I have several really good books on my shelf that don't have pictures of the covers and are being overlooked. How do the pictures show up?

You can find the book image online (likeon Amazon) or take a picture yourself and then go to  the book's listing page where there is a button for More Data and that will take you to the instructions on how to upload an image for the cover.

Ruth

If you have a scanner, you can scan the cover, then go to the book on your bookshelf which brings up the info on the book, on the right side there is a button that says, "MORE OPTIONS", click on that and go to  EDIT BOOK DATA.  Near the bottom of that option is an option that says UPLOAD NEW COVER.  Either put in the ISBN of the book you want to upload the cover for, or click on the BROWSE button and it will bring up the scanned images on your computer.  Go until you find the book image that you've scanned (and cleaned up per PBS instructions), and make sure that you send it in a jpeg format.  Click on the OPEN file at the book cover picture, and it will upload the picture.  When it's done it will show that 1 image has been uploaded at the top of the page.  Good luck.  Pat

What others said. Speaking for myself though, the lack of cover graphics aren't a big deal. I search for books by ISBN or else by author's name, and don't pay that much attention to the cover--since the cover of the book shown here doesn't have to accurately match the book you have anyway. (Publishers often change the cover for newer editions but keep the same ISBN.)

Cheryl

In defense of the usefulness of adding pics and descriptions to the books on your shelf, PBS gave figures once upon a time on how much the better dressed shelves did than those without pics and descriptions. Don't remember what it was anymore, but it was enough to be impressible for me. Having a well dressed shelf does help move your books.

Pics get them to at least pause, then the descriptions finish reeling them in.

As for how to put book pics, as stated, one of the easiest ways is to find one on the Internet either at Amazon or another book seller, such as Abe Books, Alibris, Biblio, Powell's, etc. Those are also good places for finding descriptions to your books too. And don't forget the closest source: finding another version of your book on here, just might find you an image and description!

For more help, check out this topic:  Want to help with Data & Images? Find help here

Or find help from any member of the Data or Image teams. Most of them are glad to give a hand. The image teams will have BI or BIC, the data team will have BD or BDC.

And of course, I'm always available to answer any questions or help you learn how to dress up your shelf!
Sherry,
PBS Data Corrections Team Leader

Or, if you are just uploading a picture and not adding to the book description.... go to the book listing on PBS, double-click on the blue box, and you can link right to the image (on your PC) you want to upload.

The pictures and descriptions are definitely valuable. I find books by browsing other members bookshelves all the time, and I can't look up every book I might be interested in at some other web site. I use the picture and/or description to order additional books or new-to-me authors all the time, but often I don't have the time to go look everything up at a different site to see if I am really interested in a book with no picture or no description after all.

There have been a lot of books that I have not ordered because they were missing the pic & description, and I just didn't have time to go look up each and every one.

You all are wonderful! Now I just need to try this out!  Thanks.

What I've found to be the easiest for me is:

1. Go through my shelf and hunt up as many of the missing pics as I can find.

2. Fix any that don't meet PBS standards.

3. Then go to the bottom of any page and click "Member Tools."

4. Put in the ISBNs and llink to the pics.

5. Submit, and after review, they'll appear. :-)

Sherry wrote: In defense of the usefulness of adding pics and descriptions to the books on your shelf, PBS gave figures once upon a time on how much the better dressed shelves did than those without pics and descriptions. Don't remember what it was anymore, but it was enough to be impressible for me. Having a well dressed shelf does help move your books.

Really? I thought the great majority of transactions here took place via FIFO as single transactions...so how would making sure your shelf has all the book covers on it help garner interest for your shelf?

I suppose if people are browsing, the eye is drawn to those with colorful covers? I guess it's just something as a (generally) non-browser I don't experience much.

Cheryl

I sometimes offer sales in the Bazaar, which does draw "browsers," so I suppose they are pretty much eye-candy, especially as the cover need not match the book you have. For people searching for a specific book or ISBN, probably not so much. Even at that, I had an order yesterday for 4 books, obviously from someone looking at additional books on my shelf, and 2 had pics, 2 didn't.  

Really? I thought the great majority of transactions here took place via FIFO as single transactions...so how would making sure your shelf has all the book covers on it help garner interest for your shelf?

I order at least half my books in other ways besides FIFO. I order around 40 books a month, so probably 20 are FIFO orders and 20 are "other" orders.

I always check 'Order More From Member". I check out people's shelves from the forum (frequently), I especially check out people's shelves who post in the genre forums that I am interested in. And, I peruse the Book Bazaar every few days. I do check people's deals, but if they have a ton of non-described books, I lose interest quickly in their shelf.

I even check the bookshelves of people who order from me ... on the theory that they may also have shelves of books that might interest me.

I frequently find books I didn't know I was looking for! 

I am intersted in less popular books, in general. For example, I read historical romance, and I am already familiar with and have read HUNDREDS of these books published in the last 15 years or so. So, I am particulrly interested in books that are older than that or that are not well known authors. Those tend to be the books that don't have covers or descriptions.

Agreed--I think many folks who frequent the forums *do* check "order more from member" or just check out each other's shelves. But given that the great majority of PBS members don't "do" the forums, and probably just click "order this book" so it's going to come from FIFO. My wishlist does most of my PBS shopping for me, but when I am ordering from what's available, I generally just order from FIFO.

I also order a lot of 'weird' books that aren't all that common--which is why I have learned to actually look more closely at those books that do not have a cover--gotten a lot of gems that way!

Cheryl

Cheryl, I was going to answer the same as Sara did. Because the newsletter encourages people to use this feature, and it is there, then a lot of people do actually browse on the shelves, not simply order from the fifo. I don't know what kind of statistics they might have to back up whether this is actual truth or just fairy tale that they though sounded good, but I know I for one, always click the "order more from this member" button.

And, just because my specific book is ordered thru the FIFO system, where did I get the idea to order that book in the first place? I was browsing a genre, or looking thru books posted today, or someother method of seeing books posted on PBS, and because they had an image that looked intriguing, and a description that sounded good, I was suckered in. and maybe didn't get that specific person's book, but I was enticed to order it because of the pic and desc. So, like I said, not sure of what the statistics are that would increase because of the pics & info, but it sounds good anyway! hahahaha

I've actually used the "no cover image" to my advantage when looking for books.  I know people are less likely to add those books to their wishlists, so the wait list is often a lot shorter than that of a version of the same book WITH a cover image.  I got the UK version of Jim Butcher's Summer Knight super-quick that way.  The US version, with cover image (which is vastly different than the UK cover) had 20 some people waiting.

I've been WL'd on the UK ISBNs of a whole bunch of books ... but I always seem to get the US copy anyway. I have ordered books from some on-line discounters, though, and have received Austrailian copies of books ... so I do end up posting those to PBS with the Auatrailian ISBN, and they are often still WL'd under the American ISBNs only.

So, it can pay to put yourself on those other Wish Lists ... but unless you are high up in line I dont think enough copies get posted to make it worth it for all books.

Pics are nice but I'm more interested in a description so I can find out what the book is about. I just will not order a book that has no description unless I already know what it's about.

I can't seem to grasp loading pics so I leave that to the people who are good at it, but I do try to be sure that all the books I post have descriptions & if not I add them.... which reminds me I haven't checked my shelf for that lately... hmmm.