It is important to ensure that your online inventory is up-to-date, especially after your first orders have been processed. If you are using your own data format you can update your AbeBooks listings by sending us a file containing the changes to your stock. Please ensure that the file is in your usual format.
You can easily upload your files through your Members Menu:
1. [Sign On] to your AbeBooks.com bookseller account
2. Click [Uploads] from the Members Menu
3. Then click the [Upload your book file now!] button
4. On the Upload and List Client Pending Files, you will see the following: "What file would you like to send us?" Press the [Browse] button - this will allow you to search your computer and select the file you wish to upload
5. Choose the file to send
6. Finally, click the [Send File] button to transfer a copy of your file to our system
If you have any trouble using the AbeBooks Web Upload Facility there are other upload options, some of which have been listed below:
Netscape Web Upload
WS_FTP
Fetch (For Macintosh Users)
Removing Sold Books
A book ordered via AbeBooks will automatically be removed from your online inventory. It is however, very important to update your inventory management system by marking the book as sold. This will ensure that in your future uploads the book is not accidentally re-uploaded to AbeBooks
a. If you have a status or quantity field in your database or spreadsheet, you could send a file named delete.txt and include exactly the same fields as you do when you upload a regular (for sale) file. The books included in this file will then be removed from your online inventory.
b. Alternatively, you can send a file simply containing a list of the book numbers you want to have deleted. Each book number must be on a line by itself and the file should be named delnum.txt or delnum.tab. The file's extension should match the custom conversion we have set up for you.
Once you have uploaded a file to AbeBooks, you will receive an email confirming the file has been received and additional details about the file. If you find that the number of books is not exactly as you uploaded, this may be due to the fact that our system counts the lines in your file as opposed to the books. With certain file types this may cause the number to be inaccurate, so please do check the changes online.
To check the details of your file:
1. [Sign On] to your AbeBooks.com bookseller account
2. Click [Your Books] in the Members Menu
3. Select [Yesterday's billable listings]
As you can see below, you can use this page to check that we have received your file. You can see how many books were in the file and when the file's status was last updated. Additionally, you can review your current book count and your book count history.
Associating Your Listings to the AbeBooks Categories
While many buyers use the search function to find the books they looking for, many buyers also use browsing to find books. You can categorise your listings to make them browse-able by AbeBooks buyers:
To categorise your listing to the Abebooks categories, you can simply download a copy of the Browse Categories list and then use the Category IDs in a Category field in your inventory program.
Important: Ensure that you contact us prior to uploading a file with the new field!
1. [Sign On] to your AbeBooks.com bookseller account
2. Click [Downloads] from the Members Menu
3. Then click [Download Abebooks Browse Category List]
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to download the file
The file includes the following fields in this order: Abebooks Category ID, Parent ID, Category Name, Category Path, BISAC code, Muze code, and "is leaf." You can't assign listings to top-level categories, so "is leaf" will be False (F) for these categories.
You can assign up to 10 Category IDs to each of your listings.
Further information on the AbeBooks Categories.
