First of all let me say that I tried to search for an answer to this question in the forums and was unable to find anything. Perhaps I put in the wrong criteria?

I have been a member of this Paperbackswap group for over a year. Because of circumstances I had to put my account on hold for about eight months. I reopened the account two months ago and have been posting a book every week. I now have 18 books posted and this will grow weekly.

I have not had any takers for my books at all over those two months. Is that normal? Is there a realistic estimate of books that I can expect to swap?

Any suggestions?

If you're interested to see how many of the books are in the system, you can add them to your reminder list.  It could be that there are many copies of your titles in the system.  If you'd like to get books moving, you could try posting a deal in the Book Bazaar (ex : 2 for 1).  The requestors would "order" one title from your shelf and PM you the freebie title.

Welcome (back) to PBS, Bruce.

I think some of the books you have on your shelf are heavily posted copies. For example, Digital Fortress by Dan Brown has 2,300+ copies in the system. (You can check this by adding each book to your Reminder List). Since the club usually works on the First In, First Out (FIFO) principle, chances are your copy are somewhere far down the line.

Suggestions for increasing orders:

• Offer a deal in the Book Bazaar (Check the rules for posting in that forum first.)
• Consider joining the Boxer program. (It's a paid service in which you can swap books directly with other Boxers without credits involved.)
• Post more books on your shelf. There's an "Order more from Member" button with each request.
• Hang out more in the forums. If people know you are active on the site, they might request books directly from your shelf rather than through FIFO.

Good luck and happy swapping.

Edited to correct spelling.

Sounds to me that the books have many copies in the system.  Since you're put at the bottom of the list when you post a book, it could take some time before it gets requested.  I've had books on my shelf for years.  After awhile, I will post a deal.  If I still don't have any takers, I'll remove them from my shelf and give them to Goodwill.  I hate having them just sit around.

If you have books you haven't read yet at home-you might want to log them into the TBR pile here and see if any are wish list.  Then you can read those first, post them and get some orders.

Also you regularly buy books at a used book store, thrift store or new-you might want to take some time to see what's wish list.  It's not very economical to buy books just to post (unless you can get them for next to nothing). But if you are going to buy books to read yourself anyway-investigate what's WL in your favorite genres and look for those. 

A lot of times it's the really popular books that don't move very quickly, especially if they've been out for awhile. Becuase so many people buy them they become easy to find in thrift stores, used book stores etc.., for less than what a credit costs.  So they don't move that quickly.  It's the less common books that tend to be WL or have few copies posted and move quickly. 

People do order those more heavily posted books. But sometimes it takes awhile.

I had almost no orders for about a year. (After that WL books I posted when I joined.)  I began to watch the Club Wish list for a while. It takes some time to get an idea of what is desired. The big names are not wanted, except when they are fresh.  Find a genre that you also want, and become familiar with want moves fast.  Such as the not so big names and the early books in series that have not been reprinted.

Small shelves don't get frequent orders. When my shelf was less than 20 books, I got a request once every three weeks. It wasn't until I hit the 30's that I started getting a lot more requests. Find a way to beef up your shelf: ask friends and family who want to get rid of books to give you their books, hit up yard sales and library sales for cheap books to add to your shelf. Getting involved in the forums is also a great way to get people interested in your shelf.

Good luck!

I had to get over 100 books on my shelf before I started getting regular requests for my books. Now that I have over 200 on it, I am always sending books out!

Thanks for all of the replies and suggestions! I will try some of these ideas. Thanks for the order. I will start checking the wishlist and forums more.

Thanks all!

Bruce

I just had a book requested that I posted in October 2008. When there are multiple copies posted it just takes a while for the copy to be requested. I don't normally get requests off of my shelf as it is small but I post a lot of wishlisted books so that I have credits.

If you don't have many credits, you might want to buy some from the site or other members at the book bazaar thread then you can order more books to read and post back into the site.

Keep heart, it looks like with the New Gold Key membership things won't always work FIFO,  if they pull the book that is geographically closest to someone if there are multiple copies that outs FIFO.  So, maybe your book will be closest to someone sometime.

All good advice, the best being to increase the number of books on your shelf and try offering some deals in the BB.

-RD

I have found that the early work of current series are requested when a new book in the series is published. Also, if you are buying a paperback anyway prepare to post it. If you are a quick reader, post it when you buy it. If it takes you longer, post it when you are half through. That will put your book in front of other new releases. The more books you have the more likely you are to have one requested. Good luck.

I post them before I read them too sometimes.  Obviously you don't want to post a ton of books you haven't read yet, especially if you don't have the time to read one quickly or keep a lot of books. I check the # posted by putting them on my reminder list first so I don't end up posting 10 books that only have a couple of copies.  I do  this with books that have quite a few copies already (like 20+)  I post a few at a time to work their way up FIFO.  But I can read a book in a day or two if needed and I don't keep any after I've read them.  Sometimes if I have a good stash of credits built up, I'll post 10 or 20 books from my TBR that have multiple copies posted.   I'll put my account on vacation, autorequest WL books and then read the books I posted.  Usually, I get an order for a few of them soon after I come off vacation.  And by then I usually have a few WL books to post as well which frequently prompts further orders from people using the Order More From Member button.

If you have an android phone then you can also download the PBS app (don't know if there's an I-phone version). If you happen upon a thrift store, yard sale, library sale etc... you can scan the ISBN of a book and the app will tell you if the book is wishlisted and how many wishers there are. I used it alot when I first started and needed to build up my credits.

I didn't know about this app.   I just downloaded it.

Thanks so much.  Learn something new everyday!