Confirm swaps and change dates

An accepted swap lives on the Active Swaps tab until both authors have sent and confirmed. Confirming is how BookSparker knows a newsletter went out, and it is what turns a swap into a completed one with numbers behind it. This article covers that step and everything you can still change on the way.

After the share date

The closed card sums up the swap in two rows, You send and They send, each with its date, type and list, and a check once that side is confirmed. On the right is whatever needs attention: the next send while the dates are ahead, a missing book link or a date change, and, once your own share date has passed, a countdown to your confirmation with Confirm beside it. From then on the tab badge counts the swap as needing you. Show only swaps that need my confirmation narrows the tab to those, and they sit at the top of the list either way.

Opened, the card gives each send its own panel: the book, the list it goes to with that list's numbers, and the book link. Link for your email is the other author's link: copy it into your newsletter. Your book link for their email is yours. You can change it until 12:00pm Eastern time on the day before their share date, and while it is missing the card asks you to add it. A confirmed send shows the email that carried it, marked Sending Confirmed.

Confirm your send

Confirm, on the closed card or under your send once the card is open, opens Confirm Swap Completion, a short wizard with two steps.

1. Select Campaign. BookSparker loads the campaigns you have sent from your email provider. Pick the one that carried the swap. MailerLite, Mailchimp, Kit, EmailOctopus and AWeber report campaigns through their API. Flodesk doesn't share campaigns with other apps, so with Flodesk (or another provider) the first step is Preview URL instead, and you paste the email's preview link yourself. In Flodesk, open Emails, hover over the email, click the three dots and choose Get preview link.
2. Confirm. Check the details, which are shared with your partner, and choose Confirm Swap.

With AWeber, BookSparker checks the email you picked with AWeber before it saves your confirmation. The list shows only emails sent to the list the swap was booked on, and the check makes sure the email has finished sending, went to that list, was sent after the swap was agreed and contains your partner's book link. The numbers your partner sees come straight from AWeber. If the check can't find the book link, for example because you used a shortened link or another store's link, tick I included their book link to confirm anyway; your partner sees that you confirmed it.

The seven-day window

Each side has seven days from its own share date to confirm. If the window closes without a confirmation, that side is marked Auto completed: No data provided and the swap carries on without its campaign data. Nothing else fails, but the swap records no results for that side, and repeated no-data completions show in your reputation. The other author is told by email and in their notifications that your side was never confirmed, and sees it marked Not confirmed on the swap.

Both confirmed

When both sides have confirmed, the card shows a green 100% Confirmed banner with each campaign's subject, send time and stats, and the swap moves to History. Confirmations checked with AWeber are marked Verified by AWeber, with what the check found, such as an email that went out well before or after the share date.

Change a share date

Edit Dates on an expanded card opens Request Date Changes. It is available only while both share dates are still ahead; once either date is today or past, the dates are locked.

Cancel a swap

Canceling a confirmed swap breaks a promise the other author has planned around, so BookSparker asks for a reason and warns that cancellations affect your reputation. Cancel sits at the bottom of Request Date Changes, which is open while both share dates are still ahead, and the reason is optional there. You cannot cancel once the other author's share date has arrived while yours is still ahead, once both share dates have passed, or once the swap has completed: complete your send, or contact us if something is wrong. Paid swaps follow the refund rules in paid swaps.

Hide, History and notes

• Hide tidies a swap off your Active Swaps list once you have confirmed your side and are only waiting on theirs. Show hidden brings it back, and it still lands in History when both sides are done.
• History is where completed, declined, canceled and expired swaps end up.
• Note keeps a private reminder on the swap, marked Internal note (only you can see this). The other author never sees it.

Common questions

My campaign is not in the list. What now?

Use the search box first; the wizard loads your most recent campaigns. If the integration behind the swap was disconnected, reconnect the same account under Mailing Lists and open the wizard again.

Can I confirm before my share date?

No. Confirm appears only once your share date has passed, because it records a send that has already happened.

What if I confirmed the wrong campaign?

Confirmations are final in the product. Contact us with the swap and the correct campaign, and we will look into it.

Why can I not change the dates any more?

One of the two share dates is today or already past. From then on the swap is in its confirmation phase and the dates are fixed.