Free tools and plain-language explanations for authors navigating the business side of publishing.
I've run into enough avoidable frustrations as an indie author that I want to share what I've learned. Starting with one of the most common, and most easily avoided traps: QR code scams.
A QR Code (Quick Response Code) is simply a way to encode information (almost always a URL) as a pattern of black and white squares that a phone camera can read instantly. When someone scans the code, their phone decodes the pattern, extracts the URL stored inside it, and opens it in a browser. That's the whole thing. There's no service in the middle. No account. No server. Just a picture with data baked into it.
Think of it like a barcode on a product, like your book. The barcode itself contains the product number. It's even printed on the label. No one charges you to read a barcode. A QR code works the same way: it's a graphic that encodes your URL, and anyone can generate one for free.
The problem with many "free" QR code websites
Most QR code generator websites don't actually put your URL directly into the code. Instead, they encode a link to their own servers, which then redirect visitors on to your page. This means:
This is a common and painful trap for indie authors. You print a hundred bookmarks with a QR code linking to your newsletter signup, hand them out at a book fair, and a year later readers scan the code and get an error page, or worse, a prompt to pay $15/month to reactivate it.
The good news: you don't need any of that
Since a QR code is just data encoded as a graphic, the code can be generated entirely in your browser, with your URL embedded directly. There is no redirect, no third-party server, no subscription. The tool below does exactly that. Your URL goes straight into the code. Scan the result with your phone and you'll land directly on your page, no middleman involved.
Once you save the image, it's yours forever. Print it anywhere. The code will keep working as long as the URL it points to is live, not because someone else is keeping a server running for you, but because the data is right there in the image itself.
Enter your URL below. The code is created right here in your browser. Nothing is sent to any server, and nothing expires.
Scan this with your phone to test it before printing. Click Download to save the PNG file.