Swap the books you have finished for the ones you have not.
A finished book is doing nothing on a shelf and everything in somebody else's hands. Say what you have read and what you want to read next, and the two lists find each other.
What to do with the books you have already read
Series travel best. A complete run, or a long stretch of one, is the thing a reader will cross a county for — they get the whole arc in one handover instead of hunting volume by volume.
A first edition, a signed copy or anything with a story attached goes on its own listing, described precisely. Those are found by people searching for that exact book, and they should land on a page about it rather than on a box it happens to be inside.
Ordinary paperbacks are happiest in a themed bundle. One author, one genre, one prize longlist: give the pile a shape somebody can recognise and it becomes something they want whole.
Say the author, the format and how the spine has held up. If it is a bundle, name the thread that ties it together. Then say what you are in the mood for next, as loosely or as exactly as you like.
The questions people ask first.
You list what you are ready to pass on and say what you would like instead. When somebody wants your books and you want theirs, we put the two of you together and you arrange the handover between you.
That is the easiest kind of swap to make work. A box with a clear theme is one listing, one conversation and one handover, and it is far more appealing to a reader than the same books split into twenty separate offers.
Good. Most reading copies are exactly that, and most readers are looking for something to read rather than something to keep pristine. Describe the wear honestly and it will find the right person.
Nothing here has a price.
Barterama is a barter marketplace: a swap site where value is shown as a band rather than a figure, and where no money changes hands at any point. Every item sits in one of twelve bands that we work out — you never set your own, and neither does the person you are swapping with. If we are not confident, the band gets wider rather than more precise.
Where two sides do not quite balance, a small extra item closes the gap. Cash never does, and there is no balance or credit on this site to close it with.
Other things people swap.
Got books to swap?
List what you have, say what you are after, and we will introduce you when somebody wants yours and has something you want.