Bookseller Digest UK

Restoring sold books using the Online Inventory Management page

We have been informed that some booksellers may receive an error message when trying to restore a sold book through the Online Inventory Management page. We are working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, we recommend that you upload a file with the book marked 'For Sale' so the listing can be quickly restored.

We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Transferring your listings to HomeBase 3

If you would like to test HomeBase 3 Beta 2 you can easily import your HomeBase 2.3 listings into the software by following the instructions on our HomeBase 3 help pages. There are a few known issues with HomeBase 3: 

• You can not change the currency symbol from $ to £. This is a display issue only and will have no affect on the listing currency online, which is set within your bookseller account. You can ignore the $ sign.
• HomeBase Beta 2 will import ISBNs containing dashes, however those dashes will render the ISBN invalid. To correct the problem, and validate the listing for upload to AbeBooks, it is necessary to delete the ISBN manually, through the 'Edit Listing' screen, and re-enter the number without the dashes.
• There is a known bug in the 'Filter/Search Conditions' in the Listings tab. Searches by the 'Author' and Keywords' fields have been reversed. This means that when using the 'Author' field, HomeBase 3 will actually search by Keywords, and when using the 'Keywords' field, HomeBase 3 will actually search by Author.

We are working towards resolving these issues for a future release. Bookmark our HomeBase 3 Read Me Page to always access the up-to-date news on HomeBase 3 Beta.

Always remember to create a backup of your current database before starting to use HomeBase 3 Beta 2.

Click here to download HomeBase 3 Beta 2

Our Customer Service team will be happy to assist you with any questions you have regarding HomeBase 3.  

Indexing Delays

Update Nov 20th: The issues reported below have been resolved.

We are currently experiencing inventory processing delays on the website. As a result, updates sent to AbeBooks may take a few days to become visible online. We are working hard to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.

• Your updates: All successfully received files are being processed so there is no need to resend your inventory unless changes have been made. 
• Adding pictures: After uploading your images, it may be a few days before they are attached to your listings and visible online. Once again, there is no need to resend any files.
• After returning from Vacation status: Your inventory will appear online in a few days (where it was previously available after a few hours)

We would like to assure you that buyers can still access all of the normal tools on the site to locate your books and make purchases. We also would like to confirm that sold books are being correctly deleted from our database and buyers will not be able to place orders for sold books that may still be showing in the search results.

We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

 

HomeBase 3.0 Beta 2 Released

We are very happy to announce the release of a new test version of HomeBase 3.0 Beta. We have reviewed all of the feedback from booksellers and many suggestions have now been incorporated into the newly updated Beta version of HomeBase 3.0!

Before downloading HomeBase and trying it out, we would strongly advise you to go through the Read Me page which explains exactly what a Beta version is and gives more information about the known issues with the program.

Rundown of the main features:

• Price Comparison and ISBN look-up tools
• Easy to use upload to AbeBooks
• Multi-select Edit and Delete
• Quantity field
• Import and export in various file formats (including Amazon Book Loader and UIEE)
• Accepts 13 digit ISBNs

If you wish to download and try out the new Beta version of HomeBase 3.0, please note that it is not necessary to uninstall the previous version of HomeBase 3.0 Beta. Simply download the new HomeBase 3.0 Beta from the link below, double-click on the file to install it and follow the steps until the final confirmation. Your data will be automatically imported and your options retrieved.

You may want to take the opportunity to have a look at the new features and improvements included in the latest release. More details can be found on the download page.

Download HomeBase 3.0 Beta 2 now!

You can consult our extensive help pages that are now available online for HomeBase 3.0 Beta. As always, if you have any questions or require any assistance, our Customer Service Team will be happy to help.

Christmas Marketing on AbeBooks

Wondering what we are doing to help you sell more books on AbeBooks over the Christmas period?

Take a look at our Christmas Bookshop to get a taster of the books we are promoting and how we are reaching more buyers this Christmas to bring AbeBooks booksellers more sales. Buyers entering "Christmas Bookshop" into online search engines such as Google, Yahoo and co. will find this page appears very high, if not at the top, in the results. 

We have also created some useful Christmas shopping tips for buyers visiting the site. These tips should help buyers to place more successful orders over the website and to make customers aware of the various possibilities over the Christmas period. 

Other Christmas pages:

Rare Books for Christmas
For first editions, a forgotten classics or an out-of-print gem.

Signed Books for Christmas
A host of tremendous books; all signed by the author.

New Books for Christmas
Boxed sets, stunning photography books, deluxe editions, limited editions, memorable biographies and even a fur-covered book.

Sign On Issues

Update 11/11/09 - This issue has now been resolved and all users should be able to sign on successfully as usual.

We have been informed that some sellers using AOL as an Internet provider might have difficulties signing onto their account. The issue may cause some users to be redirected to the sign-on page after having successfully entered their email address and password.

We would like to confirm that any orders waiting to be processed during this time will not expire.

We are treating this issue with the highest priority and it should be resolved soon. An update will be posted as soon as further information is available.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience. If you have any questions or require any assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact our Customer Service Team who will be happy to help.

AbeBooks Top 10 Most Expensive Sales in October 2009

1. The Scots Musical Museum by James Johnson - £5,193 ($8,500)
The pivotal collection of Scots music compiled by James Johnson with contributions, both musically and editorially, by Robert Burns. Published in 1792 as four volumes, this bound in two.

2. Oeuvres by Pierre de Ronsard - £4,544 ($7,435)
The complete first volume of the first edition of Ronsard's "Works"; bound with an incomplete copy of the second volume and the preliminary matter of the third volume. Published in Paris in 1560, the present first two volumes contain the complete text of Renouard's "Amours," and the following three volumes contained odes and hymns.

3. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien - £3,972 ($6,500)
A signed second edition of Tolkien’s fantasy masterpiece.

4. The Bonefish Brigade by Zane Grey - £3,055  ($5,000)
Privately published in 1922, this was a special edition with “Christmas Greetings” and a candle design printed in red and green on the upper cover.  This was Zane Grey’s copy with his library blind-stamp on the front free endpaper.

5. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer; Frank Lloyd Wright; Yukio Futagawa - £2,750 ($4,500)
The complete 12-volume monograph of a lifetime of Wright’s work.  Published 1984, first American edition.

6. The original pen, ink, and watercolour that was used for the dust wrapper of The Fairy Tales of Perrault by Harry Clarke - £2,750 ($4,500)
Harry Clarke’s set of pen, ink and watercolour which he used to create the intricate dust cover for The Fairy Tales of Perrault.

7. Historia De Las Indias by Bartolomé de las Casas - £2,641 ($4,321)
The Complete History of the Indies as written by the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, Bartolomé de las Casas which documents his campaign for the rights of Native Americans as well as his initial openness, and later bitterly opposition, to importing African slaves.

8. The first tome or volume of the Paraphrases of Erasmus vpon the newe testament : conteinyng the fower Euangelistes, with the Actes of the Apostles: eftsones conferred with the latine and throughly corrected as it is by the kinges highness by Desiderius Erasmus  - £2,495 ($4,187)
Erasmus' (d. 1536) famous paraphrase was ordered to be placed in all churches with the Great Bible during the reign of Edward VI.  His successor, Mary I, consequently ordered all copies to be destroyed, in part accounting for its rarity today, this was a second 1551 edition.

9. XCVI. Sermons by The Right Honorable, and Reverend Father in God, Lancelot Andrewes, Late Lord Bishop of Winchester By Richard Badger - £2,445  ($4,000)
Ninety-six sermons by Lancelot Andrewes.  This second edition, published 1632.  Andrewes was among the most learned of churchmen of the period, he was also an important member of the scholars that created the King James translation of the Bible.

10. Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway - £2,292  ($3,750)
First edition, first printing published in 1935. 

Scheduled Maintenance to the AbeBooks websites

As part of our ongoing effort to improve our technical infrastructure on a continuous basis, AbeBooks will be performing a significant upgrade to both the hardware and software that support our inventory database in the very early hours of Thursday 12th November 2009.

The implementation of this upgrade will require a scheduled interruption to our service lasting approximately 3 hours from 1.00 am to 4.00 am GMT on 12th November.

This upgrade will improve both the stability and capacity of our database, allowing us to support an ever growing inventory.

This suspension of service will affect all aspects of the AbeBooks websites, across all domains, including:

* Searching and ordering (for buyers)
* Order processing (for booksellers)
* Uploading to the site (regardless of the system you use to upload - HomeBase, API, own   file, etc.)
* Search web services (for affiliate partners)

Please be assured that we will make every effort to restore full service to the websites as quickly as possible to minimise the impact of the outage.

We will keep you updated on the progress of this maintenance through this post and let you know as soon as it has been successfully completed.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience. If you have any questions or require any assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact our Customer Service Team who will be happy to help.

Maintenance - Some AbeBooks Features May Currently Be Affected

02/11/2009 - Update: This issue has now been resolved. Booksellers can use the purge tool on their accounts as normal and all catalogues should be visible on the Bookseller Storefronts.

29/10/2009 -  All catalogues are now visible on Bookseller Storefronts and on the website. However, we are still working to resolve the delayed processing time for purges. Further updates to come...

Due to recent maintenance work on our infrastructure, booksellers may find that some features on the website have been temporarily affected:

• Some booksellers’ catalogues are not being displayed on their Storefront 
• The processing time for purge requests is slightly delayed

We would like to assure you that our technical team is currently working to restore these functions as soon as possible.

If you have sent an inventory file to AbeBooks, please note that it is not necessary to send it again. All files will be processed as soon as the issue has been resolved and re-sending your file will, in fact, slow down the update.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience.

Should you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us; we will be happy to help. As always, we will keep you up-to-date on the progress of this issue through this post.

Marketing on AbeBooks - October

Our Marketing team has created some exciting features for our homepage. If you have books that fit these promotions, take advantage of the potential exposure and upload them to the website.

If your items are unique or special in some particular way, please let us know at features@abebooks.com.

And don’t forget – to be considered for inclusion in any of our features, your listing must have uploaded a good quality image for your book!

Current features on AbeBooks.co.uk:

The Bleakest Books

Your most depressing reads including a dose of post-apocalyptic horror, government-sponsored suicide in the face of radiation and collapsing societies.

Forgotten Military History Books

This selection of forgotten gems includes a regimental history, memoirs from combatants, books from guerilla fighters, five-star generals and an Apache warrior, and even a contribution from Mrs. Custer.

The Weird Book Room - now calling on your help for strange but true submissions!

Book Carousel: The Fantastic Fiction and Philosophy of Umberto Eco

Planned Features for Autumn:

Sylvia Plath, Aldous Huxley, William Faulkner, Tolkien, Saul Bellow, Toni Morrison, and Ken Kesey