I've been doing a lot of cover uploading and description-adding in my spare time, but sometimes, in a big series with numbers in the title (specifically, James Blish's Star Trek # books, which are novelizations of the original series episodes), when people post a book there IS no number in the title. So of course I don't know which one it is ...

Is there any way to send a PM to someone who has a particular book on their shelf? I'd want to ask them to edit the title to reflect whichever book in the series it is, so I can then update their entry with cover and description (or, of course, so I can know which book I'm ordering, were I interested in ordering it!).

Only if you are looking right at their shelf. 

So how do I get to their shelf from the book's page?

You can't.  Other than ordering the book, looking fast, then cancelling the order. I don't suggest it.

Argh, so frustrating. The books would be eighty times more desirable if we had any idea which one it was ...

you could see if you could find the author's webpage or another site that lists books in order and then tag all of those books.  I use stopyourekillingme.com for mysteries

People cannot change the descriptions once they have entered a book (assuming this was a book with no ISBN number and they did it manually).  They can request a change but then so can you if you know what needs to be changed.

I tried to do a little searching on the 'net and it was hard to find any site that listed his books in any order.  would Amazon give you the info if you put in the title such as what number in the series it was?

Another option is that you could order the book, click on the PM button and send them a PM and then cancel the order.  I've done that before and it doesn't take them out of the FIFO line

If you search for a book title manually you may be able to see the shelf of the actual member... I do it sometimes, if I've got credits and prefer to give someone a break by ordering 2 books at one time if I can.  :)  In the list of titles that come up with the search, click on one to order, then BEFORE clicking the "process order" button click "order more from member" and it will take you directly to the lister's shelf.  You probably won't be able to PM them right then, but you can write down their name and PM them after you back out of the ordering cycle. 

patti

you could see if you could find the author's webpage or another site that lists books in order and then tag all of those books.

I've done that. But if the title is ambiguous as to which book in the series it is (in this particular series, the titles are Star Trek 1, Star Trek 2, etc) it doesn't help. I have to know which one their copy is.

People cannot change the descriptions once they have entered a book (assuming this was a book with no ISBN number and they did it manually).  They can request a change but then so can you if you know what needs to be changed.

Actually, you CAN now -- if you click on the little pull-down arrow below 'order this book', one of the options is 'edit', and that one works even with non-real ISBN numbers.

Since you are a boxer, you can find the shelves of other boxers that contain books by this author. Its kind of a hit and miss process, but when I searched boxer's shelves for the author, there were  a decent number of hits. From there you go to that member's shelf and PM them.

I know you can hit edit but it has to be approved by someone else, so it isn't an instant change unless they have changed that in the last month.  and if those that approve the changes are backed up, there is no telling how long it would go into effect