What is #SFATW ?

💻 CONNECTING WITH OTHER BOOK BLOGGERS

Connecting with other book bloggers has always been one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to blog in the first place, and it is without a doubt what kept me going for so long. With a community this big, coming from everywhere around the globe, it’s sometimes hard to find your kind of people, or simply, to know where you should start looking. Souvenirs From Across The World was, and will be forever meant for that: to forge connection, hopefully friendships and strengthen a sense of community between everyone.

👫👬👭 GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER BETTER IN THIS HUGE COMMUNITY

The book blogging community is huge and it might be hard to find each other, or find common points with each other, find a way to strike up a conversation without being shy, or having a silly but genuine fear of being annoying. Whether you’ve been blogging for years or months, we all have these silly fears. With Souvenirs From Across The World, I want to introduce or re-introduce bloggers, facilitate blog hopping and maybe find some new blogging friends, who knows!

💞 🎁 SHARING THE LOVE FOR BOOK BLOGGERS

Third and totally non-obligatory part is being able to share the love for books in a less virtual way: by sending each other GIFTS. Is there anything more exciting than getting bookish mail, I ask? From blogging friends? I don’t think so.

🔎 HOW DOES EVERYTHING WORKS?

When does it take place ?

The Souvenirs From Across The World event will take place twice a year for now: every summer and every winter – from June to August approximately, and from November to January.

How does it work?

To give everyone many possibilities to participate, enjoy themselves and get to know other bloggers better, the Souvenirs From Across The World feature will take place in two parts.

You can participate to the first part and the second part of this, depending on your time, what you want, and what suits you best. It’s up to you. However, if you are thinking about participating to the second part of the project, it’s always fun and better to do the first part, to get to know other bloggers better and eventually, already friend the one you’ll be paired up with!

First part :

👫👬👭 GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER: THE BLOG-HOPPING PARTY

With this first part, I’m looking to create a connection and people sharing about their favorite things. About blogging, about themselves, overall to push to comments and maybe to grow the bonds between book bloggers.

This part is pretty easy:

Each season of #SFATW will be kicked off with an introduction post: the post announcing the new #SFATW. In this very post, bloggers will be invited to participate, simply by leaving a couple info about them.
A couple weeks after the launch, a master post will appear on this blog, introducing all of the participants.
All you have to do now is blog-hop thanks to this list, discover other bloggers, and have fun!

Second part:

💞 🎁 SHARING THE LOVE FOR BOOK BLOGGERS

This Souvenirs From Across The World project is made to connect and share the love between book bloggers, getting to know each other, and also, sending each other some surprises and actual, real books, yay!

You have to subscribe in order to participate to this part of the project, and to be over 18 / with the consent of your parents to give your mailing address. The main idea is pretty simple: sending books, souvenirs and personalized gifts to another blogger, and getting the same from that someone as well!

You can choose what you want to send, obviously, and the price you’re willing to put in this project. Since shipping, especially internationally, is always a hassle, two different options are offered here:

The Homemade package: as the name states it here, the home-made package is something entirely made by you: you can put as many things as you want in this, books, personalized items and more. For the homemade package, since we all have different budgets, there are two different options to choose from:
- The Little Box of Love: this is the choice of sending something personalized but not too big, for small budgets. This package can contain a maximum of 5 items, and is mostly something small but sweet: one book, a couple of trinkets, postcards, fun little items.
- The Caring Blogger package: this is the choice of sending AS MUCH as you can and want to, for the bloggers putting it all in! This package can contain an unlimited number of items: books, trinkets, etc etc.
The Book Depository package: this is the option for those of you wanting to send some books without the hassle of having to do an actual package and dealing with the post office and all. All there is to do here is send a book or a couple of books via Book Depository (offering free international shipping, which allows you to only pay for the price of the book!).

You can also choose whether or not you want to send something internationally, or locally.

We all know how expensive international shipping can be. To give everyone more options to participate without spending all of their money, you will be able to choose, when you subscribe, where you would like to send your gift. It can either be locally (to the same country or continent, depending on availability) or internationally.

Obviously, depending on the numbers of bloggers participating, availability can be tricky – but no worries. If for some reason there aren’t any bloggers left for you to send locally, we will figure out options.
Once the subscriptions are closed, I will pair you with another blogger, depending on their location, what they choose to send and where they are willing to send it, so everyone is happy (hopefully! I will always do my best for this to happen). You will get an email with your pairing and all the information you need to know, and…then it’s all up to you! 🙂

Keep in mind what you can and can’t send with this handy guide of ideas and don’t forget to check with your post office to see if your gifts will be able to be shipped and for what price.

Once the souvenirs swapping is over, I will write a recap post on my blog, where I will share what everyone got, and their experience with it, pictures etc etc. And YOU can as well, if you want to! Write down a blog post about your presents, the ones you sent, the ones you received, and don’t forget to share it with everyone to spread the word.

➡️ To subscribe to send souvenirs to other book bloggers, check out this page later on!

➡️ To find ideas to send to other bloggers, check out the souvenirs box!

💻 Sharing on social media

In order to make Souvenirs From Across The World a feature where everyone is sharing their posts and getting to know each other better, social media will also be a tool. I will share all of the Souvenirs From Across The World news on Twitter, with the hashtag #SFATW, share blog posts, news and everything, and YOU CAN as well! Share your blog posts and others, your souvenirs-hunting adventure, pictures of your souvenirs, with the hashtag!