Uploading Pictures

Adding pictures to your inventory on AbeBooks is one of the best things you can do to help increase your sales. Buyers still like to see what they are purchasing and AbeBooks customers are three times as likely to purchase a copy of a book with a picture over one without.

Once a picture file has processed through our system, it will be linked to the corresponding book listing and the image will be displayed next to it on the search results. Buyers can also filter their searches by Bookseller-supplied photos so your books will appear when buyers use this option:

Requirements:

These rules help make sure your photos process quickly and are displayed optimally to buyers in the search results.

• Maximum height is 600 pixels.
• AbeBooks will automatically scale your pictures to fit the different image sizes in the Search Results, Listing Details, and Larger Image locations; if the width far exceeds the height, the images may look “squished” in the Search Results and on Listing Details.
• Therefore, when height is scaled to 130 pixels, width should not exceed 160 pixels. You can check this in the software you use to re-size your images. Re-size the image to 130 pixels high with 'Maintain aspect ratio' or'Lock aspect ratio' selected. The width will adjust automatically - verify that it does not exceed 160 pixels and then 'Cancel' the re-size. 
• Maximum file size is 100 KB.
• Maximum 72 dpi (dots per inch).
• File names must be identical to that of the books they identify (for example, a picture for book number 001234 is required to have a file name of 001234.jpg or 001234.gif).
   
• You can associate one image with each listing.  If you have 2 photos to display, please merge them into one image file.

Uploading Your Photos

You can easily upload your photos through the Members Menu, or choose to send them directly via FTP if you'd like to send many at the same time.

To upload pictures through the Members Menu:

1. Sign on to your AbeBooks account with your email address and password.

2. From your Members Menu, click [Uploads].

3. Click [Upload your book pictures (gifs and jpgs)].

You will see the Manage Your Pictures screen:

4. Type in the file name or browse for the file you wish to upload.

5. Click the [Send File] button

When the file has successfully transferred, you will see a confirmation message on the screen - "filename.gif was uploaded to ABE!". The file name will also appear under the heading "Current contents of /pictures/".

Once the picture file has been processed, it will be linked to the corresponding book record and the image will be displayed beside the book.

To upload pictures using FTP:

Rather than send each photo individually, you can zip several photos into one file and upload the zipped file through the process above, through the File Upload page (http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/FileUpload), or via your own FTP software.

Important Note for Sellers with More than 200 Photos:

Large numbers of photos can significantly impact the speed and efficiency of the Picture Management screen within your account. For this reason, we recommend that booksellers with more than 200 photos use the File Upload page (http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/FileUpload) to send their photos instead. Pictures can be uploaded through this page one at a time or in bulk in a zipped file. If zipped, our system will automatically unzip the file and associate the photos with the appropriate listings.

It's also worth noting that photos for which the listing has sold will automatically delete in 28 days, eliminating the need to delete such photos manually, saving you time and effort.

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