Holiday Book Swapping 2024 - Queen's Book Asylum

4 years ago I decided to have a Secret Santa-type of thing going on for the community which I called Holiday Book Swapping. It wasn’t as popular as I hoped, but a couple of people still got a surprise book out of it, and every little bit helps. This year I decided to bring it back, and I hope that you’ll join us for the Holiday Book Swapping 2024 event!

What is Holiday Book Swapping 2024?

Well, as its name might suggest, it’s an event where people will exchange books animously. Everyone who wishes to take part will gift and receive one book in their chosen format (paperback or hardcover). It will make sense later on. The goal is to bring a bit of festivity into the year that is 2024. I think we all need a bit of cheering up.

How does it work?

Anyone who wishes to participate has to fill out a form after which they agree to gift a book to a randomly chosen person and receive one in exchange from someone else. The sign up period will last until November 15th. Then I’ll make the pairs randomly and email everyone with their details.

Those who wish to take part have to decide whether they’d like to send and receive a paperback or hardcover book. In the past we allowed ebooks too, but since this exchange is open internationally, it causes some issues as you can’t gift ebooks that easily. For example, I’m based in Hungary and while I use Amazon.com for getting my ebooks, I can’t claim ebooks gifted to me through the platform. But I also use the UK Amazon site when I want to buy stuff there – even though I can’t buy ebooks on that platform. Believe me, it’s a mess. Besides, who doesn’t like getting a surprise book in the mail, especially as Christmas time approaches?!

Before signing up, the first thing you have to do, is to create a holiday wish list on the platform of your choice (this can be Amazon, Goodreads, etc.) as long as you can share a link to it. Please name this list as Holiday Book Swapping 2024 to avoid any conflicts. Also please keep it reasonable, no one wants to scroll through hundreds of books. Let’s say a maximum of 25. This will be used to pick a book as a gift, so if you don’t submit one, then I’ll have to exclude you from participating. To make it as fair as possible, there will be a limit of $25. However you want to send your book, it’s up to you – you can use Amazon, Bookshop.org, or Blackwells’ just to name a few, as well as any other shops that are convenient for you. At the bottom of this post, I’ll include a list of recommended sources.

Authors are absolutely welcome to participate! This event is open to any book lover be it author, blogger, reader, etc. The more the merrier! Authors, please keep in mind that you are welcome to send your own book as long as it’s on the recipient’s list.

When doing the pairing, I’ll take into consideration your place of residency in order to make sure we minimize the costs of shipping. Please note that it won’t always be possible. Please also note that even if you are paired with someone in a different country/part of the world, you can use any means to order and send a book (for example: I’m in Hungary, but let’s say I get paired up with someone in the US, I would use a US-based bookshop or Amazon to buy and ship the book to that person).

Those who fill out the form accept that their personal details will be handled by me and I only will pass that information to the person they are paired with. I won’t use it for anything else and will handle it with the utmost care. I ask you that once you filled out the form and committed yourself, don’t back out as it would break up the chain and we don’t want anyone to be left out. If for any reason you are unable to participate, let me know immediately so I could take the required steps. Please also note that shipping times might be longer than usual due to the upcoming holidays. The aim is to send off your book to arrive in time for Christmas.

I ask you to spread the word so as many people will be able to take part as possible. I’d like to have each and every one of you have at least one book in the Holiday season. You also will be welcome to send your partner a card either online or via traditional mail as a personal touch, but it’s not required. It’s just a nice way to let the other person know who gifted them.

Once you receive your book, please make sure to share it with us on social media by using the #HolidayBookSwapping2024 tag. We’d like to see your beauties and share the love!