Bookseller Digest UK

Are you using the Rare Book Room?

Have you been to the AbeBooks.co.uk Rare Book Room recently?

Through this page you can contact us with details of any books you'd like to be featured.  If you're selling a truly fascinating book and you have a good quality photo, feel free to submit the information for our "Favourites From Our Booksellers" section (see example below). This can be done by simply completing the online form and emailing your pictures to pictures@abebooks.com.

If you have any difficulty, our Customer Service Team will be happy to help you.

The website is regularly updated with interesting features and visitors can view features from the past along the left hand side (Biggles, Codex Seraphinianus, Imre, Bonté and more). The Advanced Search Options allow you to use Boolean logic and different sort orders to carefully refine your search according to your needs.

We have a special selection of books just one click away from the Rare Book Room as well as links to the Book Collector Forum, the First Edition Room and Signed Books Room, with interesting information for both buyers and booksellers.

Marketing on AbeBooks - July

Our Marketing team regularly put together features to promote the books available on AbeBooks and provide further coverage for some of the impressive titles that simply need to be seen to be appreciated. By uploading pictures of your items they are more likely to be included in the articles and pages that appear on the website.

Current features on AbeBooks.co.uk:

Collectable George Orwell
Born Eric Arthur Blair, George Orwell (1903-1950) occupies a special place in 20th century literature for his dystopian, satirical contributions to literature and language...

10 Books that revolutionised publishing
Penguin's first 10 books which included several well known writers including Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie, and some who receive little attention today: Beverley Nichols, Mary Webb, E.H. Young, and Susan Ertz.

Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a Scottish writer of tremendous skill. He was unparalleled as a storyteller, masterfully crafting exotic tales of adventure impossible to put down...

Book Carousel:  Wanted - John Herbert Dillinger Books

Rare Book Room:

Naked Lunch Turns 50
William S. Burroughs' novel The Naked Lunch is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its first publication. If you've read the book, did you finish it? Did you understand it?..

Book Carousel: The Drug Culture in Literature

Favourites from our Booksellers:

The Romance of the League (Chapters One to Eight)
Mary M. Bagot Stack
Available from Gary Walker in Lowestoft.

New Order in Search Results on AbeBooks.com

You may have already noticed a different look and feel to the AbeBooks.com search results...

We are currently testing a new feature that displays the search results with the lowest total book price including shipping first, rather than the current sort order which is based on the lowest book price only. 

The style of test we are using is called an A/B test, which means that 50% of our users will see the new price plus shipping sort order in the search results and the other 50% will see the usual search results.

If you are logged into your account and have specified a country, the shipping rates displayed will be calculated based on the rates from the bookseller's country to yours. Previously shipping rates displayed in the search results were just to the bookseller’s country.

We hope the results of the test will help us to make informed improvements to the website in the future which will help you to sell more books.

Bookseller Survey - July

Last month we asked booksellers which sales channels they found most successful for selling their books.

In the UK, the most successful sales channels were by far Online Platforms and your Own Website. The least successful method was Auctions, and Book Fairs appeared as the method that is currently the least used by booksellers.

Online Platforms seem to be considered as a very successful sales channel across Europe, with Book Fairs following closely in second place for Spanish booksellers.

This month, we invite you to take part in a new survey on the subject of our Bookseller Digest: a bulletin sent out to your email address at the end of each month:

How interesting do you find the following categories in our

Bookseller Digest bulletin? 

The next Bookseller Digest should be sent out on the 31st July. If you are not sure whether you receive the bulletin, please check your Junk Mail folder and make certain that you are reviewing the email address registered to your bookseller account.

Thanks for providing your feedback!

Refer a colleague to AbeBooks to receive £40!

Did you know that many of the booksellers on AbeBooks joined on a colleague's recommendation? AbeBooks has grown in the UK and across the world thanks to the support of the bookseller community.

This summer we would like to give something back to you for each successful referral you make before 31st December 2009.

 

Why not tell your bookseller colleagues about AbeBooks? For each colleague that opens a bookseller account listing over 500 titles, we will credit your bookseller account with an extra £40. We will even give the new bookseller a £40 start-up gift too!

To start the process, you could simply send a link to this message to those bookseller colleagues you know are not yet listing on AbeBooks. The website address is:

http://booksellerdigest.abebooks.co.uk/2009/07/40-for-every-new-bookseller-you-send-our-way.html

In order to register, your bookseller colleagues will need to complete our online contact form entering their full contact details and your bookstore name. They will also need to quote the registration code REFERRAL UK 09 at the top of the comments field.

We look forward to working with you soon!

Bookseller Referral Programme - Details, Terms and Conditions

      I. Bookseller Referral Programme

      The Bookseller Referral Programme allows existing AbeBooks booksellers to refer other booksellers to register as a bookseller with AbeBooks Europe GmbH. In so doing, both the referring bookseller and the referred new bookseller will receive a bonus.

      II. Terms and Conditions

    * Referring sellers are required to be active AbeBooks booksellers. The referred bookseller may not have held an active bookseller account with AbeBooks Europe GmbH over the past 12 months. Both referring and referred booksellers must be at least 18 years of age.
    * Each referring bookseller has the possibility to put forward 5 new booksellers.
    * Referred booksellers must be residents of one of the following countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom.
    * Referred booksellers must enter their full contact details when registering their account (i.e. first- and surname, bookshop name, address, email address, telephone number). Referring booksellers may only pass on these contact details to AbeBooks Europe GmbH with the explicit agreement of the referred bookseller.
    * For each successful referral, both the referring and referred bookseller will receive a bonus of £40. This bonus will be credited directly to each bookseller's account and may not be exchanged for cash. The booksellers will receive this credit once a 4 month minimum membership with AbeBooks Europe GmbH has been agreed to and at least 501 titles listed. Bookseller accounts can only be closed once the minimum 4 month listing period has been completed.
    * AbeBooks Europe GmbH reserves the right to refuse any bookseller from registering as a bookseller on AbeBooks.
    * This special offer can not be used in conjunction with other offers run by AbeBooks Europe GmbH.
    * The Bookseller Referral Programme will run from July until 31st December 2009. Normal fees apply to all promotional seller accounts on completion of the offer period.

Should you have any questions about AbeBooks or this special offer, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service team who will be happy to help.

High Value Orders and Security on AbeBooks

Every day valuable and unique books are ordered over AbeBooks. We like to inform you of the most expensive sales each month through this blog and on the front page of the Rare Book Room:

Top 10 Most Expensive Sales for June

Top 10 Most Expensive Sales for May

Top 10 Most Expensive Sales for April

Orders of high priced items are especially important for booksellers on the site and for AbeBooks. Therefore, we have introduced various security measures to support the secure and successful clearance of your orders.

Before we forward high value orders to you, they are submitted to security checks. As a result, you do not have to worry about accepting and processing any high value orders you receive.

When these orders are cancelled after clearance, it is frustrating for the buyer, the bookseller and for ourselves. For this reason, we look into all of the high value order cancellations made on the website on a daily basis.Through this measure, we can solve any technical difficules and answer questions on order processing very promptly. Where possible, we also try to help booksellers to receive this sale again and successfully process the order.

Book Count Discrepancy

We have noticed that some booksellers may have a small discrepancy between the 'Total' and 'Searchable' book counts in their accounts. We have identified the cause of this problem and it will be fully resolved within the next few days. You can check your total Book count here.

This means that there may currently be a very small number of books which appear in the search results but are not available for purchase. If customers add them to the Shopping Basket, they will appear with the message 'BOOK SOLD'. Therefore, you will not receive orders for any unavailable books that are affected by this issue, nor will your completion or bookseller rating be influenced.

Should your subscription fees be higher than usual due to this difference, we will contact you shortly before our August statements are generated and correct the error promptly.

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.

Inventory Update Delay

Update 10/7/09 - The processing delay has been resolved. Your updates should now be processed and visible online in approximately 24 hours.

9/7/09 - This issue continues and we expect it to be resolved by tomorrow morning (10th July). Once resolved, this post will be updated. 

There is currently a processing delay on the website. If you uploaded your inventory after 12.00 on Friday, your listing additions and updates may not be visible online yet. Any listing deletions that are sent to AbeBooks are processed and buyers will not be able to purchase these items on the website.

We expect this issue to be resolved by the end of tomorrow (8th July) and future uploads to take effect within 24 hours.

We apologise for any inconvenience and would like to thank you for your patience and understanding during this time.

Royal Mail Strike in London

If you are not already aware, today (Wednesday 8th July) marks the beginning of a three day strike by Royal Mail employees in London. Please bear this in mind when sending books either in or out of London. You may wish to inform any buyers that could be affected about the possible delay of their parcel or offer an alternative form of delivery.

If you do wish to offer an alternative delivery service at a more expensive price, remember that you can request extra charges from buyers. This would provide them with the option of a faster, guaranteed service and you can explain why you are offering this option in the Comment box. If the buyer refuses, you can still process the order at the normal price and send it by standard post.

Top 10 Bestselling Books on AbeBooks.co.uk in June 2009

1. The Countryside Companion by Malcolm Tait

2. The Lifewise Guide to Work by Jim Dunn

3. Another Bloody Century by Colin S. Gray

4. East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon by Naomi Lewis

5. Toxic Childhood by Sue Palmer

6. Father Joe by Tony Hendra

7. Parenting Teenagers by Don Dinkmeyer

8. The Young Rider by Lucinda Green

9. Moonwalk by Michael Jackson

10. An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley