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DEAR R&R: Newsletter – November 2007

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

Dear R&R–I love printed postage!  Thanks for adding this to the site.  Now for the problem: I sent a book to a requestor but she hasn’t marked it received yet.  Because i used Printed Postage I got credit immediately after marking the book mailed (another great feature!), and I know this book was delivered because the DC barcode was scanned.  She got the book, but is lying and saying she didn’t get it!  This is so dishonest, and now it looks like I didn’t send the book.  What should I do? –Puzzled in Pennsylvania

Dear Penny,

Thanks for the kind words about Printed Postage.  The feature is really being used!  We are glad we put the work in to make it available.  About your book–it is possible that the requestor hasn’t gotten the book yet.  She may be away from home, or the book was scanned as “delivered” at her local PO and hasn’t made it out to her residence.   It is even possible that the book was misdelivered.  You can’t presume that she is being dishonest.  She could even have forgotten to mark it received.  You can contact her via Personal Message (use the PM button on the lost book in your Transaction Archive, linked from your My Account page) to ask if she got the book.  If you don’t hear back from her within a week, let us know.  We do monitor “incoming” and “outgoing” loss rates automatically on accounts, and we will intervene if someone’s loss rate is too high.   Don’t worry about your account status; your account will show that you sent the book because you used Printed Postage from PBS and the scan information is recorded with the swap.  If this book is declared Lost, and we have to review your account for any reason, we will see that this book was scanned as delivered, and it will not count “against” you.  You can read more about this situation in the Help document “If a book you sent hasn’t been marked received yet…” in the Help Center.

Dear R&R–I printed the postage on a wrapper, but now I can’t find the book to send.  I think I may have lent it to my sister. I cancelled the request after printing.  Can I get a refund for the postage I won’t be using? –Disorganized in Dallas

Dear Dizzy,

Unfortunately, printed postage isn’t refundable.  The funds are transmitted to USPS and endicia.com when you print.  That’s why the Wrapper Settings page contains this information, and you are asked to confirm that the postage amount is correct before you print.    We are really sorry about this.   Please be sure you have the book that is requested in hand before you print with postage. You can read more about  PBS printed postage in the FAQs About Printable Postage in the Help Center.

Dear R&R–I had an issue with another member, and it really upset me.  But I talked to a Live Help Tour Guide and she really made me feel better.   I am new to PBS and would probably have quit the club if it hadn’t been for this kind Tour Guide who was friendly and sympathetic, and took the time to explain that even though there are some bad apples in the bunch, most of the members are really nice, and she was sure I would have better experiences that would help me get over this one.  She was right!  I have had many swaps since then that have been great, I have met many nice members in PMs, and I have tons of books to read.  I am so glad I stayed with the club!  –Happy in Honolulu

Dear Lulu,

What’s not to be happy about?  You live in Hawaii!  Just kidding.  We really appreciate you writing in about this.  We think our Tour Guides are wonderful.  They are experienced bookswappers, and they can save you a lot of time figuring something out on the site.  They really show the best of PaperBackSwap.  We are so pleased that the Tour Guide was there when you needed her.  We are so glad you stayed too!

COMING SOON:

  • Do we need to say it? SwapaDVD!
  • Changes to SwapaCD that you will really like…

Dear Members, Newsletter – October 2007

Thursday, October 4th, 2007

We were listening to music (a classic Smashing Pumpkins CD that we got from SwapaCD) and we got to feeling really Hallowe’en-y. It must have been some subliminal association with the word “pumpkins”. We were humming along, but instead of feeling Smashing Pumpkins’ full of rage or like rats in a cage, instead we started getting in the mood to give out yummy stuff for free. So we buckled down to work and put some new features on the site–some that we have been thinking about and working on for a while, and a couple that just came to us out of the blue. You can find the new “treats” on the site–the Recipes page, the Instant Credit feature, the Tags (read more about all of these below). Yep, Hallowe’en at PBS is all Treats, no Tricks. No carbs or cavities, either.

The moral of the story: Be careful what you listen to…music has the power to drive all kinds of behavior. (Where would the new iPod Nano be without Feist?) Harness that power for GOOD, people!

What’s on your SwapaCD Tower?

Have a great October,

The PaperBackSwap Team

Instant Credits & Book Tags: Newsletter – October 2007

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

Instant Credits are here. Yes, if you print your postage through PBS (you can choose this on the Wrapper Settings page), you will get credit as soon as you mark the book mailed–no waiting for USPS to scan or for the member to receive! What’s better than clicking a button and getting a credit? You can read the FAQs About Printable Postage in the Help Center, to learn all about this feature.

Tag–you’re it! Now you can apply Book Tags to any book in the database, pretty much anywhere you see the book listing. What are they used for? Tags let you put your mark on any item in the database, and create any number of one-click “custom searches”! Tag books you liked…books you hated…books with an antihero…books about the Russian Revolution…books you think have a good moral message…biographies…books you read in school…books you were supposed to read in school…books you have on your nightstand…books you would want with you on a desert island…pretty much anything goes! You can apply any number of tags to an item. and you can click on any tag to see a list of all the books bearing that tag. (We will soon have a way to view the available tags without having to see them on a book listing first.) When you look at a book in the database, you will always see the tags you applied (and you can remove them from there too), even if no one else can. You will also see the top 15 tags that members have applied to that book. Read more about Tags in the Help Center document Book Tags.

What’s Cookin’? Well, a whole lot! Newsletter – October 2007

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007

* First, the PBS Recipes page (under Community) is a place where you can enter recipes to share with others, and get ideas for your next meal! You can search by keyword (Hmm…I’m in the mood for something kinda Mexican), meal type (examples: “dinner” or “Quick and Easy”), dish (main ingredient, examples: chicken, tomatoes), cooking style (gotta use that crockpot!), or nutritional info (lowfat, vegan). When submitting a recipe you can even link a book to the recipe by entering its IBSN.

* We also have a cookbook author among us–well, many cookbook authors, and one very hardworking editor. Sherry N. (royaltech) has been gathering recipes from PBS members for quite a while now, and there was so much interest in a “hard” (not digital) copy that we are looking into publishing it for PBS members to buy from the PBS Store. The PBS Cookbook can only happen if we get enough pre-orders to put in the order with the publisher. The book will be in a hardcover with a comb binding (so the book lies flat when open! very handy), and will cost 12 dollars, shipping included. Pre-order your PBS cookbook in the Kiosk now, and when it comes in we will send it to you. You can even submit a design for the cover if you like. If you have specific questions about the book, ask Sherry, who has done an enormous amount of work getting all of this together!

Member of the Month – October 2007

Monday, October 1st, 2007


Sherry N. (royaltech)

We swear, we didn’t choose her, although of course she is a natural!  We got a ton of nominations for Sherry this month.

Members cited her patient and excellent advice regarding the submission of Data Corrections, her kind and helpful posts in Forums, and her generally all-around PBS-ness.  We think she embodies the friendly, sharing spirit of PBS really well, and as the Co-Coordinator of the Data Correction Volunteer group, she has had a huge part in improving the site for everyone!  She has recently started her own PBS Local Chapter, and we expect that group will soon be hopping with fun events.

Sherry, we appreciate everything you do, and now you know that the members do too!  We don’t know how you manage to accomplish it all, but PaperBackSwap thanks you.

Dear Members, Newsletter – September 2007

Wednesday, September 5th, 2007

We had a very nice birthday at the Decatur Book Festival!  It was great to meet some of our members and we got to tell a lot of booklovers about PBS.   For more photos of the festival, check out the new Photo Gallery (under Community in the menu at the top of the site).

PBS will be participating in festivals in Montana, WY, Baltimore, Georgia and South Dakota this month. In October, we’ll be in Kansas, New Jersey, Illinois, Tennessee, West Virginia and Florida. Anyone who lives in the area of any of these festivals (see the list below) and who wants to help out, please contact us by sending email to  RichardPickering@paperbackswap.com.  What volunteers do: man the PBS booth, pass out flyers, yak with prospective members.  What volunteers get: the opportunity to get tons of referral credits by passing out flyers/business cards with their referral info on them, a PBS Tshirt, the chance to meet other members in their area, and our undying gratitude!  Some of the members who helped with Decatur have already had a lot of new referrals come rolling in…many before the festival had even officially ended!

Upcoming Book Festivals:

  • Missoula, MT “Montana Festival of the Book” September 13-15
  • Cheyenne, WY “Wyoming Book Festival” September 14th and 15th
  • Baltimore, MD “Baltimore Book Festival” September 28th-30th
  • South Dakota “South Dakota Festival of Books” September 28th-30th
  • Blue Ridge, GA “Georgia Literary Festival” September 29th and 30th
  • Wichita, KS “Kansas Book Festival” October 5th and 6th
  • Collingswood, NJ “Collingswood Book Festival” October 6th
  • Aurora, IL “Midwest Literary Festival” October 6th and 7th
  • Nashville, TN “The Southern Festival of Books” October 12th-14th
  • Charleston, WV “West Virginia Book Festival” October 12th-14th
  • St. Petersburg, FL “St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading” October 27th
  • Sarasota, FL “Sarasota Reading Festival” November 3rd
  • Miami, FL “Miami Book Fair International” November 4th-11th

and more to come….

Thanks to our members who made Decatur such a blast: Nancy G (nancyg) and Cheryl G (Poncer), who helped both days; and Diane G (icesk8tr), Lisa M, Patricia G (goldengirl), Jacqueline K, Nancy W (NancyW),  Elizabeth S, Nancy B (NancyB), Karen C (Karen), Jill M (jmccall93), Cynthia S. (Cynthia), Blair G (eblairj), Ronelle G (LargePrintBooks), Amy M (georgiagymdog), and Alan M. We are looking forward to meeting more of our members at future festivals!

Thanks,

Richard&Robert
and the PaperBackSwap Team

NEWS: Newsletter – September 2007

Tuesday, September 4th, 2007

Just Put Down the Stamps, and No One Will Get Hurt. PBS Printable postage is here!  Yes, now you can print the postage to send your books right onto the PBS Wrapper.  Just click Print Wrapper as usual, and you will see the new Wrapper Settings page with the option to choose postage (PBS-DC included), just PBS-DC, or neither.  Check the package weight estimate and correct it if necessary, then print the wrapper and mail!  Because printed postage is not subject to the “13-oz regulation” (all packages bearing stamps that weigh over 13 oz must be handed to a postal clerk at the PO), you can mail your PBS-printed-postage-package (say that three times fast) with your outgoing mail, drop it in a blue mailbox, etc.  If you don’t have a postal scale, you should check out the one in the PBS Store–it’s a great deal at $24.99.  Remember, you can opt to use printed postage with any package, or not; there is no monthly subscription fee.  It’s as easy (and inexpensive) as we could make it!  Now get a-printin’!  PBS Postage will also become available for Box-O-Books and Custom DC very soon.

She’s in the Money...Well, in the book credits, at least.  The Winner of the PBS Third Birthday Contest (and 50 book credits) was Dawn F., who made a spectacular guess of 1,477,378 for the total available books as of noon on September 1st.  The actual number was just ONE book more: 1,477,379.   We got guesses all over the spectrum (a couple of you thought we’d have seven million books!), and some very close to the number, but no one as close as Dawn.  We don’t know if she’s pyschic or lucky or what, but we will be asking her to choose our lottery numbers for sure…

Apology from PBS. We had significant server trouble on August 20th; it took down the whole site for several hours, a really unprecedented length of downtime for PBS.  It took a while to track the problem to its source: the PBS Daily Digest and Daily Wish List.  These emails really put a strain on the server.  We think we have fixed the problem now.  We know you all love your Digests!  We are sorry our servers found them…well, indigestible.