We cannot stress strongly enough the importance of writing complete, truthful descriptions.  You will find that your books will sell regardless of their condition. Some may take longer then others but in the end everything will sell. The only protection that you have as a seller is clarity and honesty of your description. Please take this seriously. Too may sellers skimp on their descriptions and leave a trail of unhappy customers in their wake. These are the sellers that give us all a bad name.

When you describe a book, be sure to describe all aspect of its condition both positive and negative. When you look for damage watch for:

• Dust cover. Is it present? Is it torn? Is it stained?
• Cover condition. Are the corners bent or scuffed? Is there shelf damage?
• Spine condition. Is the spine broken?
• Text condition. Is there highlighting or underlining? Are the pages yellowing?
• Page ends(the edges of the pages all together). Is there a remainder mark on the bottom?

Be sure to let people know that the book looks great when it does. We like to add exclamation points to emphasis good details. It never hurts to over describe your books, but under describing could be very problematic.

Here is an example of a description that we would write:

This book is is in very readable condition but has several cosmetic issues. The front cover is torn near the spine, extending one inch. All corners of the cover are lightly scuffed. The dust cover is missing. The text is in like new condition with no markings! Spine is stiff and unbroken!

Try to spend some time looking at the way other sellers describe their book-stock. You can learn a lot by watching successful sellers.

Next lesson, Monitoring your bookstore.