No one is requesting anything I have posted.  Is there anyway to  encourage members to order your copy over another?

Is there any trick to having someone order your book as opposed to other available copies?

The best way is to post in the Book Bazaar forum.

You can either post a "please look at my shelf, I'm new here" post

or

2/1 Special (i.e. they order 1 book and they tell you which they would like as a freebie)

If you run a special, you will want to specifiy in your forum post that they need to post their freebie choices in the thread as well as PM you.  Otherwise you might end up with a nightmare of people asking for books that were already requested as freebies that you haven't had a chance to take off your shelf.

Good luck!

Hi Becky - I took a look at your shelf and I think the problem is that you have a lot of books which probably have multiple copies in the system.  I am not sure if you know this, but PBS works on what is called the FIFO system, which means "first in, first out."  Essentially, the first person to post a copy of a certain book is the first person that the book will be requested from, and so on down the line.  So, if you've posted the 50th copy of a book, it might be awhile before it is requested.

I'd do what Lita suggested...offer a 2-for-1 credit on your shelf in the book bazaar.  You'll get fewer credits for your books, but having 1 credit is better than having 0 credits, right?

The other thing I'd suggest is that you start hitting some used book sales to find books to add to your bookshelf.  Go to booksalefinder.com to find sales in your area - at many, you can get paperbacks for 50 cents or a dollar, so it's not too expensive.  If you find craft books in good condition, those are always snatched right up on PBS. 

Finally, I'd suggest you make a public profile.  It makes your shelf more visible to the PBS community and also, some people refuse to order from those who don't have public profiles as they are seen as untrustworthy.

Hope that helps.

Is there anyway to  encourage members to order your copy over another?

Just FYI - Most people, unless they're looking specifically at your shelf, don't have the option of choosing one copy or another.  They get the one that's been posted longest.  (known as FIFO - First in, first out)

I see you've got 11 books listed - you might add more.  And this could just be me, but I think you've listed books that are just... very common.  Not that it's bad, but they take a while on the FIFO system.

Your Mary Higgins Clark - 337 copies listed. Your Danielle Steel - 276.   Your Patterson - 375.  Your Gear - 77.  Graham - 67.  Koontz - 227.  Macomber - 370.  And that Grisham?  1,230 copies!  Holy moly.

Soooo, you've got 3 books with less than 10 copies.  It's going to take 1,229 requests of Grisham before yours is the top of the list. 

So now you have only 10 books on your shelf.  I haven't read Child of My Heart, so I ordered it from you. :-)

I would hit some yard sales & thrift stores and beef up my shelf more, and then do some advertising in the Book Bazaar forum and in your sig.  It's prime yard sale/book hunting season right now - the time of year when you're more likely to get the best prices.  Those little ads in your sig really do work, by the way, even when you have a lot of commonly listed books.  Specials that you can live with and don't take a huge bite out of your book budget are good incentives for members to shop your shelf too.  Order 2 get 1 free is very reasonable, for instance, and the postage is costing you significantly less than shipping 3 books separately for 3 credits.  Think of it as your own little bookstore (the payoff being more credits & thus books for you) and run it like one.  You'll see a marked difference almost immediately.

Posting to the forums is a good way to get people to order from your shelf as Sandy demonstrated. It gets you noticed.

However, with books with so many copies, it's not going to be easy to move them. Here's why. People offer deals in the bazaar 2-for-1, 3-for-1, 4-for-1, 5-for-1, etc. If I wanted any of the Patterson or Grisham books, I know that I could go to the bazaar and pick up a box of them for just a few credits. I'd never order them individually. It's just too easy to get them in a group.

Look at my shelf. It's not perfect, but there's not a book on there with more than 35 copies in the system. And, I'm slowly weeding those out. Out of the 550+ books on my system, over 100 are the only copy. When someone wants one of those books, they have to order from me. I sent out 7 books today that were ordered since Monday. All 7 were one of those single copy books.

I know I'm just defining the problem and not offering any real solutions. I guess my only real suggestion is to get more books and make them a bit less common. I can't really help with the books that you have now. I don't even think a deal would help.

I don't mean that to be harsh. It's just the way that I see it.

Another thing you may want to consider besides the deals is to join Box-of-Books.  You have to pay for this service, but it is pretty cheap.  I did that and have seen quite a bit of movement on my bookshelf recently. 

In case you are not familiar with it... Box-of-Books is a swap portion where people can do a one-on-one swap without credits.  So if someone made an offer for say 3 books, I can go to their bookshelf and pick three and we would do an even swap.  (Other deals tend to be worked out as well but that is the jist of it).  If you do a search as well you will come up with the individual members and they can look at your specific shelf... just another idea for you :)

I also might want to point out, you may want to add some more books too... that way through the normal PBS there would seem to be an increased chance as well as with BoB (if you decide to join).

Good Luck!

now you have one less.  Just ordered a book from you. 

Deb

I've only been here for a few months. I agree with what has been said. For me it was a great help to read the Book Bazaar forum for a bit. I learned a lot about offering deals from my shelf, offering unpostables, and about getting deals from others (wise spending of credits). The Book Bazaar has monthly posts for unpostables -- you offer one with each order from your shelf. there is also a monthly thread for "I have the only copy of..." There you post the books that show as you having the only copy, the title might jump out as someone as something they just HAVE to have. 

Also, I have posted books that I thought were so odd no one would want but found out they were on someone's wish list! Sometimes these are books that are no longer published or maybe something that just seems to expensive to buy in the store.

I agree with Pat L.  I've been scouring our house for those unusual (usually non-fiction) books that tend to show up in our house.  I put 4 of the weirdest books (ex.  a hiking trail guide for Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa) went immediately upon posting, and the rest were snatched up very quickly.  Now those are the tupes of books I am looking for to post so I can get more of my scifi/fantasy types of books to read!

Now that I've acquired a couple of unpostables, I'm going to lurk on the Book Bazaar to see how it works.  I appreciate the info that was provided here about it!

Ruth

Yep, what everyone else says. The first thing I'd do is make a public profile. Posting in the forums can get you noticed, but a lot of folks are leery of ordering directly from someone without a profile. You don't have to disclose any more information than you want to, but it helps folks to see you're serious about being here.

Now, it all depends on why you are at PBS how you should approach things. If you want to get a lot of credits so you can order a bunch more books, do as everyone suggested and scour garage sales, used book stores, library sales, etc. and find reasonably priced books that are a little more 'rare' to post. If all you want to do is trade off the books you have and don't want to be bothered with hunting down 'suitable' books, then you have already done the right thing by posting what you have and will just have to be patient til your books make it through the FIFO system and your turn comes up.

Cheryl

Just wondering how do you see how many books are in the system? I see people saying there are so many of this one and this one but can't figure out where this info is.

Ummm also, I send out books on a pretty regular basis (4 this week) and have never had a profile on here. Am I just lucky or is it that the discussion forum people only check profiles?

Jessica, your books probably just came up as next in FIFO (First in, First Out) line. Mine runs in streaks too, sometimes I won't get any requests for a week and then I'll get 4 in 24 hours. Sometimes you might have some books that there are only a couple of copies in the system so they get chosen quickly.

You can check how many are in the system by typing in the ISBN and then clicking on the book, adding it to your Reminder list, and that will tell you how many are available to order. However, if you listed the book some time ago, you cannot tell where in that list of available copies you're located. That's why I always check before even listing a book--anything that has 50+ copies in system, I usually just plop into a bag to bring to the UBS in trade instead of listing here. That's just because I've got less room than I had to keep books to trade, though--if I had the space, I would list them all and then just be patient.

I would say the great majority of PBS members don't even read the forums, so while posting CAN cause people to look directly at your bookshelf, it isn't necessarily so...a great majority of the books I send out are just sent via FIFO I think. That's how I order all my books.

Cheryl

To see the Top 50 books (as far as number of copies posted), go to Community, click on Top 50s and then click on Posted.

I have to say that I always look to see the profile of people I'm sending to, receiving from, and on the forums.  I guess I'm just nosey, but I'm always disappointed when there isn't any profile - at least not even the information of what state they are in.  That doesn't stop me from getting the books, but it makes it much more interesting for me. 

There are seveal authors who are hugely common on PBS. I've gotten a couple of their books, and they are probably going to be VERY far down the list.  I'd almost say to list it now before you read the book for some of them (Dan Brown comes to mind).  You'll get it read faster than it will come up on FIFO! ;D  I'd also advise looking for some of those books that no one ever buys - like non-fiction ones on the American Revolution or the Civil War.  The ones I had went almost immediately.  Travel books are popular right now in the summer.  Biographies are good.  Men don't read romances or romantic fiction (basicall chick lit), so try finding books that men would like.  All the ones I've gotten from me sons and DH have gone quickly.

Ruth

Here's a trick I use when buying books books from thrift stores:

• Find a store with a good selection of paperbacks selling from 50 to 75 cents.
• Select a stack of 50 to 100 books in postable condition that look interesting and unique. Trade paperbacks are best.
• Write down their ISBNs. (You'll get pretty fast at this.)
• Put them back where you can find them again (move to the same shelf).
• Go home and type each ISBN in the PBS search page.
• Write down the titles of those that are wishlisted (bottom of book detail page).
• Go back and buy only those that are wishlisted and post away!

This usually yields about 10 credits per trip and a few books that I want to read myself.

This is a bit labor intensive, but its a WIN-WIN-WIN. You get the credits, the thrift store gets the sale and other members get sometimes heavily wishlisted books.  I once found one this way that was wishlisted by 86 other members. It is also a good way to get more copies of wishlisted books into the PBS system.

I pick up most of my used books at the library. I'm lucky enough to work near one of the biggest (42nd Street in NYC) so I have a pretty big selection. The paperbacks are 3 for $1 and the hardcovers are $1. I noticed that the books that fly off my bookshelf the fastest are the paranormals (especially vampires) so I stock up on those. My last trip to the library netted me 10 wishlisted books! Science fiction and craft books also go quickly so I would pick up some of those. Also, check the publication date inside. If the book was published in 2007 or 2008 chances are it is wishlisted.

Alan, you can use PBS Mobile if you have a cell phone that has web access and enter the ISBNs right on the spot--no trip home to check the ISBNs for being WL'd.  I did this at a library sale; my goodness, it was useful!

Thank you Anna for the top 50 suggestion. I have several of the most wishlisted sitting on my shelves and didn't even know it. I'll have to read those first!

I read this thread since I am having the same problem the original poster is.  One lady I swapped books with said she requested a book from me, but it didn't ever come through.

I have tons of Rubberstamping and Scrapbooking magazines and such.  Any ideas on where I could post those other than FeeBay?

By the way, I can't figure out where to make a public profile, though. Help?

Thanks!

 Christi in OK

Christi you do have a public profile, that is why your user name is in blue with a line under it.

If someone said they ordered from you but you didn't see it come through, most likely they clicked on the order button in the book description and not on your bookshelf so it has gone through the FIFO system.

I agree with those who have said to create a profile.  I'm a Tour Guide, and I encourage all my members to create one.  Here is what I tell them:

The next step I’d suggest would be to set up a "Profile" page. Obviously, you don’t have to, but according to the founders, people with profiles actually get twice as many book requests. More book requests to you means you can get even more credits to "spend" on books you'd like to receive.

There are a couple great reasons to create a Profile. First of all, only members who have Profiles will appear in the Member Directory, although you can still choose to be unlisted if you prefer. Being searchable from the Member Directory makes it easier for other members to find you--and see your Bookshelf. People often feel more comfortable ordering from members with profiles - they can "know" a little bit more about who and where your books are coming from.

Here is how you set up your Profile!

Go to the “My Account” tab up top and select “Settings”

In the blue section labeled “Public Profile” is where you can select a nickname and add information.

Then click ‘Update Profile Settings’ (the grey button underneath)


That’s it! You’ll be on your way to receiving more book requests before you know it! 

Your profile doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. At first I was uncomfortable listing any personal info, so entered a nickname and a line about what I like to read. If you click on my name at the top of this message, you’ll see that I’ve evolved a bit from that. You could go into the discussion forum (under "community") and click on a few people’s names and check out their profiles.

Thanks, everyone, to all who replied to this loop.

My DH would kill me if I started hitting the yardsales just to list them on here, so that isn't an option.  I do have a bunch of recent BOMC hardbacks that I can list as soon as my Mom finishes with them.

Right after I posted the question about profiles, I figured out how to do it.  Sadly, I did it in a hurry and now had to figure out how to go back and correct my spelling errors!

Blondie - thank YOU, for the RAK.  :)

Christi in OK