The Pros and Cons of Using Abbreviations

Standard abbreviations have always been used by booksellers to describe out-of-print books. The question is, do we continue using the same standard abbreviations on the internet?

The internet has certainly changed the way we do business, and as the internet drives prices to unrealistic highs in some cases, and reaches the general public, it may be useful to have a reference one can turn to to minimize the risk of error. In addition to raising prices, some prices are now lower due to easy access to more common titles. In the not-so-old days, having only one copy available in the state of Massachusetts would have been thought to be quite scarce – now it’s possible to have 20-30 copies of the same title available at your fingertips due to the internet.

I often use old catalogs when trying to reference a book, and generally the compiler included a list of abbreviations used in describing books listed. This made a handy reference for the reader of the catalog. Today when abbreviations are used on the net the reader may have no idea what that particular dealer means, and many times ends up skipping over that entry, and finding one they understand. Above all, if abbreviations are to be used we must be consistent throughout the field. I’m used to most of the abbreviations, so it is usually not a problem for me, but with a more inexperienced seller/collector/librarian, “civilian”, this would not always be the case.

The “newbie” booksellers, and general public, “civilians”, would have a hard time understanding some of these terms, i.e., g-vg, cwo, ppd, ret., sase. One gentleman wrote to me a long time ago, after seeing one of my ads in AB using these abbreviations, and wanted to know if we had a secret code used only by booksellers. I believe he was serious, and couldn’t figure out my abbreviations. Space meant money in those days as you paid by the line, and I would try to keep terms, etc., short. Today, with the internet, space is not really a problem, so abbreviations are not so necessary. They simply save us time which is also very important.

As the trade changes, due mostly to the internet, these abbreviations have come under closer scrutiny, and not everyone agrees that they are still viable. Also, there is disagreement as to their interpretation. In the past I would imagine that everyone who received a dealer’s catalogue, or had access to AB, was either a bookseller, collector, or librarian, and would have been familiar with the terms – not so now. Everyone has access to the computer, and not everyone is familier with booksellers’ terms or abbreviations, so we have to adapt our descriptions accordingly.

I find that I am not using very many abbreviations when adding books to database as I am afraid there will be some misunderstanding as to their meaning, and besides, most of the descriptions are spelled out for us, and a flick of the finger will enter “very good” “fine”, etc., so it becomes unnecessary to abbreviate.

I have compiled a list of abbreviations which has not yet appeared on the IOBA education page, and which may not ever appear. It was written to be used as a guide, if needed, to explain abbreviations used in the trade. The question is, should we continue using these abbreviations, or has the business changed so much that they are no longer necessary? In the end, I guess I am just a traditionalist, and like to hang on to the old ways. What do you think?

There are those who say the internet will destroy the antiquarian book trade; I believe this will not happen. Let it be our job to promote the trade, educate the public, and ensure the future of our business.

COMMONLY USED BOOKSELLER ABBREVIATIONS:

ABA ……American Bookseller’s Association. Also: Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (the British equivalent of the ABAA)

ABAA ….. Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America.

A.E.G……All Edges Gilt.

ALS ……. Autographed Letter Signed.

ARC……Advance Reading Copy

BCE……Book Club Edition.

BDS……Boards

BOMC……Book-of-the-Month Club.

C…….. Small c before date meaning circa; around/about referring to date

CP or ……. Copyright.

CWO……Check or cash with order.

DEC……. Decorated.

DJ……Dust jacket.

DS…… Document signed.

DW……..Dustwrapper (same as dust jacket, or book jacket)

ED…….Edition or Editor.

EP……..Endpaper

EX. LIB……Ex. Library copy.

EX. LIBRIS…From the library of, referring to previous owner. Often found on bookplates.

F………Fine

FFEP……Front free endpaper.

FL……. . .Flyleaf.

FRONTIS… ….Frontispiece.

G……. ..Good.

HC……..Hardcover

IL. ILLUS…..Illustrated.

IOBA…… …Independent Online Booksellers Association.

LITHO……..Lithograph.

LTD. ED……..Limited Edition.

N.D (or n-d)……..No Date.

N.P (or n-pl)……..No Place

O or OOP……….Out-of-Print.

PP…… …Pages. p. (and then the number) for page ../pp. For pages – to–

PPB…….Paperback

PPD…….Postpaid.

PR………Printing

PSEUD. ……Pseudonym.

PUB…….Published/publisher.

RFEP…….Rear free endpaper.

RET………Returnable.

SLC……….Slipcase

SGD…….Signed.

SP……..Spelling.

T.E.G. …….Top Edge Gilt.

TLS………Typed letter signed.

TP……..Title Page.

VG……..Very Good.

VOL., VOLS…..Volume/Volumes.

W.A.F…….With All Faults.

W/O…….Without.

So You Want a Website

The first question should be “do you need a website at all?” And the answer, truthfully, is no. You can get along quite well without one. Will it help you sell books? Yes. Especially if you have a very specialized inventory. But you’ll have to weigh the costs carefully. Not just the monetary costs, but the amount of time you’ll spend building it (or communicating with your designer), and the time spent maintaining it.

There are a number of ways to set up a website. You can use it simply as a business card, with all your contact information listed, and a short writeup about your business. Link to your inventory on one of the databases, or your auctions and you have a viable website. This is definitely the best option for small dealers with a general inventory. This type of site can be set up on one of the free hosting sites to save the monthly fees. ABE offers free space to any bookseller who wants it – even if they are not members. There are many other free hosting sites. Try entering “free web hosting” at the google search engine. Just the fact that you have gone to the trouble of setting up a website gives you slightly more credibility with buyers.

You can set up and maintain catalogues using an html editor, and upload changes every few days. You don’t need a secure server or order form. Just ask customers to email or call with orders. Plenty of booksellers have done this successfully. It gives the closest approximation to the traditional bookseller’s catalogue. But, it’s time consuming to maintain static catalogues. And over time you’ll likely get slower and slower with your maintenance (unless you’re a good deal more disciplined than I am…)

A static catalogue with a shopping cart and secure server. Generally I’d consider this the worst of both worlds for a bookseller. It’s more time consuming than a plain catalogue (you have to add the custom shopping cart tags to every book listing), and it will cost you more to have it set up – probably as much as a full database shopping cart system. You need to be on a web host that has a secure server and cgi-bin access.

A searchable database, shopping cart, and secure order form. The easiest to maintain (you just upload your database whenever you want to add or remove titles), and the most expensive. Also the easiest for your customer to use. The range is $500.00 and up to anything you can imagine.

There is NO simple, easy way for a beginner to install a fully operational database shopping cart/secure order system on a website. There are plenty of easy static catalogue shopping carts – some are available as part of your hosting package (though all will require some extended data entry, and are more work than I’d care to take on). Most have a limit of 500 or fewer entries.

However, it is possible to do a small cheat, and use your Bibliofind or your ABE listings on your own site. It’s easy to do, even for beginners, but the drawback is that eventually your customer ends up going to that site to order.

Bibliofind: Go to your dealer maintenance pages. Click on “My Home Page”. Now click on “Our Search Form”. In your browser click on the dropdown menu “view” then “source”. Now select exactly the same area that you see in the window below (the code in the window is for my Bibliofind listings)

Just paste this into your website wherever you want the search form. You can modify it quite a bit, just make sure you leave all the form tags alone.

ABE: Go to http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/ClientQuickList . Search for your business name. Click on Search their inventory by author, title, publisher and keywords. Now look at the URL in your browser address line for the number right at the end… vci=250 for example. That number identifies your business. Paste this code into your website, but change this line

INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=vci VALUE=”250″ to show the vci number identifying your store.

Undoubtedly this can be done with the other database sites as well. I know it can be done with Antiqbook, and likely with BookAvenue. Each one will be slightly different.

Oh, and one more thing… if you build it, they won’t just come. You have to submit your site to the search engines. I suggest that you use SelfPromotion.com It’s free. If you’re pleased with the results, you can contribute something to the cause. It’s a shareware website tool.

Customer Service

Excellent customer service is the biggest and least expensive favor you can do yourself and your business. To stay viable, any business depends on both new customers and on repeat customers. As big as the Internet is, you will keep running into the same people/customers over and over.

The old adage that “the customer is always right” isn’t correct, of course, but it should be your guiding light in dealing with your customers. Even if you have a situation where you must disagree totally with your customer, you need to do it in a win/win way. No one likes to be backed into a corner or told that they’re dumb or a deadbeat (even if they are). You need to be assertive but not aggressive, and allow your customer to walk away from your discussion feeling he has been treated fairly, and that you’re an okay person.

Even online, word of mouth is our best method of advertising. I can’t stress enough how valuable it will be to you. Guard it carefully, and return the favor–praise customers every chance you get!

Part of your customer service should be to spell out very plainly and exactly what your selling terms are. Whether you allow returns for any reason, if the item is not as described, or that you don’t allow returns at all (which I can’t imagine). If there is a time limit for returns, state what it is. Same thing for your shipping charges. Build your materials expense into your shipping charges and don’t stick a handling fee on it separately. Handling fees are very subjective and arbitrary, and leave buyers feeling taken advantage of, particularly if they are not justified in your terms. If you accept foreign orders, specify that foreign shipping will be different from domestic shipping. Tell what shipping method you use, and if there is a choice. Spell out what payment methods you accept, and if shipment will be held until a check clears. Ship promptly. And ALWAYS pack safely. The bit of extra effort and expense will repay you time and again, with no disappointed customers receiving damaged shipments and no refunds for the same. And it is, of course, your responsibility to get the item to the buyer safely in mail order situations. The title does not change hands until the buyer receives the item in the same condition as advertised.

Not all buyers will read all of your conditions, of course, but if those conditions are in your description, you have a “legal” leg to stand on.

Communicate with your buyer freely. It only takes a few minutes to explain delays, problems, progress, expectations, etc. Most people will work with you, if they know what is going on.

I think the best method of communicating, when in an adversarial position, is to kill with kindness. Never, ever allow anger to show up in your communications, whetherby voice or email. Again, be assertive but not aggressive. You can explain calmly that such and such is not acceptable (particularly when you have spelled out in your terms what is acceptable), and suggest a constructive way to remedy the problem. Criticism, if not accompanied by a constructive solution, never solves anything. Never get personal, as in insults, never flame anyone– in fact, just never treat any customer in a way other than you would want to be treated, yourself. Think of email as dealing with your customer face-to-face, and don’t write anything you wouldn’t say to his face. If you’re angry,compose your email but don’t send it–stop and think for a couple of hours before pushing “send”.

Always try to find a way where that win/win situation makes your customer feel he has saved face. He’ll come away from the encounter with respect for you, and many times turns into a good, repeat customer. Winning is not the most important thing–so you get to keep $20 or $200; if you’ve made an enemy, that money is not worth it. A satisfied customer will spend much more than that with you, over a series of transactions, and will recommend you to others.

To sum up: treat your customers as you’d wish to be treated,and treat them in a way that will keep them as repeat customers. They are your most valuable asset.