Make sure you are posting the book properly, and completing the posting process.  You will know the process was completed when you see the message "The book has been added to your bookshelf". See How to post a book and How do I post a book without an ISBN? for step-by-step instructions on how to Post a book. 

If you can't see a book on your account Bookshelf after you Posted it:

• If the book is involved in an active request or Wish List offer, it will not be on your account Bookshelf
  • Check My Account to see if there is an active request or pending Wish List offer for the book.

• Be sure you are not sorting your account Bookshelf by author
  • Some books do not have authors listed in the database, and will not show on an author sort of the Bookshelf
  • You can submit a correction to add an author to a listing using the Edit Book Data link
    • To get to the Edit Book Data page, Click "More Options" to the right of the book cover image on the Book Details page and choose Edit Book Data from the dropdown menu (you can also access Edit Book Data from the Member Tools page, which is linked from the bottom of any page on the site).
• Your book could also be on your account Bookshelf "out of alphabetical order"
  • This happens rarely; if it does, please let us know (provide the title of the book)
• To find your book on your account Bookshelf:
  • Click  on your account Bookshelf and choose Date - Descending and you will see all the books there, in the order that you posted them, from most recently-posted to earliest-posted
  • You can also Click on your account Bookshelf and enter the title
  • If you are viewing your account Bookshelf by author not all books may be shown - the ones that do not have an author listed will not appear.  To see all books on your account Bookshelf, sort the list by title or date added.

If you can see a book on your account Bookshelf, but can't find it by searching the PBS database:

• Are you looking too soon after posting? The system needs a chance to synch up across all the servers for a search to find a newly posted item. Give it an hour or two and try again.

• Check your search terms
  • Misspellings/typos are the most common reason why a search fails to find a posted book
  • If you are using a common word or words in the Keyword search (at the top of the page), doing this will bring up your book, but it may also bring up many other books, and your book may not be on the first page of search results, so it may be harder for you to find.
  • It is possible that you are doing a genre search but the book is not listed with that genre
  • Check the listing on your account Bookshelf:
    • check the title/author spelling
    • check the genre/subgenres the book is listed with in the database
• Please note that: The book listing for a book you have posted that is active and available on your account Bookshelf will appear WITHOUT the "Order This Book" button when you look at the listing. Others looking at this listing who do not have the book active on their bookshelves WILL see the Order button.
  • The book listing will also NOT have the "Post This Book" button when you look at it.  That is because you cannot post two copies of the same book onto your account Bookshelf.
  • You will see instead the notation mail it to a friend, which allows you to send the book to a friend in a swap outside the PBS system--with no credits involved.

Related Links:

If you can see a book on your Bookshelf, but can't find it by searching the PBS database...
If a book you sent hasn't been marked received yet....
How to post a book
How to find books to request