Bookseller Digest UK

Are you missing out on orders?

We recommend that booksellers check their AbeBooks accounts regularly in order to avoid letting any orders slip by unnoticed. If an order is not processed within four days, it will expire and be automatically cancelled.

You should receive an email from AbeBooks each time one of your books is purchased. However, emails can often be lost, filtered out and simply ignored, so it is advisable to sign onto the AbeBooks site every two to three days to make certain that you can process all of the orders that you receive.

Reasons why not to let your orders expire:

• Missed sale opportunity

•  If the book is no longer available, cancelling the order actively will inform the buyer sooner and help to make the best of a bad experience.

• If a buyer refuses to pay extra charges on an order, letting the order expire will count against your bookseller rating. However, if you reject the order after the buyer has refused, your star rating remains unaffected.

AbeBooks in the UK - April 2009

In addition to attending the London Book Fair on 22nd and 23rd April, AbeBooks will host a meeting and presentation in London on Monday 20th April. The details of the meeting can be found below and all member booksellers are invited to attend.

Location: Grange Strathmore Hotel
41 Queens Gate Gardens, London. SW7 5NB
Room: The Library Room
Date: Monday 20th April 2009
Time: Starting at 2.30pm
Map & Directions: Grange Strathmore Hotel

As well as broaching your questions and discussing current topics of interest, we will be demonstrating how you can increase your book sales through the addition of pictures to your book listings. After a step by step guide to the process of uploading images, we will show you how pictures are used for promotional purposes on the site and how they can direct buyers to your titles and help you to sell more.

If you would like to attend, simply submit our Online Contact Form, specifying the number of guests you will be bringing and any questions that you would like to submit in advance for discussion on the day. Please include the heading "LBF Meeting - April 2009".

If you are unable to attend the event but would like to meet up at the London Book Fair, please Contact Us providing a suitable time to meet on either Tuesday 21st or Wednesday 22nd April.

ABA - PBFA Edinburgh Book Fair 2009

Around 65 booksellers came to The Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh to attend this year's book fair, with the majority of ABA booksellers on the lower level and the PBFA booksellers based on the first floor. The fair seemed to receive healthy attendance from the general public with regular purchases being made and many people leaving with bags and packages.

I was there to speak with booksellers about their experiences of listing on AbeBooks and to answer any questions regarding their accounts. From these interesting discussions, I have collated the most useful and prominent topics:

• Postage Rates - how can I change the default rates to reflect my prices and times? 

AbeBooks default shipping rates are not based on current rates and we strongly recommend that booksellers update their account with details of the delivery service they offer. Remember also to add countries such as Ireland and the Netherlands which are not automatically provided. If these are not added, buyers from these countries will have to pay the International shipping fee.

• Pictures - would adding pictures increase my sales? 

By uploading book images your books are more likely to be featured in buyer promotions and bulletins and by being able to see the book a buyer is more likely to make a purchase. Many booksellers feel that taking and uploading pictures would take considerable time. We suggest taking a small selection of your titles and following our step-by-step guide to upload images.

• Bookseller Star Rating  - we would like to remind you that if you have 3 or less orders over 6 months, your star rating will appear automatically at 4 stars. For those orders for which you have requested extra shipping charges: if the buyer refuses the extra charges and you continue to reject the order this will not count against your rating. To find out which orders count and which are excluded, please see our Bookseller Help page on this topic...

Important Website Maintenance - March 2009

***Update*** 15/04/2009 - Due to the processing delays that booksellers may still be experiencing on the site, Laura-Lea Berna, AbeBooks Vice-President of Operations, issued a statement on 9th April which you can find by clicking here.

We would like to thank you for your understanding and patience during this time and we assure you that we are doing our best to resolve the current issues as soon as possible. Please only upload your files as regularly as normal in order to avoid extending the backlog further.

AbeBooks will soon be performing necessary maintenance to both the hardware and software that supports our online Search functionality. This work comprises significant upgrades to both and will positively impact Search performance.

Some of the benefits of this maintenance include:

• Searches will become faster and more robust.
• We’ll be able to support continued inventory growth.
• We’ll be able to support significant growth in search traffic.

The work will be done in stages, beginning on Saturday 28th March, and will take approximately three days to complete. Please be assured that we will do our best to complete the work as quickly as possible.

Site availability, searching and ordering, and order processing will remain unaffected while the work is in progress. However, the following will occur:

• New listings and updates to existing listings uploaded while the maintenance is being performed will not be indexed into Search. These inventory changes will not be lost and will be indexed as soon as the work is completed.
• ‘Deletes’ will be processed as normal.

We ask that you please refrain from re-sending files during this time period, as doing so will only add to the backlog of files to be indexed, and unnecessarily increase the time indexing will take once the work is complete.

We apologise for any inconvenience this work may cause and would like to thank you for your patience. We will be certain to keep you updated on our progress.

If you have any questions or concerns about this work, please contact Customer Service Team; they will be happy to help.

AbeBooks in the Media - March 2009

Following the appearance of AbeBooks in a variety of national newspapers in January, we now have further media mentions to report. Spreading the word about AbeBooks in the UK and Ireland is very important and helps to increase the number of potential buyers visiting our site and looking at your titles. The most recent media hits have covered a wide readership which is particularly beneficial for promoting AbeBooks in more specialised fields and attracting buyers from all corners of the world.

Most recent appearances:

• The Guardian ( approx. 400,000 readers)

Robert McCrum writes about AbeBooks' latest promotion on the most impressive book covers of all time and explores past titles and cover designers that have left their imprint on the industry. McCrum also invites readers to leave messages about their favourite book covers.

To read the full article, click here.

• New Media Age (approx. 6,600 readers)

The top 10 book sites according to their market share is featured in the offline edition of this magazine. AbeBooks achieves a high position with 8.2% of the market, surpassing among others Alibris, Waterstones, Borders UK and Barnes & Noble.

• The Irish Independent (approx. 160,000 readers)

The Bookworm column in the offline edition of this newspaper's Weekend Review covered the most recent marketing campaigns run by AbeBooks, including the "join the Barack Obama book club", the 30 novels worth buying for their cover alone and the 10 funniest books according to British readers.

• The Daily Express (approx. 730,000 readers)

AbeBooks was discussed in an antiques valuation article as a source to go to when wanting to assess the value of a copy of The Children's Golden Treasure Book of 1939.

• Essentials (approx. 93,000 readers)

This general consumer magazine recommended that readers go to AbeBooks.co.uk in order to look for second hand books and to purchase on a marketplace with a reliable system which will help if anything goes wrong.

Top 10 Bestselling Books on AbeBooks.co.uk for February 2009

1. Superjuice by Michael Van Straten
2. The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
3. The World We Have by Thich Nhat Hanh
4. The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
5. The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
6. Behold the Lamb of God by Simon Peter Iredale
7. Couples by John Updike
8. Coyote's Mate by Lora Leigh
9. The Prayer Ministry of the Church by Watchman Nee
10. In Search of England by H.V. Morton

Top 10 Most Expensive Books Purchased on AbeBooks - February 2009

1. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - $11,000 (£7,761)
First edition, first printing from 1951.  Fine copy of the true first printing.

2. Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama - $8,500 (£6,000)
First edition, first printing of this 1995 book, signed by Obama. 

3. Summa Theologiae, pars Secunda by Antoninus Florentinus - $6,218 (£4,389)
Published in 1496, these two volumes attempt to describe the fields of ethics and economics in and around Florence.

4. Peter Beard: Art Edition by Owen Edwards - $5,495 (£3,879)
Limited edition elephant folio photobook from Tashen, published in 2006.  Each of the 2,250 copies were signed by Beard.

5. Forever Odd by Dean Koontz - $4,550 (£3,212)
One of 26 signed lettered copies (this copy was E) of the second book to feature Koontz’s character, Odd Thomas.

6. De Urbibus, Arcibus, Castellisque Condendis, ac Muniendis Rationes Aliquot, Praesenti Bellorum Necessitati ac Commodatissimae by Albrecht Dürer - $4,200 (£2,965)
Published in 1535, this work includes 12 woodcut illustrations on 10 folding leaves.  This copy is the first Latin edition.

7. Persian Hunting Manuscript - $4,004 (£2,826)
No exact printing date on this hunting manuscript from the late 18^th or early 19th century.  Decorated with 10 paintings attributed to  Muhammad Sadeq or her school.

8. Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing - $3,999 (£2,823)
Twenty one volumes containing 80 issues of the famous scientific quarterly journal. 

9. Le Maitre-d'Hotel Francais, Traité des Menus a servir a Paris, a St-Pétersbourg, a Londres et a Vienne. Tome premier et second by Marie Antonin Carême - $3,588 (£2,533)
A book of menus served in Paris, St. Petersburg, London and Vienna. Carême (1784-1833) cooked for King George IV, Czar Alexander I and Emperor Francis I of Austria.

10. The Colonization Scheme Considered, in its Rejection by the Colored People by Samuel E. Cornish & Theodore S. Wright - $3,500 (£2,471)
Published in 1840, this pamphlet sets forth the objections of two African Americans to the plans of colonization schemes.

Tailor-made Bookseller Promotions on AbeBooks

AbeBooks are looking for booksellers who would be interested in taking part in our exclusive promotional campaigns. If you would consider offering a discount on your titles (for example, 20% off) for a period of one month or longer, we will be able to feature your bookshop on the UK homepage and, for larger promotions, send out a promotional email advertising the offer to our subscribers.

These targeted promotions give our member booksellers an opportunity to significantly increase their sales. Our Marketing team are currently planning the campaigns that will be launched in 2009 and if you would like to promote your bookshop by taking part, you simply need to contact us. We will be happy to work together with you to set up your promotion.

Carte Bleue added to AbeBooks' payment options

We are delighted to announce that another card has been added to the AbeBooks payment methods. Carte Bleue is now available as a means of payment on the websites AbeBooks.fr, AbeBooks.it, AbeBooks.de and IberLibro.com. The introduction of this service has been long-awaited by a large number of European customers and marks an excellent opportunity for growth, especially in the French market.

As titles offered by UK booksellers are displayed on all AbeBooks sites and international orders are often a strong source of revenue for online booksellers, we hope that the influence of this development will extend across the entire AbeBooks community.

Carte Bleue is now offered as a payment option alongside the other default cards (Mastercard, Visa, JCB and American Express) and the selected individual payment methods you accept. All credit cards available on AbeBooks are subject to the same conditions: the processing charges are identical regardless of the card type, in the same way as our fraud protection against chargebacks is available for all card payments. .

For more information, we recommend consulting our Seller Help page on this subject.

Order your FREE AbeBooks Branded Promotional Material!

Order a customised TOOLBOX of AbeBooks branded advertising material and help to promote your AbeBooks inventory even more!

We have a selection of AbeBooks branded material for you to choose from so that you can order the material that makes sense for your business.  

• Paper bags - help your buyers to carry their books, give them a nice, book-sized bag.
  
• Bookmarks - booklovers can never have enough bookmarks!
• Bubble envelopes (24x35cm) - send your books in a protective envelope.
• Packing Tape - secure your mail orders with the AbeBooks tape.

Due to high levels of demand in the past, AbeBooks branded material is only available for booksellers based in the European Union who meet the following criteria:

• 250 books or more listed on AbeBooks
• 6 months minimum membership
• a 4 or 5 star bookseller rating

Click here to order your customised toolbox!

If you are planning a bookseller event and would like to offer promotional material, please do not hesitate to send us a short email explaining what you need and for which event it is needed.