Bibliotica

…to post reviews here, of The Maidenstone Lighthouse and Little Earthquakes and Pink, and, and, and, but right now I’m so depressed from reading “Miss Lonelyhearts,” which is quite possibly the bleakest and saddest novella EVER, that I just…can’t.

You are all invited to come hang out at CafeWriting.com where we’ve scribbled six prompts on a digital napkin.

Participate! Tell your friends!

(Direct link to October Project)

While I’m not one of them - yet - I’ve noticed that a lot of book bloggers have storefronts where they sell self-published works, or offer discounts from online booksellers. I’ve often thought that direct sales would be a better way than ebay to get rid of unwanted books - you know, the impulse buys that you read, but don’t really want to keep?

In looking at options - affiliation with a known e-tailer or using local shopping cart services, one of the solutions I came across was Ashop Commerce. While they’re based in Australia, they do business nationwide, and what I like about them is that their product is completely scalable, so whether you have one product, or an entire collection, there’s a level of their service that applies to you.

I also like that they support international currency. Yes, you have to specify your base currency - but they’ll help with conversions. They also allow you to accept credit cards without having to go through all the steps of having your own merchant accounts with Mastercard and Visa, which is always a plus.

Even better, they offer a 10-day free trial period, so you can really get to know the software before making a commitment to it. This is important, because often what you read on the web or on the back of the box doesn’t translate into real-world use.

Ashop may not be the best known shopping cart software, yet, but it is one of the best supported, even including a live chat option for questions their FAQ files don’t address with enough depth.

Ashop truly is e-shopping made easy.

Like many readers, I like to read in places where I can stretch out and be comfortable, like my bathtub, and my bed. Like many froufrou fashionistas, my bedroom is an extension of my wardrobe, and therefore has to be interesting, welcoming, and a little bit funky. My husband’s family never believes me when I ask for sheets and quilts at Christmas, but I love having options.

Currently, I’m telling all of them about the unique gifts at Vision Bedding. They can scan a photo (or several) and use it to screen print your comforter. Now, in all honesty, I wouldn’t want photos of me, but, can’t you just imagine how cool it might be to scan the covers from favorite books? You could nap with Nathanial Hawthorne, sleep with Stephen King, or just relax with Rebecca Wells. How cool would that be?

Vision Bedding does most of their work over the ‘net, so check out their website. As for me? I’ll be dreaming of a pillow with my own soon-to-be written book’s cover splashed across it.

I have a fondness for cozy mysteries. You know, the ones in which ladies sit around in
conservatories and draw, paint, gossip and sip tea. These novels are invariably British, or at least take place in England or Scotland, and at some point there will be a wild storm, with a tree crashing through the glass roof, and all the suspects (and the killer) being trapped until the mystery is solved.

Home improvements are never talked about in such novels, but if they were, I’m quite sure the company doing them would be Anglian Home Improvements. Not only do they specialize in designing conservatories and re-fitting garages, but in their thirty-plus years of doing business, they’ve developed a reputation as the experts in double-glazed windows.

As well, Anglian Home Improvements offers a ten-year guarantee on their work, which is more than the average remaining lifespan of the perpetrator in one of the mysteries I love so much.

Anglian Home Improvements: there’s no mystery about what company to choose.

You’ve probably noticed a few posts tagged “sponsored” here on the book blog - not a lot, because I’m trying to only take assignments that are related to books, but some. I’m doing this because books are expensive, but I have to have them in order to review them.

One of the sites offering me assignments so I can get paid to blog is Smorty.com. I’m not certain where they’re based but many of their posts refer to sites in the UK and Australia, and that’s fine with me. After all, the former is the land of Shakespeare, Jasper Fforde, and Marian Keyes, while the latter has also produced some amazing fiction.

I like Smorty more than other paid blogging sites because they pay weekly and are fairly low key. No blinking badge ads or special code are required - they just review your blog and your traffic and if they like it, all is well. Also, their terms are clear. For example, if you submit a review, and the advertiser doesn’t respond within a week to tell them otherwise, it’s automatically approved and you get paid.

The decision to blog for money is never easy, but Smorty is one of the few that offer quality assignments without making you feel like you’ve sold your soul.

There are three blog advertising sites that I would recommend over all the others. (Ask me, and I’ll tell you the other two.) Smorty is one of them.

My favorite details of the Harry Potter books are the moving, interactive paintings and photographs, where you can not only see a bit of movement, but because subjects can visit other frames, it’s like having many different pictures.

Even though we live in a decidedly muggle world, we actually can have something similar, thanks to the use of modern technology. Buy a digital photo frame and use your USB drive to upload images, and you can have either a single still, or a personal slide show, playing in a photo frame of your choosing (metal, wood-tone, or acrylic) in sizes from 7-10 inches, and even better, you can include audio.

The company that makes these digital frames is called Digital Framez, and even though their locations are limited to the UK and Australia right now, they ship worldwide.

Even better, 10 inch digital picture frames come with a free 256 MB memory card, and all of them also support DIVX playback, so you can actually have movie playback, and since DigitalFramez.com takes PayPal, and will give you pricing in your local currency, not only do you not have to figure out what $109 is in galleons and sickles, you also don’t have to convert dollars to British pounds.

Consider a digital frame today. It’s less expensive than a trip to Hogwarts.

Welcome to Bibliotica. I had a bookblog at one of my other sites, but felt the need to have a domain name that was a little more bookish. Comments are welcome, but are screened the first time anyone posts. Reviews are my own opinion, but I’d love to hear yours.