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We have a fundraising idea that your kids can do at home and in your neighborhood.  Collect used books from friends, family, and neighbors.  Then sell the books to Cash4Books using our iPhone app, Android app, or by entering the numbers on our homepage.  A reliable and trusted buyer of quality used books since 2004, our company (Cash4Books) has purchased 1.5 million books from over 230,000 customers. Visit our About Us page to learn more about who we are.

The Fundraising Idea – An Experiment

Theresa, a Cash4Books employee, decided to try an experiment last summer (2010).  She went with her daughter around their neighborhood to try and collect books. They went door-to-door, and in “pop can” style fashion, they asked if people had any used books they could donate to raise  some “summer money”.

Theresa says, “Our only pitch was we were raising some summer money.  My daughter is too young to baby sit, so we had to be creative on ways to earn money.  There are many ways to improve on our first attempt.  Having a cause better than ‘summer money’ would help.  The people that did donate books were very thankful to give them to us.  If this is done right, it could go well.  I accepted any and all books that were in good condition, at least.  I knew I could donate anything Cash4Books wasn’t accepting to different charities.”

The Opportunity To Later Collect Books

What Theresa also discovered was that many people were not ready to part with their books on the spot.  BUT, she felt this could be overcome by letting your neighbors know a week in advance when you will be by to collect books.  If it was a sunny location, you could even say “you can leave the books on your doorstep in a box” or something (canned food drive style).  We have even put together a suggested template Word document for handing out fundraising flyers:

cash4books-fundraising-flyer.doc

Fundraising For Kids – Step By Step

1. Download the fundraising flyer by clicking above.
2. Customize it to fit your kid’s needs, and use some of your own ideas. Putting a logo or some other picture on the flyer might also be a nice touch (or whichever cause you are raising money for).
3. Print out x copies and have your kid sign each one.
4. Go door to door, and have your kid introduce themselves and why they are raising money. Leave the flyer if they sound interested and if they have books.
5. Circle back in a week and collect the books.
6. Make it EASY: enter them into Cash4Books.net using our iPhone app, or Android app.  If you don’t have an iPhone or Android, you can still have your kid enter each book manually (it will just take longer). You must be 13 years of age or older to use the Cash4Books.net Site, which is in our Terms of Use.  So parents, your kids could need your assistance.
7. Follow the instructions on our website to sell the books and print your FREE pre-paid shipping labels.
8. Haul the leftover books to Goodwill.

Why this could work beautifully

• With the rise of eBooks, more and more people are ready to declutter and clear out their bookshelves.
• No one is doing this fundraising idea.  Going door to door to collect used books is not done very often.  Imagine their surprise when your kid is not selling cookie dough or collecting pop cans.

Reasons why it may not work

• Not a lot of readers in your area?
• The books you collect are too old and have lost their value (we generally purchase books published within the past 5 years).  You may find that we do not buy 75-95% of the books you collect (depending on their age and value).  However, on a positive note, the Cash4Books buy list does comprise of more than 330,000 titles at any given time.

Tips

• If you end up getting a LOT of books that Cash4Books is buying, go through checkout every time you have a fill a box of books to ship.  In other words, it is best not to create one LARGE order–go with several smaller orders instead.
• Start small and test the waters.  If you get some good books, expand to more neighborhoods.

Conclusion

If you have kids at home, we truly believe that this fundraising idea has potential for them. Please leave us a comment below and tell us about your experience with it!

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Please leave a comment below if you have attempted to load a Google eBook onto your Nook.  We would like to collect people’s experiences with this.

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As a used bookstore (Cash4Books), we are watching what is happening in the eBook world, including how independent bookstores are now selling Google eBooks as their way of entering the eBook market.  There seem to be some issues with Google eBooks, and this is one of several that we have noticed.

The problem: Google has published an excruciatingly long process to get your Google eBook(s) onto your Barnes & Noble Nook.  Is anyone actually doing this?  Let’s look at how many steps it actually takes for every book:

1. Download Adobe Digital Editions (one time only)
2. Create an Adobe ID (one time only)
3. Go to the Google ebookstore
4. Sign in to the Google ebookstore
5. Click “View all” under the ”My eBooks” left column section
6. Click the cover or title of the eBook you want to transfer
7. On the right, in the blue “Purchased” box, click “Read on your device”
8. Scroll down to the eReaders and other devices section
9. Click on Download EPUB or Download PDF (they don’t give a recommendation, so flip a coin to decide)
10. Save the file to your computer somewhere
11. Open the ACSM file from Adobe Digital Editions
12. Open the Library View
13. Connect your Nook (plug it in with a wire)
14. Confirm your Nook is recognized
15. Click and drag the eBook into place
16. Confirm transfer is complete
17. “Safely” eject the Nook from your computer
18. Disconnect your Nook (unplug it)

Now REPEAT FOR EVERY BOOK you want to read on your Nook!  Am I missing something, or is Google off their rocker here?  Leave a comment below!

The instructions below are from Google and current as of 03/25/2011. Source: http://books.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1065611

Instructions that Google Published:

First time only

1. If you haven’t done so already, install the latest version of Adobe Digital Editions software to your computer and follow the instructions to create an Adobe ID.
2. Now follow steps below.

All other times

1. Go to the “About this book” page for your ebook by clicking on its cover under “My eBooks”. This page lists an “Overview” of the book, along with other information about the title.
2. Click on “Read on your device”.
3. Click on either the EPUB or PDF link for the Google eBook file you’d like to transfer. This will download the ACSM file onto your computer.



4. Open the ACSM file from your computer, and the file should open with Adobe Digital Editions. If it does not, right-click the .acsm file and select “Open With…” and open the file with Adobe Digital Editions”.



5. Your Google eBook is now added to the “All Items” bookshelf in the Library View. If you are not in the Library View, click on the top-left most icon in the window.
6. Connect your Nook to your computer with a USB cable provided with the device.
7. Confirm that Adobe Digital Editions recognizes your Nook™ as a device under Bookshelves in left-hand pane (see below). If it does not, close Adobe Digital Editions and reopen it with the USB cable in place.



8. Click and drag the Google eBook in the right-hand pane onto the Nook™ icon in the left-hand pane.

Note: If you are not able to drag the Google Books onto the icon, the device is not authorized.

9. After a few seconds, confirm the transfer is complete by clicking on the Nook icon and locating the Google eBook.

Before disconnecting, safely eject the Nook™ from your computer (or unmount the device on Mac).

Re-activating Adobe Digital Editions on your device

In some cases, you may need to deactivate and re-activate Adobe Digital Editions on your device. To do so, please follow these steps:

1. In Adobe Digital Edition (ADE), if you press Ctrl+Shift+D (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+D (Mac) will remove the activation on your computer, and allow you to reactivate with a different ID or the same ID when you launch ADE again.
2. Press “Ctrl+Shift+E”, this will bring up the “Device Deactivation” dialog.
3. Select your Reader and deactivate it.
4. Unplug and replug your Reader
5. The Device Authorization dialog should show up, and you can authorize again with your Adobe ID.

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The American Booksellers Association announced on December 6, 2010, that ABA-member IndieCommerce websites are now selling Google eBooks™ online.  We are now a little over 90 days in, and this post is a review of that program.

My first stop was looking up some recent news regarding Google eBooks.  I came across this March 6th mlive.com article, by Chris Knape, titled ”As bookstores everywhere struggle, Schuler Books in West Michigan offers customers an updated edition“.  The article starts out talking about how Schuler Books is now diversifying into kitchen utensils, heat-therapy pillows,  and other non-book items.  Then an explanation about the diversification to eBooks:

“In December, Schuler joined a partnership between Google, book publishers and other independent bookstores that allows it to profit from the sale of Google eBooks from its website, SchulerBooks.com.

Google eBooks can be read on virtually every mainstream reader device except Amazon’s market-leading Kindle, which uses a proprietary format.

Each Schuler store now has a dedicated kiosk to walk customers through the process of purchasing an eBook online.

Unlike traditional new books — which Schuler still stocks by the thousands — the company makes commissions off the sale of eBooks, so it has no upfront inventory costs. Because prices are set by publishers, they are the same regardless of where a consumer makes a purchase. In the industry, that’s known as the agency model.”

Interested in how Schuler Books implemented this “partnership”, I visited shulerbooks.com to learn more.  Their website greeted me with a 400 pixel wide “WE SELL eBOOKS” banner that was front and center.  Underneath the banner was this embedded youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yLZLkpnGFU&feature=player_embedded

Some of the initial questions and thoughts that popped into my mind as I watched the video:

1. What will motivate a customer to go to schulerbooks.com to purchase an eBook versus the Google ebookstore? Where is the added value? The differentiators?
2. It is apparent that Google eBooks are intended to be run on many devices. If I buy a Google eBook from Schuler, does this mean that Schuler will assist me in accessing and loading the content onto my Android?  How about my Nook? iPhone?
3. What if I had a kitchen utensil and a Google eBook that I wanted to buy?  Would schulerbooks.com be able to handle this?  An eBook and a physical book/item in the same shopping cart could potentially pose a serious challenge for a small indie ecommerce website (in my opinion).
4. How seamless is the transition from schulerbooks.com to Google, and back again?  Is it a good customer experience?
5. At 3:03, why would I want to read and download my Google eBooks from schulerbooks.com and not the Google ebookstore? Is Shuler going to have an app for that?
6. At 3:07, when Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk opens for reading, it seems to be an odd transition to a very stripped down page.
7. Does schulerbooks.com have the same comprehensive inventory that I would find on Google’s ebookstore?
8. How is schulerbooks.com’s search functionality?  Does it actually use Google as a back-end search engine to pull up the results?

With a few ideas for what I wanted to test and review, I set off with the following methods:

Search shulerbooks.com and the Google ebookstore to see how they compare

First I did a few author searches on Schuler.  I searched for “Dan Brown” and “Stephen King”…. seemed to work fine.  Then I searched for “The Help” by Stockett on Schuler’s Google eBooks tab… nothing.  Then I thought that maybe Google doesn’t have that book. I hopped over to Google’s ebookstore and found it right away.

Next I looked at Google ebookstore’s New arrivals.  The following b0oks were displayed to me:

As a test, I searched for the following on schulerbooks.com:

• Moonwalking with Einstein
• One of our Thursdays is Missing
• Dark Prince
• The Company We Keep

The first two were NOT found on schulerbooks.com, and the second two were found.  This, along with “The Help” being MIA, leads me to conclude the answer to #7 is NO.  Independent bookstores may NOT have the same comprehensive eBook inventory that the Google ebookstore has.

For #8, I simply tested a few misspellings.  One of which was “Moonwalking with Einstein” versus “Moonwalking with Einstien“. Google ebookstore correctly found the book I wanted, while schulerbooks.com did not. Google also told me that I spelled it wrong by giving the the classic “did you mean___ link.” The leads me to conclude that Schuler is not using Google’s search power to pull up their search results.  They must be relying on some other search engine (which will undoubtedly pale in comparison to Google’s).

Link my Google account to shulerbooks.com and see what happens

Background info: I already have four books in my Google ebookstore library: one of which I purchased and three I downloaded for free.

It was not difficult to create the schulerbooks.com account and then find what to click on to “associate” the two accounts.  However, I did have a problem with Google’s language:

The site schulerbooks.com is requesting access to your Google Account for the product(s) listed below.

Google Books

Google is not affiliated with schulerbooks.com, and we recommend that you grant access only if you trust the site.

The red font was added by me for emphasis. “Google is not affiliated with schulerbooks.com….”  OK, we’ve got a problem here, right off the bat for #4.  We went from a warm and fuzzy “partnership” in the mlive.com article to “not affiliated” according to Google.  Hmmm… I went ahead and clicked the “Grant access” button regardless of the wording issue.  After clicking Grant access, I found myself at the following page:

New problem: there should be four books in my ebook library, not one.  My free downloads from Google seem to be missing. That answers #5. I would only use Google for that fact alone. Here is a screen shot of my Google ebookstore library:

Then I clicked the “Read” link in my Schuler Google eBooks list for the CSS book.  I was taken to books.google.com.  Where the next problem came about was when I clicked the Back link.  Instead of taking me back to the page I was on (my ebook library), it takes me back to the product page for that book on Schuler.  Oops. That answers #6. The transition has a problem.

Go shopping

To test #3, I simply added an eBook to my cart and then a paperback book.  I immediately received this red error message, which answers it:

We could not add this item to your cart. At this time, Google eBooks must be purchased separately from other products and other eBooks. We apologize for the inconvenience while we’re working to improve this.

Unlink

I was unsuccessful in using my Google account to figure out how to disassociate my Schuler with my Google Account. I did find the location on Google.  It says: “Connected accounts – View and manage your accounts from other services”. But after clicking it, Schuler does not show up.  Another oops.  I finally was able to figure out how to disassociate them only by visiting shulerbooks.com, My Account, My eBooks, and then a link in the footer says “Disassociate my Google Account”.

In Conclusion

Finally, to answer #1 and #2.  Ultimately, an eBook shopper needs an easy way to search, browse, purchase, read, and be supported in this new and emerging technology.  So far, this ABA indie bookstore Google eBook partnership model fails on many levels.  This seems likely only the tip of an iceberg of failure to me.  Why would someone go to an indie bookstore to buy a Google eBook instead of just going straight to Google?  To offer their undying love and support of the indie bookstore?  Maybe.  But, if going straight to Google saves people enough time, hassle, and headache; then there will not be a need (or want) for the indie middleman.  For example, there is huge value in Google’s searching and browsing capabilities alone.

Many people will simply want the shortest route from point A to point B.  Point A is “I think I want to buy an eBook.”  Point B is reading your new eBook on one of many supported devices.  It is true that you can buy the book at the indie store for the same PRICE as the Google ebookstore–for that, I applaud Google, the publishers, the ABA, and the adoption of the agency model.  But, from the consumer perspective, there is much more to this than simply price and supporing your local indie store.  This indie model adds layers in between Google and the end user.  If these layers do not add enough value to the consumer, they will reject them. Furthermore, if these layers tend to add time and hassle to the process, then more the reason for the consumer to reject them.  By layers, I specifically mean the inferior search/browse capabilities of the indie ecommerce websites. Another layer is the eBook library that was missing three of my books. Another layer is the purchase process. Then the reading process… and so on.

Additionally, a quick test of a few other independent bookstore websites showed very similar problems, and similar unnecessary layers.

In conclusion, the current process of independent bookstores selling Google eBooks was disappointing.  The ultimate fate of this Indie/Google partnership remains to be seen, but my prediction is that it is headed for trouble.

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McKenzie Books (and Cash4Books) ranked #18 in The 100 Best Companies to Work For in Oregon for 2011 (among medium size companies). Rankings based on employee surveys and a benefits report from each company. Check out 3:33, 6:00, and 9:29 to hear McKenzie Books employees share their experiences about working at McKenzie Books.

Below is a chart that shows how our employees rated us in a confidential survey. Being recognized as #18 is an honor… and it  is a direct result of employee opinions about how they align with our mission and core values, the day-to-day opportunities for collaboration and innovation, the ways in which the company provides rewards, and the commitment to sustainability.

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–By guest author Rod Johnson

Are you looking for the perfect way to say I love you at Valentine’s Day?  The “Box of Love” is something I have been doing for my wife for the past 10 years or so.

What is the “Box of Love” you ask.

The “Box of Love” is a small box or tin that contains 12 small envelopes.  There is one for each month.  Each envelope contains a date to go on or something to do for that month.  The idea is to open one each month on the first of the month, and find out what is on the agenda for that month.

As I said my wife and I have been doing this for the past 10 years or so and we have really enjoyed it.  We have created many memories.  The nice thing is that the box makes a great place to store ticket stubs and other mementos so that we can go back later and reminisce.

What we do is to sit down after the date, usually over a cup of coffee, and write on the back of the card. We describe what we did, what we ate if we had dinner, that sort of thing.  We call it signing off the card.  Then we put the card along with any ticket stubs etc. into the box for later.  Many times we will buy a coffee cup or other souvenir to commemorate the occasion.

It is not always the most expensive things that are the best.  Sometimes just a walk together or a picnic means more than a night out on the town or a trip.  The important thing is to spend time together.  When I think up the activities, I look for things that we wouldn’t otherwise do.  For example, visit a local tourist attraction.   Have you ever noticed how you never do any of the touristy things until someone visits from out-of-town?   Well this is your chance to do some of them together.

How can I create a “Box of Love”?

First get yourself a nice box or something to put the cards in.  Then get some business card stock at an office supply store.  Get the kind that has perforations so you can break it apart.  Then put your “dates” on the cards print them out and break them into the individual cards.  I like to make it into a little rhyme like:

“The leaves are turning different colors, they won’t be here long.
Let’s take a drive down to the coast, to miss it would be wrong.”

Once you have your cards, make or buy some business card sized envelopes (sometimes referred to as professional, mini, or florist envelopes).  These can be a little hard to find, and of course you can’t really print on them, so I have always made them.  Just print out pieces of paper with the month names on them, and cut them roughly into the shape of an envelope.  Fold the paper around the business card and seal it with a piece of tape.

Finally, put the cards in the box and when you give it to your sweetheart, get ready for the love.

What if I don’t have time to put it all together?

If you are local (in the Portland Oregon area) you can pick up a Box of Love Kit in the form of a heart shaped tin for $19.95 at the McKenzie Books store on Millikan Way.  If you are not in the area, you can order one online at boxOfLoveStore.com.