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<b>Bonhams:</b> MANDELSHTAM, OSIP. 1891-1938. Autograph Manuscript, 2 pp, [Petersburg,] January 1913, entitled

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Abebooks to Add Descriptions and Cover Photos to Listings - By Michael Stillman A sample of a new Abe listing with stock dust jacket image and description By Michael Stillman Abebooks recently announced that they would be automatically adding prepackaged descriptions and stock dust jacket photographs to their listings, at least those with ISBN numbers. This is nothing new for bookselling sites, but it is new for Abe. Currently, the other major powerhouses in the book listing field, Alibris, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble, provide this service. Abe's decision to join the crowd in this regard has been met with mixed bookseller reviews. As to how book buyers regard the change, no one polls them, so the answer is unknown. In an announcement from "The Abebooks Team" sent to booksellers July 20th, labeled "New and Improved Book Details," Abebooks stated: "As always, we will display information provided by the bookseller first and foremost, but now we are working with our ISBN data providers, including MUZE, to automatically add details (when available) such as jacket photos, synopses, reviews, and bibliographic data...Buyers like to see details - they are much more likely to purchase if they can see an image of the book, or read a synopsis." Most innovations have an upside and a downside, and this one is no different. Clearly, it brings Abebooks closer to conformity with what their rivals are doing, and those sites would not be providing these services if there were no benefits. On the other hand, it makes Abe less unique a site. Conformity tends to reduce choices available to the public. Here is the issue for the public. I totally agree with Abe that people are more likely to buy if they have more information. However, this is a double-edged sword. Let me explain. The positives are this will immediately add more information to many, maybe even most, Abe listings. The sample synopsis that Abe showed as an example (see the image with this article) doesn't provide much, but anything is better than nothing, and in the future, perhaps this will become more informative. It's a start. Showing the dust jacket cover is a nice plus, but this is the part that seems to have booksellers the most concerned. A particular book may have been issued with multiple dust jackets. A disclaimer notes that the book a customer orders may not come with the precise dust jacket pictured, but customers tend to ignore or miss the fine print. Dealers are worried they will receive more returns from customers who receive something other than they expected, despite an accurate written description from the seller.
Abebooks to Add Descriptions and Cover Photos to Listings - By Michael Stillman none Another presumed positive is this will sell more books. I cannot vouch for this, nor is it likely Abe can until it is rolled out. One imagines that the folks at Abe looked into this matter before making the change, and that the other sites which provide this additional information do so because it has proven to help sell books. If it does, this should make everyone, Abe and booksellers alike, happy. The downside, as I see it, is that it may make booksellers lazy, or reward the lazy by providing homogenous, undifferentiated listings. Much of what distinguishes one dealer from another, and the knowledgeable from the pretender, is the quality of their descriptions. What incentive is there for a dealer to do his or her homework if someone else can provide what at least appears to be comparable information without doing a thing? And once we diminish the value of the bookseller's work product, do we need him/her at all? Information is the dealer's added value. Now any ignorant fool can add information. It may not be as good, and certainly not original, but if it provides comparable sales as doing your own work, how long is it before no one performs their own research? Will this added information have the ironic effect of ultimately reducing information available to the buyer? Perhaps much of this is academic already. The book listing sites may have already irretrievably done what the large discount stores and online sites have done to expert sellers in retail fields such as electronics. We've all seen how buyers go to a small electronics store for advice on what to purchase, and then armed with that knowledge, go to the cheaper discount store to make their purchases. The result is that expert advice has become hard to come by. Amateur sellers may already be camping out on the detailed research and explanations provided by the professional booksellers. They may not be directly copying the professionals' descriptions, but the reality is that when you search for a title, everyone's listings come up together. You can read the description from the bookseller whose price may reflect the effort he put in to research the book and explain its importance, and then buy it from the seller who did nothing but post it for sale. Perhaps Abe's decision simply reflects reality today more than it changes it. We inexorably trade expertise for price.

Abebooks to Add Descriptions and Cover Photos to Listings

- By Michael Stillman

A sample of a new Abe listing with stock dust jacket image and description

By Michael Stillman

Abebooks recently announced that they would be automatically adding prepackaged descriptions and stock dust jacket photographs to their listings, at least those with ISBN numbers. This is nothing new for bookselling sites, but it is new for Abe. Currently, the other major powerhouses in the book listing field, Alibris, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble, provide this service. Abe's decision to join the crowd in this regard has been met with mixed bookseller reviews. As to how book buyers regard the change, no one polls them, so the answer is unknown.

In an announcement from "The Abebooks Team" sent to booksellers July 20th, labeled "New and Improved Book Details," Abebooks stated: "As always, we will display information provided by the bookseller first and foremost, but now we are working with our ISBN data providers, including MUZE, to automatically add details (when available) such as jacket photos, synopses, reviews, and bibliographic data...Buyers like to see details - they are much more likely to purchase if they can see an image of the book, or read a synopsis."

Most innovations have an upside and a downside, and this one is no different. Clearly, it brings Abebooks closer to conformity with what their rivals are doing, and those sites would not be providing these services if there were no benefits. On the other hand, it makes Abe less unique a site. Conformity tends to reduce choices available to the public.

Here is the issue for the public. I totally agree with Abe that people are more likely to buy if they have more information. However, this is a double-edged sword. Let me explain. The positives are this will immediately add more information to many, maybe even most, Abe listings. The sample synopsis that Abe showed as an example (see the image with this article) doesn't provide much, but anything is better than nothing, and in the future, perhaps this will become more informative. It's a start. Showing the dust jacket cover is a nice plus, but this is the part that seems to have booksellers the most concerned. A particular book may have been issued with multiple dust jackets. A disclaimer notes that the book a customer orders may not come with the precise dust jacket pictured, but customers tend to ignore or miss the fine print. Dealers are worried they will receive more returns from customers who receive something other than they expected, despite an accurate written description from the seller.

Abebooks to Add Descriptions and Cover Photos to Listings

- By Michael Stillman

none

Another presumed positive is this will sell more books. I cannot vouch for this, nor is it likely Abe can until it is rolled out. One imagines that the folks at Abe looked into this matter before making the change, and that the other sites which provide this additional information do so because it has proven to help sell books. If it does, this should make everyone, Abe and booksellers alike, happy.

The downside, as I see it, is that it may make booksellers lazy, or reward the lazy by providing homogenous, undifferentiated listings. Much of what distinguishes one dealer from another, and the knowledgeable from the pretender, is the quality of their descriptions. What incentive is there for a dealer to do his or her homework if someone else can provide what at least appears to be comparable information without doing a thing? And once we diminish the value of the bookseller's work product, do we need him/her at all? Information is the dealer's added value. Now any ignorant fool can add information. It may not be as good, and certainly not original, but if it provides comparable sales as doing your own work, how long is it before no one performs their own research? Will this added information have the ironic effect of ultimately reducing information available to the buyer?

Perhaps much of this is academic already. The book listing sites may have already irretrievably done what the large discount stores and online sites have done to expert sellers in retail fields such as electronics. We've all seen how buyers go to a small electronics store for advice on what to purchase, and then armed with that knowledge, go to the cheaper discount store to make their purchases. The result is that expert advice has become hard to come by. Amateur sellers may already be camping out on the detailed research and explanations provided by the professional booksellers. They may not be directly copying the professionals' descriptions, but the reality is that when you search for a title, everyone's listings come up together. You can read the description from the bookseller whose price may reflect the effort he put in to research the book and explain its importance, and then buy it from the seller who did nothing but post it for sale. Perhaps Abe's decision simply reflects reality today more than it changes it. We inexorably trade expertise for price.