I’ve had a pretty good response to the offerings with BookScouter Pro and am happy to announce that it is now free for non-profit organizations to use. To get that set up, make sure that you have a Free BookScouter.com account, and then Contact Us so that we can work on setting up the free Pro account. We’ll need a copy of a document that verifies your non-profit status.
I’ve had numerous requests from users to show the Amazon Sales Rank and some basic Amazon pricing information on the site. I’m happy to announce that is now possible. You’ll need to put in your Amazon Product Advertising API credentials to make it work. There is a new link for "Manage your Amazon Access Keys" on the screen right after you log in. That screen describes the process and what needs to be done to enter your AWS Access Credentials.
Last week I was able to take place in a 30-minute radio interview for the “Ask Janelle” show on wsRadio.com. We talked about some of the basic BookScouter usage and how eBay and Amazon book sellers can use it to sell some of their books. We also talked about some of the “Pro” features suited toward larger users. You can listen to the show over at wsRadio.com. I first met Janelle at the Amazon Sellers Conference (SCOE) in Seattle in July. She is a popular and well respected radio host and runs a bunch of classes and training programs to help sellers optimize their online sales through eBay, Amazon, and on the Internet in general. She is also behind the OSI Rock Stars program and training material.
One of the most frequently asked questions I get is regarding how to find the value of books that don’t have an ISBN. I don’t know of any websites that buy these types of books back directly. Often-times, however, the ISBN just isn’t easily found, or may not be on the book at all. I’ve put together a tool that will allow users to search for books by Author, Title, and the published year. This should allow casual users to find the ISBN and hopefully find a good place to sell their books to somewhere. In the event that nobody is buying the book, it will also display prices from Amazon marketplace and an estimate of how long it may take to sell.
The tool is now available at http://bookscouter.com/pre-isbn
BookScouter has launched a bookmark design contest over at 99Designs.com. If you are a graphic designer or know of one, please send them over to create a design. The winner will receive a $200 reward and will have their design distributed across the country!
With an increasing number of users visiting the mobile BookScouter site at http://bookscouter.com/, the site was due for a little touch-up work. I’ve just modified that site so it has the same feel as the full site. The colors, logo, fonts, and sizes now match so that using the mobile site is a more pleasant experience. It also displays a small image of the book so that you can double-check that the book matches the one that you are expecting.