While many buyers use the search function to find the books they looking for, many buyers also use browsing to find books. Buyers have two ways to browse on AbeBooks by AbeBooks Category or by Bookseller Catalogue:
- Bookseller Catalogues, the catalogues you have assigned your books, are available to buyers through your AbeBooks Storefront and on the Listing Details of every book on the [Browse this Seller's Books] link.
- AbeBooks Categories, also referred to as subjects, are available through your AbeBooks Storefront, through the Browse feature on the homepage and through the Browse link in the red banner on every webpage.
Your Bookseller Catalogues are the catalogues you have created in your inventory management system to classify your books. They may be used for your sales and inventory specials or may be topical by subject. You can continue to attach a maximum of 3 catalogues to your listings and buyers can browse your unique catalogues as outlined above.
The AbeBooks Categories are based on bookseller specialties or subjects and are the topic headings buyers see when using the Browse feature. For example, there are categories for Art and Health. This makes it easy for buyers to find books relating to specific subjects. Each category includes all booksellers' listings.
The browse list contains approximately 3,500 categories, which are stored in a tree structure with 50 top level categories. A plus sign (+) next to a category indicates that there are sub-categories. Listings can only be assigned to the lowest level sub-category heading and you can assign each listing to up to 10 categories.
If you have many Bookseller Catalogues, you can easily associate these to the AbeBooks Categories. We have a categorisation tool in our Online Inventory Management System to assist in making your books browse-able by category. Please see further information on categorising your listings under the appropriate inventory management section for you.
Note: While we have not yet launched the new browse feature to buyers, we have made the categorising feature available to booksellers so that you can prepare your inventory in advance.
The list of AbeBooks Categories is available to you as a reference tool. You can view the list online through your AbeBooks Bookseller account or you can download a list to your computer.
Viewing the Browse Categories List:
1. [Sign On] to your AbeBooks.com bookseller account
2. Select [Downloads] from your Members Menu
3. Then click "Download AbeBooks Browse Categories List". The page will display the list of category headings on the left side of the screen
4. By clicking on the "+" next to a main category heading, you can see subcategory lists
Downloading the Browse Category List:
The AbeBooks Categories list is also available in a pipe-delimited text file for download. You can use this as a reference tool or you can import it into your inventory management system.
Note: AbeBooks is unable to support individual inventory management programs (other than HomeBase) so you will need to be familiar with the program you use before importing the file.
Important: If you are using a spreadsheet or third party database software, you can use the category IDs from the downloaded file in your listings. If you do use the downloaded file in this manner, please contact us before uploading your first file so we can make the necessary updates to your account.
The list includes the AbeBooks Category names, IDs, as well as the associated Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) and Muze categories.
The option to download is available on the right-side of the screen:
1. Right-click the "Download Category List" link
2. Click the [Save] button to download a copy to your computer
If you're using the file for reference purposes, the saved file is in text format and can be opened in a word processing program or in Microsoft Notepad. If you are familiar with a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel, you can import the file to view it there as well.
Information in the File
Each line in the file corresponds to one subcategory. The file includes the following fields:
· AbeBooks Category Group ID: This is the number assigned to each category in our database. Use this number in your Category field to categorise a listing.
· Parent ID: This is the ID of the top-level category for a sub-category.
· Category Name: This is the category or sub-category name as it appears on the Web site.
· Category Path: You can tell which top-level category a sub-category is in by reading this path.
· BISAC Category Code: If there is a corresponding BISAC category code, we list it here.
· Muze Category ID: If there is a corresponding Muze category, we list it here.
· Is Leaf: This field is filled in with either "T" for true or "F" for false. You can assign your listings to "T" categories, but not to "F" as they are on the top-level.
For example:
3109|44|Camping|/Sports & Recreation/Camping|SPO009000||T|
The "Camping" category is a sub-category under "Sports & Recreation." If you would like to assign one of your listings to this category, add "3109" to your Category field.
