What's new at Bibliophile Bookbase

Contact: our e-mail address is now . However, spam e-mail is now so completely out of hand that we may have to change this address from time to time. If your e-mail to us bounces, please visit www.bibliophile.net and use the new address given there on the Contact page. Any changes will also be announced in the News section of your admin zone.

Public zone

- Re-designed, user-friendly web interface.
- Enhanced search including an "any word(s), ISBN" search option, plus search result sort by relevance.
- "Intelligent" special character search. Support for Greek and Cyrillic characters.
- Thumbnails replace the image icon, multiple images possible for a single book.
- Wants watch greatly improved.
- "Enquire now" option in addition to the shopping cart.

Admin zone

- Data field mapper for advanced users.
- "On vacation" option to temporarily disable display of your stock.
- Order statistics.

Behind the scenes

- Indexing several times per day.
- Greatly enhanced off-site advertising.
- Currency exchange rates updated daily.

Bibliophile "Club" system for bookseller cooperatives and multi-dealer associations, societies and companies

We now offer complete, independent central admin and bookseller zones with our multi-dealer search interface. Use our database to support your independent, multi-dealer web site. To see a multi-dealer display in action, visit the International Antique Mapsellers Association web site at http://www.antiquemapdealers.com.


Paid options
- ammonet Secure credit card data system now accepts bank cheque data for those who process cheques electronically. Use this system to pick up card and cheque details for all remote sales, not just Bibliophile sales. Click here for a description of ammonet Secure.

- ImageServ image management for both large image inventories and new-comers. Optimise, re-size and crop your images. Link entire directories of image files to your book records with a single click. Click here for a description of ammonet ImageServ.

- Custom search page for your web site or hosted under our domain. No Bibliophile logos or links.

- Bibliophile Cataloguer - server-side assisted cataloging. Save money and time by using our database of 20 million titles to increase the speed and accuracy of your cataloging.

The current fee structure for all of our services is summarised at the bottom of this page.

Now please read on for essential information on how the new system works and how to migrate your listing account.

About our new Bibliophile Bookbase web site and database

How Bibliophile Bookbase works

Booksellers register on our system and upload books-for-sale descriptions, including images if they wish, in a consistent format. These records are stored in our database and indexed. Buyers search the database via our web sites and enquire about books listed there or order them using our shopping cart. Bibliophile does not intervene in closing the sale: we do not collect money nor calculate postage. Order and enquire e-mails go directly to the individual bookseller(s) who arrange postage and payment directly with the buyer. Copies of order and enquire e-mails are sent to the buyer. Buyers may register and leave "wants" requests that are matched with newly entered book records. Buyers are informed by e-mail of matches. Booksellers who wish to leave wants requests may do so from their own admin zone.

What Bibliophile Bookbase costs

Listing is currently a free service. When sales levels warrant, we will introduce a flat fee based on number of books listed. There will be charges for opt-in listing on AddAll, Bookfinder and other metasearch services. Please refer to the bottom of this page for the current fee structure for all of our services. There will be plenty of notice and consultation before any charges are introduced. Any paid service will be strictly opt-in.

Migration to the new web site and database

Login

All admin and upload activities are now accessed from a single login link at the top of the Bibliophile Bookbase homepage at www.bibliophile.net.

IMPORTANT: On your first login at the new site, please check that all of your details are correct. Move your town or city name plus postal or zip code out of the street address field and into the city and postal code fields respectively.

IMPORTANT: Please make certain that you display clear and comprehensive sales conditions. After migration is complete, we will be checking sales conditions manually and will close accounts that are inadequate in this respect.

Data display, data maintenance

IMPORTANT: Each of your book records must have a unique identifier (SKU, stock number). Contact us if this presents a problem for you.

The best display and search results and hence the best sales are obtained from well-formatted data. In general, the greater the number of fields you have per record, the better the display. For example, if you specialise in first editions, a first edition field is essential so that we can index and flag your records appropriately. Good search criteria allow your books to be found. Accurate and comprehensive descriptions sell them.

To keep our listing current, we have found it necessary to introduce a bit of disclipline. That's right, girls and boys, DISCIPLINE.
1) To maintain your books on metasearches such as AddAll, you must upload a data file every 16 days or less. If the interval is longer, your books will be reappear on the metasearch as soon as your next upload takes place.
2) To maintain your records on the Bibliophile Bookbase displays, you must upload a file every 35 days or less. If the interval is longer, your books will continue to be displayed on your custom search page, if you have one, and will reappear on the Bibliophile Bookbase display as soon as your next upload takes place.
3) Accounts showing no upload activity during 95 days will close.
4) Books priced at $0.94 or below do not enter our database.

Data upload

IMPORTANT: No book records are being transferred from the old database to the new. Currently we list 4 million books. As soon as we reach 1 million books in the new database, the old one will be disconnected. It is therefore essential that you upload a full stock file to the new database as soon as possible. During the transition, you will be able to login and to search and order books on the new system at www.bookbase-search.com.

You may upload zip files - .zip, .xxx. These will be automatically unzipped by our system.

Standard upload: the browse box upload functions as before. When you wish to delete and replace ("purge") your stock in the database, please click the appropriate box.

Direct FTP upload users: please make yourself known to us and we will set up a path for you.

Booktrakker users: your login details remain unchanged. When you are about to upload a delete and replace ("purge") file, please login to your admin and click the box that tells our system that your next incoming file is a purge file. We recommend that you purge your data from time to time.

Bookrouter users: When you alert Bookrouter that your incoming file is a purge file, it will be processed as such by our system. You do not need to click the purge box under your Bibliophile admin.

Fillz users: When you alert Fillz that your incoming file is a purge file, it will be processed as such by our system. You do not need to click the purge box under your Bibliophile admin.

Bookhound users: please contact us for the new upload details.

ammonet Secure users: your card data upload page will be linked to your shopping cart by default. If you prefer not to have that link, please let us know.

Custom search pages

If you already have a Bibliophile custom search on your web site or under our domain name, please contact us for the new html snippets. This update is free and essential.

If you do not currently use our custom search but would like one using our new interface, there is a once only setup fee of $35 for use on your own web site, or $35 per year under our domain name. The custom search is free when your web site is hosted by ammonet.

There are no Bibliophile logos or links on our custom search pages, and buyers are returned to your designated web site "thankyou page" after placing an order.

Customisation includes background and font colours, and hiding search fields that are inappropriate to your data. In addition, you may enable a browse feature plus a catalogue or subject search when your book records include the appropriate data field. To see an example of a live custom search (don't order a book unintentionally!), click here.

Images

The Bibliophile Bookbase allows single or multiple images to be linked to a single book record. There are two main methods to link images to your books.

1) You may use a data format that contains an image URL field. UIEE allows multiple image URL fields. If you use your own delimited format, please put multiple image URLs in a single field separated by a semi-colon, or in multiple fields where the number of image URL fields, populated or empty, is the same for all records. It is not important whether http:// is included in the URL. The URL may point to image files stored on a server elsewhere or on our server under your Imageserv account.

2) Use our ImageServ image manager to store your images and link them to your books. To use the many books/single click capacity of ImageServ the name of your image file, excluding the extension, must be identical to the corresponding record identifier (book stock number). For example, EX1345.jpg would be the name of the image file linked to the book with stock number EX1345. Case is important. ex1345.jpg is NOT the same as EX1345.jpg. ex1345.jpg is NOT the same as ex1345.JPG.

3) You may also enter image URLs by hand via the book record edit facility in your admin zone. These entries will be retained when you upload a purge file as long as the stock numbers have not changed.

Paid options price structure summary
(note that some setup fees apply)

Service

for ammonet
Hosting customers

for Bibliophile Bookbase
active listers

for "blue sky"
customers

ammonet Economy Account
web site hosting