Bookseller Digest UK

Optimise your listings in buyer search results

In order to fully optimise the placement of your listings in buyer search results, and to ensure buyers can easily find and order your books, it is important to include as much information as possible in separate fields in your inventory file.

When all book data is accumulated in the description field, the search engine is not always able to fully apply them to the search results. When it comes to improving the exposure of your books, it is far more efficient to separate book data into individual fields such as Condition, Binding, Publisher Name, Year Published, etc.

Our customer service team has prepared a detailed overview of tips on how to improve the presentation of your listings in search results, which ultimately may lead to better sales. Please refer to our help pages for a complete list of the different data fields we accept, and the exact wording required to ensure your data is recognized by our search engine.

Review AbeBooks standard search terms here.

If you would like to update your inventory file with additional data fields, and optimise your listings in search results, be sure to contact our customer service team to apply these changes to your account.

Excluding unfulfilled orders from your completion rating

On AbeBooks, it's possible to exclude up to 3 unfulfilled orders from your completion rating in a 12-month period.

Your completion rating is calculated like this:

(Total Number of Order Items – Unfulfilled Order Items – Returned Order Items) / Total Number of Order Items

To exclude an order from your completion rating:

1. From the Members Menu click on 'Completion Rate'
2. Under the "Unfulfilled Items" or "Returned Items" column, click on the number:
   
   
3. Locate the order you want to exclude and click the 'Request Status Change' next to it
4. Complete the Status Change request by entering as many details as possible into the 'Comments' box and then click 'Submit'. Once you have submitted your request, the exclusion will take place automatically and you don't need to wait for a response from AbeBooks customer service

Note: An exclusion does not change the counts against your Bookseller Rating (i.e. It will not increase the number of fulfilled orders.) rather it changes the number of orders used to calculate your Bookseller Rating.  For example, if you had 100 orders with 3 unfulfilled orders and submitted an exclusion for one of the unfulfilled orders, your rating would be based on 99 orders and 2 unfulfilled.

London Book Fair 2011

The London Book Fair is celebrating it's 40th Anniversary this year - taking place on 11th - 13th April in Earls Court, London.

The LBF is a world reknown book fair attracting all businesses and associations related to the book trade and print and publishing industries. One of this year's highlights includes a Russia Market Focus with a look to contemporary Russian authors and Russia as an important new market for publishing.

The fair opens from 9:00 - 18:30 on Monday and Tuesday and 9:00 - 17:00 on Wednesday.

We were unfortunately unable to attend this fair last year due to the volcano in Iceland. However, we look forward to attending this year to visit some of our current booksellers and to take advantage of the opportunity to learn more about the book-selling world, both on and offline.

Upcoming Features - April

Here are some of the planned marketing features for April. Be sure to upload any books and images you have that fit with these themes to increase your chances of being included in these features.

• Collecting the Bloomsbury Group (Collectible books by Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, John Maynard Keynes and other members)
• Pioneer of Change: Ellen Glasgow
• A Beginner’s Guide to Steampunk Literature (Where Victorian fantasy meets science fiction)
• Deep Sea Reading (Fiction and non-fiction featuring underwater adventures)
• Gone with the Wind Turns 75
• Inlaid Bindings (Leater morocco binding)
• Brides Books Revisited (Weddings in literature)

 

AbeBooks' Most Expensive Sales in February 2011

1. Fourteen Pages on Thomas Carlyle by John Ruskin - £11,527
An autograph (meaning handwritten) manuscript written in 1866 containing Ruskin’s notes after reading Carlyle’s classic work ‘History of Friedrich II of Prussia’ which were taken in preparation of the composition of his essay ‘Notes on the Economies of the Kings of Prussia.”’  Much of the text was included in the published version of the essay regarding the early years of Austrian and Prussian monarchies, from 900 to 1667. Ruskin’s notes on the early monarchs are very close to the finished text. 

2.  The Camels Are Coming by W.E. Johns - £10,920
First UK edition (first printing), of the first book in W.E. Johns’ Biggles series printed in 1932.   The book contains 17 short stories, each preceded with illustration by Johns. This first edition can be tough to identify because it was undated at publication but does contain a couple tell-tale signs.  Firstly, there is no catalogue of other W.E. Johns’ titles at the rear of the book and, secondly, early editions contain an error on page 224 where the code number of a spy is given incorrectly as “2792” when they are referred to in the rest of the book as “2742”.

3. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston - £7,380
Published in 1937, this is a fine first edition copy of what many consider Hurston’s finest book.

4. The Natural History of British Insects by Edward Donovan - £5,843
This 16-volume set was published from 1792 to 1813 and contains explanations of various species and includes 576 engraved plates.

5.  Troisième Voyage de Cook, ou voyage à l'Océan Pacifique, ordonné par le Roi d'Angleterre, pour faire des Découvertes dans l'Hémisphère Nord, pour déterminer la position & l'étendue de la Côte Ouest de l'Amérique Septentrionale, sa distance de l'Asie, & resoudre la question du passage au Nord - £5,255
The original French edition of Captain Cook’s Third (and final) voyage where he hoped to find a passage through North America connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  The translation was completed by Demeunier and it was published in 1785 in Paris.

6. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole - £4,613
An unread copy of the first edition, first printing, of this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel published in 1980 – only 7,500 copies of this printing were produced.

7.   The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - £4,012
First edition and first printing of Salinger’s key work from 1951, this copy also has the elusive original dust jacket. 

8. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - £3,966
The first publication of David Copperfield, serialized from May 1849 to November 1950. 

9. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift - £3,874
Otherwise known as Gulliver’s Travels, this sale was of Volume Two only which was published in 1726 and contains parts III and IV (Voyage to Laputa and Voyage to Houyhnhnms).  This volume was also lacking the plate of the automatic writing machine and the three maps.

10.  Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa by Mungo Park - £3,720
Published in two volumes in 1816, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa documents Park’s travels through west Africa to discover the course of the Niger River.