Archive for the ‘Book Swapping’ Category
Wow! I moved this site off of a different hosting provider and apparently lost track as I was installing it. I used WP Twin to clone the site (complete copy of all the WP files) so it is an easy process!
I was going through my sites to make sure I am doing the automatic backup with WP Twin, and was shocked when I came here and Nothing was here!!
I went through the process easly. The one further glitch I had was that I couldn’t find what my WP log on info had been on the original site!. I had mistakenly overwritten it with the new install info. I suddenly remembered that I had the mirror backup of all my pc files on my external hard drive (by using Acronis Home True Image). Hurrah!
I found the original log on info & was able to get in here! 
Now I need to just make a note to myself to save a doc with each back up clone containing the logon info used when the site was cloned (so this stress won’t happen again!)
I had a book returned for postage due the other day. I weighed it on 2 different electronic scales. It weighed 7.4 oz on each one.
I went into the Stamps.com interface to check to see what postage I had used ($ 2.07). I looked at first class/ 8 oz and saw it would be the amount I had attached.
I couldn’t see why the book was returned for $ 1.14 postage due.
I had been sending my paperback books out by First Class mail when they weighed less than 10 ounces. Larger than this, it was cheaper to send them ‘Media Mail’, so I sent them Media Mail.
I called the Stamps.com support center. I explained the situation & asked why US Post Office was suddenly not accepting the Stamps.com postage.
The helpful support tech. asked what kind of packaging it was.
I explained it was a impervious envelope/mailer around a paperback book.
He then asked me how thick the paperback book was.
I got out a ruler & measured it at 1 1/4 in. He stated that it qualified for “Thick Envelope” postage rate (for envelopes thicker than ¾ of an inch) which is higher than First Class.
He looked at the amount of postage due & was stumped as to why it was that high of an amount as it should have been less.
I made the comment that probably I should just mail all of my books that were thicker than 3/4 of an inch via Media Mail as it would be less hassle and possibly less expensive at times.
He replied that it would take longer to arrive than First Class. I came back with a statement of how the book swap was fine with slower shipping as long as it arrived with in 26 days. He then responded that
Media Mail would probably be a good idea.
I am surprised that after swapping hundreds of books, this was the first one that was returned for postage due. Granted, most of them weigh more than 10 oz so I shipped them media mail any ways…
I have been notified by PBS patrons that a book was delivered with postage due a few times. Each time, I sent them a book credit to make up for it. Since book credits cost $ 3.50, they were roughly $3 ahead. Most people were appreciative.
So I learned 2 things today:
1. Stamps.com support staff are courteous and helpful
2. The vast majority of paperback books will need to be shipped via Media Mail.
I wanted to read my book or Kindle on a road trip after dark recently. I was in the backseat of the car, so I didn’t want to use a bright light and disturb the driver.
I had purchased a Kindle reading light last year when I got my Kindle. I had never used it, so I assumed that it would still work. Uh oh. I should know what happens when you assume- (It makes an ASS out of You & Me). Sure enough, the battery had worn down – it was dead.
So I was stuck in the dark with nothing to do but take a nap. How frustrating!
An acquaintance was talking about using a red light to read her Nook or digital reader. She said that pilots & astronomers use red lights to read without eye strain or losing their night vision. Wow. I had never heard of this. When I thought about it, I remembered seeing movies about dark rooms & flight decks having red lights, but I never carried it over to reading lights.
I searched on Amazon for a red light, then focused on reading lights. I came across a Beam N Read light that hangs around your neck. They have several different models, some with 3 LED lights, some with six. Some are just white light, some come with a red filter, & a few come with 4 different colored filters.
I determined that Beam N Read LED 3 Hands Free Travel Book Light for Kindle, Nook, & More looked best for me. I was happy to see that it’s batteries last 120 Hours. I could see using it at work in low light as well as using it to read at night in cars &/or planes.
I know another nurse who works pediatrics & strains to see in the dark patient rooms without waking his patients. I’m going to show him this light. I bet it will be quite helpful for him. Being ‘hands free’ certainly will be a plus for him.
I love finding an author who writes so well that I’m captivated!
I am happy when I finish one book & have the next in the series waiting at hand to start.
I get bummed when I finish the last book by a favorite author.
I think: ‘Darn, now I have to find a new person to read.’
I’ve decided that book websites should have the capability to search by subject matter.
(ie) I like to read about shape shifters, vampires, psi-enhanced, FBI, racy romance, etc.
If you don’t know that Lora Leigh wrote about shapeshifters, would you be able to discover her as an author who brings gripping paranormal /action/ suspense/ romantic novels to life?
I think, no, I know it is difficult at times.
One feature I haven’t discussed about PBS is their showing newly posted books at the bottom of the welcome screen. So often, I do judge a book by it’s cover, especially when I’m looking for paranormal & shapeshifter tales (or tails? )
I always glance at the covers to see if I notice a likely illustration or an unrecognized title by a familiar author.
I have discovered several new interesting series & authors this way.
The other similar feature on PBS deals with related titles, or books people have ordered when they ordered the book you just ordered. Again, I’ve happily unearthed many new works & authors through checking these listings out.
I like that I can click on an author’s name & I’ll be taken to a listing of their titles with the ones available on PBS being in green while those which are not available are in red.
I will admit purchasing some of the unavailable ones to read on my Kindle when I didn’t want to wait for them to show up for my wish list.
Go go forth & discover new titles & authors to captivate your mind today!
Lora Leigh is a prolific, entertaining author. Previous post lists the bulk of her titles which I have enjoyed.
I used to collect book series I liked to read, so I could re-read them when I didn’t have any new books to read. Now that I’m constantly getting books to read from members of PaperBackSwap.com, I am putting those books back into circulation.
I decided to re-read the Men of August trilogy one more time before I posted them on the PBS site. The three books are: Marley’s Choice, Sarah’s Seduction & Heather’s Gift. I was captivated again by the great storyline as well as the erotic love scenes. Lora Leigh is definitely a gifted story teller.
I am always amazed when I read a gripping story. I just can’t fathom how they come up with any of it. From the characters, to the plot, all the way through the creation process. I guess that just goes to show that I wasn’t gifted with that skill.
I have had people look at a quilt I made & say similar things about color & pattern choices of the fabrics as well as the basic pattern of the whole quilt. While I don’t take the time to work on quilts lately, I do enjoy the creation process. I love taking relatively simple, plain fabrics & combining them to create a stunning result.
It just goes to show that people are different + it is a good thing. Can you realize how boring and incomplete the world would be if we were all the same?
PaperBackSwap’s goal is to donate 15,000 new books to United Through Reading – a nationally recognized nonprofit for the children of our military stationed overseas. Please click this link to see NBC’s Nightly News report on this wonderful program.
Here’s another message from PBS:
At PaperBackSwap, we firmly believe in the power of reading… and the power of giving. We are excited to be able to extend our charitable work to those serving in the United States Armed Forces. Regardless of why or where they are deployed, these men and women and their families contend with danger, separation from loved ones and rigorous physical conditions.
We believe that if we can ease their days at all, we should, and are ready to get started…with your help! Would you please consider donating either Book Credits or PBS money to help offset the costs of running these programs?
Your donations can really make a difference in the lives of our military families as they protect and serve our country. Click HERE to donate.
Member Comment: “My husband is currently deployed and while gone he has been able to send UTR videos to our young children. It is amazing to see their faces light up when they see their daddy on the TV reading one of their favorite books. Thank you all for donating to this wonderful cause.” -Rebecca J. (navywifereader)
I donated the small amount of credits & PBS money in my account just now & will do more with my next paycheck. I’m sure it is a blessing for the families to have such a great way to interact while their loved one is away protecting all of us.
I got this nice message back from the donation:
On behalf of all of the soldiers and military families who are going to receive books because of your donation to Story Time with Soldiers (part of our Military Donation Program), thank you Karen for making a difference in the lives of these families!
Your generous support will go a long way and allow the soldiers and military families involved to share the joys of reading with their children.
With sincere thanks,
Richard & The PaperBackSwap Team
What a nice message. I definitely feel that PBS is a great site to use.
If you are not a member of PBS & you want to donate, click HERE to join (it’s free) & then click HERE to purchase credits or PBS money. Donate by clicking HERE. Thanks so much for your generosity.
PaperbackSwap.com has few rules about the swapping. Many of these rules are to keep the process timely for the people using it.
When a request for a book comes in, you need to to ‘accept’ it, saying that you can mail it within 2 days. The system actually gives you about 4 days before the swapping process will ‘expire’.
If you don’t mark the book as ‘mailed’ by the deadline, it will cancel the swap. The other day, I was trying to watch a webinar replay while I was processing 9 book swaps. I put all the books out to mail, but forgot to mark them ‘mailed’.
The next night, I checked my account & found a message from a member (Mary) saying ‘why did you cancel the swap?’… I pm’d her back, saying: “I didn’t, I mailed it… must have been a computer glitch”.
Later, I was going through my email & found a message from PBS stating it had cancelled the swap since I hadn’t marked it ‘mailed’ by the deadline. I pm’d Mary back to let her know. She said she’d mark the book “received” when it arrives.
I always have said that communication makes everything work out better. It proves true here as well.
I’ve read numerous authors who have portrayed Vampires, Werewolves & others in many varying ways. They often differ in how they came to be, what characteristics they have, etc.
Here are a few of the authors who I’ve enjoyed:
Maggie Shayne:
Demon’s Kiss (Wings in the Night, Bk 1)
Lover’s Bite (Wings in the Night, Bk 2)
Angel’s Pain (Wings in the Night, Bk 3)
Bloodline
+ many more
Susan Sizemore:
I Burn For You (Primes, Bk 1)
I Thirst for You (Primes Series, Bk 2)
I Hunger for You (Primes Series, Bk 3)
+ many more
Lora Leigh:
Megan’s Mark (The Breeds, Book 1)
Harmony’s Way (The Breeds, Book 2)
Tanner’s Scheme (The Breeds, Book 3)
Tempting the Beast (Feline Breeds, Book 1)
The Man Within (Feline Breeds, Book 2)
Kiss of Heat (Feline Breeds, Book 3)
Soul Deep (Coyote Breeds, Book 1)
Aiden’s Charity (Wolf Breeds, Book 3)
+ many more
+ great erotica stories
Submission/ Seduction, Wicked / Sacrifice, Embraced, Wicked Intent,
Only Pleasure, Forbidden Pleasure, Wicked Pleasure + more
PaperbackSwap.com has started a great program: ‘Story Time with Soldiers’, focuses on connecting families separated by deployment through a combined effort with United Through Reading’s Military Program.
This is the only program where, prior to deployment, soldiers can read a story book for their children while being videotaped. A DVD is then sent to the family for viewing along with the new child’s book from PaperBackSwap.
The family can then watch and read the book together with the children and help bridge the distance between parent and child.
You can help out by donating either Book Credits or PBS money to help offset the costs of running these programs. Your donations can really make a difference in the lives of our military families as they protect and serve our country. Click HERE for more information
Great action suspense FBI stories by Catherine Coulter.
Amazingly, I couldn’t find a list showing the titles in order. I enjoyed them all & wish there were more.
The Beginning, Double Jeopardy, Riptide, Point Blank, The Target,
The Maze, Blind Side, The Cove, The Edge, TailSpin, Double Take,
KnockOut, Blowout
Catherine has written other good contemporary suspense as well. It looks like she originally wrote historical romance, but I grew out of that phase quite a while ago.
Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs is a captivating sequence of stories about a kick-ass were-coyote auto mechanic, werewolves, vampires & some sexy romance to boot. I really like this series & have read them all several times.
Moon Called, Moon Called, Blood Bound, Iron Kissed, Bone Crossed,
Silver Borne
She has also written some related books:
Cry Wolf & Hunting Ground
JD Robb (aka Nora Roberts) has written 36 ‘In Death’ series (Eve Dallas) [wow - I knew there were a lot, but boy, she sure is prolific]. I call it futuristic, murder mystery / romance. A few of them are very gruesome – I just skim till I’m past that.
I never can guess the outcome early on like you can with some authors. It’s amazing that she keeps coming out with distinctly different story lines with this many titles.
Naked in Death, Glory in Death, Immortal in Death, Rapture in Death, Vengeance in Death, Holiday in Death, Midnight in Death, Conspiracy in Death, Loyalty in Death, Witness in Death, Judgment in Death, Betrayal in Death, Interlude in Death, Seduction in Death, Reunion in Death, Purity in Death, Portrait in Death, Imitation in Death, Remember When, Divided in Death, Survivor in Death, Origin in Death, Midnight in Death, Haunted in Death, Memory in Death, Interlude in Death, Born in Death, Innocent in Death, Creation in Death, Strangers in Death, Suite 606 featuring “Ritual in Death”, Salvation in Death, Promises in Death, Kindred in Death, The Lost featuring “Missing in Death”, Big Jack, Fantasy in Death
I just finished Fantasy In Death - it was a good read. I always find myself captivated and don’t want to put the book down.
It’s a bummer when you come to the end of the series a favored author has written. I always wish there were more to read right now!
I’ll just keep a look out for the next title to show up.
I’ve been loving my Kindle DX. It is a bit bulky as it is quite large, but still is very lightweight. I can’t fit it in my purse as easily as I’d like. I guess I need to switch to a wider purse. I chose the DX as I am a very fast reader & thought I would be constantly irritated at continually needing to switch pages. I don’t feel that way with the DX.
My daughter, also an avid reader, bought herself the regular Kindle. She doesn’t read as fast as I do (which is fine) so she doesn’t see a problem with the smaller screen. She really likes how very small & lightweight it is. It also fits in her purse easily. I found a soft sleeve to protect it that is not bulky.
My daughter has also found many free books on Amazon.com which she can download to her Kindle. Many are classics / public domain works. Some seem to be authors wanting to give a taste of their work to the readers. Regardless, it’s nice to find them. Free Books For Your Kindle
I was contacted by a member of PaperBackSwap.com who had mailed books to me which had never arrived. She wanted to know if by chance I had received the books, but not marked them received on the site.
I replied that no, I hadn’t. She responded that she was going to contact the Post Office to see if the package could be traced.
She just got back with me saying: I did get confirmation from UPS that they received wrappings with nothing in the package. I had the address label of the receiver returned to me in a letter from UPS and I now have to process a form letter telling them what was in the package.
I responded that I worked with a mail contract carrier once & saw that mail pieces go through a lot of handling & machinery. It’s probably amazing how few things we ship get lost/ damaged. I never think about the possibility of whatever I send not getting to its destination.
I mailed a couple of books in a manila envelope once, & got a semi-tacky note from receiver that the package was rather torn up & they were surprised the books made it to them.
I went online & found some inexpensive ‘Tuffshield’ type shipping bags & use them for the books now. They’re self adhesive, strong & waterproof. It is much easier & faster than cutting up shipping bags (that I’ve received items in) & using them.
Now, the only time I mess with reusing packaging is when I reuse the bubble envelopes I receive books in just so I’m not wasting them.
I just reordered the 7.5” x 10” (200 for < $ 14 with shipping) & 12.5” x 15” (100 for around $15 with shipping) from Amazon. They came quickly. This is the first time I've ordered the larger size for multiple book shipments. It's nice as I have 4 books to send out to one person this am.
I have several series of books that I’m working on reading that I really enjoy. I’m going to hate it when I have read them all.
If you like action/ supense with romance added in, try these out. They grab you quickly & make it hard to put them down.
Suzanne Brockman –
Tall, Dark & Dangerous
1. PRINCE JOE, TDD #1, 6/96, 2002 – Joe/Veronika Prince imitation
2. FOREVER BLUE, TDD #2, 10/96, 2003 – Blue/Lacy brother murder
3. FRISCO’S KID, TDD #3, 1/97, 2003 – Frisco/Mia niece/wheelchair
4. EVERYDAY, AVERAGE JONES, , TDD #4, 8/98 – airplane/pregnant
5. HARVARD’S EDUCATION, TDD #5, 10/98 Harvard/PJ
6. Hawken’s Heart – Crash/Nell; Admiral/uncle murder
7. THE ADMIRAL’S BRIDE, TDD #7, 11/99“ Jake/Zoe; nerve agent
8. IDENTITY: UNKNOWN, , TDD #8, 1/2000 Mitchell/Becca dude ranch
9. GET LUCKY, TDD #9, 3/2000 – Lucky/Sydney;
10. TAYLOR’S TEMPTATION, TDD #10, 7/2001 Bobby /Colleen
11. NIGHT WATCH, TDD # 11, 9/2003 Wes Skelley/Brittany
TEAM 16
1. THE UNSUNG HERO, 6/2000 Tom/Kelly The Merchant/uncle Joe/Dad
2. THE DEFIANT HERO, 3/2001 John Nilsson/Meg; daughter kidnapped
3. OVER THE EDGE, 9/2001 Stan Wolchonok/Teresa; Gina hijacked;
4. OUT OF CONTROL, 3/2002 Ken WildCard Karmody/Savannah; asia
5. INTO THE NIGHT, 11/2002 – Mike Muldoon/Joan (prez-> naval base)
6. GONE TOO FAR, 7/2003 Sam/Alyssa dead ex-wife
7. FLASHPOINT, 3/2004 Nash/Tess covert action tearing up couple
8. HOT TARGET, 12/2004 Cosmo/Jane Hollywood
9. BREAKING POINT, 7/2005 Max/Gina Gina thought dead/Jones & Molly
10. INTO THE STORM, 11/2006 Jenk/Lindsey; Tracy vanishes;
11. FORCE OF NATURE, 8/2007 Ric/Annie –
12. ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT, 10/2007 Jules/Robin Christmas wedding
13. INTO THE FIRE, 7/2008 Vinh/Hannah Hannah hearing impaired
14. DARK OF NIGHT, 1/2009 Decker/Tracey; Sophia/Dave
15. HOT PURSUIT, Summer 2009 Alyssa/Sam
Allison Brennan – 3 great FBI stories
Kay Hooper
4 related ‘Bishop’ trilogies [hard to put down]
Stealing Shadows, Hiding in the Shadows, Out of the Shadows
Touching Evil, Whisper of Evil, Sense of Evil
Hunting Fear, Chill of Fear, Sleeping with Fear
Blood Dreams, Blood Sins, Blood Ties
I’ve have 527 books on my PBS bookshelf. Do you wonder how I locate the book I need in order to process the book requests that I recieve in a timely manner?
I have organized them fairly well. I have a metal shelving unit that is 3 ft wide x 4+ ft tall with 4 shelves.
I happened to have a shipping box that was as long & wide as the shelves, so I got 2 ‘trays’ out of it by cutting 4 inches above the top & bottom flaps. I found other large boxes to use as well.
I labeled the boxes: A – F, G – M, N – R, & S – Z.
I put 1 box per shelf, going from the top down. As I collected too many books for 1 box, I layered another box on top (I labeled it accordingly).
Since the bulk of my books are paperbacks, I separated the hardbacks to small boxes on the ends of each shelves. When I went through & posted a number of my crafts & quilting books, I started a hard back area on a nearby baker’s rack.
I am getting close to having all the books on it that it will hold. I probably won’t post many of the 200 books I just got from a hospital patient library sale until I send out some of the ones I have already.
I read books rather quickly. My mother in law reads even faster & more volume. She often keeps me supplied with books to swap.
Occasionally, I run out of books to put up on PaperBackSwap to swap. I have a number of ways to get inexpensive books to swap.
1. Check out garage sales. Occasionally you’ll strike it rich with one that has ton’s of books. I try to get them to do 4 for 1 dollar or better.
If it is the end of a hot day, & they still have a large quantity, they will sometimes even go with 10 for a dollar.
2. Attend your Public Library’s yearly ‘friends of the library sale’ where people have donated books for the library to sell to benefit the library. I usually will just buy paperback books (it costs less to mail a paperback than a hard cover).
3. Then hospital that I work at just downsized their patient library. They got rid of hundreds of books. They sold paperbacks for 25 cents each. I took plastic grocery sacks with me & filled them up with random books, 20 to a bag.
I told them to just make me a collection in empty boxes they had until I had all 10 sacks filled. This gave me 200 books for $ 50. Quite a good deal for us both.
I also was able to gather westerns & other books I normally wouldn’t get my hands on to see if they fare better/ worse than the romances & mysteries I normally post. So far they don’t, but no matter.
I now have a goodly supply of books to post over time.
I want to read an ebook I have on my pc in PDF form on my Kindle. I’ve searched for information about Kindle supporting PDF’s. The information is conflicting. It looks as if it ‘supports PDF’s’ but doesn’t format them correctly. The guide recommended converting from PDF format to either html or .doc (Microsoft Word format).
I found a free online service to convert PDF’s to MS Word. It is www.PDFtoWord.com. You upload your PDF by browsing your pc, then select change to .doc, enter your email for it to be sent to you, & click the ‘convert’ button.
Wow, that’s easy. It takes a few minutes, but then you find an email with the document attached in your in box. Click here to visit site.
Basic Do’s & Don’t's with Printing Your Own Postage
1. When printing stamps:
a. Fill in the correct ID number for the sheet of stamp ‘labels’ you will be printing on. Area to be filled in is on top right hand part of the print stamps screen.
b. Know which side of the label sheet needs to face downward in order for your printer to print on the correct side. My HP takes the page head first, face down, but my Epson take it head down & face up.
c. When printing less than a full sheet of stamps, click on the bottom row of the sheet to print them first. If you print the top of the sheet first, the page gets too floppy to use.
d. Mark in upper right hand area number of stamps you want to print of same denomination – whether it’s 1 or 25
I mail out books frequently for a book swapping site. I put the book & any paper into a mail pouch, affix the mailing label, and weigh it.
I then take that weight into the Stamps.com software to select the postage I need. Most regular sized paperback books weigh around 6-8 ounces.
If I have a trade paperback (the oversized ones) it may weigh over 10 ounces. I found that it is less expensive to send books that weigh 10 or more ounces as a package & select ‘media mail’.
This designation is massively less expensive than first class or even parcel post.
Book trading saves resources as you aren’t buying brand new books. It is also a great way to get books that are no longer in print. I have discovered a book on low carb lifestyle called The 7-day Low-Carb Rescue and Recovery Plan by Dr. Rachael F. Heller & Dr. Richard F. Heller which is very helpful at improving weightloss with the low carb lifestyle. I found this book swapping on www.PaperBackSwap.com.
I had never seen this book in the book stores. It is available on Amazon.com. You are recycling when you buy used books on Amazon as well.
When shipping books using the delivery confirmation for quick credit, do NOT tape over the bar code.
If the bar code is covered in tape, it cannot be scanned, so you have wasted your 27 cents.
I like using the delivery confirmation so I am a. more likely to get a quick credit, & b. not having to rely on the person receiving the book to promptly go to their pc & mark the book received.
Most of the people using PaperBackSwap.com are wanting the system to work well so they will mark books received in a timely manner. But I figure it is a small cost for me to pay and it might get my credit posted faster so I can find another great book to request.
So always pay attention with barcodes & stamps when you are adding tape to the package to make sure you don’t make them useless by covering these with the tape.
Back in September, I was notified by the PaperBackSwap.com system that 7 books I had ordered were considered ‘lost in the mail’ since it had been over 26 days since they were ordered & had not arrived.
The system credited me for the 7 books so I could use them for other books. The system simultaneously removed 7 credits from the lady who was shipping the books to me.
The person shipping the books lived in Hawaii & I live in Texas. She paid an increased fee to speed them on their way, but was warned it could take 30 days to arrive.
This nice lady sent me a message through the PBS system about this delay to reassure me that they were on the way. She even enclosed a gift from Hawaii since I had ordered so many books from her.
I held on to the 7 credits for a bit over a week after PBS had returned them to me. When the books arrived, I went into my ‘Transaction Archive’, found the books (by order date) and marked them ‘received’. This enabled the credits to be returned to the shipper.
I also sent her a message that they had safely arrived & I appreciated her thoughtfulness.
Communication sure can make life smoother, can’t it?
I just received an email from PaperBackSwap.com about a book I ordered over a month ago. Since I have not marked that I received the book, I have received a credit added to my account.
I didn’t have to do anything, the system realized it was over 26 days past the order date & determined the book was lost in the mail. I am nicely surprised.
So often, now a days, you have to watch out that things happen as they are supposed to … It is nice to not have to mess with keeping up with all the books I have ordered.
I have made the commitment to myself that ASAP after receiving a book, I go online to the site & mark it recieved so that the person sending the book gets their credit quickly.
PBS has definitely been set up the right way to make it a good experience for members!
On the PaperBackSwap site, you can search by author or title for specific books. If you search by author, it will bring up a detailed listing of all their books on the site, including a picture of the cover of the book.
When you click on the description of a book, the author’s name is a link to a list of the titles & publishing year of all their works. The books located on the site are in green while the books not available are in red. If you are looking for a specific book, or have an idea of the title, it is easy to find that book quickly.
I shipped out 4 books the other day. Just now I logged onto PaperBackSwap.com & noticed I had 4 credits I could use for books.
I went to my Reminder List and quickly selected a book. I then chose to look through the other books that that member had listed and found 3 other books I wanted to get.
Getting multiple books from a member saves me time in picking them out, and saves the member postage as you can ship multiple books out for less money than you could ship them separately.
In order to speed up the process of filing the book orders, I utilize a screen capture program to take a picture of the part of the screen I want to use & copy it to a MS Word document.
On PaperBackSwap.com, I go to the tab “books to mail out”, select the book to process, confirm that I have the book & can send it out within 2 days. I then select: ‘print label’ for that book & open the PDF which has the name & address of the person ordering the book on it.
I copy/paste the return address as well as the destination address to a MS Word document, then reduce the size of the information & print it onto a portion of a full sheet label. This then my mailing label.
[See the videos of this process.]
I either place the book in a padded mailer or recycle the Tuff Shield type of impervious plastic bag that online clothing catalogs send their orders out in. I can usually get at least 4 books wrapped in one of those bags. Many times I am able to peal off the label of the mailer which I recieved a book in & reuse the mailer.
The site has a ‘reminder list’ that you can add books you want to read to. I like how I can click/search the author’s name and find books they’ve written. Many times I like different books by the same author. I can select those I want to read and add them to my Reminder List. Then when I have credits available, I don’t have to spend time searching for a book to select, I can just go to my Reminder List & pick one I’ve already selected to read.
I’ve come across books at garage sales and offered $5-10 for a huge amount of books (especially when they are ready to close down their sale). I then post the books up on PBSwap to trade. Right now I have 249 books listed on the site. Every few days I find book requests to fill/send out in my account. I’ve developed a system to fill those requests which saves me time, paper & money.
I am a book-a-holic! I love to read. I always have a book with me to ready when I get a spare moment. I primarily read romance, but also enjoy suspense and fantasy.
I was spending $40 - $60 every couple of weeks on books at Barnes & Noble & Amazon. I make good money, but that is quite a lot to drop on books. I would even run out of books to read & have to re-read favorite series (which I enjoy as long as it has been a while since I’ve read it.).
I was searching online for a copy of a book by a favorite author… I found a copy of it listed at a website called ‘PaperBackSwap.com’. I went to the site and was amazed to realize that it was a book trading site.
I looked at the membership information and was even more surprised that there were not any mandatory fees involved in the process!
If Jane has listed a book & I want to get it, I can select it… she will then mail it to me. When I mark that I’ve received it, she will get a credit. She can then use the credit to select a book for herself. The person who has listed that book will mail her the book & then receive a credit.
It’s a great system! I only pay for the postage of the books which I send out.
There is even the ability to purchase credits in-case I want to get a book but I don’t have any credits saved up.
