Secret Santa gift exchange! discussion

Having an issue with something? Post it here.

Don't forget to sign up at out Elfster site!

https://www.elfster.com/exchange/view...

😳 Holy crap, it’s almost that time again!!! Hehehe, I can’t wait!! *dashes off to sign up*

Lisazj1 wrote: "😳 Holy crap, it’s almost that time again!!! Hehehe, I can’t wait!! *dashes off to sign up*"

I know!! Wooohooo! I'm officially sending out a blast in a week or two!

How do I add stuffs to my wishlist and how do I see others'? I'm a newbie so please bear with me. *sobs*

I’ll help you when I get to my desktop later unless someone else wants to chime in!

Shin Mon wrote: "How do I add stuffs to my wishlist and how do I see others'? I'm a newbie so please bear with me. *sobs*"

Have you signed up for your elfster account? That would be the first step :)

https://www.elfster.com/home/

From there you can hit "wish lists" and start adding from that screen. To join the event officially, you will need to say you are coming at https://www.elfster.com/exchange/view...

From that event page you can check out what others are adding and who else is participating (so far). Once the matching is done next month, you can get your person's list off that page too.

Isaiah wrote: "Shin Mon wrote: "How do I add stuffs to my wishlist and how do I see others'? I'm a newbie so please bear with me. *sobs*"

Have you signed up for your elfster account? That would be the first step..."

Yup, these are good instructions!

Heather K (dentist in my spare time) wrote: "Isaiah wrote: "Shin Mon wrote: "How do I add stuffs to my wishlist and how do I see others'? I'm a newbie so please bear with me. *sobs*"

Have you signed up for your elfster account? That would be..."

Got it!!!

Shin Mon wrote: "Heather K (dentist in my spare time) wrote: "Isaiah wrote: "Shin Mon wrote: "How do I add stuffs to my wishlist and how do I see others'? I'm a newbie so please bear with me. *sobs*"

Have you sign..."

Some people won’t have items on the wishlists at Elfster. If that is the case you will need to go to their Goodreads bookshelves.

To make it easier some people make special shelves for the event. If they are familiar with Elfster they will provide a link for the special shelf in their Elfster profile. Finding the link is pretty easy:
Go to Elfster
Click on their name
On the left side is the profile pic, name, address and birthdate
Click “More Info”
Now you have email, link (if provided) and nickname (if provided)

You can also provide a link directly in you wishlist! Find the search bar on the Elfster homepage, directly above it is Search, Link and Text. Click Link and paste the url for your bookshelf and hit Enter, edit the title (if wanted) and click Confirm. There is now an “item” in your wishlist that when clicked will take your secret santa to your Goodreads shelf!

Hope this helps as well!

Very good advice, Devon :) That's how I do it.

Another tip: If you are paired up with someone who has no items on their wish list and you can't find a Goodreads shelf either, you can ask anonymous questions through Elfster to try to figure out what your match might like or where you can look for inspirations.

Hey ;) I have a little question (maybe a silly one ^^), can we participate to this santa secret gift exchange if we're not from the US ?

Gwen wrote: "Hey ;) I have a little question (maybe a silly one ^^), can we participate to this santa secret gift exchange if we're not from the US ?"

I think that would be a Heather K question but I know there are people from outside the US participating.

How difficult is it for you to get gifts from amazon.com? That is not the only place to get books though. Smashwords, Dreamspinner directly, etc.

I am from Germany and 2016 was my first year participating. I can't buy or receive books through amazon.com (edit: I can put it's a real pain and involves switching my account back and forth with the help of Amazon staff) and amazon.de doesn't allow gifting.

In 2016 we still had ARe (All Romance ebooks) and they were really easy for gifting internationally. Last year I didn't participate so I don't know how people got around international restriction without ARe. I know that Smashwords and Riptide allow international gifting. I've also put links for gift cards from Dreamspinner, Riptide, and Audible in my Elfster wishlist to make it easier for my Secret Santa in case they don't find any book to gift directly through Smashwords or Riptide. As far as I know, Dreamspinner doesn't allow gifting books directly.

Gwen wrote: "Hey ;) I have a little question (maybe a silly one ^^), can we participate to this santa secret gift exchange if we're not from the US ?"

Yup, you can! We can gift directly from many publishers and give gift cards. There are a lot of international people who participate.

Heather, do you know if there are more (MM) publishers, other than Riptide and Smashwords, who allow gifting internationally?

Josy wrote: "Heather, do you know if there are more (MM) publishers, other than Riptide and Smashwords, who allow gifting internationally?"

This was provided during last years exchange. :)

(link to original post) https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Direct or GC:
Amazon
Pride Publishing (also has "buy 9, get 1 book free" program)
First For Romance
Totally Entwined
FIrst Romance
Riptide Publishing
Smashwords
Google Books


Gift Certificates only:
Loose ID
Dreamspinner Press
Less Than Three Press
NineStar Press
Evernight Publishing

Melissa wrote: "Josy wrote: "Heather, do you know if there are more (MM) publishers, other than Riptide and Smashwords, who allow gifting internationally?"

This was provided during last years exchange. :)

(link ..."

I missed the cutoff to participate last year 😥 but this is good info to have so thanks for sharing it again!

Thank you, Melissa :) That's very helpful!

Josy wrote: "Thank you, Melissa :`) That's very helpful!"

👍 Hopefully it's still accurate.

I just had a look at Google Books and gifting seems to work :)

Hi this is my first year taking part and I think it’s a great idea! Im in the Uk so international gifting through amazon doesn’t work and that’s where I normally purchase books. When I try to add to my wish list on elfster the only option that appears is amazon uk. How do I get this to show availability on google books or do I need to post a link to a google books wish list? Thanks for your help.

Hazel wrote: "Hi this is my first year taking part and I think it’s a great idea! Im in the Uk so international gifting through amazon doesn’t work and that’s where I normally purchase books. When I try to add t..."

Directly above the search field you can see "link". You can try pasting the URL for the book there. IMO it's easier though if you have a wish list on Goodreads and just make a note of which stores work for you. This way you don't need to add every single book to your Elfster wish list.

edit: This works! I just tried adding a link to a book from Google Books and it showed up in my wishlist as it should :)

Josy wrote: "Hazel wrote: "Hi this is my first year taking part and I think it’s a great idea! Im in the Uk so international gifting through amazon doesn’t work and that’s where I normally purchase books. When ..."

If I see a book on an elfster wishlist and I buy from somewhere else, I just make as "purchased" no matter where I got it from.

I am from Indonesia, and one way that I work around gifting if my giftee cannot accept Amazon is that I buy the book and email the book to them but using email like SecretSanta@gmail.com or something, to keep myself anonymous.

I've done that way and have Secret Santa does it to me as well.

Apparently, Google Books doesn't work for international gifting after all. The sender and the recipient must be registered for Google Play in the same country :/
https://support.google.com/googleplay...

Josy wrote: "Apparently, Google Books doesn't work for international gifting after all. The sender and the recipient must be registered for Google Play in the same country :/
https://support.google.com/googlepl..."

Oh no! Back to square one.

Yup. Seems like Smashwords really is the only site right now that does allow international gifting.

Ami wrote: "I am from Indonesia, and one way that I work around gifting if my giftee cannot accept Amazon is that I buy the book and email the book to them but using email like SecretSanta@gmail.com or something, to keep myself anonymous.

I've done that way and have Secret Santa does it to me as well."


Yes, Ami : you've get it right. There is only two ways that really work with gifting when giftee/gifter are not in the same country : either going through Smashwords, either buying the book and send it by mail with a account opened specifically for that to keep the fun of not knowing the sender.

Last year, I tried all the websites mentioned by Melissa in a previous comments : roadblocks everywhere, but for Smashwords. All sites either don't propose gifting ebooks or, when they do, limit it to a very few countries. And same when it comes to gift cards : there are many, many geographical limitations.

In summary, we can all participate to this exchange whatever country we are from, but when the elves are not from the US, the means are often limited and it require some patience and to deal with workarounds :-)

But it can be done : I managed it last year. My "inner elf" couldn't resist, LMAO !!!

How are people handling anonymity? Like, elfster says it's going to give out information like real names and addresses, but because I'm assuming we're going to be handling ebooks mostly, people are probably generally sticking their user names? And what are people doing about addresses?

Lyra wrote: "How are people handling anonymity? Like, elfster says it's going to give out information like real names and addresses, but because I'm assuming we're going to be handling ebooks mostly, people are..."

I don't input my address, just my email. You don't need to use your real name at all. Gifts are mostly sent just through email.

When I try to make an account to RSVP, it tells me an address is required. I can't figure out how to get around this.

Josy wrote: "Yup. Seems like Smashwords really is the only site right now that does allow international gifting."

I’ve not checked it out yet but it’s been mentioned to me that Book depository allows international gifting. Plan on checking that out when home from work tonight.

Lyra wrote: "When I try to make an account to RSVP, it tells me an address is required. I can't figure out how to get around this."

I just put my email address in their

Lyra wrote: "When I try to make an account to RSVP, it tells me an address is required. I can't figure out how to get around this."

You can write anything. It doesn't have to be a real address :)

Hazel wrote: "Josy wrote: "Yup. Seems like Smashwords really is the only site right now that does allow international gifting."

I’ve not checked it out yet but it’s been mentioned to me that Book depository allows international gifting. Plan on checking that out when home from work tonight."

I went to that site, which is well noted indeed. However, it doesn't sell ebooks. Note : there is something about audiobooks for those who like listening to audio (I didn't look at the conditions).

Hahah, you're right! I just put in my email for absolutely everything, including my zip code. I thought it would say, "That's not a real zip code, that's not even a number!" but it didn't. Thanks so much!

Hazel wrote: "Josy wrote: "Yup. Seems like Smashwords really is the only site right now that does allow international gifting."

I’ve not checked it out yet but it’s been mentioned to me that Book depository allows international gifting. Plan on checking that out when home from work tonight..."

As Christelle said, it doesn't seem like they sell ebooks. I guess you could ship a book to someone other than yourself if you know their address but I haven't seen any special gift option. Totally sure I missed something, though. I only had a quick look at their website.

The audiobooks available seem to be CDs and not downloads.

Lyra wrote: "Hahah, you're right! I just put in my email for absolutely everything, including my zip code. I thought it would say, "That's not a real zip code, that's not even a number!" but it didn't. Thanks s..."

👍👍👍

Melissa wrote: "This was provided during last years exchange. :)

(link to original post) https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Direct or GC:
Amazon
Pride Publishing (also has "buy 9, get 1 book free" program)
First For Romance
Totally Entwined
FIrst Romance
Riptide Publishing..."

Since launching their new website, Riptide doesn't allow direct gifting anymore either and it doesn't seem like they plan on changing that (I asked.). They still have gift cards, though.

How do I get past the mailing address part? I am not comfortable sharing that.

Dig, I had that problem, too. Just put anything into all the fields, like your email address or something. This even works for the zip code field. You can delete all the incorrect answers later if you want. That's what I did.

I did the same thing I put my email in there.

You can put anything in the address area. It doesn't matter. I didn't put my address in.

I'm not sure how it has been last year but it seems that you now have to change your name in your Smashwords profile or the recipient will know who you are. There's no option to add your elf name during checkout. Smashwords will display the name as noted in your profile. Or you can enter your own email address and then forward the email including the code for the book to the recipient.

that's what happened to me last year Josy - I blew my cover right away with the first gift :( thanks for the reminder!!!

Trio wrote: "that's what happened to me last year Josy - I blew my cover right away with the first gift :( thanks for the reminder!!!"

LOL!! I'm sure you've not been the only one :)
I'm glad I remembered to look it up again or I would have blown my cover, too ;)

I'm going to go change my profile name right now.

Trio wrote: "I'm going to go change my profile name right now."

LOL!! I, too, did it as soon as I read about it so I don't forget to do it later :)

I'm UK also so I tend to buy via Smashwords as myself but marking the purchase as a gift, then you get a link to the download code which you can forward on to your giftee by way of a secret email address or your own if you don't mind!

Cadiva wrote: "I'm UK also so I tend to buy via Smashwords as myself but marking the purchase as a gift, then you get a link to the download code which you can forward on to your giftee by way of a secret email a..."

Hello Cadiva,
I also use Smashwords and I don't even have to send the link to my giftee : before checking out, the confirmation page allows me to enter my giftee's email address and he/she will then receive a mail from Smashwords with the link to download the ebook.
Have you tried doing that ? It saves you from forwarding the link.

For this exchange, to hide my identity, I simply have to go on my Smashwords profile and change my real name with my elf name (I revert to my real name once the exchange is over).