The #1 Most FAQ. Can I use this site to exchange Kindle books with my friends?
A. reBOOKed can help you keep track of the friends to whom you have loaned your Kindle books, but it cannot actually perform the lending. See http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200549320 for details on loaning Kindle books. It is a great feature, but we have found it to not always be available on the books that we want to lend. Hopefully you will have better success.
The #2 Most FAQ. What exactly do you do then?
A. At reBOOKed, we do not actually hold the book contents. We are a way to keep track of the books that you already own.
For example, my 5th grader is very into the Darkwing books by Kenneth Oppel. For Christmas, she received a box set of three of them. Since she has been talking about them so much, her friends all want to borrow them, but she is worried that she will forget who has them (and they will forget to give them back). The solution was for my daughter to list the books in her reBOOKed account and share them in a circle with her friends. They now go online and see which ones she has and they send her a request. She accepts the request and brings the books to school to hand out to her friends. When they are finished with the book, they return the book to her and she closes the reBOOKed transaction so she can loan the book to someone else. It has been a great way for her to share her favorite books with her friends.
We hope that gives you a better idea of what we do. If the FAQ is not complete enough, we would very much appreciate any feedback you might have that could make it better.
Q. How do I enter books that I own?
A. Books are entered into Bookshelves, just like in real life. Click on "My Home", then "Bookshelves" and you'll see a list of your bookshelves. Open one of them up, and you can view the books that are already there, delete books that you no longer wish to share, and add new books.
Q. Why do I have to search for existing books to enter a new book?
A. It's a feature, not a bug. This is so that everyone who has the same book (e.g. Tale of Two Cities) will have the same Title and Author listed. This makes it much easier to find someone who has the book that you're looking for. For example, you won't get listings for "A Tale of Two Cities", "Tale of 2 Cities", "Tail of Two Cities", and more when you're looking for the Charles Dickens classic.
Q. Is there a way to just scan in my books so that I don't have to enter them by hand?
A. Theoretically, yes there are ways to do that. For now, they are not implemented. Tips are accepted so that those in charge can spend more time implementing cool features and less time working for a living.
Q. Do I have to enter all of the information about every book? That seems like a lot of work.
A. Not at all. The only thing that matters is the title and author. Any other information is up to you. However, if you don't at least enter that the books is available to be loaned, given, or bought, it's not of much use to your friends. The format can also be useful information for other people to know. And, if you enter a rating level, your book may show up more often when people search for highly rated books.
Q. What is this Amazon ASIN thing and why should I enter it?
A. reBOOKed is an Amazon partner/associate and uses Amazon to serve up the pictures of the books as well as to provide links to the wealth of information that Amazon readers and users have put on their site. The ASIN is the long sequence of letters and numbers that shows up in the address bar after "/product/" when you click on a book at the Amazon website. If you're not comfortable with it, don't enter it. That just means that your book won't have an icon until a helpful volunteer comes along and enters it for you at some point. (Yes, this could be more automatic in the future.)
Q. Do I have to use the Transaction system to loan a book to a friend? If I see that they have the book, can't I just call them and ask to borrow it?
A. Absolutely you can just call them and borrow the book. The Transaction system has the advantage of keeping up with who has your books (and whose books you have). Plus, you won't get credit on the site if the site doesn't know what you're doing. But feel free to use reBOOKed in whatever way works for you.
Q. I searched for a book and it is listed as being owned by "0 friends". What does this mean?
A. It means that there are users in reBOOKed that have the book you're looking for, but you aren't connected to any of them (you don't share a circle). Some might argue that this is useless information, but it can be helpful to know that you have searched correctly, just unsuccessfully.
Q. I don't like the name of my bookshelf. How do I rename it?
A. For now, the only way to rename a bookshelf is to create a new one with the new name and delete the old one with the old name. When you delete the old bookshelf, you will be given the opportunity to move all of your books over into the new bookshelf.
Q. Can I put the same book in more than one bookshelf?
A. That's not a good idea. reBOOKed will think that you own two copies of the same book and may not act the way that you expect it to. It's better for everyone involved if you think of bookshelves and books as physical items. One book goes into one bookshelf.
Q. My [spouse, sibling, roomate, child, parent, love muffin] and I share the same books. Can we both share the same bookshelf?
A. The short answer is "no". The long answer is "not at the moment". reBOOKed was designed with this feature in mind, but it is not yet implemented. Stay tuned. Tips are welcome to encourage development.
Q. How many bookshelves can I have?
A. As many as you would like, but more bookshelves may make the whole process more tedious. If you have 30 bookshelves and you want to find that one specific book that needs a review, needs to be deleted, or needs to be made available for loans, you have to know which bookshelf to click on to find it. Most people should be fine with one or maybe two bookshelves.
Q. How do I find a circle to join?
A. The easiest way is to seach based on your location. You'll see all of the circles that have been set up in your area, and you can join the one or ones that appeal to you. You can also search based on keywords to find circles that are not geographically defined, but those may be harder to work with.
Q. What do I do if there are no circles in my area?
A. Start one! Then tell your friends to join it.
Q. How do I search for circles if I live outside of the US or Canada?
A. Right now, you don't. The distance calculator is based on US Zip Codes and Canadian Postal Codes at the moment. For now, use unlocated circles to find people in the same city, based on the name and description. If this becomes a problem - and it would be a great problem to have - we'll work on a more universal solution.
Q. Can I limit who joins a circle? Can an admininstrator kick someone out of a circle? Can I make a circle private so that only my friends can find it? Can I send invitations to friends to join a circle? (etc.)
A. Yes, those are all terrific ideas that are planned to be implemented. We'll get to them over time. Promise.
Yes, social media will be implemeted in the future. We're working on it. Meanwhile, go read a book.
