Top 7 Tips for Selling Used Books

The stack of books I sold.

Last weekend I thought it was about time to clean out my bookshelves. I've been holding onto a lot of children's books that really didn't hold much significance to me, and I had a pile of new books that needed room. It was time.

Normally, I just donate my unwanted books that I just don't love as much. Usually if I can't remember what happened in the book, or if I have no intention of ever reading it, it has to go. However, this week I decided to go out of my comfort zone and try to sell some of my books to the second hand bookstore. To my surprise, it actually worked out really well. I ended up selling nine books and making twenty dollars in cash or thirty dollars in store credit.

The man behind the counter, buying the books, was incredibly kind. He said that he acknowledges that the books are important to seller, even if they aren't store-worthy, so he treats them with respect. He didn't imply that you were wasting his time with the unworthy books he had to look through. Plus, he was obviously a booklover, because he mentioned how much fun he had looking through all the books people bring in. This experience was so great, and so much more enjoyable than whenever I attempt to sell clothes at Plato's Closet, haha.

During this process, I learned a few things that I wanted to share with you!

Reviewing Books by YouTubers: Grace & Style by Grace Helbig

A few weeks ago I announced that I was going to be reading books written by professional YouTubers and reviewing them on A Splash of Ink. I'm interested to see if these books have merit outside of their built in audience (and thus, built in paycheck). If you want to read the first review on Tyler Oakley's Binge and hear a little bit more about my summer project, you can read it here.

Today's book is Grace and Style: The Art of Pretending You Have it by Grace Helbig. The order of the reviews in this series is mostly based on how quickly my holds at the library come in, so unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to read Grace Helbig's first book Grace's Guide. However, these are separate books, so it shouldn't matter. Onto the review!

Finding the Balance Between Blogging and Writing

I find it incredibly difficult to balance my blog writing with my personal writing. I love working on my blog, but I feel like I'm missing something when I'm not writing my personal project. Like I'm cheating myself. I know that blogging and working on my personal project aren't mutually exclusive, tons of you guys do it, but in my brain, I've created that divide.

I tell myself that I have to pick between them. Either work on my project or write on my blog. I remember hearing someone say "every word you write on your blog is a word you're not writing in your book" or something along those lines. I think I really took that to heart somewhere along the lines.

This struggle to find balance between projects is something that I've expressed before. In particular today I want to explore the balance between blogging and writing.