In these hard economic times it is ever more important to pep up your inventory to ensure that you are really doing your utmost to promote your titles. Whilst buyers are looking to save where they can, they want to know that when buying they are making a good investment. By giving them all the information they need you can help to make book buying worth their while. Expanding your book descriptions and along with your services will not only benefit you in the tough economic climate, it will also serve to ensure that more buyers are able to find your books generally.
To help you ensure that you are making the most of your online sales potential, we have put together some best practise tips for you:
Uploading pictures - can increase your sales considerably. Buyers like to see what they are buying - especially if a book is quite expensive or rare. Having pictures available also allows you to participate in other special promotions throughout the year. You will also be able to showcase your books in the Favourites from our Booksellers section of the Rare Book Room, which we promote regularly in buyer newsletters. If you do not have pictures available we cannot feature your books, so it is really worthwhile investing some time into getting some nice pictures taken.
Not sure how to get your pictures online? Visit our Online Help Pages for instructions.
For those booksellers who do not have a facility that enables them to change the size and resolution of pictures, we would also like to recommend that you look online at some of the freeware available. We recommend Paint.Net, which allows you to resize and change the quality of the picture accordingly.
Book Descriptions - are your tool for helping buyers find your books in their searches. Use your book descriptions to their full, to offer the buyer all the information they need to know. You have 4000 characters to use, so you can give a comprehensive overview of the biblographic information, the condition of the book and also part of the synopsis, for example. A more extensive description, along with a good picture can really make a difference to a buyer when deciding whose book to buy.
Why is synopsis information important? For those buyers who do not know exact book titles, and where the title of a book does not really reflect the contents, buyers will be searching by keyword for a genre, a character, or the topic of the book. They will only find your books if you have that information available. 
By including part of the synopsis, or even the table of contents a buyer will be more likely to find your books in their searches. You can add information to your book descriptions at any time, you simply need to make the change and upload the newly updated file. We recommend that you start with the more expensive titles when updating your book data.
Keywords - is another tool for making your books more visible. They should be as book specific as possible. Using generic words, history for example, will mean that your book(s) show as one of several million search results and it becomes difficult to find your book(s). By being more content specific, for example - 18th century history Devon Cornwall you will greatly reduce the number of search results and help the buyer get to your books more quickly. As the search runs a full text search you should use words different to those used in your book description.
Adding foreign keywords will ensure that your listings are also visible to other English speaking European buyers who use foreign keywords out of habit. Click here for a translated list of some of the more common foreign keywords in English – French – German.
Catalogues - Ensure that you have some catalogues
available to make your books easier to navigate for browsing buyers.
You have the facility to enter up to 100 catalogues. Contact our Customer Service team to find out how best to add catalogues to your inventory.
Signed Books, First Editions etc. - Make sure you have marked your books correctly if there is some sort of special feature, so that buyers looking for signed, first editions for example can find your book(s) among the search results. Buyers can narrow down their searches using certain attributes - whether first editions, a hardback or a copy signed by the author. 
If you ensure that you have a good description and a nice picture
of the books you have available, buyers are likely to be more inclined to
buy from you. Our Customer Service team are available to support you, should you need assistance in updating your book data.
Marking your books correctly, not only makes it easier for buyers to find your
books in their searches, but also allows us to include your books in
any buyer communication that we do. We send out regular newsletters to
various different buyer groups and we are always interested in
bookseller content that we can promote to make it more interesting for
the buyers. Don't forget that we can only promote books where a good picture of the book is available.
Competitive Shipping - Make sure that you are offering
competitive shipping terms. Buyers will want to know exactly when they
are likely to receive their orders. Ensure that your shipping rates and speeds really reflect the services you can offer. Click here
to find more information on updating your Shipping Terms or any other
aspect of your Personal Information on your bookseller account.
Remember that the Royal Mail are increasing their prices again in April
this year so you will need to ensure that you are prepared for the too.
Click here to read more on that topic.
Free shipping - You may wish to consider offering Free Domestic Shipping on your more expensive books - perhaps books over £20 - giving buyers an added incentive to order from you.
