BASIC SEARCH TIPS

Searching on AbeBooks is easy – enter some terms into a search box and click ‘Find Book’. Our search results will display books with the lowest total price (that’s book price + shipping cost) first.

 

ADVANCED SEARCH TIPS

Sort Your Results - At the top right section of the Search Results page, you can reorder your results in a number of ways, including:

Refine Your Results - At the top left section of the Search Results page, you can narrow your results by a series of useful refinements such as New Books Only, Signed Copies and books with dust jackets. The Bookseller-Supplied Images refinement shows listings accompanied by photos taken by the seller – useful for seeing collectible books. The first edition refinement shows all books classified as a first edition (so could include first paperback edition, first UK edition etc) and not just the earliest published version. Sorting results to most expensive first is usually a good way to see true first editions.

Expand Your Search Results – Click on the small red crosses in the top section of the Search Results page to remove search terms, expand your search and receive more results.

Narrow Your Results by Seller Location – At the top middle section of the Search Results page, you can narrow your results to show books from sellers in a particular country. This is ideal for finding sellers close

Search Within Your Results – At the top section of the Search Results page, you can conduct a keyword search within your results.  This is ideal for narrowing your results. The ‘More Search Options’ link takes you to Advanced Search with your previous search terms already entered.

Search by Keywords - AbeBooks has a very effective keyword search where the title, author and description are searched simultaneously. Use specific words like Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure signed.

 

Quotation Marks – By putting a search term inside quotation marks, you will receive results for what is exactly written between the marks. For instance, “Stephen King” in the author field will not display books where the author is listed as King, Stephen.

Author Initials - When an author is known by initials, such as J.R.R. Tolkien, we recommend searching by last name alone.

Sub-titles - It is common for books to have long sub-titles such as Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. We recommend searching on the main title, Freakonomics, alone.

Abbreviations – Be aware abbreviations can restrict results. For instance, books about the FBI or from OUP could also be found under Federal Bureau of Investigation and Oxford University Press respectively.

Search A Seller's Books - It is possible to search only the books offered by a particular seller. You can often save money on shipping by buying multiple books from one seller. Locate sellers via our bookseller page (link). Each seller has their own storefront (link to Royal Books), which is a page that describes their business and allows users to search just their books. Click on the ‘More Books from this Seller’ link on listings to access a storefront from search results.

Free Shipping – Listings with free shipping have a distinctive yellow icon. You can also refine results to show listings with free shipping. There is also a page (link) specially designed for free shipping searches.

Shipping - In search results and listings, click on ‘Destination, Rates & Speed’ to see shipping details for that particular book.  Our sellers select their own shipping details, so speeds and costs will vary.

Ask Bookseller A Question – If you require more information about a particular book, click on the ‘Ask Bookseller a Question’ and complete the email form. Feel free to ask about condition, or clarify the edition, or ask for an image etc.

Convert Currency – In search results and listings, click on ‘Convert Currency’ to recalculate the book’s price in any of more than 50 alternative currencies.

Boolean Search – Conduct specific book search by using Boolean.