Writer’s Journal: How to use Gumroad

Welcome back to Austen Promises and the Writer’s Journal!

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I thought this week might be a good time to finish up the instructions I began a while back about how to buy books from Gumroad.

In case you didn’t know it, I sell my ebooks directly, via a Gumroad store. There are advantages and disadvantages to this, for me and for book buyers. One of the disadvantages is that people who are not tech-savvy often find the site difficult to navigate and have problems downloading their books. Hopefully, with these instructions, it will go easier for them.

The first thing some people have had problems with is finding the buy button. When you first click a link to a book on my store, you will see the top part of the cover, with a price in the upper right-hand corner. To see the book description and the buy button, you must scroll down. At the bottom of the cover, there is a description and a button that says “I want this!” That button is the buy button. Please make sure you have read the description completely before you hit that button. Below the book’s blurb, there is a paragraph that tells you what you are getting and that you must sideload your book onto your device.

If you choose to buy the book, click “I want this!” On the next screen, fill in your credit card information and click “pay.” On the next page, you see a screen that looks like a receipt. There is a grey box that says “view product.” There’s also a place to click to view your receipt.

If you click “view product,” which opens a new tab (at least on a laptop it does.) Here you can choose your file(s) and download them. All the ones listed are yours. You can download just one or all four. If you choose “download all” you get an option to download as a zip file or save to Dropbox. I don’t use Dropbox, though I do have an account. If you click an individual file, you can save it to your laptop, or, I assume, your phone or tablet’s download file.

 

If you scroll down on this page, you can give the book a star rating and/or create an account, which allows you to access the files forever, from any device.

 

Before I forget, there is a Gumroad app and a button on the files page that allows you to open the book in the app. I do not have the app, because it’s geared toward readers and not creators (me). I don’t know how well it looks, but it might be worth a look-see.

That’s all there is to making purchases from my Gumroad store. I provide directions to help buyers get Kindle copies onto their devices, but do not have instructions for moving epub files. That’s because there are so many devices that I’m not sure generic directions will help. Despite that, I’ll explain below how I move files.

When I had an actual Nook, I used to hook it up to my laptop, open it, find the file folder the books were stored in, and dragged and dropped new books into it. I’m sure that method still works in many cases, and probably would work on my current tablet.

However, I have found that it’s just as easy to upload my book to Google Drive from my laptop, then open Google Drive on my tablet. I then find the book and download it to the tablet. Then, I open my file folder icon on the tablet’s home screen, go to internal storage, then downloads, and click and hold on the book until it gets checked. Then, I go to the top of the folder on the right and click “move.” I go back to the left and choose “SD card” because all my books go on the SD card, and when that opens, choose my books folder and click done. My book is now in the folder I want it to be. When I go to that folder and double tap it, the book automatically opens in Nook, because I have it set to do so.

Now, all that sounded rather complicated to me, and I have no images to go along with it, but it’s really rather easy once you’ve done it a time or two.

Are you a person who reads on a device with a Nook or Kindle (or even Kobo) app? Do you ever sideload books? How do you find the process?

Come back next Wednesday for another peek into my journal! <3

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