How to search for "lost books" in your on-line inventory.

Whenever I have a hard time finding a book in my inventory...I quickly assume that there is something "tricky" about this book.

It's "hiding" from me for some reason.

I just finished a longish search for a large tradepaper book that I "knew" had a black cover...

OK? So I "assumed" it had a black spine as well....

I even looked up a picture of the book on line...Ebay is best for this because almost every seller uses photos in their listings.

Still no luck...

So I assume that the book is tricking me somehow...

Then I drop back to the technique of literally touching each book as I "scan" it visually.

For some reason this use of an "extra sense" helps me focus and avoid the "error" of visual scanning.

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Result:

Yes the book had a black cover...and it was reasonable to assume that the spine was also black...which of course is the only thing I can see on the bookshelf

BUT IT WASN'T!

The spine was white!!

An all black book...suddenly has an all white spine. Go Figure.

Anyhow. Bottom Line.

If a book is "hiding"....

Get the ISBN and go to Ebay or Addall or ABE and look the book up. Look for a picture and also the books dimensions.

And even then DON'T just assume that a black book has a black spine!

It may be white...because if your mind is Hell bent on "finding" a black spine on the book?

You're not going to find that book!

Until you get rid of preconcived notions on what you're really looking for... Always a problem.

How to store books in your on-line inventory...

After you get a certain number of books in your on-line inventory you have to figure out how to find the ones that have sold...

At first this is not a problem... You simply go to your bookshelves and look for the book.

But later, after you have about a thousand books in your inventory, this "scanning" method starts to break down... Suddenly every sale becomes a panic to "find the book"....

The rows and rows of books all start to look the same...!

OK...here's an idea. You can break down your inventory by catagory and subject matter...easy enough.

For example...

History. Science and Nature. Lit Crit. Cooking. Fiction. Biography. Children's. Business. Travel and Places. Americana. Arts and Decorating. Psychology. and so forth...

You might also seperate out your mass market paperbacks (MMPBs) and the oversized books...since these tend to disrupt the order on the shelves and create confusion.

Fine...so far.

But what happens when your Biography and Fiction section balloon to a thousand books each...!

Suddenly you're back with the same problem of scanning huge rows of books to find one title...

Then, you can take each catagory above... and break down even further...

History becomes... American History-Pre-Civil War. American History-Post Civil War. American History -20th Century...

European History can be seperated...by country.... if you have enough books to merit that... Asian History. African History. Medievel and Ancient History are seperated out too.

The various War Histories can be seperated...perhaps, WWII and WWI.... Korean and Vietnam. Etc.

So you keep "granularizing" your topics and catagories....

As long as your shelf space holds out...

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Now, there is another way to tackle this problem....

I call it the "Bin System."

It's a bit more professional and probably less work for the larger on-line opertion.

In the Bin System, you buy a lot of clear plastic bins...mainly those 56 quart "Sterlite" bins that are available at Target, Kmart, etc...

Then, as you "list" books on-line...

You put a SKU number on your online listing reflecting which "bin" the book is in...

This SKU data will be visible on your Sale Notice from your "selling venue" like Amazon, ABE or Alibris.

So, you are dividing your books up by "bin number" or "location" ....not by title and topic!

Thus, any given bin can have books about cooking, war history, biography etc...

The KEY of course is to remember which book is in which bin...it's a nightmare situation othewise.

But once in operation...you no longer have to "scan" long rows of books for one title! Because many books are obsure and hard to see ...or faded on the spine occasionally.

For book operations over 5000 books .... I think bins are the way to go...

They will stack nicely and take less space...but can be heavy, so don't buy the really big ones...stick with the 56 or lower quart size... They are light, damp and vermin proof...always a plus.

For operations under 5000 books you can still organize your books topically...and probably find things fairly easily...

Thus avoiding the panic attack that comes from selling a book and realizing that you just CAN'T FIND IT!! Your worst nightmare as an on-line bookseller...

More on this "nuts and bolts" topic later...