How to write an eBay book title buyers can tell apart

Give the 80 characters to the edition, not the mood

eBay’s 80-character title, spaces included, is too short for a plot summary and too important to waste on “great read.” For a common title, the author and the format do more than a second adjective. Add the year or the ISBN when several editions would otherwise look identical.

Mercari’s 80-character title has the same job, and the phone shows the front of it. Start with author and short title, then hardcover or paperback. A series name alone is how buyers receive book three instead of book one.

Describe this copy, then the story

Lead the Mercari description with what a collector checks before paying: format, year, ISBN, dust jacket or none, and the worst defect. A one-line plot can follow if you still have room in the short description. Do not paste a publisher’s blurb over a stained page.

Facebook Marketplace book buyers are often looking at a stack. The opening lines should say how many volumes, which titles if it is a set, and whether they are ex-library or full of notes. A local buyer will forgive a creased spine they were told about. They will not forgive a missing volume.

• Hardcover, paperback, or mass-market, and whether the dust jacket is present.
• ISBN from the copyright page or the barcode, copied digit by digit.
• Set size: “3 of 4; volume 2 is absent.”
• Language and whether the text block is translated.

Specifics that separate one printing from another

Fill book specifics with facts from the book in your hand: author, publisher, publication year, language, topic, format, and ISBN. Special attributes such as signed, book club edition, or ex-library are specifics only when you can see the evidence.

• Book club edition: said so on the jacket flap or copyright page, not guessed from the size.
• Signed: you are looking at ink on the page. Do not write authenticated unless a certificate is in the book.
• Illustrated, map, or fold-out: name it if it is missing a plate.
• Publisher location only when it is printed.

Grades are useless without the defect

Booksellers use words like fine and very good. Those words do not travel unless you name the flaws. Describe the boards, the jacket, and the pages as three different things.

• Writing, highlighting, and bookplates, and on which pages.
• Ex-library: stamps, pockets, and taped spines.
• Remainder marks, usually a stroke on the page edge.
• Jacket tears, chips, and price-clipped flaps. Say if there is no jacket.
• Loose pages, cracked hinges, and a cocked spine.
• Odor: smoke, mildew, or none that you notice. Mildew is a condition, not a secret.

Photograph the copyright page

• Front cover and spine, readable.
• Title page and copyright page, including the printing line.
• Dust jacket flaps if you are claiming a price or a first printing.
• Page edges, so remainder marks and yellowing show.
• Any writing, stamp, or tear you named.
• The stack with spines out, if you are selling more than one book.

A stock photo of a clean reprint is a different book. Buyers compare your copyright page to the one they want. Give them that photo.

Mistakes that ship the wrong edition

• “First edition” with no copyright-page photo and no number line.
• A title so generic that the author never appears.
• Describing the dust jacket and then sending a book that has none.
• Calling an ex-library copy “unread” because you did not read it.
• A set counted by the box, not by the spines.
• Using the eBay title for “rare” when the ISBN shows a book that is still in print.