Selling Books with a Mobile Card Reader

author credit card sales money-256319_640I was at a book festival recently and sat next to a man who had one of those little credit card readers on his smart phone. He said he got it after he’d been at another festival where a potential customer had only credit cards with which to pay, no cash or checks. While I’ve found that most folks who come to festivals are prepared with cash, some with checks, I realized it would be uncomfortable to have to turn away a customer because I couldn’t take their payment. I decided to research the card reader options and thought I’d share. Continue reading “Selling Books with a Mobile Card Reader”

How Repost Helped Me Become An Instagram Fan

Repost Logo for InstagramFinding material to post on Instagram can be the hardest aspect of using the app. I had heard so many wonderful things about Instagram and I really wanted to get into it, but I was struggling to post daily because I just could not find enough things to take pictures of. I’m a writer — I work at my desk all day! There are only so many pictures of my fingers on a keyboard that I want to share.

But then I discovered Repost.

Yay for Repost!

It has opened up a huge door for me and I have turned from Instagram reluctant to an Instagram megafan. Now that I have more things to post, I am able to post two or three times a day and my traffic has gone from 20 – 30 likes per post to 180 – 300 likes per post. It’s awesome!!

So – how does it work? Continue reading “How Repost Helped Me Become An Instagram Fan”

Does (Book) Size Matter to Readers?

BookSizeReadersA quick spin through Mama Google tells authors and indie publishers pretty much everything they want to know about choosing the appropriate book size, usually called trim size. Sources mention that most self-published books range from 5″ x 8″ to 6″ x 9″, and often books that depend on images, like children’s picture books, cookbooks, and “coffee table” style books are larger, as are reference manuals and workbooks.

In choosing a book size, authors and publishers usually factor in cost, distribution limitations, and other technical matters. Authors are quick to offer their opinions, and our own Melissa Bowersock has written a helpful primer on formatting your print book. But what do readers want? What do they think is handiest, most comfortable for reading, easiest to carry around? So I asked a bunch. This report is by no means scientific, but I think I got to a decent cross-section of readers. Here’s what they told me. Continue reading “Does (Book) Size Matter to Readers?”