I am trying something new out on the blog. I have been recommending quite a few craft books on the blog over the last few months and, even if we sell them in the shop and I could mail order them, I have always just added a link to Amazon. The reason being that I couldn't possibly compete with Amazon on price (they seem to be selling books for the same price as I am buying them in) so you are all much better off getting them direct from there.
However Jonathan has just started this great thing called Amazon Associate on our Homestore website. You can put a link on for a book (or anything that Amazon sells) and if a customer clicks through and buys it from your website then you get 5% of the price.
I have just noticed a banner coming up on Blogger recently suggesting using Amazon Associate through your blog so I thought I would have a go. However I can't seem to get it to link to Amazon.co.uk (so that the price comes up in £) using their 'links in the post' facility so I have gone through Amazon themselves to get a permanent link on the blog (which I can change regularly).
I am not thinking this is going to make me rich or even interested in the money side but if I am doing Amazon the good turn of recommending their services to my readers then I think it's a good idea that they should share a small proportion of their profits with me. I have chosen to be paid in Amazon gift certificates so they will get all the money back anyway (but I will get a new book!).
It also looks good to have a photo of the book with a price on the page as it's discussed.
So to try this out I am recommending a fiction book I have just read. It is 'Brooklyn' by the Irish writer Colm Toibin. It is about a young girl who leaves Dublin in the 1950's for a job working in a department store in Brooklyn, and is beautifully written, full of tenderness and subtlety. It is a great read too, not very long so I had it finished in 3 days (this did involve a train journey and some sun bathing)! I found it hard to put down and really loved it from start to finish.
I am a big fiction reader and always have at least one book on the go. Plus I go between a few different bookgroups, where I love to discuss what we have been reading. I thought it might be nice to do a fiction book recommendation every month and I will do a (very brief) review.
I know most of you are too busy crafting to get much reading done, but I can't go to sleep without reading a few pages of something. I need a transition to another world to help me let the day go and slide me in to my dreams. Also reading is good for the brain cells!
I would be really interested to know what you think of the Amazon Associate carry-on (as well as the book if you read it!). Maybe all you fellow bloggers could recommend books too, so that we could have a vritual bookgroup!
Next time I am talking about a particular book I will try this again, but without the big long explanation!
