Selling Books On Line

Selling Books On Line: Getting Started

63,000 Jobs lost in February, 2008

Headlines like these have been appearing in all major newspapers and lead stories on TV Newscasts. When you add the possibility of $4.00 per gallon gas and rising food costs, a lot of people start scrambling to find a secondary source of income. It's only natural and it's inevitable that a lot of people will get ripped off. Many people gravitate to Multi Level Marketing programs because of the promises of Riches. "It's easy" they say. "You recruit three people and they recruit three more and those three recruit three and so on. You just keep duplicating yourself."

It sounds easy but it's not. The Internet is rife with offers of how you can make "Big Bucks" at home answering e-mails, doing surveys or becoming unclaimed money processors. None of this is true. These things exist but they're just scams.

This is one in a series of articles about "Legitimate" home based businesses that you can get involved in. The first was "The Notary's Road to Riches." We will now explore the possibility of selling books online because of the relative ease of starting a book sale business.

This is an easy business to get into and, if you love books, that makes it even better. Go to your browser on your computer and type in: http://www.amazon.com or just click this link to open a new window. At the Amazon website you will see two boxes. Click on the first drop down arrow which says Amazon.com. Scroll down to books and click. Now the word "Books" appears in the window instead of Amazon.com. In the box to the right, type in the name of a book or grab a book and put the ISBN number in the box (minus the dashes). If there is an "x" at the end of the ISBN number, then type in the x. Click on the word "go" and it will take you to the page where that particular book is listed for sale.

You will probably see a picture of the book, if one is available. The number of new and used copies available will also be stated and a dollar amount as to where the prices start. Click on this line and you will be taken to a page with a list of all the available books of this title. Tabs across the top will indicate if they are new, used or collectible. Amazon will indicate the minimum price and numbers available in each category. The first tab is "All" and this is how the screen first opens. All of the books are listed from the lowest price to the highest price. If you click on a category, such as "Collectible," all of the listed books in this category will again be shown from lowest to highest price. The same is true for "New" and "Used."

Each seller is identified and the seller describes the condition of his/her particular book. The seller's rating and location are given. If the price and condition of books being sold are equal, I will buy from the seller whose location is closest to my home.

The Listing Process

So, how would you go about listing a book for sale? Scroll to the top of the page with all the different sellers listed. On the right hand side at the top is a box which states, "Sell Your Item Here." Click the box and you will be taken through a short registration process. They will want a user name and password, a bank account number and a bank routing number. They will probably require a credit card in case you need to give a refund and there are not sufficient funds in your Amazon account.

After you finish the registration process you will be taken back to the page to finish listing your book. When you finish with one book then go to the next. Amazon will send you an email for each book you list. These books will be listed for a total of 60 days. If they don't sell you will receive and e-mail stating such and have the option to re-list them in a two step process. At this point you may adjust the price if you wish.

From here on it's just repetition. Amazon charges 15% plus $1.00 when you make a sale. That comes to $2.50 for a $10.00 book. However, there is a better program for sellers where you will not be charged that dollar.

What do you receive for the 15% you pay to Amazon? You get the Amazon Brand Name, which is trusted and recognized. You don't have to worry about advertising or promoting your book sales website. Amazon handles the sales process and deposits the money into your account. Most importantly on eBay you must pay to list and auction. On Amazon you pay when your product sells.

There is another program where you pay $40 per month to Amazon. With this program the $1.00 per sale fee is eliminated. I used this program when I was really into selling because after book number 40 sold, I made an additional $1.00 per book.

There are other online book selling companies. The other two majors are Alibris and ABE Books. I chose Amazon because I am more familiar with Amazon than the other two and Amazon is the largest.

This article is meant to be an introduction to selling books online to show you how easy it can be. If you are interested in pursuing this business further, you should probably read some of the books available on the subject. The best one on the market is "Online Bookselling" by Michael Mold. It is probably the most recent book available. It is also available on CD ROM which I recommend. He has a number of links in his book and with the CD Rom, you only have to click the link and you're there. Another book you might look into purchasing is "The Home-Based Bookstore" by Steve Weber.

If you are interested in this business, then print out a copy of this article and follow the steps above as you list your first book. If you are not interested, then you may know of a friend or relative in need of additional income. You should know that with 3,000 books available for sale you could easily earn $3,000 per month.

At this time I only have about 250 books listed on Amazon. My goal is to have 500 pretty much at all times. Even so, with 250 my average monthly income is about $500 per month. You're probably asking "Why not more books because more books translates into more money?" That is correct but I want to make my fortune in Internet Marketing and with AdSense, Affiliate Marketing and Adwords. The income from Amazon provides the seed money for various endeavors in these areas.

Good Luck,

George P
Author/Webmaster

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