I finished reading a book and went to my bookshelf to list it.  There was a W with a small "a" next to it.  But once I listed it, nothing happened.  Shouldn't an "!" show up immediately, indicating a member is being contacted about accepting the book?  Just curious because I also swap on another site and wasn't going to list it there since I assumed someone was already waiting for my book.  Any insight?

That symbol means someone has the book on their Wish List with Auto Request on.  You should be getting a request for the book right away.  A letter W with no A means it's on a wish list with 48 hour offer, so the other member may request it within the next 48 hours or they may opt not to request it when they get the offer.

If the request is not happeing right away, it's possible that the other member may be out of credits and needs to buy or transfer some before they can request the book.

Yes, if the book is in fact Wish Listed, the (!) would show up on the book immediately. But, the green Wa could be a glitch. For some reason that one seems to stick to books well after they become available in the system. If you go to the book details page does it show any wishers or does it have an [Order This Book] button? You can also add it to your Reminder List to see available copies.

I knew that it was on Auto, so I was confused as to why I didn't get a request right away then.  So maybe they don't have credits.  That's a bummer.  I try to read the books that have a W on them first so I can get more credits :)  Thanks for replying!  My first time on the forums.

Missed the second reply.  I wll try putting on my reminder list to see.  I noticed that some books show how many users have that book for listing and how many want it etc.  And then other books don't say at all.  I am still trying to figure out PBS and all the nuiances.

You will get the request in 1 hour!

You never see the request right away when the book is on auto-request. You offer the book, and 1 hour later, the request shows up. The only way to know what is happening is that on your bookshelf, if you hover over the grey circle, you will see a message to that effect (I forget the wording of it).

When the book is not on auto request, that's when you wait up to 48 hours for the other person to accept/decline the offer. And, you will see those listed immediately on your account page under the tab "Wish List Hold".

Auto-request books do not get listed anywhere on the account page during that first hour, until they show up in the "Books Requested From Me" tab.

I put my TBR books on the TBR Pile.  Then you can scroll down and see the W near them. You can sort your TBR to group all the WL books together but so the sort by # of wishers has never worked for me.  But at least when their grouped you can skim through and see what's WL that you  might be in the mood to read.  Very helpful when you have a large TBR and can't decide what to read next. 

 But remember  a book being WL doesn't guarantee a credit.  The wishers could be inactive, forgot to remove the book when they got it elsewhere, out of credits or have changed their minds. 

I have had several books that have that little Wa next to them that when I post them don't get asked for. I have then searched the site via the remainder list and find that there are several available copies. It seems like sometimes my computers (the 4 that I use for PBS) don't update. So at some point somebody was waiting for it but they aren't now. I've asked about this several times and have been told it can't happen. But it has and it does, to me anyway. Not sure how to update my account information.

susan/vt

Thanks for all the replies.  I need to check out the TBR pile.  I have lots of books on my home bookshelf, that I didn't realized I could still list on here even though I might not be ready to trade them yet.  That will help me decide what to read next :) 

It's good for helping to control postage costs if you have a lot of books you post.  You can see if their WL before you post them. I wish they'd put the # in the system on the TBR as well.  If you put them on Reminder List you can see how many copies are posted but can't see how many are on WL unless you click on them. 

I've been able to see how many are wishing for a book by bringing up the "book details" in a new screen.  It will state the number of wishers, but not the number of copies available.  That way I am not adding books to the RL that I have to delete later.   I don't see it recommended here, though.  But perhaps this isn't as accurate as the RL?   D.