Secondhand copies and forthcoming books

Secondhand and rare copies

1. Go to Products → Attributes and add an attribute named Condition with the slug condition.
2. Add terms such as Fine, Very good or Good, and give each copy its condition.

The condition shows under the title on book cards and book pages.

When a copy is out of stock, its cover gets a Sold out plate in book lists, so a sold single copy reads at a glance. For one-off copies, set Inventory → Stock quantity to 1, or set the stock status to Out of stock once it has sold.

The Rare & secondhand demo store shows this, with binding, edition and date attributes too.

Forthcoming books and pre-orders

1. Tag the book forthcoming.
2. Under Product data → Inventory, set the stock status to On backorder (or allow backorders).
3. Optional: add a Publication attribute (slug publication) with the date as text, for example March 2027.

The book then gets:

• a Forthcoming plate on its cover in book lists, with the publication date
• a Pre-order button instead of Add to cart
• the note Forthcoming: publishing March 2027. Pre-order now and we will send it on publication.

Pre-orders are ordinary WooCommerce backorders: payment is taken at checkout as usual, and you ship the book when it’s published. Remove the tag once the book is out.