Database or Spreadsheet - Inventory

If you are going to use a database or spreadsheet program such as Access® or Excel® for your inventory records, you need to let us know the names of all of the fields you use and the order in which you use them. We also need a file containing your records in the new format so our programmers can create a new conversion for you.  If you can guarantee your bookIDs will remain unique, please include this information in your message. (This means that you agree not to re-use bookIDs after books have been sold or deleted.)

The following four steps describe the process for uploading a spreadsheet or database:

  1. Send an e-mail message with the field orders and description, including a description of blank fields. Also, describe how books will be marked as sold.
  2. Send us your file of books via the online upload facility or FTP.
  3. AbeBooks creates a conversion for your new format. You receive an e-mail notification when this is complete.
 

To inform AbeBooks of your spreadsheet fields:

 

To upload a file online:

 

To send a file to AbeBooks via FTP:

 

Required Data Fields

These are the fields we use in our database; this should give you some guidelines for setting up your own.
 
Your BookID: We REQUIRE the number to be unique for each book record in your file.
Author: We can combine first and last names if you have your data formatted this way. The acceptable order for listing the author names is "LastName, FirstName."  We also use this field for Illustrator.
Title: The title of the book
Publisher Information: This can include any or all of the publisher's name or location, and the date of publication.
Keywords: These describe the subject of a book; many book buyers search using keywords.
Catalog: This field groups your books by subject to be browsable from your AbeBooks homepage and the [Bookstores] tab in the red banner.
Price: We remove currency symbols.
Description: In this field you can enter any other pertinent information you would like to have displayed on AbeBooks, including book condition and book attributes such as edition, binding or whether or not the book is signed. You can also include details about plot or subject matter.
Status: Use this field for status updates when you send your file.  For example, include an "S" in the column if a book is sold and an "A" if the book is available, or "Y" and "N" to represent "yes and "no."  AbeBooks does not recognize the status "On Hold" in your inventory management software.  Books marked with this status are listed as for sale on the AbeBooks Web site.
 

Example of Field allocation:

The body of the e-mail message you send should include the fields you use and the order in which they appear.  
 
field 1 ... bookID
field 2 ... author
field 3 ... title
field 4 ... publisher
field 5 ... condition
field 6 ... description
field 7 ... catalog
field 8 ... keywords
field 9 ... price
field 10 ... status (to indicate whether a book should be put online or removed from the Web site)

 

Example of a book record:

The file you send us is required to match the information provided regarding fields and what order they appear in.  If there is no information for a particular field, leave it blank.  You are required to save the file as a [Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt)] file.
 

1001

King, Stephen

Cujo

Signet, NY, 1982

Very Good

Torn  pages, softcover.

General fiction

Horror, fiction

2.50

For Sale