Dropping onto New Platforms

As we have mentioned before, we at Booknotes are not that technologically inclined.  We have had many problems over the years getting our online presence just right.  Case in point, our Google listing.  When we first posted our listing on Google, and it related sites, we didn't really know what we were doing.  It took us multiple tries before we got them online, and it never really worked out perfectly.  Google kept telling us that there were multiple listings for us, and we couldn't tell what was going on.  For a few weeks or more, we couldn't even access our account.  We eventually got it back, but by that time we were focusing more on Facebook.  Recently, we were able to re-launch our Google listings, but we still cannot seem to get it working right.  We have been asked to create a website, even though we already have one.  Yes, it is somewhat padded, but it is there.  We are now posting on Goggle+ as well, but we still haven't got all of that connected yet either.  There is just some much content we have, and not enough of it to go around.  This is one reason why we are linking our Blogger account to our other social media sites, to get our audience connected again.  Stay tuned for more, somewhere and/or everywhere, next week.

Something New for Easter

As we mentioned last week, we are experimenting with some new things online.  One of them is this blog.  For the next few weeks, we will be composing our post on Blogger instead of the website and providing links on social media.  We feel that we will be able to post some things here using the full version of the software will be better than the limited version on the website.  We didn't even realize this version truly existed until recently.  Shows you how little we know about computing.  Anyway, this week we are spotlighting some of our children's Easter books.  Here is a picture or two of them.

First is The Story of Easter.  It is a Little Golden Book version of the Biblical story,  perfect for young readers.  Next is My Easter Egg.  It has a clear plastic cutout on the cover, allowing readers to see the shaped pages before getting to read about some animals having an Easter party.  Then there is The Bunny Who Found Easter.  It is not that much about Easter, but the hardcover does have an allegorical message that goes well with the holiday without being too religious.  Then there is The Story of the Easter Bunny.  It is about the origin of the rabbit.  This paperback is very light-hearted and fairly appropriate for young readers.  Last there is Bunny and Friends.  This board book isn't about Easter at all, but it does feature many bunnies in the touch-and-feel format.  We at Booknotes are very pro-rabbit, if you didn't realize that already from our Easter decorations.  Don't forget about our Easter basket made from free pens.  We have lots of them, so we frequently use them for decorations.  See you again next week with some more surprises.

Spring Cleaning and Refreshening

As spring is starting soon, we at Booknotes need to freshen some things up a bit.  One of these things will be the look of our website.  As Easter comes around, we will be adding some minor changes, mostly in spot graphics and color scheme.  We will also be adding to our web content.  Look for some new links in our social media popping up on new dates and times.  Another big change might be in this blog.  We have grumbled occasionally that some Blogger functions don't always seem available in the version used in our website.  However, these functions might become available within the blogger framework itself, when outside the site host.  We are looking into ways of making a better use of this space than the regular updates and what not.  We like our online presence, but will are not using it in the best way.  Hopefully, we will find a way to do so.  Anyway, our first forays will have started by the time this week's post is published.  We will be including links to the online book releases on most Fridays.  We hope to have more capsule book reviews at least every three weeks, usually on Wednesdays.  The blog posts will still be updated on Saturday, even if they might be written beforehand.  For now, check out the store's Easter and spring decorations, which should be up by the time this is published.  That is all for this week; stay tuned for more.

The Pictures-and-Words Equation

When we first started on social media, we didn't have much of a presence.  Basically, we just posted a few messages and an updated picture of our decorated space in the front.  Then, we started adding pictures.  At first, it was just photographs from our events.  Just a cross section of what had happened.  We didn't even get to take pictures at the first event we had after going online; we had issues with the camera.  Then, we started adding a link to our weekly blog posts.  That was all well in good, but still not enough.  We (and in this case I do mean myself) then decided to post capsule reviews of books, on a semi-regular basis.  We were supposed to have more regular reviews on the website, but the person in charge of that didn't really want to do it.  Just last year, we began to post the monthly Upcoming Releases board.  We are somewhat proud of some of our work with it, although there is the occasional mistake as well as some blurry images.  We also began to post pictures of our decorations for each holiday as it comes around.  We are even captioning many of these pics for an added element of fun.   Although it will be slightly late, we will be posting our spring/Easter photos next week.  We have had most of them up since late February, before our latest book signing.  We just wanted it to be actually spring before posting anything else.  be on the lookout for them next week, along with our newest blog post.  See you then.

Our Latest Event

Last Saturday, Booknotes hosted our latest book signing with David Deskins, John David Preston, and Randall Osborne.  Although it was somewhat rainy for most of the afternoon, it was never really heavy or too cold.  We had been worried that the weather might be bad enough to postpone the event,but we didn't have to.  Turnout was a little better than expected, especially considering we didn't do too much advertising.  We served our traditional spiced apple cider, but we were unable to provide other refreshments.  We had a few mishaps, including one major one involving replacing the receipt paper in the credit card machine, but there was nothing too severe.  John David Preston came with a wide assortment of his publishing company's books, but didn't have enough copies of one for everybody.  We are trying to help out anyone who wasn't able to get a copy of that book, or any of the others, on the day of the signing.  We aren't yet sure when this will happen, but we will notify everyone when we get more information.  Again, we would like to thank everyone who helped make this event happen and supported Booknotes.  See you next week.