Taking Inventory of books – what does that have to do with being an indie author?
If you’re indie, that means you’re self-publishing. That means you print your own books. That means at the end of the year you have to file taxes–and tell the IRS about your inventory.
Who cares? You do, if you’re an author. And you do, if you’re a reader, because ultimately you pay for all the author’s inventory.
In this blog post, I provide you a spreadsheet template you can use to inventory your products, books or anything else.
Taking Inventory – the interesting part
Zombie Lady saving money with inventory
The interesting part is that you can save money if you’re an author. And you can pass those savings on to your readers in the form of cheaper books, or better promotions.
And of course, this applies to non-authors too–anyone who sells stuff has to track their inventory.
Another good feature is you’ll have accurate information to give to the taxman. I assume you want to avoid penalties for errors.
Author Liu Cixin follows up his first novel, ‘The Three Body Problem’ with another, just as good. Most of the characters from the first novel are dead, except the rude policeman Da Shi. The novel covers two hundred years after the announcement of the coming alien invasion from Proxima Centauri star system.
The novel begins with the four Wallfacers, people chosen to fight the aliens and who are given dictatorial power and resources. The aliens monitor all earth communication and technology development and thwart any progress in physics through directly affecting particle accelerator output. The Wallfacers, keeping their thoughts and plans to themselves, can surprise the aliens.
But that’s just the beginning. Multiple characters leap forward in time through hibernation to two hundred years later. The Wallfacers emerge with no fame or power. Their whole effort has been superseded with spectacular technical advancements. The Earth has built a fleet of two thousand ships, all faster than the invaders’ ships and armed with gamma ray lasers and fusion bombs.
But everything is not as it seems. The fleet advances to intercept an alien probe sent on ahead.
That’s when the action really begins.
You must read this book. It has more twists than the first one.
Or, you can lose track/not record your gifted books.
You can lose track of your consignment inventory
When you reorder books, the prices can and do change. If you don’t reflect that in your spreadsheet, your dollars spent won’t match what you’ve sold and given away.
These are all mistakes I’ve made.
Ya Got Trouble
The solution is to record your sales and gifts immediately and multiple times. When I sell a book, I make a slash in my notebook under “ZT ZD MUM PP Oops SS or VV”, like this:
ZT lll
ZD ll
MUM l
PP l
Oops ll
SS llll
VV llll
At the same time, I’ll fill out a receipt for the customer. At the same time, I’ll update my sales spreadsheet when I get a chance. So I have 3 records to cross check myself.
This covers cash sales. For credit card, I use Square which gives another check on my sales.
Taking Inventory – Get a Free Book
I’ve got two ways for you to get a free book right now.
First, tell me your ideas, things I haven’t covered. Click right here.
Secondly, you can get a free book through my book newsletter. Click here.
Enjoy all four novels in audiobook, paperback, or Kindle format!
Disabled Middle School Superheroes for You – Find out what my imagination has unleashed: this powerful Secret Supers team go from their special ed class to lives of fighting crime.
In this blog post, you’ll read what Audiobook listeners think in their reviews.
Click to listen to free sample of Secret Supers.
Don’t like audiobooks? You can get the ebooks by clicking here. Kindle will also let you read the first chapter.
And now, the disabled middle school superheroes reviews.
Everyone can be brave and heroic
Overall 4 out of 5 stars
Performance 4 out of 5 stars
Story 4 out of 5 stars
03-07-20
Secret Supers Chapter 1 icon
I love that someone is writing fun superstories in which disabled and differently abled kids can see themselves as potentially brave and heroic. The story doesn’t just show them doing impossible things that fully abled people can’t even do; it shows them using their heads to solve problems and cooperating together to use their different gifts to change the world for the better. And it’s well told, with a youthful sounding narrator that highlights the 12-13 years of the characters.
I received this free audiobook and voluntarily left this honest review.
Let me just say I love this narrator. His voice went perfectly with the story. This book is about disabled people getting super powers and I thought it was awesome. This is a great book for those with disabilities and older children without disabilities. I think we all imagine what it would be like to have superpowers and then this book will find out what these kids do with their super powers.
Mr Andy Zach has crafted a fun story of different-able kids becoming superheroes.
I don’t read much MG fiction, but it was a nice light read. It did feel at times that everything was too easily overcome and the kids only wear super suits once.
It was also interesting to hear what sounded like a middle grade student as the narrator. This had pros and cons for me. It worked for the kids, but some of his adult voices…
Overall, worth a listen, fun story, and likable characters.
In a straightforward plot/storyline that won’t be confused with SciFi, 4 disabled kids become “enabled,” even Super! They are good kids with good intentions and they do the right thing. The parents are all involved, and the community is a middle-class ideal. A sweet read/listen for the suggested reader age range of 10-15.
We have a break from our superheroes to bring you:
A super middle school xylophonist
I try to keep my posts interesting to the very end. If you want to comment on any, just leave me a note here. Or, you can email me here: [email protected]
This was a good book.In it anyone can be a super hero! Luke Castle was a fine narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.’
There’s so much awesome stuff happening in this book! I really enjoyed the story, especially the backbone of it. Each of these kids (Jeremy, Dan, Kayla, and Aubrey) has their own disability and when Jeremy stumbles upon a way to give each of them a super power, they still have to deal with real life. The super power doesn’t take away or negate their disability but it does give them an edge. Plus, they learn to work together as team, using their individual powers to boost each other. Just a fantastic premise for a story.
The story is definitely geared towards kids, as the plot is pretty straight forward and there’s little conflict among the characters. Our heroes already have a fight on their hands – just being accepted in regular society. In fact, the big hurdle in the book deals with that at their public school. I really liked how they pulled together to tackle the problem and how their efforts pulled in their friends, family, and community.
The end leaves us on a triumphant note as well as hinting as more to come. I hope this is just the start of a series. Jeremy needs to keep a close eye on his pet hamster. I kinda hope that hamster becomes the master mind. Ha! 5/5 stars.
The Narration – Disabled Middle School Superheroes
Luke Castle gets an A for effort but a C for product. Castle had a perfect voice for Jeremy, capturing the character’s young earnest voice. Castle’s female character voices need more femininity. Many of them sounded very cartoony. I appreciate Castle’s attempts at regional and foreign accents, but they were hit and miss or way over done (like the Georgia peach and the California valley girl). The pacing was a bit off too, often with long pauses in between chapters (at first, I thought my player had stalled). Castle does a good job capturing the various emotions of the characters. Other than the long pauses in between the chapters, there were no technical issues with the recording. 2.5/5 stars.
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Andy Zach. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
This is a story filled with joy an overcoming obstacles. in these dark times an uplifting tale is needed with the the human spirit meeting the challenges of life with positive mind set and a bit of hard work. The fact that these children are “supers” in this story does not diminish the lesson it teaches. A must listen for young folks and their parents.
A cool middle grade story about handicapped superheroes
Secret Supers Chapter 7 icon
Overall 4 out of 5 stars
Performance 3 out of 5 stars
Story 4 out of 5 stars
05-29-20
Secret Supers is a really cool middle grade story about a bunch of handicapped kids that gain superpowers. The story is written for a younger audience, so it might not appeal to older readers, but I bet kids will really enjoy it, and it is wonderful to see the kids in the story empowered.
The narrator takes a bit of getting used to. He uses a rather nasally voice for one of the main characters that can be hard to listen to. But he is pretty good at character voices, and he grew on me as the book progressed. Unfortunately there is a bit of background noise in the recording which can be distracting.
I received this audiobook at no-cost from Audiobookworm Promotions. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
Disabled Middle School Superheroes Intermission Number 2
Here we have a superhero pilot. Note that he’s landing during Hurricane Dennis.
Now I return you to your normal disabled middle school superheroes reviews.
Uplifting
Secret Supers Chapter 10 icon
Overall 4 out of 5 stars
Performance 3 out of 5 stars
Story 4 out of 5 stars
05-07-20
Secret Supers is such a fun story, and it has a great message. I listened with my mid-grade kiddos, one boy and one girl, and they both enjoyed the story. The target audience may be mid-grade kids, but this is the type of story that is entertaining for both kids and adults.
This book is fast-paced and just loads of fun from start to finish, and it has such a positive vibe. The kids each have a different disability, and those disabilities are handled honestly while still keeping an upbeat vibe. I love how their individual super powers gave them what they needed, and the four together complimented each other so well. The kids are all lovable and quirky, and you can’t help but root for their successes and smile when they do succeed.
Narration Comments – Disabled Middle School Superheroes
It’s interesting that the story is narrated by a teenager. In fact, my kiddos noticed it right away and commented about it. It gave them a whole new appreciation for audiobooks, and they’ll both be looking for more stories narrated by Luke Castle. This young man really seems to enjoy himself as he narrates this book, and that certainly comes through. For me, some of the voices were maybe a little over the top, but my tweens had no complaints, and since this is a mid-grade story, I would say that’s the most important thing. They were thoroughly entertained by both Andy Zach’s story and Luke Castle’s performance, and I have to say that the two do go well together.
All in all, Andy Zach has done a terrific job with this book. The story and its characters are a positive force in a world that is all too often focused on the negative, and it all comes together for one entertaining and uplifting listen for kids of all ages.
This book is fantastic. It has a fantastic story line, great character development, but most of all, the narration was on point. Luke Castle deserves a Grammy, nay, an Emmy, for this reading. Everything from his impressions to his transitions, and everything in between. Truly an amazing book with top-tier narration. A+
Yes this is an audiobook for kids but I found it very interesting due to that is a good lesson for both children and adults handicapped or not. And that lesson if you want something so bad enough you are willing to work hard to get it or achieve a goal that everyone thinks you can not do.
You have the following characters a above average boy, a black blind boy, a young girl who has lost her legs and finally a young girl who has lost the ability to speak or sing. I believe kids would really like this audible because the story is based both on their abilities and disabilities and how they learn from the disabilities but grow and learn as a person and the friendship between the four.
When you have a battle to fight or someone is causing your problems when you have friends you can overcome the problem here was raising $100,000 to cover the shortage on the school year budget or all handicapped children would be bused to another school and maybe not be together. They raised the money by doing the impossible and proving everyone in the city that even though they are handicapped they gave a lots to offer and did not need to be separated from family and friends.
There is a lots more to this book and personally believe you would enjoy the book it brings a smile, a chuckle and a laugh as the story is told and you live the lives of four amazing and awesome handicapped kids.
Four differently-abled kids suddenly gain superpowers and use them to fight crime. How cool is that? Any kid would love to have powers. They used teamwork and demonstrated compassion for others. They also had a lot of fun.
The narration was a bit weird. All the voices sound really nasal. At first I laughed, then for about five minutes I thought they were cute, then I just found the voices annoying. Kids will probably not care about that. I imagine they’ll just enjoy thinking about what they would do with superpowers.
Good storyline and fair plot. The narrator’s voice wasn’t the right one for the book. For me his voice was distracting as he tried to do the different characters.
What Are People Saying About Paranormal Privateers? I’ll tell you right now, from each of my review sources: Amazon, Audible, and Goodreads. Later, you can enter your own review.
Let’s familiarize you with Paranormal Privateers first.
Chapter 1 icon – Somalia
About Paranormal Privateers: Zombies charge first, ask questions later.
Middle-aged, overweight, and undead, Diane Newby leads the paranormal privateers against criminals and corruption. Sailing to trouble spots too sensitive for the US government, with zombie strength and regeneration they beat bullies into submission. Aided by zombie turkeys, corgis, and bulls, vicious criminal geniuses fall before them. If Diane gets overwhelmed by foes, her lovely zombie bodyguards and romantic zombie husband come to the rescue.
Out of the blue, new foes appear. Or are they friends? Or both? The frenemies neutralize zombies and orchestrate world peace. They disrupt the economy and produce fabulous wealth. Even the greatest criminals and governments can’t stop them from dominating the world.
Can humanity afford the price of peace? All must surrender freedom to a not-so-benign dictatorship. Diane and the paranormal privateers must do the unthinkable to save humanity. But is it enough?
In an explosive and unconventional ending to Andy Zach’s Life After Life Chronicles, you will learn what happens when the paranormal privateers meet the world’s greatest fear. And you will laugh all the way.
Super fun saga following the antics of the Paranormal Privateers. Laugh as they save the world. Who would have thought that the undead would be the saviors of the world? A not-so realistic view of the future of the world. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book. If you like comedy, the paranormal or books about pirates, you will absolutely love Paranormal Privateers.
I have read the whole series and enjoyed it. I did not find myself staying g up all night to finish or rushing home to read. That was probably a good thing as then If I had I’d of been cranky and over sleep for work. Never a pretty sight as I am not a morning person anyway. I liked the book for the unusual perspectives and storyline. If I spot about her book from this author O would definitely give it a try.
Whew! Lots of stories within stories with a wink of incredulity as we read along the pages. Tongue-in-cheek adventures, modern day villains’, and zombies; wait, are they still zombies or not?
Yep, we have that zombie virus run amok with various creations to transform them back and forth. How much of a zombie body do you need to regenerate?
Gung-ho leader of the group Diane Newby, husband George, are charging on fighting crime with the discreet eye of the government as their silent partners. Somali pirates, Harrod’s London Store with real bulls in the china shop, parasitic cyborgs, virus-antivirus, bacteria, and other minute details tangle the story line into a braided rug of conspiracies and innovative solutions.
And little do they know, but their arch enemy is among their group.
This was a slow read for me because so many things happen that go back into something revealed earlier that I really concentrated to meditate and map out all the subplots that make this a “HOOT “of a read. Andy Zach must keep a storyboard as big as an unabridged encyclopedia!
This is a read and reread type of book that will never be loaned out because the reader will want to keep it safely hoarded away for multiple times.
About Paranormal Privateers: Now Let’s Look at Audible Reviews
Overall 5 out of 5 stars
Performance 5 out of 5 stars
Story 5 out of 5 stars
05-16-20
Chapter 6 – Tumen River
I love Andy Zach’s Audiobooks.
First off, I want to apologize to Mr Andy for not Reviewing these books at a lot earlier time.
Again I can’t say anything but how much I have enjoyed the three books in this Series. The performance by Phil Blechman was great. I especially loved the voice of the Alien, and the Villains. Y’all just have to check out this Series, you won’t be disappointed. Thanks again Mr Andy Zach.
Note: While this is Book 3 in the series it works mostly well as a stand-alone novel.
Zombies! But it’s worse than that – there’s zombie turkeys, zombie corgis, zombie chipmunks, and even zombie mother-in-laws! Haha! I’ve really enjoyed this series, though Book 1 has been my favorite. This book is fun as well but parts of it were a little slow and there’s a lot piled into the story, maybe a little too much.
Diane, Sam, and Lisa continue to be my favorite characters. Diane is such a quintessential mother-in-law: a bit overbearing but definitely well meaning. If you want a difficult job done to completion, send in Diane (with her zombie corgis and zombie bulls!). And it’s good to have Sam and Lisa taking bigger roles this book (I missed them in Book 2 where they only had a small part near the end).
The story rambles a bit and some of that was fun but some of it felt a little out there, a little disjointed. We’ve got the zombies (human and non-human) but then we toss in North Korea nuclear missile stuff, Somali pirates, aliens, AIs, clones, and a master nemesis who is over 100 years old. Sometimes I did loose track of the plot, though I did so while still chuckling at the humor.
There is a little bit of political stuff tucked in here and there. Whenever I got close to my limit, the story moved on to something else. During these times, I don’t want politics in my fiction as I get enough of it in real life (just a personal bent since I go to fiction to escape reality for a bit). The story leaves us with happy zombies. 4/5 stars.
The Narration: Phil Blechman and Raven Perez continue to give us a really good performance. For the most part, they had unique voices for all the characters. I really enjoy Perez’s mother-in-law voice. There are characters from around the world (and then some) in this story and sometimes the narrators gave us accents, and sometimes this didn’t, and then occasionally those accents went in and out. I was expecting some Somali accents, but didn’t really hear any. Also the Hispanic accent sometimes sounded real close to the Korean accent, which kinda shows how muddled the accents sometimes were. Still, all characters were easy to distinguish from one another. On the technical side, occasionally Perez’s parts sounded like they were recorded in a totally different room than Blechman. However, all around, considering the huge cast of characters on this one, it was a pretty good narration. 4/5 stars.
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Andy Zach. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
Andy Zach has out done himself. Paranormal Privateers has it all! Follow all your favorite Andy characters as they save the world. Full of action that just zings from one scene to the next, leaving you on the edge of your seat.
Yet tender.
Andy incorporates romance in a way that makes you a believer. And of course the Queen of England is here in all her glory.
Yet Andy’s writing is not all fun and games, he has a way with words that reach your heart. Follow him and the zombie bulls as they rip through Harrod’s china department and feel as though you have been there yourself.
I am certain you will love this book.
Who should read it: Any one who has a sense of adventure, all zombie lovers, romance readers who want a new slant, and travel readers who want to take an armchair trip.
Would it make a good gift? Yes, the Life after Life Chronicles would all be great gifts! Something that will make the recipient laugh out loud while clinging to the edge of their seat!
Jacqueline Fairchild –owner, Her Majesty’s English Tea Room. Author: Greater Expectations.
Paranormal Privateers is my third go-around with author Andy Zack. First, I read his bizarre Zombie Turkeys (How an Unknown Blogger Fought Unkillable Turkeys) (2016). Next came My Undead Mother-In-Law (The Family Zombie with Anger Management Issues) (2017). As the titles suggest, Zack’s world of zombie animals and people aren’t meant to terrify readers. Instead, Zack is out to amuse and entertain us with the most unusual situations and scenes most of us will ever experience on the printed page.
Paranormal Privateers continues the weirdness with a handful of returning characters and the type of zombies few of us would want to kill, destroy, or dismember. They’re, for the most part, super-heroes with superior strength, resistance to diseases like cancer, and the ability to regenerate limbs and other body parts. These zombies don’t want to lose these abilities so they carry around vials of infected blood to make sure they have the means to become a zombie again in case somebody cures them.
This time around, a crew of zombies has a presidential commission and a super-yacht to take on missions the U.S. Military can’t. Their leader is the impatient Diane Newby, the “Undead Mother-in-Law” of the previous volume. She fiercely leads her comrades as they battle Somali pirates, Crimean human slavers, and London terrorists in Harrods department store with the aid of huge zombie bulls. (Talk about a bull in a china shop!) then, a more serious scenario pulls together three storylines as the zombie team infiltrate a North Korean nuclear facility. One of these storylines centers on a North Korean defector who first becomes a zombie, then a Christian, and then he does his best to spread both in a prison camp.
Along the way, the heroic zombies and their human allies must suffer with the schemes of Sid Boffin, a 120-year-old criminal genius who wants to rule the earth and destroy all zombies with viruses carried on fly feet. Despite his efforts, Diane and her group fight on even after losing their zombie strength and regenerative abilities.
And then . . . we get an alien spaceship bringing powerful aliens to earth. It’s almost a completely different book from that point forward, beginning about 2/3 of the way in Paranormal Privateers.
All three volumes of the “Life After Life” series so far are fast-paced romps with minimal character development full of quirky humor and off-the-wall satire. While not billed as YA novels, I see no reason why young adults wouldn’t especially enjoy these yarns. There’s much about blogging, Skype, and other contemporary matters throughout all the adventures. How about a Kickstarter campaign to fund a cure for the anti-zombie virus? Political correctness? Say “paranormal people,” not “zombies.”
No reader needs to read the previous books to jump into the action, although it wouldn’t hurt to read My Undead Mother-in-Law first to get some character background. But all you need to get into the quirky world of Andy Zack is to have a healthy sense of humor and the willingness to travel to a world that never was and never will be.
