Dec 15, 2012

Two Week Time Out Made Easy

There has been a lot of questions about Two Week Time Out lately. We understand that it's hard to grasp, so I've decided to explain it clearly on a post. For now on if people ask, they'll just be directed to this post. While our initial explanation seems to cause mass confusion, my in-depth one seems to be understandable. We hope this clears up any confusion for you with all of the possible scenarios.

So...say we're starting this in the first week of a month. Here's how every possible ARCycling scenario can work out:

2 books in Week 1
  • Awesome! You got two books in one week! You are now banned for week two and week three (two weeks for the time out) and you can request again week four.  
1 book in Week 1 and 1 book in Week 2
  • Woo! Look at you! You still got two books, but this time it was over the course of two weeks! You are on time out for week three and week four and can request again in the metaphorical week five, meaning week one of next month. Enjoy the books!
1 Book in Week 1 and no book in Week 2
  • Bummer! You didn't get your second book in week two, but your time out has still begun. Once you get book one, you have one week to get book two. No matter what, time out starts during week two, book or no book. So you are banned week three and week four and you can request again in the metaphorical week five, meaning week one of the next month. Why is this? Well, this is the only way we can keep track of things. We've giving you the opportunity to grab two books, and it is up to you to make it happen. There is only so much we can do in the name of fairness without driving ourselves insane with dates that are hard to follow.
Well, I got one book in week 1 and didn't get a book in week 2, but I want a book in week 3 because you said we can get 2 books!
  • Believe it or not, we hear this a lot, so I want to qualify this. This excuse will never work out for you. Yes, you do get the chance to get 2 books, but this is 2 books in the same week or consecutive weeks. You are misunderstanding our rules. If we let you jump around weeks, the dates will get too confusing for us. We'll start missing dates, letting others take several books when they shouldn't by sheer accident, and we'll go slightly insane because we can no longer simply keep track of things. This system is tolerable for us and fair to you. So, please, be happy with it. We're getting you books! Enjoy them! 
I'm on temporary ban because I got too many books and didn't review any of them, but I've reviewed them all now, so when can I request again?
  • Good question! Once we have all the reviews tweeted or e-mailed to us, you can request at the next session and then you will go back into any of the two week time out scenarios mentioned above instead of your temporary overall suspension. Review the books and you won't have to go to temporary suspension round two! 
I genuinely hope that two week time out is more comprehensible for everyone. Most people had trouble grasping bullet points three and four. If there are any remaining questions or things that you believe that we have yet to discuss, please tell us and we'll add it. Don't hesitate to e-mail us if you don't understand one of these points. We want to explain this to you so that you can keep track of your requests for yourself now instead of having to check up with us every week. For now on, all requests about suspensions will simply be responded to with this link.

Dec 9, 2012

Christmas break and coal in stockings.

Let's start with the coal in stockings thing. It's the less fun and more mandatory part of this post.

I've been over this before and for some of you Requesters, this ain't an issue. But for others *eyes the masses of the internet*, more of an issue. ARCycling was started to pass around REVIEW BOOKS for more REVIEW. So far we've really mastered the 'pass around REVIEW BOOKS' part. Less so on the 'for more REVIEW' part. Comprende?

Now for some easy math. I think this was covered in like elementary school? Percentages? Let's take the total number of books we had ARCycled up until two weeks ago (11/25) which 356 books. Now I don't keep exact dates of when reviews come in, but let's be nice to ourselves and say that we had 63 then (we didn't). So 63 reviews for 356 books. Even before I do the division, it looks bad, yeah? And rounding in the more optimistic numbers, that's 18%.
18%!!!! 
That's pretty bad over several months of being up. I mean, I have nothing to compare it to, but I'd LIKE for it be closer to 50%. I mean yeesh.

So, like any good company, we've come up with something to hopefully counteract this. Requesters, if you've gotten 5 or more books from ARCycling and haven't reviewed one, you're going to be temporarily banned until all of the reviews pop up. But this is easy to counteract! Review the books! I personally don't care if you say the book was such crap it isn't worth mopping a Taco Bell bathroom floor with! I'm a non-partial party here. I earn no money or popularity off these reviews. I just like reviews! That being said I know the "I don't like writing negative reviews" or "I pointed a gun to my own head and still couldn't finish it" or "I haven't gotten it yet", etc reasons. The 5:1 ratio still exists is time limitless. Especially the not gotten it. No worries if you haven't gotten it yet.

Ideally, we'd like for you to review every title you get. Even if it takes a while. Or you hire your baby sister to write something (though intelligible writing is always good for both you and me!). When you hit your 5:1 ratio, Lili will email you, wagging her finger and letting you know this is just a temporary ban! Temporary! This will also be added to the rules page for Requesters!
If this review ratio doesn't get better, we'll lower the ratio to 3:1. So there. If you regularly submit reviews, you're in no danger!

 Now for festive things!!

So, if you are still in school, you know the beauty that is getting away from responsibility of work, etc. for a few glorious weeks and doing festive things. Then you grow up, get slammed into the real world and have to work and festivity is only something you see other people doing.
Or at least, that's my life.

In order to recapture that a little bit, we'll be closing ARCycling for the Sunday before Christmas and the Sunday before New Years. I know this has been mentioned before, but this is a little more of an official post on it.

That information again: ARCycling will be closed December 23 and 30th.

Now here's the very, very, very, very important thing to keep in mind: the closing does NOT count towards Two Week Time Out. TWTO only works when there are, you know, books moving. If no books move, nothing moves. SO, if you get 2 books on December 16th (last session before closing), you will be freed from Two Time Out on January 20th.

Make sense? Yeah? Okay, now for some random cat images!









And finally, for the festive season...

Nov 25, 2012

ARCycling Secret Santa Update!

Hey, everyone! Just wanted to tell you that Friday is when the ARCycling Secret Santa Donation form is closing. If you still want to participate, now's the time to do so! Enter here.

Those who agree to participate should expect an e-mail around December 14th with where to send their books and should be prepared to get them out ASAP so that they can arrive in time for the holidays. I also want to point something out: those of you who donate older books, you are most likely getting older books in return. Those who donate ARCs, you are most likely getting ARCs in return. We're trying to go for equality with this.

Remember, ARCycling is closed during the Sundays that span over Christmas and New Years. This is the replacement of ARCycling those 2 weeks. All time out's are temporarily frozen that week. If you are put on time out during the last ARCycling session before the holidays (December 16) you are not off of time out until January 20th since your time out spans the 6th and the 13th.

Don't be afraid to ask any other questions for both Santa and the temporary ARCycling shut down for the holidays!

Nov 23, 2012

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the technology.

*Oh my gods, none of you even get that reference do you?

So, you've all seen my Hunger Games post, right? If not, here. You're welcome. Who doesn't love an adapted internet meme? Anyway, that would happen WEEKLY. And it was madness. Seriously, if it hadn't been a security breach, I would have screenshot that inbox and you guys could SEE the 45 emails in 15 seconds. No kidding. And all for the same book that went to fastest Tribute in .02 seconds.

Now let me set the scene for how Jennifer came up with a new idea. (It's kinda funny.)
I was going in for a medical procedure (nothing major) and I needed to be put under anesthesia, which means no food for 8 hours, but I did 12 hours. And I had just woken up and I was very, very hungry and there was no coffee in my hands, which a bad deal always. And I was talking to my dad (who was driving me) about ARCycling. Yes. To my dad. About ARCycling. Y'all are in my life more than I care to admit.

Anyway, moving on, I was saying something about it (I don't even remember what!), but I said the word 'form'. And then I had one of those staring-off-into-the-distance epiphanies, but really I was staring at a stoplight and my words entirely trailed off and I had a dumb look on my face as I tried to think 'Would that work? Could I make that work?'

It was followed by a short 'yes' as my brain supplied supplement rules, etc.
Then followed by a 'JENNIFER. WHY HAVE YOU NEVER THOUGHT OF THIS BEFORE?!??!?!?! FAIL.'

Then I madly tweeted Lili, hoping that all of the medical stuff wouldn't somehow leak this absolutely vital idea from my scattered brain. (I'm a writer, this happens far too much - so I record ideas when they happen.)

Anyway, once I was coherent enough, I spelled this idea out. Here's what is in, in my favorite bullet point format.
  • NO MORE EMAILS FOR REQUESTS.
  • Emails, tweets, messenger pigeons and Iris messages will not accepted. If you got the last reference, let's be friends.
  • Form now!
  • Still first come, first served. 
  • But now with by-the-second timestamps. This helps YOU. BELIEVE ME.
  • You can request up to your TOP 5 books from the List.
  • Unfortunately, past that, you're gonna be a little SOL. Sorry. But we don't want any copy and pasting of the List because that's just ridiculous, guys.
  • You will ONLY get an email, if you get the book. Therefore, no email confirmation = no book.
  • I really hated writing the "sorry, you've requested like, 8 books and didn't get a single one" emails, so this eliminates that.
  • Email confirmations will still happen as soon as you get the book. Or a minute after. You know, they do take a few seconds to write.
  • They will be short and sweet. Probably titled something like "ARCycling confirmation" and will be coming from the ARCycling email.
  • If 15-20 minutes goes by and you don't get an confirmation email, you probably didn't get anything you requested. *sadface*
  • And because I know you guys like to prep your emails and speed type the titles, the form will go up before the List does by about 15 minutes.
  • AND TO MAKE IT EVEN EASIER, the form submission will be on the same page as the List. Below it, most likely. So just ONE PAGE for all of you.
Just a little note on how the top 5 requests will work. Let's give you an example! You request the following: Every Day, Future of Us, The Innocents, Rockoholic, and Fever.
But by the time you submitted, Every Day, Future of Us were gone.
So you'd get The Innocents and Rockoholic.
*This is an example of someone not on Two Week Time Out or only having the option of getting one book.

And for poops and giggles, this is a sample of what the form will look like. If you can read it. Don't try to fill this out. It's an image, it won't go anywhere.


 The form will be remade every week and have a new theme. Honestly, I expect to use every single one of Google Docs form themes because they are ridiculous and so am I.
Anyway, so who's excited?! I am!! I am a lot! Mainly because I don't have to go OH MAH GODS, EMAILS every week now!

So a few happy dance gifs to end this horridly long post? I think so.


 

And here's just a confusing one for you...


So, thoughts on this?!
Now before you go all 'BAH. NEW SYSTEM?!' on me, let me reiterate how much easier this will be on us. It will. It takes HOURS (no, really) to go through the emails and this will all but eliminate that. This will make us happy. Which is something you want. You want books and for us to be happy. *nods*

Nov 17, 2012

ARCycling Secret Santa!

So, Jennifer and I were originally planning to close ARCycling over the Sundays the evolved around the holiday break because, face it, it’s the holidays. But I wanted to be able to celebrate the holidays with our lovely followers somehow, so we came up with ARCycling Secret Santa! Essentially, all you have to do is this... fill out the form below with your address, the books you’re contributing, and your preferred genres. For every book you donate, you’ll get a book in the mail as a gift. Say you donate 4 books, you’ll get 4 back!

By filling out the form below, you are agreeing to

  • Ship the book(s) wherever your Secret Santa lives within the US
  • Ship the book(s) ASAP within receiving your destination so that the books can arrive around Christmas

Unfortunately, we have to keep this open to US only. Please be aware that this does not count as an ARCycling week and this is there simply to ensure that everyone can get a book for the holidays! So no one will go on Two Week Time Out for this! If you’re already on time out while this occurs, these do not count as part of your time out and your time out will resume once we are back from the break. Also, know that we’ll do our best to get you a book that we think fits your description of genres. We really want you to enjoy what you get. You can link me to your review archive or Goodreads in the genres question if you want a better chance at getting a book on your TBR shelf.

ARCycling will be closed December 23rd and December 30th. These dates do not count towards time outs. All destination e-mails will be sent out December 14th and 15th so that the books can arrive before or around Christmas. Individuals who commit to this and do not follow through with their commitment will not be looked upon favorably during future ARCycling sessions.

Do you want to participate in Secret Santa? ;)

Also, keep in mind that we are still looking for regular donations for ARCycling weekly as well. These do not count towards our weekly sessions that are still open for the first half of December and will pick back up again in January.



Nov 13, 2012

An Index to the Giant Giveaway

Yes, I realize this giveaway is like, SO TREMENDOUSLY GIANT that it's hard to even comprehend it all. So I'm making it easy.

Here are the links to ALL of the giveaways.
And I realized I *COULD* have put in all the books that are in each giveaway, but... eh. Laziness. But yeah, your one stop shopathon for all the giveaways.

AND don't forget to check out the SIGNED, INTERNATIONAL Dear Teen Me giveaway below!!

Nov 12, 2012

Dear Teen Me giveaway!!

Once upon a time, a long, long, long, LONG time ago Jennifer worked at Borders. It was a time before book blogging and before she knew so many people she knows now. One day, a new, strange girl name Stephanie came all the way from Mississippi and arrived in Borderlandia. And while she called her shopping carts, shopping "buggys", she and Jennifer bonded over the early, early days of YA.

Okay, if I keep this kind of storytelling up, this is going to be a FOREVER LONG post. So, here's what you need to know. Just released is an AWESOME anthology out that stemmed from an AWESOME blog where YA authors write letters to their teen selves. Some are light-hearted notes about how acid-washed jeans aren't really cool (really, they aren't) and some are heart-breakingly heavy. Seriously, you want to make your life seem easy? Check out Saundra Mitchell's. At least, her life makes mine feel easy.

And guess what. Stephanie is in this awesome anthology! And there was a launch party! And there were lots of authors! And there were prom dresses! And jean jackets that had pockets made to perfectly fit two cassette tapes! (Here's looking at you, Nancy from GirlsintheStacks.com!) And there was laughing! And there were dogs! And lots of other awesome things deserving of lots of exclamation marks!

So here's what's up for this giveaway. A SIGNED paperback of Dear Teen Me and a SIGNED ARC of Dear Teen Me. These books feature the signatures of: E. Kristin Anderson (editor), Jessica Lee Anderson, Mary Lindsey, Nikki Loftin, Jenny Moss, Stephanie Pellegrin and Cynthia Leitich Smith.

And I'll make this easy.
Requirements: follow the ARCycling blog.
Options for more entries: follow @ARCycling on The Twitter, comment on this post with what your favorite letter on Dear Teen Me is (the blog has LOADS of these!), follow @DearTeenMe on The Twitter, 'Like' Dear Teen Me on Facebook and finally, for a lot of bonus points, comment on one of the blog posts on the Dear Teen Me blog! Include the link, por favor!

Must be 13+ to enter.
This giveaway is open internationally and to EVERYONE!
One entry per household. a Rafflecopter giveaway

More info on Dear Teen Me:
Website: DearTeenMe.com
Twitter: @DearTeenMe
Facebook: Dear Teen Me page

Nov 4, 2012

A little heads up.

To say my life is chaotic, is a bit of an understatement. I won't go into all of the wrong turns that let to it being like this, so let's cut to the chase.
Starting this week I am going to re-enter the retail book world has a holiday hire. YAY for books! Less yay for the retail part of it.

I'm sure you're thinking, okay, what does this have to do with me?
Well, if you've ever worked retail or know someone who has, then you know the term "nights and weekends".
Uh, yeah. So this means we are all going to have to be a little flexible with Jennifer!
Some days Lili might be doing it all by her lonesome.
Some days it might a bit later in the evening (sorry EST folks!)
Some days it might be in the morning (sorry PST folks!)
Some days it might not be Sunday. This will only work if we cannot move heaven and Earth so easily like the phrase suggests.
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS watch The Twitter. I will LET YOU KNOW as soon as I DO! Promise.

So let's all be happy for Jennifer that she's going to be earning money and (HOPEFULLY) will not be spending them on books...
 

And not be all... because after all, it will be TEMPORARY.
 


And maybe at the end of this there can be a chocolate giveaway or something, yeah?
Always end bad news with a cute cat gif.

Oct 31, 2012

Jennifer has too many books...

And sometimes she refers to herself in the 3rd person.

But back to the point, I have too many books and as the very wise Stacy from Girls in the Stacks once told me in all earnest, you aren't going to read all them, why have them? Good, smart point. And as I've said before, my book excess is one of the main factors that led me to starting ARCycling.

Then I decided to move. *screechy record stop*
So whatever excess book I have for decoration just becomes more burden-esque. And mailing out every single book would not only take forever, but it would cost hundreds. No. Really. Hundreds. I did the rough math. Hundreds. NOT counting all the gas to get to the PO. 

So, I came up with a much more better solution! (Yes, I really love the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and will endlessly quote them.)
And it involves a few of these:
Or, to be more clear, THE BIGGEST BATCH GIVEAWAY EVER!!*


With tremendous help from Lili, we have organized a giveaway of OVER 100 books. A plethora of ARCs, hardbacks and paperbacks, all ranging from MG to adult. Some signed (and some personalized to Jennifer - the absolutely perfect gift for that all-too-commonly-named friend in your life!). In total there will be 13 boxes; 3 filled with series bundle packs and 10 filled with 8 to 15 books each.
Yes, that means 13 winners.

I imagine you guys to all be like this.

 What? You thought you could get a giveaway post this big without a single gif? Hah. Think again.

And guess what? Lili has her own six-month blogoversary so we joined forces to basically make it the biggest party on the book block.

Now, for the deets on this marvelously marvelous thing in bullet point form.
  • It starts TOMORROW, NOVEMBER 1ST and will run all month.
  • ALL giveaway posts and Rafflecopter widgets will be on Lili's blog, Lili's Reflections. NOT HERE. We're doing this on her blog to get word out about ARCycling!
  • While the giveaway stuff is on Lili's Reflections, there will be entries involving ARCycling. Like following us here on the blog. There will also be lots of fun optional entries. Including donating a book to ARCycling!
  • Below is the schedule with each date the packs go up. Full book list of each pack will be released on the day of.
  • This giveaway is open to EVERYONE! Bloggers, non-bloggers, teachers, librarians, writers and general book enthusiasts! But sadly, still US only except for the packs specifically for Canadians.
  • Canada, WE LOVE YOU, and because we do, we have small series bundles that are for Canadians ONLY.  Check out November 3rd.

SCHEDULE:
November 1: Things That Go Bump In The Night Prize Pack
November 2: Middle-Grade Prize Pack
November 3: Series Bundles Prize Pack - CANADA ONLY with 3 winners
November 4: Chick Lit Prize Pack
November 5: Big Subjects Prize Pack
November 6: Fairies Prize Pack
November 7: Luminosity Blog Tour with a Giveaway (not affiliated with ARCycling)
November 8: 18+ Prize Pack
November 9: Male Prize Pack - male authors and MC’s
November 10: Greta & the Goblin King Blog Tour w/ a Giveaway (not affiliated with ARCycling)
November 11: Contemporary Prize Pack
November 12: Paranormal Prize Pack
November 13: Randomized ARC Prize Pack
*Claim not actually based on fact.

Oct 29, 2012

ARCycling: Hunger Games style

So, someone The Twitter said "[ARCycling] is a Hunger Games online." O_O YES. Tonight, I'm not even exaggerating when I said I had 17 books go in 20 minutes. And probably about 30-40 emails though I wasn't counting.
I am the Cornucopia and you all are the Tributes. Muwhaha!!
And I think you all know what's coming now...

Lots of gifs.
HUNGER GAMES STYLE.




When I get an AWESOME donation in.


How I feel when I come on to Twitter Sunday afternoon.


But how I am on the inside.


What I should be saying before I open every week...


How you countdown the minutes... and seconds...


You lot waiting for those minutes and seconds...



How *I* feel in those minutes and seconds...


You guys when you refresh the page and you SEE THOSE GOODIES.


How you guys are when I get an email within 10 seconds of opening.


How *I* am when I get 20 emails within 10 seconds of opening.


What some of you guys would do to your fellow ARCyclers if this was in real life.


How you feel when you get that desirable book.


How others feel when you brag about said book on Twitter.
Okay, I don't really think this happens... but ya know there was no Gale... so...


How I feel when you keep requesting books that are already gone.


Me, when you guys send emails in the format and follow the rules.
(This isn't really an issue, but how can I NOT post this one?!)


You guys going to Time Out?
Sorry if you are cuss word sensitive. It was too good of a gif...


The after party.


When I mess up.


How I feel when I did a session and DIDN'T mess up. In a crunk way...


How you guys probably feel about me. Especially after this...
Yeah, this is a bit of a stretch for the HG theme...


And now few for laughs, of course...





And lastly, if you aren't crying laughing at this... then I don't even know...




Can I just say it is FREAKING HARD to find Hunger Games gifs for a memeish thing like this? It IS.
Now, let's on a sweet note, eh?


Oh, and we just hit 200 followers. Woot! We're gonna have to do this again. Hmm for 300 mayhaps?

Oct 25, 2012

Tease.

I haven't posted in a while because, well, there's nothing much to post about! Things is goin' smooth potatoes! Which is good, if a bit boring... so, I've decided to be mean!

So, coming to straight from my closet...
In the utmost secrecy...
I give you...
A tease-y picture...
Please ignore the bad taping...

But... but what is IN THEM?!
Well, in order to find THAT out, you'll have to check back here October 31st.
Tee hee hee hee hee hee...

Oct 8, 2012

Oh, Canada.

Well, I must say that was an interesting survey. Lots of varied responses. However despite some of the comments, the actual tally was surprisingly positive.

Now because when we created the survey we didn't have everything as thought out as we do now, so let me address some reoccurring concerns I saw in the responses. And let's use bullet points for them.
  1. I would NEVER EVER require anyone to ship to Canada. I did state in the form that it would not be a requirement, but perhaps grey doesn't stand out against blue and no one saw that. Guys, if I don't require you to donate or even review the books you get (the thing that matters to me most), how can I require you to spend more money? See, I can't.
  2. With the option being, well, an OPTION, not sending a book to a Requester once it has been requested is like the worst thing ever. Even if you are in Montreal and the Requester is in Alberta, you cannot say "Oh, JK, I just want to ship to Montrealians only." NO. You will feel my glare all the way from Texas, I promise you that. If you agree to US/CA, then you will ship either to Georgia or British Columbia.
  3. I am aware it costs more to ship in Canada. Canadians, MEDIA MAIL DOES NOT EXIST FOR INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING. Seriously. Please know that. Americans, if you pre-purchase padded envelopes at Wal-Mart, it's cheaper. Also, when you go to mail, you can legit go to the counter and say "Hey, this is going to Quebec, and it needs to go the cheapest way possible." Unless your post office is ridiculously maniacal, they will give you the cheapest way, which should be about $12. About the price of mailing two media mail packages in the US.
  4. A number of you suggested Canadians help paying for shipping. While it's a valid point, it gets horribly, horribly complicated. Paypal, fees, then the whole web of me acting as a platform, while my Donators are actually shipping. It gets really confusing, really fast, so unfortunately, we're gonna have to keep it the way it is, as an act of charity. 
  5. Lastly, there needs to a certain kind of balance. There were a few suggestions like, "Oh, Americans should ship to Canadians, but we shouldn't have to ship back" and the basic principle of fairness is being neglected here. If we don't have willing Donators or Requesters, that's one thing, but to shut off the option entirely? No. Money aside, that doesn't make sense.
That being said, I'm going to refine some of these ideas. These are not the official rules YET, but here's something what they would be like:
  1. For American Donators, you can donate books to be American only or US/ CA. This means if a book is US/CA it can either go to an American or a Canadian.
  2. There will be a Canada to Canada ONLY option. Since Americans get US to US only, it's only fair you guys get a CA to CA only, yeah? Right now it's not really possible for us to keep track of shipping and receiving province because, guys, OMGs, my spreadsheets can only do so much. I still have to interpret them and provinces is a bit too much at this stage.
  3. Someone suggested a limit on books being shipped to Canada, while you Canadians might not like this, I think I agree. Right now, I'm thinking one book per Canadian per two week period.
Now,  I'm going to ask for your opinions one more time. This survey is, as Jack Sparrow says, much more better than the last. A lot more specific and clear. Guys, surveys are hard to make! If responses continue to be positive, we do a TRIAL. Which means I will put some books up to be US/CA and see how it goes. Then we'll move on from there. Whew, no one ever said international relations were easy...

Oct 4, 2012

Canada, what's going on, eh?

I have to say, I've been feeling bad about all of you non-American shafted bloggers with this program. I don't want you thinking I'm sitting on my elitist American throne of books manically laughing as I smite you. Uh, no.

However, there are A LOT of problems with opening this program to internationals. Briefly summarized, it's these: time zones, no USPS Media Mail option (thus much more $ or £ or € or ¥ or ₡, etc), no tracking (if Donators are so inclined to use this) and if anything should get lost, holy mackerel, it is gone, gone, gone.

But I don't want to be that elitist American on my throne of books! So, Lili gave me an obvious answer. Let's test the waters with Canada! Our neighbors to the North! Makers of delightful syrup and lovers of hockey!

But before we completely overwhelm ourselves with wrapping our brains around how to include you lovely clad-in-plaid people, we wanted to make sure there was enough interest in this! Not just Requesters, but Donators too! All of you! AND we also want to see what our American Donators think of this too. So we've created a survey in which to log (no pun intended, Canadians!) any and all thoughts about this!

Survey closed.

*Please do not think I actually believe in Canadian stereotypes. I'm Texan for crying out loud. I was once legitimately asked if I rode a horse to school. Uh, no, I don't even own cowboy boots. And I was once given the sage advice that if I should ever be asked if I was an American in a foreign country, I was to say "Je suis Canadien".

Sep 30, 2012

Shiny Notes with gifs included

So Lili's first session went GREAT!! And I gotta say that watching from the sidelines was kinda like watching some horrible crazy action scene in a movie while I'm sitting off to the side, munching on popcorn while thinking, 'HAH! Sucks to be her!' And for a fairly small session book-wise, wow, did the emails come in!
As of right now, we have ARCycled 167 books in 3 months exactly with 23 reviews (and hopefully lots more to come!) that would not have existed otherwise! YAY! And with 154 shiny blog followers and 195 Twitter followers, we are shiny shiny shiny!! *thumbs up*

Now, as much as I hate saying this, we are going to have a teeny, weeny rule addition. This doesn't apply to 97% of people, but for that wee 3%, yeah, YOU. We're applying the 'black jack, no trade back' rule. Because as soon as you request a book, we go to The List and delete it. And if you come back all 'HAHA! JK!!!' then we have to go back and add it... and going back and re-adding is kinda like trying to cross a raging river. Or crossing this scenario without getting wounded...


Like, haha, yeah, good luck with that!

Why is this hard? Ever had a moment where a title escapes you? Or an author? Yeah, that but with 939047209527 emails coming in and OMG THE PRESSURE! The release date, notes and blog it's from? Forget about it.
Here's the thing, being denied a book and requesting again - totally legit and okay.
Trying to switch out? Not as okay.
Does poop happen and you confuse books - sure! To err is human. All I'm asking is that you try to be sure of what you're requesting before you send the email. And I know, it's hard because time is totally of the essence in this game.
And then as the brilliant Christina from The Book Hookup pointed out, if we allow one trade out, then EVERYONE will trade out and we ARCycling folks will descend into utter madness. No, really.

Along this line, I must restate the ONE EMAIL rule. I know that when you mess up, you panic and are like 'OMG. THEY MUST NOT SEE MY EMAIL, SO I MUST SEND ANOTHER'. I can tell you ladies, gents, this is not the case. The ARCycling inbox is POURED over. Both during the session and for hours afterwards. We see it ALL. Do some emails get missed at times? Sure. Again, to err is human. But especially during the session, it is highly unlikely. And I can certainly say that sending one email is a lot more efficient for both you and me than sending two. Two (or more) gets confusing, so stick with (at the very least) one email chain. Email chains are why Gmail is king, guys. Seriously. I love Gmail for that. Otherwise - BURIED ALIVE.

And now to end on a lighter note, I will be back on the sessions solely for the next few weeks as Lili convinces herself she didn't make the biggest mistake ever by deciding to help me! So starting Monday, I will be back on the email, Twitter, etc.
However, Tuesday I will be nearly incommunicado. For Tuesday, October 2nd, is PERCY JACKSON DAY. I've been waiting for this book date for a year and my only book boyfriend and I will be busy. But other than my ridiculous Percy Jackson love, yes. All me, guys.

Peace, yo!