Book’em’s Read Me Week 2010

The BookFools were honored to participate in Book’em’s Read Me Week this year at Caldwell Enhanced Option School. NPT put together a post that explains this amazing event in more detail. I just want to share a few pics and make a related announcement:

BookFool.com has officially chosen Book’em as our outlet for charitable giving and corporate volunteering. Book’em’s mission is to distribute books to underprivileged local children and to provide reading volunteers to area schools to encourage a lifelong love of reading.

About a month ago, we met with Book’em Executive Director Melissa Spradlin to discuss their plans and to brainstorm how we might work together. We are very impressed with Book’em’s mission, passion, and efficiency in getting books into the hands of young readers and hope this will be a fruitful partnership for many years.

If would like to get involved with this worthy non-profit yourself, visit their website for some ideas.

And now, the pictures.

Farmer Jason really brought down the house.

Jumping to the music.

Expounding upon the joys of reading.

Mixing it up with this motley crew.

Cool Tool: BookFool.com Word Cloud

From the amazing Wordle:

We sure do talk about Plans a lot on this blog, huh?

Is it Time for Plan B?

Revert to Plan B (cc) Flickr user mringlein

This American Life did a fine show last year on Plan B:

There’s the thing you plan to do, and then there’s the thing you end up doing. Most of us start off our lives with some Plan A which we abandon…switching to a Plan B, which becomes our life.

Conan O’Brien got bumped to Plan B a few months ago. A lot of good people have had to revert to Plan B during this recession, and all the animals at the shelter are waiting for their Plan B to begin.

But Plan B doesn’t have to be a bad thing. How many of you have found that Plan B led to a better life than you ever imagined under the original plan?

I asked the Fools to share their plans for their lives before BookFool. It was an open-ended question, so we had a wide variety of responses. I’ll kick it with my short entry:

Luke

My plan went Motorcycle Driver > Chef > Radio DJ > Teacher > Videographer > Marketing/Strategy. When I was a kid, I thought that people driving motorcycles up and down the highway were being paid to ride. Then I planned to be a chef and talked about that plan a lot, so much that people I knew then still ask me when I’m going to culinary school. I guess now I’m on Plan F.

Kris

I’m on Plan B.

  • Plan A: Play in the NBA.
  • Plan B: Entrepreneur, which started when my father gave me a huge wooden desk around age 6 or 7.

Accountancy was the best avenue I saw to make Plan B work. From age 6 to 14, I went back and forth between Plan A and Plan B.

Like this, only much much bigger! (cc) Flickr user H is for Home

The Story of the Desk
My father’s office of Arthur Young was closing in Fayetteville, AR, I think around 1987. He chose not to move to Austin for the company. The office was giving away all the furniture and my mom pushed my dad to take something. So he snagged a desk. He didn’t take the nicest desk nor did he take something small.

The desk landed in my tiny bedroom and quickly became the fixture of my dreams. I would site behind this tectonic slab of wood and play “store.” I had old checks from my parents I kept in the drawers that felt like real money. There’s no telling what else I had in the drawers. I know I stored my basketball card collection there.

This is the desk I use today. The desktop needs refinishing, and I’ve never had a key to lock the middle drawer, but I hope to use it for many more years.

Casey

Still on Plan A. :)

Nicole

Jet Fighter > State Senator > Political Legislative Assistant > Human Resources Manager > Customer Care. I thought I was going to join the Air Force and be a Jet Fighter. Then I wanted to be a SENATOR only to find that the Political World was too harsh for my kind heart, but I fell into HR, which has led me to Customer Care and I couldn’t be happier!

Lou

Well, it kinda went like this:

  1. In High School I wanted to be a starving artist.
  2. At the end of High School I was starving and in love!
  3. Married and had a child soon after graduating high school.
  4. Entered the Air Force where I would live my life with my family and the military…Plan A.

Plan B Happened….

  1. Marriage ended in divorce.
  2. Was introduced to Lisa, my current wife, who was also in the Air Force.
  3. Left the Air Force to go to college for Advertising Design (starving artist related!).
  4. Started a wonderful career in that field and progressed to management.
  5. Landed on BookFool.com mountain and am loving every minute of it.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

YOU!

How about you? What’s your Plan B?

Jim Coudal’s Greatest Failure

A quick quote for this icy Tuesday:

“If it’s a good idea and it gets you excited, try it, and if it bursts into flames, that’s going to be exciting too. People always ask, ‘What is your greatest failure?’ I always have the same answer — We’re working on it right now, it’s gonna be awesome!” ~ Jim Coudal

Your Fools are working behind the scenes this month to make something big happen. You may not see its effects for awhile but stay tuned!

(cc) Flickr user Tancread

Public Speaking Horror Stories

(cc) Flickr user Brendan Biele

Scott Schwertly of Ethos3 just launched a new blog, Stuff Presenters Like, filled with good stuff, bad stuff, lame stuff, and horror stories about public speaking. If you’ve ever spoken in public, you’ve probably got one to share.

Yours truly contributed a public speaking horror story to the inaugural “issue.” A snip from the middle:

When it’s finally my turn, I take the podium, wait for my first slide to appear, and jump in. I’m watching my pace and clicking my slides on cue. I’m making eye contact. I’m even getting a few giggles out of the crowd. But they’re not laughing at the right parts. In fact, they don’t seem to be paying attention at all. They’re whispering to each other and shifting around in their seats.

I begin to panic.

Click through to read more. Do you have any public speaking horror stories to share?

BookFool’s 100% Return Guarantee

It’s been a busy selling season here at BookFool.com. We strive to get all orders out the door in one business day or less, which means we’re usually shipping on Saturdays (and some Sundays) just to keep up with the demand. Students need their books and they need them fast!

(cc) Flickr user Plutor

A month ago, we took a hard look at our return policy and made a major change. In the past, anyone could make a return and receive a portion of their purchase price (often 100%) depending on the age of the order and whether we made a mistake or they did.

Well, this was confusing. Some even found it annoying.

We kept putting ourselves in the unfortunate position of having to ascertain who was at fault before every return, which seriously complicated our customer service efforts and more than doubled our load of emails. Of course we would always defer to customers who said that BookFool was at fault, but it still required more emails than it should have to resolve the situation.

So we simplified everything. Meet the Foolish Guarantee:

Within 30 days of purchase, if you return your book in the same condition as when we shipped it, we will refund 100% percent of your purchase price and reimburse you $3.99 for return shipping, for any reason! We only ask that you contact us for a Return Authorization before shipping anything back to us.

100% return guarantee + free return shipping. We want you to buy with confidence! What do you think?

WANTED: Marketing/Communication Intern for Spring-Summer 2010

If you’re ready to make a serious contribution to a worthy cause—rehabilitating the textbook industry—BookFool.com is offering real resume-building experience in Marketing, PR, and Event Planning.

BookFool.com is an independent, rapidly growing East Nashville textbook seller. Though not a large company, we do have a big impact, and there is still time to write yourself into the BookFool story in a profound way.

WHO WE NEED

We’re looking for a detail-oriented intern who can work independently and communicate professionally. This includes writing, which you will be doing a lot of.

Your official title will be Marketing Intern with a direct report to our Minister of Communication (Marketing Director), but like everyone at BookFool, you will wear many hats. Responsibilities include:

  • Writing and distributing press releases.
  • Helping establish and maintain our presence in social media.
  • Researching and writing critical marketing reports.
  • Making phone calls on behalf of the Fool.
  • Compiling media lists and building media relations.
  • Setting up new business relationships with schools and professors.
  • Finding new ways to grow the Fool’s media reach.
  • Much more…

Past marketing interns have created and curated a haiku contest for the Tomato Art Fest, painted a 15-foot mural of one of our favorite poems, written numerous blog posts, built media contact lists, and more.

APPLY

This internship pays $7.25/hr. You must have occasional transportation to our East Nashville location, though some of your work can be done from home. Please send resume with references and a writing sample to this email address.

Dormology Chapter 4: Dorm Pranks

[Series Table of Contents: The Fool's Guide to Dormology]

Chapter 4: Dorm Pranks

Geek dorm prank (cc) Flickr user Mllerustad

By: David, Intern to the Stars

Everyone knows that one of the best aspects of living in a building with 200 of your closest friends is the prank potential. The closeness leaves everyone vulnerable–except, of course, the master prankster. To become the master of the pranks requires not only cunning and agility but also a massively creative brain. Here are a few true life pranks to get your creative juices flowing.

[Note: BookFool.com does not advocate that readers attempt any of these pranks. All reader attempts at prankage are done at the reader's own risk and neither BookFool.com nor I, your humble author, claim responsibility. In addition to the potential hazards involved in pranking, it is often quite mean to prank people. And BookFool.com does not support meanness. Unless, of course, it's really really funny.]

Prank #1: Trapped in the Dorm Room

(Not to be confused with R. Kelly’s hip-hopera Trapped in the Closet)

I have a friend–let’s call him Randy–who pulled this prank on a whole floor of guys. Randy and a few buddies had a friend who worked in their school’s cafeteria. They managed to get their caf-working buddy to donate about a thousand Styrofoam cups to their prankly cause. Then they waited until 3 or 4 in the morning. At this unreasonably late hour, Randy and his bros snuck into another hall on campus with their cups. Using the sinks in the hall bathroom, Randy and Co. filled up the cups one by one with water and covered every inch of the hall floor in little cups full of water. The next morning, the residents of the victimized hall had to empty the cups one by one in order to leave their hall. They all missed class. BLAMMO.

Prank #2: Wake Up Sticky

This one’s pretty creative. My friend–let’s call him Howard–decided to prank this other guy, who we’ll call Dean. Basically, Howard made a sugar-water concoction and put it in a spray bottle. At night, Dean’s roomate would let Howard into the room after Dean had fallen asleep.  Howard would lightly mist Dean with sugar water and leave. Every morning, Dean would wake up sticky and could not figure out why this was happening every morning. Eventually, Dean went to health services to find out why his sweat was sticky. POW.

Office Prank (cc) Flickr user disterics

Prank #3: Way Too Many Phone Numbers

Who says students have too much time on their hands? These folks filled a kid’s entire room in torn up phone books. Check out the video of this championship prank (Warning: Language).

Prank #4: The Great Flood

This prank is brutal. My photography teacher from high school–let’s call him Mr. Noah–is the perpetrator. When Mr. Noah was in college, prank wars raged unbelievably hard. After climbing into his bed only only to find a huge collection of toenail clippings mixed with Gold Bond Powder spread between his sheets (yeah, weird), Mr. Noah was ready to take his revenge.

Mr. Noah had a hunch about who had contaminated his pristine sheets. The next night, Mr. Noah took the huge 55 gallon garbage can from the end of the hall and filled it with water. With the help of some buddies, he dragged the can down the hall and leaned it against his victim’s door. The next morning, when yawning Mr. Gold Bond Toenails opened his door, he was greeted by 55 gallons of water flooding into his room. Mr. Gold Bond: 1; Mr. Noah: INFINITY.

Pulled Any Good Pranks Lately?

How about you? How have you pranked your fellow dorm residents? Tell us about it in the comments.

We Have the Best Customers

Businesses are made up of individuals. Obvious, right? But how often do we forget this?

(cc) Flickr user Archie McPhee Seattle

When we complain about unfair treatment, we start off mean and super-aggressive, shaking our fist and raising our voice, as if that’s the only way to get our way. And then when we get what we want, we never go back to say thanks, even if it was our own mistake that caused the problem.

We forget that it’s a real person we’re complaining to on the other end of the line.

The textbook industry has notoriously bad customer service, which is something we’re trying to change. But considering how poorly our customers have been treated by other sellers, I’m always surprised by how generous and good-humored they are to us.

Just last week, Jenise and Ashley came by to pick up a book and brought cupcakes for the whole crew so we could help them celebrate their birthdays. Happy to oblige!

Last night, I received the following email from Aundrea:

I just wanted you to know that I have been using your service for quite some time and I am VERY pleased. This semester I bought all my books using the BookFool.com service and it saved me around $500!!! I also love the buy back service that comes around to my school. When I used it two semesters ago, I was able to buy my books for the next semester with the money BookFool.com gave me for my books! Again Thank you so much for your service!!!

Last week, we received this message from Alexandria:

I love bookfool.com! You’ve been to my school to buy back books. And I love it. And I’ve ordered my books through you guys for this semester. I’ve saved about $150 so far because of bookfool.com. Continue with your greatness! Thanks!

Needless to say, receiving compliments out of the blue really makes our day. Apropos of nothing, these customers (and many more) have taken a few minutes out of their day to send us a virtual cupcake. We forward them around the office, print them out, and then work extra hard to be worthy of such praise.

Question of the Day: Who should you send a virtual cupcake to today? I guarantee you will make their day.

(cc) Flickr user Bev (Sugarbloom Cupcakes)

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