time and ultimately, money lost.Salesforce will also give management valuable insights to the type of employees in your company.  It will help you find and gauge the A players from the B players.  Most importantly if your data is clean, Salesforce will help you streamline, track retention rates, churns, lifetime value of a client and projections.My Salesforce calendar is synchronized with Cirrus Insight, which is connected to my Google Calendar. I also have my Gcal set up with text notifications to give me real time reminders on appointments.  Salesforce help me nurture my pipeline and it help me forecast my numbers.  A lot of the tools I’m suggesting can actually be customized through Salesforce however I found that the more apps you need within salesforce, the more fees are added.  Also, my eyes don’t get burnt out looking at the same page all day and I appreciate the emotive variety of each tool. 9) Join.me, GoToMeeting or Skype – VOIP Conference Calls & Screen-sharingOnce I set an appointment, my go to screen sharing app is Free Screen Sharing and Online Meetings because it is easy to send and pretty to look at.  My prospect doesn’t need to download a file like Skype or GoToMeeting, which is time consuming.  They only need to take 3 steps:Click on the Free Screen Sharing and Online Meetings linkClick on the phone icon to connect via internetConnect a headsetSome client’s prefer GoToMeeting or Skype.  I don’t like GoToMeeting because it feels archaic, it’s interface is bulky and sending an invite takes too much time.  I don’t like Skype because I have to send an invite or wait for an invite to get connected which is inefficient. While Skype can’t do conference calls for free and half my calls are conference calls.  Both these tools require an installation and a signup. 10) Stripe is a company that provides a way for individuals and businesses to accept payments over the Internet.Once a demo is complete, we expect to close the business within 1-14 days.  I can use Stripe to create promo codes and track real time revenue. Not to mention managing (full or partial) refunds, recurring subscriptions, and custom payments. Tint also uses Stripe for self-service signups located on our pricing page: www.tintup.com/pricing.  The Plus and Pro signups go through our stripe account.  Our self serve page generates about more than half of our revenue every month.11) Zapier enables you to automate tasks between other online services (services like Salesforce, Basecamp, Gmail, Mailchimp, Olark, Hubspot and Stripe).I use this tool to synchronize Stripe with Salesforce so our self serve clients are also in our Salesforce database to keep track of all our customers. Zapier has  hundreds of other recipes you can create that will make your life easier and save you time from connecting apps together (like send all Gmail emails into Evernote automatically). We always strive for clean data because they tell the best stories.  We would love some suggestions or successful tools to help us consolidate and maintain clean data. Account Management Tools & Circling back to Lead Generation:Orientation CallHappy Client ProgramTint Support & Best PracticesSave Calls, Credit, Collection & InvoicingCase Studies, UpsellsWorking with brand advocates12) Ballpark for invoicing and referral programs.I typically use Ballpark to send invoices and accept payments.  However, they also have referral programs that I think we should definately use and they released a feature with Stripe for credit card payments.  It seems like they have tons of features that I have not used yet and so I will be downloading the Ballpark app to take advantage of all these awesome features.13) Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process.Trello is our drawing board, our to-do list; the board that keeps us accountable and innovative.  Everyday we talk about urgent challenges, tasks we completed, and what we are working on.  We are constantly looking for ways to improve, to strengthen our culture and our product.  Trello helps us stay true to one of our core philosophy, “Transparency is key.”  We are able to see what project each person is in charge of and what they have accomplished.  We are able to work together closely and give feedback to improve on our methods, which I find incredibly valuable for a startup company. This is where you can put sales goals on individual cards so your team knows what you are aiming for and can give you feedback on your steps. You can read more here on how we organize our Trello.14) Intercom is your best friend for account management and talking with customers.Tint uses intercom for “Churn, Retention and Re-Engaging Customers.”  One of our current challenges is to increase our monthly recurring revenue.  And to reduce our churn, we want to make sure we talk with our customers so they know we’re here to help and are up to date with new features, blog posts, etc. Intercom makes this SUPER easy by allowing us to communicate with our customers when they are in the Tint app. This is smart because this is when they are focused on our app and willing to chat with us. We are still learning to use Intercom effectively to create strong relationships with visitors and customers alike through automated messaging to scale our touchpoint communications.Read more at our blog post here: http://www.tintup.com/blog/14-sales-tools-tint-used-to-signNow-1m-revenue-in-1-year/

Q. What is the most amount of money paid by a company to have their product placed into a movie?A. Heineken paid $45 million dollars for product placement in the James Bond movie Spector.Movie & Film Product Placement — What’s the Cost and What’s the Value?Product placement in film is everywhere. That billboard Iron Man destroys while flying through it— whatever brand is on that billboard paid to be there. (In the latest Xmen movie there is a semi-super blatant example of this in the final fight scene). At least three times a movie I annoyingly pause the TV to point out the subtle branding ... What are the biggest tracker networks and what can I do about them? When you visit a website, you are of course observable by the site itself, but you are also observable by third-party trackers that the site embeds in its code. You might be surprised to learn that the vast majority of websites include many of these third-party trackers. Websites includ...

You start your services first and create content around it.Get people to read relevant content and find your right target marketCreate a call to action on your website and convert visitors to leadsThis creating a mail list which is very relevant to your product and service.Now as you build this list you can the take this list and with help of a mailing software create a campaignThe emails sent should be crisp and relevant and should have a very specific objective.Here you start this process and keep doing it to achieve your goals.

Taken from 2 previous posts on Reader's paradise:Can you take a day off to read?Do you have one more day?Below is the list of 72 wonderful short stories that can be found online for free. (Click on the title to go to the story page.)So can you take a couple of days off from your busy schedule?Science fiction#1: All you zombies - Robert A. Heinlein (4.5 stars)Probably the most convoluted and complex of all time travel stories, All you zombies is a masterpiece that has been lauded for its originality and the sheer mind boggling complexity of its plot.#2: The last question - Isaac Asimov (5 stars)The best work of the best sci-fi writer that ever lived.The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five dollar bet over highballsAsimov takes one simple, fundamental question and weaves a story around it - as story spanning billions of years, the vastness of the universe and the hyperspace. The narrative is captivating, enchanting and fast paced. There is a continued sense of awe throughout as the story nears completion. And then, in a single closing statement, Asimov pulls offs a stunner.*Since "The last question" is rated 5 stars, no other story will be.#3: A sound of thunder - Ray Bradbury (3.5 stars)2055. Time machines. Safaris to the past - humans going back millions of years to hunt exotic animals including dinosaurs. Every moment is carefully planned to avoid making even the slightest change to the future. Or is it?Butterfly effect!#4: They are made out of meat - Terry Bisson (3.5 stars)We are not alone. But we might never know that. And there's a reason why.#5: 2BR02B - Kurt Vonnegut (4 stars)The story of a utopia. Of mankind's most lusted after ambitions come true. And mankind's most dreaded horrors too. A painter, a father, a doctor, triplets, a woman with a strange job, drupelets and the Happy Hooligan.Vonnegut's dark "paradise" leaves much to be desired and pondered and answered.#6: The Nothing Equation - Tom Godwin (4 stars)The space ships were miracles of power and precision; the men who manned them, rich in endurance and courage. Every detail had been checked and double checked; every detail except—THE NOTHING EQUATION.An observation bubble at the edge of our galaxy. One man to oversee it surrounded by vast legions of nothingness. The first commits suicide, the second goes insane. Now there is a third.#7: I have no mouth, and I must scream - Harlan Ellison (4.5 stars)What begins off as another post-apocalyptic world story, where a sentient, all-powerful machine has annihilated humanity, gradually builds up to be a terrifying, what-if tale. 5 survivors of the end of humanity must endure against an immensely powerful and vengeful machine. And there's no way out. There is just the 5 of them and an eternity of pain and torture.#8: As long as you wish - John O'Keefe (3 stars)A coin with a paradoxical statement on both sides: THE STATEMENT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS COIN IS FALSE.A Professor of Philosophy.A strange discovery.A hidden message.#9: No moving parts - Murray F. Yaco (3.5 stars)The story of a time far ahead in the future where everything works perfectly. Human intervention is no longer needed to maintain or fix things. But everything's changing now.That light will be flashing with more and more frequency in the months to come. But not just to signal trouble in space. If I were a superstitious man, I’d think that the age of the perfect machine is about to be superseded by the age of the perfect failure—mechanical failures that can’t be explained on any level.I really believe, childishly, that the mechanics and motions of the galaxy may turn themselves upside down just to snap man out of his apathy and give him some work to do.”#10: The Veldt - Ray Bradbury (3.5 stars)A wonderful story of a utopia. Of a happy family. Of a time when the human civilization has advanced so much that everything you want is done by machines at the slightest thought. A story that explores the question of "How far can you go mechanizing things before you are redundant?"#11: The nine billion names of God - Arthur C. Clarke (3 stars)Lamas at a monastery have taken up an ambitious project - to list down all the 9 billion names of God. And they believe that this is what humanity was made to do. And once the 9 billionth name is listed, our purpose would be fulfilled.But what happens after that? If we have no more use for God, what happens to us? Will everything end? Or is it just the religious fantasy of a bunch of devout fanatics?#12: There will come soft rains - Ray Bradbury (3 stars)A mechanized house. A pre-planned schedule. Machines running around frantically, executing every job. But where are the masters? Bradbury's story is more than what it seems - a bleak commentary on the horrors of nuclear wars and their aftermath.#13: The star - Arthur C Clarke (3.5 stars)AD MAIOREM DEI GLORIAM - For the greater glory of GodA scientific voyage to the remnants of a supernova discover one lonely planet encircling the white dwarf. They stumble upon the carefully and intentionally preserved remains of a civilization - advanced, intelligent and in full bloom of its youth - wiped away by the same sun that gave them life.The team makes some calculations to estimate the date of the supernova explosion (it would have been visible on earth) and come across a startling revelation.#14: Harrison Bergeron - Kurt Vonnegut (3.5 stars)THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.A few years into the future, everyone is equal. Now there are only two ways to achieve that - either uplift and empower everyone to the same level, or drag down everyone else to a lowest common ground. It's not surprising what the human race chose.#15: I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility - Sam Hughes (3 stars)Tim and Diane (and their team) have successfully built the first quantum computer - a device with infinite processing power and storage capacity. Diane programs a simulation of the Big Bang and creates a model of our universe to study. As she approaches the current day, she makes a startling discovery.#16: The coming of the Ice - Green Peyton (4 stars)Is love something entirely of the flesh, something created by an ironic God merely to propagate His race? Or can there be love without emotion, love without passion—love between two cold intellects?A doctor in the 20th century, has finally solved the age-old problem of immortality. Our hero volunteers to be the first to undergo the procedure. However, immortality comes at a price - emotions. Every emotion, starting from love to hate, fear to rage, joy to sorrow, slowly deserts you, until you are nothing more than an empty shell, a walking automaton, devoid of the joy and beauty in everything.Is the price worth paying?#17: The cold equations - Tom Goodwin (3 stars)What will you do when the only option is to kill someone? (No, this is not a case study on morality) But truly, the only option is to kill. There is no margin for error, no probability, however infinitesimal, that there could be an alternate recourse.Fantasy#1: A very old man with enormous wings - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (3 stars)A normal family with a normal backyard. An unexpected visitor. Is it a bird? Is it a moth? Is it a fairy?#2: Snow, Glass, Apples - Neil Gaiman (3.5 stars)In a retelling of one of the most loved fairy tales of all times, Neil Gaiman provides a starkly different viewpoint on the events that transpire and the conditions that lead to them.#3: Nicholas was - Neil Gaiman (3 stars)A short story, short enough to be reproduced here in its entirety.Nicholas Was...older than sin, and his beard could grow no whiter. He wanted to die.The dwarfish natives of the Arctic caverns did not speak his language, but conversed in their own, twittering tongue, conducted incomprehensible rituals, when they were not actually working in the factories.Once every year they forced him, sobbing and protesting, into Endless Night. During the journey he would stand near every child in the world, leave one of the dwarves' invisible gifts by its bedside. The children slept, frozen into time.He envied Prometheus and Loki, Sisyphus and Judas. His punishment was harsher.Ho.Ho.Ho.Life and Philosophy#1: Signs and symbols - Vladimir Nabokov (3.5 stars)An old couple. A sickly child in the hospital. Referential mania. 3 calls from a wrong number.#2: Lorry Raja - Madhuri Vijay (4 stars)The story of a poor, wretched family, working in the iron mines, told through the eyes of the 2nd son, Lorry Raja is sure to stir up a lot of emotions in the reader. The plot is simple, the characters simpler still. And yet, the feeling it evokes isn't some thing that can be explained easily.#3: The necklace - Guy de Maupassant (4.5 stars)“Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been.” ― Kurt VonnegutA simple couple. A simple life. A wife that yearns for a more exciting life. A party invitation. A borrowed necklace. A wonderful night. A life changed forever. "The necklace" is one of the best stories of love, support, yearnings, strength and regrets. The ending leaves one with an entangle of emotions, most signNow of which is a sense of unfairness.#4: Silver Water - Amy Bloom (3 stars)Told from the first person perspective of Violet, Silver Water is a tale of her elder, mentally unstable sister Rose. The story weaves through a, though lightly comic at times, gritty and realistic narrative of having to deal with and adjusting with a family member suffering from acute Schizophrenia.#5: If you were a dinosaur, my love - Rachel Swirsky (3.5 stars)The first person narrative of a woman who wishes her fiancée was a dinosaur and then weaves a fictional world around it - a world of dinosaur operas and weddings. A tale that will leave you chuckling, pondering and going back to re-read the story.#6: The Egg - Andy Weir (4 stars)You were on your way home when you died. It was a card accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless.So begins a tale that spans religion, belief, life, death, afterlife, and reincarnation. Taking a leaf out of Asimov's book, The Egg builds up to a wonderful climax. And delivers.#7: Three questions - Leo Tolstoy (4 stars)In this story, Tolstoy addresses 3 fundamental questions, which since then have been passed down as life lessons and parables.#8: And all the earth a grave - C.C. MacApp (3 stars)There's nothing wrong with dying—it just hasn't ever had the proper sales pitch!You can sell everything if only you know how to. Even death. A brilliant satire on the current media industry and the wave of consumerism that has engulfed the world.#9: The snows of Kilimanjaro - Ernest Hemingway (3.5 stars)A writer. A festering wound. A re-living of regrets, of opportunities passed up, of chances not taken. The slow approach of death, like the night, creeping and inevitable interspersed with a melange of memories, good and bad.#10: To build a fire - Jack London (4 stars)A man and a dog hiking through the snow covered trails of the Yukon in Canada on a day that they shouldn't be. It is "too cold to be travelling along" but the man persists. To defeat the cold, he would need to start a fire. A fire that would be the difference between life and death.#11: The curious case of Benjamin Buttons - F Scott Fitzgerald (4 stars)We have all seen the box office hit starring Brad Pitt in the titular role but there is an eerily, haunting quality to Fitzgerald's writing that makes the experience even more wonderful. The story of a man who starts off as a old man when born and slowly ages backward, turning into a middle aged man, a teenager, a kid, an infant and finally an embryo is fascinating. It is a concept that has always had people wonder and Scott does a great deal of justice to it.#12: The last leaf - O Henry (4 stars)A woman, dying of pneumonia pegs her life to the last leaves on an ivy vine. Bereft of all hope, she plans to take her final breath as the last leaf falls. But will it? Will she?A story about hope. About struggles and finding the strength inside. A story of finding something to live for. We have been told numerous times that appearances can be deceptive. Nothing reinforces the notion more than this masterpiece by O' Henry.#13: An occurrence at Owl Creek bridge - Ambrose Bierce (3.5 stars)The scene opens with a condemned man being hanged on the bridge. Like everyone else on a death sentence, his whole life flashes in front of him. His only wish is to somehow escape the hanging, fall into the river and swim away to safety and his family. That is when the rope snaps.#14: The hunger artist - Franz Kafka (3.5 stars)The story of a man with an unusual occupation - a hunger artist. Someone who fasts for days on end to amuse the world and its spectators. The story is a clever satire on the world where the talented yet trivialized people spend their entire lives in search for a fragment of glory, a single word of appreciation, a small part of the acknowledgment they truly deserve.#15: The one who walks away from Omelas - Ursula K LeGuin (3.5 stars)A city that is the perfect description of a middle-age utopia with its beautiful people, its skilled artists, its bright festivals, its everlasting intellectual orgy of joy. A terrible secret revealed. A compromise that had to be struck. A price that had to be paid.#16: The School - Donald Barthelme (3 stars)30 orange trees planet by 30 kids of a class all dead. Soon followed by the snakes. And the herbs. And the fishes. Death creeps nearer each day. But everything is not as dreaded as you think. There is still hope somewhere out there. Or is it?#17: The yellow wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman (4 stars)A husband and wife move to a mansion temporarily, something that is grand but suspiciously cheap. The wife believes she is sick and has an eerie feeling about their new home. The husband, however, doesn't. And then there's the room and it's yellow, shabby wallpaper. There is something definitely wrong with it.#18: Hills like white elephants - Ernest Hemingway (4 stars)A couple waiting for a train on a railway station have some beer and a rather intriguing conversation which leaves the reader puzzled and pondering.#19: Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes (4.5 stars)“I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.”Rarely does a book stir up so many emotions in the reader. Flowers for Algernon is one such. The story is about simple and kind man, Charlie Gordon, with a below average IQ of 65, who undergoes an experimental procedure to triple his intelligence. Told in a narrative, progress report style (Charlie was required to compile a daily diary to monitor his progress), the prose develops in tandem with Charlie's intelligence - starting off as the scribbling of a kid, laced with spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, and evolving into the publication-worthy musings over Plato's allegory of the cave.Flowers for Algernon is a commentary on human condition, on our schadenfreud-ian tendencies, on the treatment meted out to the mentally challenged, and one man's journey of finding something he never had, and then living through the horror of losing it all over again.#20: Shooting an elephant - George Orwell (3 stars)If you are the conqueror, the master, the dictator, are you really in control? Or are you just a face, just a puppet being manipulated by millions of invisible strings? The strings of the will of the people you oppress?#21: Clean well-lighted place - Ernest Hemingway (4 stars)There is something simple and yet enthralling about Hemingway's words. There's a beauty in those plain sentences. You don't need to exert any efforts. You don't need to read the story. The story reads you. It hooks itself to you and then starts to devour you, but in a pleasant way. And, in a short time, you are completely engulfed. You are now the story.#22: Bullet in the brain - Tobias Wolff (3 stars)A bullet to the brain is surely one of the quickest ways to die. Or is it? To the shot, does the last few milliseconds feel like an eternity?#23: The bet - Anton Chekhov (3.5 stars)A somber gathering of gentlemen soon turns into a passionate discussion about the morality of the death sentence. The ones who advocated it said it was more merciful than life imprisonment - cleaner and quicker. The ones against brought God into the midst of things and stated that the State does not have the right to take someone's life when it itself cannot create life.A young banker agrees with the latter and boldly claims that he would take life imprisonment over death. The host, a rich and pompous banker, bets 2 million in exchange for the young guy living in solitary confinement for 15 years.This was on Nov 14, 1870. Today is Nov 14, 1885.#24: The dream of a ridiculous man - Fyodor Dostoevsky (4 stars)Dreams, as we all know, are very queer things: some parts are presented with appalling vividness, with details worked up with the elaborate finish of jewellery, while others one gallops through, as it were, without noticing them at all, as, for instance, through space and time.Yes they are. In a dream, you can live an eternity but wake up none the older for it. In a dream, you can achieve everything you have ever wanted, every aspired for, ever lusted after, but wake up none the richer for it.Our hero had had such a dream. And he was ridiculed for it. Mocked. Derided. Pronounced senile. Yes, you can call him a madman. But aren't we all?#25: The Happy Prince - Oscar Wilde (4.5 stars)It's astounding, the power of words. How they can sway us, infuriate us, flame our desires, preserve our hopes.This short story by the master is a perfect testament of the power of words in the hands of the wordsmith. A story that was part of the school curriculum, at least in India, and one I revisited after years.In a few thousand words, it encompasses a love story, a tale of sorrow, and a satire on human condition. In a few thousand words, it stirs up emotions of love, joy, sorrow, pain and contempt. In a few thousand words, it is as much the cold winds of the winter, as it is the warmth of the sun on a spring afternoon.#26: Happiness - Guy de Maupassant (3.5 stars)Happiness is relative. And a lot more simpler than it is made out to be.#27: The Sugargun Fairy - Kuzhali Manikavel (3 stars)"Because everyone must keep a box of things they don't understand and can't throw away"A story that is as simple as the daily ramblings of a teenager, and yet brooding and sinister at the same time. One about the fleeting passage of time, and yet the inevitable existence and decay of things.#28: A little cloud - James Joyce (3.5 stars)One of the most wonderful feelings in the world is catching up with an old friend. We might not have a time machine (yet), but an evening of smoky conversations and reminiscence with old pals is good enough. There's anticipation, carefree laughter, a hint of nostalgic fondness, and just the tiniest sliver of jealousy. Especially if the other friend has a life worth being envious of.#29: Across the bridge - Graham Greene (3 stars)Life's a curious case. In the end, does money matter? Or influence? Can one final act of kindness undo (at least in part) a life brimming with sin, theft, lies, and debauchery? What is the source of happiness? Of contentment?In this fast-paced story about a millionaire fraudster evading the law in a quiet, shabby town of Mexico, Graham Greene hopes to find the answer. At least to some of the questions.Horror/Thriller#1: The lottery - Shirley Jackson (4 stars)A village. 300 people. A charged morning. A lottery. A winner. A twist.#2: A face in the dark - Ruskin Bond (3.5 stars)From Mr. Bond, comes another story set in the backdrop of the hills and valleys of Shimla. The story of a boarding school and its brave headmaster. A story that brings out all of your primal fears. A story with the basic elements of horror - the dark of the night, the eeriness of the howling winds, a strange sighting and a twist ending.#3: In the penal colony - Franz Kafka (4 stars)In a fast-paced story that slowly reveals, in the true sense of an actual horror movie, its various twists and turns and its arsenal of fear, Kafka manages to scare the reader and at the same time fill them with a certain amount of sympathy for the devil and bewilderment at the actual happenings in the story.A traveler is invited to be the witness to a sentencing - a seemingly, outdated custom that tortures the guilty for hours before killing them. He must pass a judgement on it. What would it be?#4: Man From the South - Roald Dahl (4 stars)"A fine evening," he said. "They are all evenings fine here in Jamaica."In this brilliantly crafted tale of a bet between an old man and a young one, things suddenly take a turn for the grim. The pacing of the story is fantastic and keeps you hooked till the end. And the ending - another twist in the devil's tale.#5: The tell-tale heart - Edgar Allan Poe (4 stars)From the master of mystery, comes a tale worthy of his praise. The first person confession of a madman who murdered an old man and then describes it to the reader in vivid detail to prove his sanity. The story is eerie - you have the constant feeling of being watched because of the 'unreliable narrative' and the fact that the lunatic addresses the audience directly.#6: A good man is hard to find - Flannery O'Connor (3 stars)A normal family. Mother, father, kids, grandmother. A routine family vacation. A little detour to find something exciting. An accident and a deadly encounter.#7: The face on the wall - E. V. Lucas (3.5 stars)A group of people discussing the supernatural. An outsider with a real narrative. Three extraordinary things about the story.#8: The open window - Hector Hugh Munro (Saki) (3 stars)A man with a nervous condition visits an old lady on the behest of his sister to calm his nerves. While waiting for her, he engages in conversation with her niece and tale goes grim.#9: The most dangerous game - Richard Connell (4 stars)A celebrated hunter and a published author is thrown overboard a ship on a dark night. With every ounce of energy in his body, he manages to swim to safety and arrives on an island, uninhabited by humans except for a game hunter and his looming man-servant.Discussion over dinner soon converges to the one common topic - hunting. And how, for someone who has hunted all his life, most game is boring and no longer a thrill. That is when the hunter reveals a chilling truth - the discovery of an entirely new game that promises to break the monotony of the 'cunning hunter vs the dumb prey' routine.#10: Where are you going, where have you been? - Joyce Carol Oates (4.5 stars)A story that leaves you perplexed and befuddled. One where you are not sure what the story really was about?Over the years, many people have attempted many interpretations of Oates' masterpiece, but every alternative eventually leaves out something. This could be a story told from a delusional victim's standpoint about the advances of her predator. Or it could be an allegorical tale about the corruption of young people by satanic cults. Or it could be on the broader theme of giving in to sins.I don't know. Let me, if you do.Comedy#1: The secret life of Walter Mitty - James Thurber (3 stars)Made into a motion picture starring Ben Stiller, The secret life of Walter Mitty is a comical narrative of a man who's blurred the lines between reality day-dreaming. Weaving through multiple episodes of real life and fantasy, it is a wonderfully paced story that will leave you chuckling at the end.#2: Cookies - Douglas Adams (3.5 stars)A train journey. 2 strangers. And a packet of cookies.#3: The nose - Nikolai Gogol (3.5 stars)A barber wakes up one day and finds a nose in his roll. Another gentleman wakes up and finds his nose gone.However absurd, or improbable, this may seem, it does happen. (Or does it?). Gogol again displays a knack for weaving stories out of the pure bizarre and sprinkle it with his signature flavor of comedy.Romance#1: About love - Anton Chekhov (4 stars)What is love? Is it rational? Can it be defined scientifically or diagnosed medically? Why do people fall in love? Why, sometimes, do they fall for someone who is their exact opposite? What is it about love that leaves even the strongest of people completely hapless?Is it fine to love someone who is already with another person? Is it fine to profess your love to them knowing well that it could disrupt their perfectly peaceful existence?All these and a multitude of other questions are answered in this beautifully crafted tale by the master himself.#2: A girl I knew - JD Salinger (4 stars)I saw a girl standing on it, completely submerged in the pool of autumn twilight. She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together. The way the profile of her face and body refracted in the soupy twilight made me feel a little drunk.A story that is not as much about love as it is about losing it. The story of a man who flunks college and is sent to Europe to master his trade, is advised against socializing much and falling in love, but who inadvertently manages to do just the opposite. A classic love story of romance, of the first jitters of love, of moving away, of writing letters. A wonderful love piece with a few splotches of some grime here and there.#3: Selkie stories are for losers - Sofia Samatar (3.5 stars)A weird tale of love and loss. With just a pinch of folklore and fantasy. While you are jumping from one narrative to another, you feel like being shaken intensely without being allowed the time to understand what exactly is going on. But once the dust settles, you can see the whole picture.#4: The eyes have it - Ruskin Bond (4 stars)A blind man on a train journey meets a female companion. During their 3 hour conversation, he doesn't let her know that he lacks sight. And then her station arrives and she leaves. (Oh the simplicity of it!)#5: The water that falls on you from nowhere - John Chu (3.5 stars)In the near future water falls from the sky whenever someone lies (either a mist or a torrential flood depending on the intensity of the lie). This makes life difficult for Matt as he maneuvers the marriage question with his lover and how best to “come out” to his traditional Chinese parents.The story of Matt and Gus, a same-sex couple who truly love each other, but do not know it yet is one that upholds the roots of traditional story-telling. There is no embellishments, no forced sub-plots. Everything leads to the next thing in a way that is simple, yet beautiful. The premise of the story is new and straightforward, but the narrative, due to the way it is seamlessly weaved together, lingers with you like the misty air on a December evening.#6: The silence here owns everything - Kirsten Clodfelter (2.5 stars)The perfect companion piece to the previous story by John Chu. It's a story of two girls - Natalie and Kendra. Friends on the surface. Lovers and probable soulmates deep beneath.Throughout the narrative, you can pick up subtle hints that Nat is in love with Kendra, but somehow, every opportunity where she could express it eludes her. The story ends abruptly, as if a teenage girl one day, simply forgot to take out her diary and pen her memoirs. It leaves you with a certain sense of absence, and yet you can feel that it's the ending you really wanted.#7: On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning - Haruki Murakami (3 stars)What do you do when you chance upon your 100% perfect girl? What do you say? Haruki Murakami comes up with the perfect story for such a rare happenstance.#8: A rose for Miss Emily - William Faulkner (4.5 stars)Faces are tsignNowerous things. Behind the serene expressions that people carry lie complex machinations that no human technology or intuition can completely comprehend.And so is love. Love drives us to do great things. It goads us to signNow out, extend our arms, and push ourselves to achieve the impossible. But it also pushes us over the cliff once in a while - over the boundaries of sanity, of happiness, of self-preservation.Crime#1: Lamb to the slaughter - Roald Dahl (3 stars)A perfectly happy couple. An expecting mother. A confession. A leg of lamb. And an intricately covered up murder.