Idea for AbeBooks.com

Suggested Feature for http://www.abebooks.com/

After having bought 15- 20 books one might have a good idea what sellers are accurate, honest and fair.

There should be a way for me to give them more business. A user should be able to create a "Favorite Seller" list of sellers to check for item availability. When looking for a book it would check the inventory from the businesses on the "Favorite Seller" list first.

Was just searching for two books recommended by ceomarshal on Twitter.

ceomarshall: @Admore 2 Fav Business Books are Crossing the Chasm and Execution: the discipline of getting things done

Original tweet.

Abebooks listings for each book:

• Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers
  
• Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

Does Abebooks already have a way to rate sellers?

Is there a list I can create to rate the seller on several dimensions?

• Accuracy of listing
• Speed
• Responsive correspondance (When book is located, packed, shipped, expected arrival date, if there is a problem how can the buyer directly communicate with the seller...)

NEW BOOK PRICING: “Free: The Future of a Radical Price”

The other day Bloomberg had an excellent podcast interview with Chris Anderson, author of, Free: The Future of a Radical Price. After listening, it brought me to the belief that this new book was worth looking into. Used the Amazon Apple Touch app to search for the book. Found it for a very reasonable price. Bundling it with The Long Tail, another book by Chris, brought that total just above the $25 basket size required to get free shipping on Amazon.

In the mean time some other things came up, namely #tweetea and the order was not placed. Today I finally got back to Amazon to look at completing the transaction from yesterday. The price has gone up significantly. Below are the prices from this evening.

*Note: The prices may have changed between not and when you visit them.

Amazon: $26.99

Borders: $21.59

Barnes & Noble: $17.54

Moral of the story: You delay, you pay.

NOTES FROM READING

When reading a book it is suggested that one take down notes to further synthesize the thoughts and lessons.

Some books are good to write in. Did this most notably while reading Personality Not Included.

Other books get a blank 3” x 5” index card that is used as a bookmark and to write out notes. This is a good method. It is best used for small nuggets of knowledge and short quotes. Long strings of text take up a lot of space.

The newest method employed for note taking while reading is a legal note pad. Currently I am writing down the page, one item per line. The goal is to make two columns per page. After reading the book with this method, I’ll probably type out the full notes and post to Evernote.

QUESTIONS

Do you take down notes as you read?

Notes after reading?

BOOKS ON DECK

List of books for reading in the near future. Very near future.

Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity

by Hugh MacLeod

 

Zingerman's Guide to Giving Great Service

by Ari Weinzweig

 

Collapse of Distinction: Stand out and move up while your competition fails

by Scott McKain

 

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

by Jim Collins & Jerry I. Porras

 

In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing

by Matthew E. May

 

The Toyota Way

by Jeffrey Liker

if you prefer you might find each of these books on the http://books.google.com/ site.

SELLING MORE BOOKS

If you are trying to sell more books, create more value for customers.

How do book sellers do that?

Find book lists. Examples are The 100 Best Business Books of All Time and the Personal MBA book list [77 books]. When a customer is looking to buy a book on these or any other list, included should be any lists the book is on. Some books are on more than one. Provide each. Then ask this question...

Are you interested in any of the other books on the list?

If the customer indicates they are, the book inventory database can instantly pull all the titles available. This can create an extra sale and save the customer a bit on shipping and handling. This is like cross merchandising categories in the supermarket [EG: Peanut butter and jelly near the bread]. 

Make it easy for the customer to do more business with you.  Doing so will deliver more value. Customers love value. 

Questions

Are you asking your customers how you can delight them more?

Better yet, are you asking yourself how you can do this?

Books Completed in 2008

Below is a list of books I completed reading in 2008. Some are better than others. All these are 3 stars or above. All are in my personal library. 

The titles are linked to either the Google Book Search™ results page or to an Amazon.com sales page for the one book that is not in the Google Book Search™ results. Check them out, and if interested, take immediate action.

THINK & GROW RICH

NAPOLEON HILL

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOU 

MARCUS BUCKINGHAM

LITTLE PLATINUM BOOK OF CHA-CHING

JEFFREY GITOMER

THE MYTH OF EXCELLENCE

FRED CRAWFORD & RYAN MATHEWS

*PERSONALITY NOT INCLUDED

ROHIT BHARGAVA

THE LAST LECTURE

RANDY PAUSCH with JEFFREY ZASLOW

BUYING IN

ROB WALKER

LEADERSHIP ENERGY

DAVID COTTRELL

THE EIGHT CONSTANTS OF CHANGE

STACY AARON & KATE NELSON

THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER

DAVE RAMSEY

THE SALES BIBLE

JEFFREY GITOMER

THE ELEMENTS OF INFLUENCE

ALAN KELLY

WAL-SMART

WILLIAM H. MARQUARD