Hour 3: Things Are Happening

Oh my god, I can’t believe we’re three hours in. I can’t believe we’re here, full stop!

It’s a new year, a new winter edition of 24in48, a new stack of books, and a whole new round of gifs. You know, the important content you’re all here for.

Wherever timezone you’re joining us from, we’re at hour three and we’re so damn happy to be here. Our Captain Rachel just hit her midday Saturday stride, and your trusty co-hosts Kerry and Kristen are sound asleep in their beds on the East Coast of the U.S. For the second time in a row, we’re all swabbing the decks and manning the sails of the Good Ship Readathon together, and we’re so happy to be here with you.

As we’re kicking things off, we want to remind y’all where everything is. You can find the list of participants here, follow our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram feeds, check out the Prize page, and get some pro readathon tips here. We’re also on Litsy (@24in48), and you can reach us at 24in48readathonofficial@gmail.com if you need us! Don’t forget that the entire readathon community tags posts with #24in48 across all social media platforms, so go find each other!

We’ll be quiet now and let you get back to the reading. Remember: you’re doing the thing, you’re amazing, and we like you.

Before you go: we’ve got our first round of door prize winners and a reminder to fill out the Intro Survey! We’ll be back in Hour Six!

Tatiana Ellis
Ingrid Ingram
Mary Ellen @aparanormalromance
Alicia Copeland
Faith Ramage
Christina Hufford
Ness Shortley
Steve @Zakath1
Michelle Rafalski

Congrats to our first round of winners! Don’t forget to claim your prizes here!

Hour Zero: Welcome to the Jan ’18 #24in48 Readathon!

Finally! It’s back again! We’re in our fifth year of doing this readathon thing, and it has just gotten better and better each time.

Now that we’ve appropriately welcomed one of the two best weekends of the year, we’ll go through some of the basics of the weekend. First of all, introductions: my name is Rachel and I’m the creator of the 24in48 readathon. Kerry and Kristen are back again to help me with hosting duties and we’ll be trading off posting responsibilities all weekend. You’ll also be able to catch us on social media all weekend. We’ll be taking turns on the official social handles — Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Litsy (@24in48) — and the official hashtag #24in48.

Before I get into some of the nitty gritty for this kick-off, I wanted to just remind everyone of the donate button over there in the sidebar or click on this link to be taken to our donation page. 100% of your donations (minus PayPal’s fees) will go toward helping your fellow participants who are not US-based the chance to win prizes. We’ve gotten a few donations but as we get more throughout the weekend, we’ll add to the prize page so as many people as possible can win. Thank you to all of you that have already contributed.

It is midnight ET according to the official time clock and we’ll be posting updates every three hours until we wrap this thing up on Sunday night at midnight ET. It is definitely not too late to sign up, which you can do here, and you should sign up whether you think you’ll hit 24 hours of reading or not. You’ll have the chance to win prizes just for participating, as well as in challenges that will be posted here throughout the course of the weekend.

One major change for this round of the ‘thon: rather than entering challenges by leaving a comment, you’ll be asked to fill out a Google form instead. Hopefully this will make life much easier not only for you, but also for your readathon hosts. Note that challenge entries only added in the comments will not count toward prize eligibility. (Speaking of prizes, have you seen the prize list for this round?)

For more tips and instructions, check out our post on how to readathon.

Let’s start with our re-vamped Intro Survey — fill out the form below to enter and check out your fellow participants’ answers in the spreadsheet. You’ve got until Hour 24 to enter to win.

Leveling Up, #24in48 Style

Readers! We’re back with an updated, condensed version of our How To Readathon Guide (you can find the original version here) a few days before this winter’s edition of 24in48!

Every ‘thon, we add hundreds of more readers than participated last time. With more prizes to win and places to participate than ever before, we’ve identified a commensurate need for some first timer guidance! Whether you’re totally new to the readathon or you’re a veteran looking to level up, these tips are for you!

(If you’re a repeat thonner, give this guide a thorough read: we’ve made a few changes to the challenge posts this time around! If your questions are on the basic end of things–how to sign up, what is the 24in48 anyway, and what counts for reading time–check out our FAQ post.)

  • Tracking Time Read
    • To be eligible for prize packs reserved for participants who read a full 24 hours, you’ll need to keep track of your time read.
    • There are a number of ways to do this, but the most popular/successful is using the stopwatch function on your smartphone, or by Googling “stopwatch.” (The Bookout app is also great, but I don’t know enough about it to include instructions here.)
    • Every time you start reading hit start, and pause when you stop to take a break. Simple! It doesn’t have to be exact, but because this is on the honor system don’t abuse the clock (no letting it run while you nap, pals).
    • Pro tip: Take a screenshot (esp. if you’re using your phone) every time you stop the clock, just in case you accidentally reset it. You can use multiple screenshots to prove your reading time if needed.

stopwatch screen capture

  • Challenges and Check-ins
    • Every three hours, a new post will publish on the blog, alternating between challenges and check-ins.
    • The Hour 0 challenge will always be an intro survey, and the Hour 48 post will always be a closing survey.
    • Challenges: every six hours (Hours 6, 12, 18, 24…), you’ll have the opportunity to do a fun little task (usually photo-based) to be entered for a prize. This year, we’re switching things up a little and having you submit your challenge entry through an embedded Google Form in the challenge post, rather than comment on the post itself.
    • Check-ins: If you entered your info on the sign-up post, you’re automatically entered to win a random door prize as long as you’re actively participating on one of the platforms you listed in the sign-up form (i.e. Twitter or Instagram).
    • The best way to keep up with these posts is to subscribe using the Follow button in the bottom right corner of the blog, which will push an email to you every time a new post is published.
    • subscribe button screen capture
    • Pro tip: Even though you are free to participate in the full 48 hours (midnight Friday to midnight Sunday) using your local time zone, following Eastern Time in the US (the official readathon time zone) is the best way to ensure you’re catching as many of the challenges/check-ins as possible. Posts are labeled by hour number, not time (Hour 6 vs. 6:00am on Saturday), so if you start Hour 0 in concert with the readathon itself you’ll have an easier time catching all of the challenges. If you need help figuring out what that translates to in your local time, check out this world clock conversion tool. (The downside, of course, is that if you’re on the opposite side of the world, your reading weekend might spill into Monday or start on Friday instead. If you decide to use local time, you won’t be penalized for having not started or starting early re: prize drawings.)
  • Adding Social Media to the Form: 
    • Often, the best way to complete the challenge is to take a photo and link it in the form answer box. You can do this by posting the photo to your social media platform of choice and dropping the link into the form (your entry won’t be counted unless it’s submitted through the form).
    • For Instagram: click on the date of the post (see below) to go to a direct link to the image (https://www.instagram.com/p/BPnWz65AlBh/). Your account must be public (or the @24in48 insta account needs to be following you already) in order to enter. Instagram capture
    • For Litsy: share a direct link to your post by clicking on the arrow at the bottom of the post and selecting how you want to share it (I usually email the link to myself in order to submit the form from my computer, but if you’re using your phone you can just copy and paste the link from you’ve shared it to and add it to the form). For the below post, this is the direct link: http://litsy.com/p/eGlZMm9PZGYw.
    • Litsy screenshot
    • IMPORTANT: Due to the number of participants, form submissions  that only include a handle (i.e. @24in48) and directions to go look for the entry will not be eligible. You must include a direct link or the actual image.
    • Pro tip: tagging all of your social posts with #24in48 to cheer on your fellow readathoners is great, but make sure your accounts are public (at least for this weekend) so others can cheer you on, too! 24in48 is a great way to connect with other readers across the bookternet (behind the scenes fact: it’s what brought all your hosts’ lives together #HeartEyesFaceForever).
  • Winning and Claiming Prizes
    • You MUST be signed up on the original sign up form in order to be eligible for prizes,. You can sign up after the readathon begins, but you can’t win anything unless you’ve signed up. Your sign up information MUST include not just the platform you’re participating on but the actual place we can go to find you, be that the URL or the handle. (If you’ve already signed up, you can edit your entry by going to the email you received and clicking through to edit.)
    • Even if your readathon weekend doesn’t contain much social media or regular check-ins (which is a perfectly fine way to participate), make sure you post something about the readathon when you start the weekend on one of the platforms you entered when you sign up so we know that you actually are participating. You’re still eligible for check-in prizes as long as we can see that you’re reading along.
    • If you are staying away from social for the weekend, don’t forget to check the blog periodically (or at least once at the very end) to see if you won something during a check-in or challenge. Prize winners will be announced throughout the weekend, so scroll through all the posts to check for your name.
    • As soon as you see that you’ve won a prize, hop on over to the prize page (which is being updated as prizes are added) and select your first, second, and third choices. If you live in the US, please do not select any of the international prizes unless that is all that is left. The sooner you claim your prize, the higher the likelihood you’ll get your first choice. The prize page will be updated periodically throughout the weekend so you’ll have a good idea of what’s still available.
    • Pro tip: Make sure that the information you submit through the challenge forms is consistent with your sign up information; if we can’t find you, you’ll lose out.

I hope this helps as you’re prepping for the ‘thon. If you have any follow-up or additional questions, leave ’em in the comments below or Tweet us @24in48!

See you soon, readers!

Announcing Jan ’18 Prize Packs

We’re doing some last minute prepping for the readathon this weekend, but of course we couldn’t forget to announce our amazing prize packs for participants who manage to read a full 24 out of 48 hours. Once again, we have some amazing prize sponsors who have generously donated toward these packs.

In order to be eligible for one of these prize packs, you must:

  1. Sign up officially using your name, a valid email, and a URL/username for the platforms you’ll be updating during the ‘thon. (If you need to edit your response to include an actual link or username, you can do so by following the confirmation link you received when you signed up.)
  2. Be active on those platforms during the readathon.
  3. Use some method of tracking your time. This can include your phone’s stopwatch function or a digital stopwatch (preferred) or a written time tracker, but your 24 hours must be clearly recorded. (If you need a digital stopwatch, Google “stopwatch.”) *Pro-tip: take a screenshot of your stopwatch every time you pause it, just in case you accidentally reset it instead of restarting it.*
  4. In the post that goes up at the end of the readathon, you’ll be able to submit your info and proof of 24 hours of reading. You’ll also be asked to note whether you’re US-based or international.
  5. You’ll have until midnight ET on January 30th to submit this proof, after which the form will be closed.

Obviously, your proof is on the honor system and, while I’m thrilled to be able to offer these prize packages, please don’t abuse it.

Also, please don’t forget your internationally-based brethren and donate if you can.

Okay! Now for the fun part:

Prize Pack #1:

Prize Pack #2:

Prize Pack #3:

Prize Pack #4 (For International Winners Only):

  • $50 worth of books from either Amazon.com, Book Depository, or Wordery (depending on your country/shipping options)

Who’s excited? I know I am!

January 2018 24in48 Readathon Sign-ups are Open!

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and happy end of 2017! I don’t know about you guys, but this year was kind of a dumpster fire, both personally and in the world at large. I’m ready to start fresh in 2018 and what better way to do that than blocking off a whole weekend to read?

Setting reading goals for the new year? Taking on a new reading challenge? The 24in48 is here to help. Last summer 1400 readers joined in on the festivities and I’m so excited to jump start the year with all of you again. I’ll personally be using the weekend to kickstart two challenges for the year, Read Harder (as always), and the new Reading Women challenge.

The next #24in48 will be taking place on Jan. 27-28, 2018! And I hope you can join us for a weekend full of warm blankets, snuggly pets, stacks of books, and blessed alone time.

If you’re new to 24in48, this is the basic gist: beginning at 12:01am on Saturday morning and running through 11:59pm on Sunday night, participants read for 24 hours out of that 48-hour period. You can split that up however you’d like: 20 hours on Saturday, four hours on Sunday; 12 hours each day; six four-hour sessions with four hour breaks in between, whatever you’d like.

And that’s it. The format never changes but it’s always an adventure.

Have more questions? There’s an FAQ page for that. Also, we’re still accepting donations to help us send more prizes out to international winners through the PayPal donate button on the sidebar.

Ready to join? Fill out the form below and feel free to list any and all of the places you’ll be hanging out online during the ‘thon. Check out who else is participating. If your entry doesn’t immediately pop in to the spreadsheet, give it a few minutes to populate.

And you can follow the readathon in all the normal places. We’re on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Litsy (@24in48) and you can use the official hashtag #24in48 everywhere to keep up with your fellow readathon-ers.

 

Taking Your Feedback, Making It Better

We are just about 46 days from our next readathon and your team is hard at work preparing for another fantastic event. This past July, we had a record turnout for #24in48. Close to 1,400 of you signed up and read for a full weekend. You came from all over the world—from Australia to Japan, Finland to Brazil, the UK and the US—and when all was said and done, we shared a lot of great experiences and received a lot of feedback on ways to make this little readathon better.

July’s event was the first time I had any help managing the workflow (why I waited so long, I’ll never know) and the first time we were able to offer such an abundance of prizes thanks to increased publisher support. Many of you won drawings but were unable to select books from our prize list because they were specific to US-based contributors. We’re actively reaching out to international publishers and their sales teams to solicit more prizes for our growing participant base. I’m hopeful that these efforts will expand the number of international prizes offered for the readathon. (If you have contact information for or are employed by an international publisher and you’d like to help, send an email to 24in48readathonofficial@gmail.com.)

One way we’ve been able to add more prizes for non-US readers is by funding Book Depository and Amazon gift cards, either ourselves or through the generous (though rare) contributions of readathon participants. We’ve been brainstorming ways to expand the inclusivity of the event on an international level. Now that the need (and expense) is greater, we need some help.

To this end, a PayPal “Donate” button has been added at the bottom of this update and on the site’s sidebar to accept monetary donations.100% of the funds donated (minus PayPal’s standard fees) will go to creating and purchasing international prizes. Together, we can create a readathon that embodies the increasingly global community we have all worked to grow over the last five years.

Additionally, if you’re interested in donating actual prizes—be it bookmarks from your Etsy store or new books to be sent to a winner in your own country—please send us an email.

I’m so proud to be a part of this fantastic community, and I know each of you are too. Thanks in advance for your support.

Post-Readathon Update + Prize Pack Winners

It’s been just over a week since the end of #24in48 and your hosts are just now picking themselves up off the book-strewn floor to provide an update on the ‘thon.

First of all, thank you everyone that participated. We had a record turnout with 1398 readers participating. (I’m sure there were a couple of readers who jumped in without officially signing up, so I’m calling it 1400 even.)

We’ve got just a little bit of business to get through, before I announce the winners of the four prize packs. I appreciate everyone’s patience if you won a prize; as I noted in the post-readathon email you received, unless there is an issue (or your prize requires you to choose something) you will NOT hear from us confirming which prize you won. With close to 150 prize winners, I just can’t email everyone individually.

I also want to apologize again to all of the international prize winners who missed out on choosing a prize because we didn’t have enough for you. We work directly with US publishers for the US prizes and for a variety of reasons, they will not ship outside the country. International prizes are donated by your fellow readathoners and hosts and we rely on this generosity to make any international prizes available. Your hosts are brainstorming ways to expand the number of international prizes before January’s event (prize donations are always welcome – email us at 24in48readathonofficial@gmail.com if you want to contribute). If you have suggestions, please leave a comment or send us an email. (Question: if we opened up a PayPal donate button, specifically dedicated to international prize shipping costs, would you be willing to donate?)

Also, if you haven’t filled out the closing survey yet, please go do so (in particular, we’re interested in how the readathon can improve for next time).

Now, for your prize pack winners! (Winners, you should expect an email hitting your inbox shortly).

Prize Pack #1 ($100 Book Riot Gift Card and Virginia Woolf Obvious State print)

Rachel Wright

Prize Pack #2 ($50 Gift Card to Litographs.com, Herman Melville print, & Graywolf Press tote)

Shawntaye Hopkins

Prize Pack #3 (Kindle Fire 7, $25 GC to Amazon.com, Book Riot tote bag)

Kendra Winchester

Prize Pack #4 ($50 worth of books from BookDepository.com, Your choice of mug (up to EUR 15) and your choice of tote (up to EUR 15) from The Literary Gift Company)

Lizpixie

Congrats to all of the winners and thank you to the prize sponsors who made these prize packs possible.

If you have any additional questions or suggestions, please drop us an email and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. Otherwise, prize winners, keep an eye on your mailboxes!

 

Hour 48: The End!

WE DID IT! We made it the full 48 hours! I’m so thrilled for every last one of you. More than 1,300 readers participated this weekend and I hope you all had a great time.

Before we can wrap this thing up and put it (and ourselves) to bed, we’ve got a few last things to take care of. Namely, winners of the Hour 42 Literary Dinner Party challenge:

Heike (@inwhichHeikereadsharder on Litsy)

Katy Alice (@thegirlinthegarret on Instagram)

Ashley McMillan (@swishandflick on Litsy)

Jocelyn Bailey (@thebookhooker on Instagram)

Kathy W. (@MsWebberUC on Twitter)

Alisha Soto (@endlessreader on Twitter)

Kaitlyn Dawn (@121books on Twitter)

Jessica (@JPeterson on Litsy)

Frank McGeough (@fmcgeough on Twitter)

Lynn Andryshak (@lmandryshak on Instagram)

If you can, I’d love to know how this readathon went for all of you, anything you’d change, your favorite books, etc. So leave a comment with answers to this closing survey:

  1. How many books did you read? Pages? (If you didn’t keep track, tell me that too!)
  2. How many hours did you read?
  3. What do you think worked well in this readathon?
  4. What do you think could be done to improve the readathon for next time?
  5. Will you participate in a future 24in48 readathon?

And thanks to our friends at Book Riot, all readathon participants will be getting an email with a 25% discount code for their store. So keep your eyes peeled for that. Thank you to the whole BR gang for going above and beyond for this ‘thon.

Since I know you’re all dying to mark your calendars, the next 24in48 readathon will be on….

January 27-28, 2018!!

Lastly, if you finished a full 24 hours of reading, you’re eligible to win one of four amazing prize packs. Fill out this form, including your proof of hours read, before midnight ET on Tuesday, July 25th.

Thanks once again for joining me and my fellow co-hosts Kristen and Kerry. It’s been a great time.

Hour 45: Yew Kan Dew Eet!

ou’re so close to the finish line, guys! Can you smell it? That’s the smell of success (unless you didn’t take a shower today… then maybe that smell is you….)

A super quick reminder to double-check all the previous posts to see if your name has been announced as a prize winner this weekend. If it has, you’ll need to go hit up the Prize page and make your selections. And if you’ve hit the 24-hour mark or think you’re going to, don’t forget that you’ll need to record proof of your time in the Hour 48 post after this thing is all over and you’ll only have two days to do so.

And don’t forget you’ve got three more hours to enter the Hour 42 Literary Dinner Party Challenge.

Time for the last door prize winners of the readathon, and one more shout out to all of our amazing prize sponsors for providing such great giveaways. Give them a thanks when you can! This wouldn’t be possible without them.

Heather Gorman (@heather_ogorman on Twitter)

Deborah (@beatccr on Twitter)

Michelle (@gruxita on Twitter)

Sarah (@Sarrie on Litsy)

Shona Lawrence (@anovelobsession on Litsy)

Rebecca (@rebeccamc_00 on Twitter)

Jana Christensen (@jananzareads on Instagram)

Danielle C (@perseph0neinnana on Instagram)

Three hours to go, kids! You got this!

Hour 42: Literary Dinner Party

One of the very best parts of readathon is the food (trust me on this). I am all about planning my snacks and meals in advance, and the name of the game is, ALL THE CARBS. I try to eat healthy, I promise, but then again,  mac & cheese exists in the world. It’s only a problem if you say it’s a problem, right?

I say, combat the sneaking suspicion that food and books are not as closely related as you might think by dreaming up your perfect dinner party. Who would you most like to attend a bookish dinner party with? Authors (living or dead), fictional characters, anything goes. That’s your next challenge: which five bookish people (or animals, I’m not picky) would be around your perfect literary dinner table?

Post a comment with your dinner party guest list; you have until Hour 48 at midnight ET tonight to enter.

And now for the winners of the Hour 36 Swagilicious challenge:

Devin (@devinfeyded on Instagram)

Benni (@books.and.coco on Instagram)

Nicole Dunton (@nickelgrl1986 on Twitter)

Katja Nielsen (@Kalalalatja on Litsy)

Andrea C (@acc5446 on Litsy)

Christina (@CAhnBooks on Twitter)

Sarah @ Reviews & Readathons

Marisa (@marisagbooks on Instagram)

Janet Goodell (@jangoodell on Twitter)

Jenna (@novels_netflix on Twitter)

Congrats and head over to the Prize page now to pick your swag.