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February 2022

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An Easy To Use Excel Spreadsheet to Record Writers Expenses

by • Business and money

This is a quick short post offering an Excel spreadsheet to record writers expenses. I use it to track my business expenses for the year.

It’s a very basic one, but I added a few features to help me. For example, at the far right, it compares the amount you enter to the right of the name with the one you put in the particular category. If you did it right, it tells you immediately (“equal”). If it doesn’t, it’ll show “not equal”).

On the next tab can be found where to put your year-end income and expenses such as taxes.

On the third tab is a simple roster to keep track of what festivals and appearances you want to go to and if you paid and rented a hotel room for it.

That’s it. At the end of the year, I make sure all the figures are correct (compared to the 1099s I get from the sellers), and email it to my accountant, who turns it into tax returns.

I hope you find this useful.

QR code example

Can I Use QR Codes for My Author Business?

by • Ask the Career Indie Author, Marketing

It’s useful to create QR codes for your author business. It’s surprisingly easy, takes little time, and offers another way for people (with smartphones and an app that scans QRs) to learn more about you and your books anywhere.

What Is A QR Code?

A Quick-Response code (hence, QR), operates like those barcodes you see on products in the grocery store and the ISBN code on the back of books. It contains a piece of information, but instead of long black lines of varying thicknesses, a QR code consists of black and white blocks.

What Can I Use It For?

A QR code can contain your website’s URL. It can be your home page, but how about this? Create a special page offering a free ebook or an invite to sign up for your newsletter. Directing traffic to a page that can’t be reached in any other way means that you can keep track of how many people use that code. If, later, you run a Facebook promotion or a social media blitz, you can gauge its effectiveness by looking at your website’s statistics.
Here are some other ideas:
* Send them to a page where they can read a short story
* Send them to your Amazon page where they can buy your book, or your favorite bookstore so they can pre-order a signed copy of your next book.

Where Can I Use My VR Code?

Anywhere! We have it on the front and back page of our printed catalog. We’ll put it on our next set of bookmarks. I’m thinking about putting it in our books as well.

Why Use QR Codes? Can’t I Just Print My Website Name?

You can still do that, but don’t judge people’s behavior by your own. With a smartphone, it’s easier to use a QR scanner app to reach a website than typing it in, especially if your name is difficult to spell. It’s certain a lot faster to reach pages inside the website, like “https://www.peschelpress.com / special offers” than typing it in and remember to use the right slash and the proper number of w’s.
Plus, don’t neglect the coolness factor. People like using their smartphones, and giving them a way to use their scanner is so Star Trekkie that it’s fun.

How Do I Make A QR Code?

Search for “QR Code generator” and you’ll find plenty of sites that’ll do it for free. If you can, find one that’ll let you drop in your logo for added coolness points!