Last week, I took a call from an author who was launching a charity alongside a testimonial book. The author asked for help setting up the charity program, and of course, designing it to compliment the book. In this post, I share some details from that experience.
Video Transcript
Hey. I’m TJ Culler, and welcome to The Author Spot channel. Today I want to share with you a little tech story that happened just a week ago.
The Author Spot helps writers and authors navigate technology, and honestly, our jobs are about as varied as technology itself. Case in point: a client writing a Christian testimonial book called Lamb Lane came to us needing more than just book help.
The book chronicles a season of homelessness and a community outreach effort called The Lamb Lane Project. The client wanted to set up a way to collect donations for the charity. That’s where things got interesting.
First, we helped the client lock down a domain name and pointed it to The Author Spot’s server for hosting.
Then we built a static “hero” page for the project — you can see it at www.thelamblaneproject.com. It gives visitors a clear path to support the cause, whether through volunteering or donating.
Donations, though, need somewhere to go. For that, we turned to Givebutter, a charity-focused platform similar to GoFundMe.
Setting up the Givebutter account was fairly straight forward. Connecting it to the client’s bank account? Not so much.
The client had wisely set up a separate bank account just for donations — smart move, keeps things clean. Except it was a savings account. And that one detail is where things went south.
As designed, a donation is made through Givebutter, and is then processed by Stripe, on its way to the client’s bank account. On paper, this looked pretty good.
We got everything wired up and initiated the first transfer from Givebutter to the client’s dedicated account. Days passed. Nothing showed up. So we did what geeks do — put on our geek hats and logged in as “Root.” (Hope some of you got that.)
Turns out the client’s bank wouldn’t allow direct deposits into a savings account. So, the Stripe transfers failed. The bank only allowed Stripe deposits into a checking account. Who knew? (We do now.) So we helped the client open a checking account. We then updated the Stripe settings, reconnected everything to Givebutter, and tried again.
This time, it worked. The Lamb Lane Project is now up and running, accepting donations the way it was always meant to.
I’m sharing this story because it makes two points, and both matter.
First, writers aren’t tech people. Some are, sure — but most aren’t, and that’s completely fine. It’s why our tagline is “Go on and write. We’ll handle the tech.”
Second, this is exactly the kind of thing we’re here for. We handle plenty of publishing-specific tech issues, but sometimes an author just needs a geek in their corner who won’t quit until the transfer actually clears. That’s the idea behind our by-line: “Solutions for Technology-Challenged Authors.”
So, if you’re an author or a writer, no worries—The Author Spot is here for you. Go on and write. We’ll handle the tech.
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TJ Culler is an author, reader, and an adventurist. She loves working at The Author Spot as an Author Platform Specialist. Her hobbies include hiking, camping, and driving her Jeep in the great outdoors. After publishing her first book in 2017, TJ discovered what a daunting task an author platform really was. She now dedicates her time to helping authors who struggle with technology. |
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