Selling Books On Amazon Software

How to Sell Books on Amazon in 2021: Step-by-Step Guide

You can sell common book formats such as hardcovers, paperbacks, or ebooks on Amazon. Whether you want to list and sell books from your brick-and-mortar store, resell non-fiction books you’ve already read, part with beloved comic books, list rare hardcover collectibles, or get rid of children’s books, you don’t need to look any mmarySelling books online can be a nice income stream—or the start of a profitable online business. Whether you’re considering selling those Jane Austen books gathering dust, children’s books the kids in your life no longer read, or even your original ebook ready for the world, selling books on Amazon is a great place to start. is a popular store, and with the seller tools available, you can start selling in a matter of hours. Whether you’re looking to sell new or used volumes, specific titles, or certain genres, our step-by-step guide will help set you up for sell books on Amazon? People love to read books. Even with all of today’s competing entertainment mediums, books are thankfully still in demand. While you may have other options to consider when it comes to selling your books online, here are a few benefits booksellers on Amazon enjoy:Get started with just a few books (no need for a large inventory)Choose from a wide variety of genre categoriesSell books for cash or creditYou choose how to fulfill ordersMerchant Fulfilled Network (MFN) – Is the DIY Route. List books on Amazon, then pack and ship orders to customers yourself. (This is often referred to informally as Fulfillment by Merchant or FBM. )Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) – Is the Do It For Me Route. List books and have Amazon store, pack, and ship to customers for youSell books multiple ways—by title, ISBN, weight, or by scanning the barcodeSelling books on Amazon can be a reasonably straightforward process, with no need to worry about building a website or creating an online order system. Using Amazon’s seller tools, you can get started relatively quickly and with less you know? Amazon began by selling booksIn 1994, founder Jeff Bezos started as an online book store. It eventually grew into the selling site we know today—not bad for a business with humble beginnings right out of a garage, right? What types of books can you sell on Amazon? You can sell common book formats such as hardcovers, paperbacks, or ebooks on Amazon. Whether you want to list and sell books from your brick-and-mortar store, resell non-fiction books you’ve already read, part with beloved comic books, list rare hardcover collectibles, or get rid of children’s books, you don’t need to look any in mind some books sell better than others. Doing your research to find high-demand books can pay off. The Best Sellers in Books list can help you find popular current titles based on sales. Here are popular book types you can sell on Amazon:Sell new books onlineSome customers love the feeling of holding a brand new book in their hands. You can typically find new books through wholesalers, distributors, or publishers. If you want to sell new books, however, be aware you may need to purchase large quantities in used books onlineSecondhand books are generally easier to find, cheaper to acquire, and could be more profitable if you find good deals locally or online. You can sell used books right off your shelf, but you can also find them at local used book stores, thrift shops, or estate sales. You can also check online marketplaces, local library sales, and even find books at your neighborhood yard textbooks onlineDo you have used college textbooks taking up space? If they’re in good condition, you can get them off your shelf and make a little cash by selling them on Amazon. Be sure to list accurate details about the book’s condition. Peak times for textbook sales are typically in the spring and fall of each books without an ISBNA book’s International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a registration code you can find inside the dust jacket or on the barcode. If the book was printed before 1970, it might not have an ISBN. If this is the case, you can request an collectible or rare books onlineAntique and vintage books can be an attractive niche market for literature lovers. Due to the nature of older collectible books, it’s vital to list each book’s condition honestly. While you may be able to sell your collectible first edition print copy of The Great Gatsby on Amazon, you can also list it on niche selling websites catering to rare and unique books and collectibles, like ebooks onlineReady to sell your ebook online and reach a global audience? Consider self-publishing with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). With KDP, you maintain control of your rights, set your prices, make changes anytime, and earn royalty on sales. 7 steps to selling your book on AmazonHere are seven steps to help you sell your books on 1: Decide what type of books you want to sellAlthough there are various ways to find books to sell, the simplest way to begin is generally to sell books you already can also build your inventory through the following channels:Wholesale: Buy in bulk for lower prices online or at bookstore closings. You can also procure new books in larger quantities from distributors or publishers. You may not have total control over what you get, but you can get more books at wholesale arbitrage: Browse from bookseller websites, ecommerce websites, and social media websites for low-priced or free books to purchase and resell for a sources: Find used books by browsing local library book sales, used book stores, yard sales, and thrift shops. You may also discover collectible books at estate ctions: Seek out auctions, estate sales, or farm sales selling used or collectible the process of procuring your books, it’s essential to evaluate each one’s condition. Follow Amazon’s detailed condition guidelines when listing your books. Be sure to read over the category-specific guidelines for new and used books, as well as for niche items like collectible 2: Create your Amazon seller accountDecide if you want to register as an individual seller or a professional seller. The main differences have to do with benefits and Individual selling plan is a pay-as-you-go plan that provides access to basic listing and order management tools. You can create listings one at a time by matching products to existing pages or creating new pages in the Amazon catalog. You don’t pay fees to Amazon unless an item sells, so it’s a good starting point for entrepreneurs new to online Professional selling plan gives you access to advanced selling tools for a monthly subscription fee. Unlike the individual selling plan, you pay a monthly fee regardless of whether you list or sell anything (instead of a per-item fee—although both plans pay referral fees on items sold). The Professional selling plan gives you access to inventory tools to upload batch files and manage your orders through feeds and reports. These tools are especially beneficial to medium- to large mpare selling plans to determine which option is best for you pick a plan, consider using this handy cost calculator to estimate your per-unit sales margin. Once you’re ready, set up your Amazon seller account. This will allow you to start selling on Amazon. It will also give you access to the Seller Central dashboard, where you can list products, manage your inventory, and fulfill 3: Decide how you will fulfill ordersDo you want to handle inventory, packing, and shipping on your own? Or would you rather have Amazon do all this for you? As an ecommerce seller on Amazon, you have two choices to fulfill orders:Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN) – You store inventory, pack, and ship books independently. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) – You ship books to an Amazon Fulfillment Center, and they do the rest for you. FBA includes storage, packing, shipping, customer service, and returns. Using FBA to ship your products is also the easiest way to get the Prime badge for most offers. Many Amazon customers look for products with the Prime badge because it represents fast, free 4: Set your book pricingBook pricing depends on a variety of variables, including book type and condition. Monitor the prices other booksellers are asking for, and adjust your prices accordingly. You can always go back in and change the price at any time. Here are some top factors that can influence book prices:What condition is the book in? Is the book new or used? Is the book a collectible (such as a first edition)? Don’t forget to take packing and shipping costs into account when you set your you know? You can automatically manage pricing on AmazonWhile pricing is something you can learn more about and adjust over time, there’s an easy way to manage it through the Seller Central Automated Pricing Tool lets you automatically adjust prices for your available inventory based on your pricing rules and Match Low Price feature helps you match the lowest price with the click of a buttonThis tool helps you quickly and easily match the current lowest prices on Amazon for specific 5: List your books on AmazonA simple way to list books for sale is to go right to the product page and look up the titles for the books you want to list. Follow these steps:Type the book’s ISBN code into Amazon’s search bar. If the book was printed before 1970, enter the title on the product listing page, click the “Sell on Amazon” the SKU. This can be an SKU of your choice, or if you leave it blank, Amazon will generate one for your price. To match the lowest price, simply click that the total quantity. The default is one the condition. It’s vital to be 100% honest about the quality of each your fulfillment channel (MFN or FBA) the lingo:ISBN, SKU, and ASINISBN: International Standard Book NumberAn ISBN is a unique bar code for each published book. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. Authors that self-publish on Amazon will automatically be issued an ISBN for each Stock Keeping UnitSKU is a unique number to help a business keep track of inventory. ISBNs are also a type of Amazon Standard Identification NumberAn ASIN is a unique number that is assigned to all Amazon product listings automatically. ASINs are 10 alphanumeric digits long and start with “B0” 6: Promote and market your booksNow it’s time to think about promoting your bookselling advantage of Amazon toolsIf you’re selling books, check out Amazon’s Seller University for free training videos to help you learn the basics of sales, selling tools, advertising, and promotions. You can help grow your business, drive sales, and measure the effectiveness of your ads with Amazon Advertising. Check out the Advertising Learning Console to learn you’re an author, promote your own published books on Amazon with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Promote your online book business on social mediaSocial media can be a powerful tool for increasing your business exposure and strategically targeting customers who want to buy the types of books you’re selling. Find out where your audience hangs out and get the word out on the social media platforms they’re attention to reviewsWhen you’re selling books you didn’t write, you might not take book reviews personally. But you will want to monitor your Amazon reviews about products and customer service. Good reviews go a long way when it comes to building confidence in your online brand. Here are a few tips to help you earn positive feedback:Be honest about item conditionShip orders on timeRespond to customer inquiries quicklyIf issues arise, solve them as soon as possibleIf you’re a professional seller, good reviews also increase your product’s chances of being listed as the featured offer (the first option on the yellow “Buy” button on Amazon’s shopping website) 7: Pack and ship your booksPreparation is essential to getting your books to their destination securely. Remember, happy customers are repeat customers! How you handle shipping depends on which fulfillment method you choose. Fulfilling orders with the FBA methodCreate your shipment through your Amazon Seller Central account. See the step-by-step process to send or replenish inventory to up your books to ship to an Amazon Fulfillment Center. For more information, see small parcel delivery to Amazon, packaging and prep requirements, and product size your packages. Be sure to check shipment label the books are brand new, see requirements for FBA products sold as how Amazon receives and stores your inventory. Fulfilling orders with the MFN methodManage orders from your seller books your packing slip ready and printed. Amazon will generate a PDF product and shipment label (see print a packing slip) your package using the carrier of your choice. Note you can use Amazon’s discounted shipping to send to a fulfillment nfirm the order (see how to confirm a shipment) Shipping servicesIf you’re fulfilling your own orders, consider using Amazon’s Buy Shipping services. Here you can buy shipping labels, ship, confirm, and track orders all in one place, using Amazon’s trusted network of shipping carriers. If you opt-in for this service, you don’t need to confirm shipment—confirmation is automatic. 7 quick tips for selling your books onlineTo increase your chances of success in building an online business and selling your books, follow these best practices:#1 – Research which genres and categories sell best on AmazonDo your research on what types of books sell well. It will take some time to discover a sweet spot between the books you can find to resell and those people are looking to buy, but it will be worth the extra effort. Look at Amazon’s annual best seller’s lists to spot patterns on popular books to sell online. #2 – Check a book’s Best Seller RankingAs a bookseller, get the highest return on your investment by listing high-demand books. Checking a book’s Best Seller Ranking (BSR) is a good place to start. Nearly every product on Amazon is awarded a number once an item has had at least one sale. The better it sells, the lower the number. The BSR is a good indicator of how well an item is currently selling in a comparable category. To find a book’s BSR, locate the book, scroll down to the product description, and you’ll find the number listed there. #3 – Be 100% honest about the condition of your booksBuild trust with customers by being completely transparent about the condition of each book. Generally, you can choose from these categories:NewLike newVery goodGoodAcceptableCollectibles and hardcovers with dust jackets have additional conditions. Be sure to familiarize yourself with Amazon’s condition guidelines for books. #4 – Take care when packing and shippingFollow all shipping guidelines and pack books securely, so orders reach customers in excellent can get a fair bit of abuse during shipping, but several measures can help ensure orders arrive in tip-top shape:Use multiple packing materials. Appropriate packaging could involve a combination of bags, Kraft paper, or bubble otect book corners, edges, and dust shipping more than one book, consider wrapping each one individually or using single book boxes for protection. For multiple books, you can place pieces of flat cardboard between each should fit snugly in the padded envelope or box, so there’s little wiggle room. #5 – Always fulfill your orders on timeIf you’re shipping items directly to customers, help instill trust and increase your chances for repeat sales by delivering products on time and in the best condition possible. #6 – Keep your prices competitiveMonitor prices in the categories and titles you list for sale in order to stay competitive and boost sales. #7 – Monitor your sales performanceFaithfully manage your orders and stay on top of sales to track performance. Check out the numerous business tools Amazon offers, including helpful guides such as the Ecommerce Business Guide and Build an Online Store on Amazon. These resources will help you learn how to monitor feedback and performance and grow your online selling books online profitable? Selling books online can be a lucrative side gig or a profitable business venture. Here are a few benefits of selling books online:There’s money to be made as an online have no sales constraints—sell as much or as little as you nvenience for you and the buyer—no traffic, no lines, and you’re always a wide variety of titles, authors, and does it cost to sell books on Amazon? Amazon’s selling plans give you the option to pay per sale (Individual selling plan) or a flat monthly fee (Professional selling plan). You can decide which option is best for you based on your business model. For books, the referral fee is 15% plus a $1. 80 closing fee. Collectible books are a flat 15%. Shipping costs depend on whether you choose to pack and ship items yourself (MFN) or use FBA. If you choose to fulfill orders on your own, there are guidelines for rates for books, music, video, and DVD (BMVD) items and Amazon’s Buy Shipping I sell my books on Amazon? Yes, Amazon is a great way to sell books of many different kinds online. If you’re a published author, it’s also a great way to get your work in the hands of millions of I sell books on Amazon for free? No, there are fees associated with selling books through Amazon and gaining access to millions of online customers, including over 150 million Amazon Prime members. When you sell on Amazon, you have a choice between a pay-as-you-sell Individual selling plan or a Professional selling plan, where you pay a flat monthly fee. Amazon also collects a referral fee on each sale, which is a percentage of the total transaction and varies by product category. Learn more about selling plans happened to Amazon Book Trade-In? Amazon no longer accepts trade-in books. You can sell your used books on Amazon through a seller account. Search Amazon’s trade-in store to see what types of items are eligible for types of books can I sell on Amazon? You can sell new books, used books, collectible books, comic books, and more in a wide variety of different genres. If your books don’t have an ISBN, you can also sell books by title, helping you turn your old used books into is an acceptable condition for books? You can use specific definitions to describe the condition of a book on Amazon. This description helps manage customer expectations. Reference these condition guidelines and requirements when listing a are the fees for selling books on Amazon? Should I only sell my books on Amazon? You’re not limited to selling your books from only one website. However, if you choose to sell via multiple sales channels, be careful to stay on top of your inventory and manage sales are the advantages and disadvantages of Amazon for selling books over the internet? A few of the benefits of selling books via Amazon include:Gain access to the Amazon’s 300 million customers worldwideAcquire Amazon tools and business resources to optimize sales, grow your business, and build your customer rvices like Fulfillment by Amazon help with storing inventory, making sales, shipping orders, and receiving returns so you can free up your resources and focus on running your business. A few of the benefits of selling books via Amazon include:You will have to stay competitive with your pricing and customer service to set your brand apart from the competition of other sellers who already cater to the millions of shoppers who visit Amazon every to selling on Amazon comes with required fees, which can vary depending on how you choose to sell and selling books on Amazon a good idea? Selling books on Amazon is a great idea! Whether you’re looking to make some space on your shelves or launch a bookselling business, you can tailor your approach to your sales to get started? Get in front of millions of monthly shoppers on Amazon. Compare selling plans to figure out which program is best for your business, or sign selling today$39. 99 a month + selling fees
How to Sell Books on Amazon: Tips & Secrets for 2021

How to Sell Books on Amazon: Tips & Secrets for 2021

2021 Update: In order to provide ecommerce entrepreneurs with all the information they need to succeed with their Amazon ventures—from startup, to first sale, to phases of growth and scaling—we’ve updated our content for 2021.
If you’re interested in selling books on Amazon or eBay, check out our updated guides for How to Sell on Amazon and How to Sell on eBay in 2021.
Selling books on Amazon is a fantastic way to make some cash — and even to start building an Amazon business. (In fact, that’s how I got my start selling on Amazon five years ago! )
But, to get started, you’ll need to learn how selling on Amazon works, as well as how to find books to sell on Amazon and what types of books you should and shouldn’t sell.
How to sell books on Amazon (my story)
Long before I made six-figures selling my own branded products on Amazon, I sold books.
It all started with a nine-to-five job; and I hated my nine-to-five job. It was back in 2012, and I was hired to sell cars (yep — all the bad stuff you hear about car salesmen is 100% true, at least in my case).
After three years, I’d had enough.
My life as a car salesman–just end it now!
So, in 2015, I started looking for a way out. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur but, like many, I didn’t know how or where to begin. I was scared to make a move.
Sound familiar?
Then, my internet searches led me to blogs and videos about passive income. That’s how I discovered bookselling on Amazon.
I didn’t have a lot of money to start with either. Just a few hundred bucks. And frankly, I didn’t want to risk even that. I mean, who wants to risk losing their hard-earned money, right?!
Fortunately, I had an old comic book collection gathering dust. I thought, “Maybe I’ll list these online? See what happens! ” And that’s how I started selling books on Amazon.
In just days, I had dozens of books listed on Amazon.
I was earning money, and I was learning about how to sell on Amazon as a way to replace my income. Now, five years later, I’m still an Amazon seller with hundreds of product listings and thousands in monthly sales — and the income that comes with it.
In other words, selling books on Amazon is absolutely doable! And I’ll walk you through all the steps you need to know in order to be successful.
How can I sell my used books on Amazon?
To sell a book on Amazon you need to decide three things:
Your fulfillment method (FBA or FBM)
The type of seller you want to be (Individual or Professional Seller)
How you source inventory
Once you’ve made those decisions, you can list your books on Amazon immediately — and then just wait for your first sale!
Let’s break it down further:
1. How will you fulfill orders?
There are two ways to fulfill your orders on Amazon: FBA and FBM.
Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM)
With this method, when a sale is made on Amazon, you pick, pack, and ship the book yourself, using the carrier of your choice (eg. FedEx, UPS, etc). FBM sellers are also responsible for storing their own inventory.
So, when you are calculating your costs, remember to factor in storage fees if you’re not storing the books at home, as well as shipping and handling expenses and the amount of time it takes for you to pack and ship your orders.
Use FBM if you only have a few orders to fulfill or if you have a large enough operation that the costs to ship your orders are lower than Amazon’s. And again, you will have to have a place to store your books.
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
With this method, when a sale is made on Amazon, Amazon picks, packs, and ships the book on your behalf. Amazon also stores your inventory for you and takes care of customer service.
Therefore, instead of paying storage, shipping and handling expenses, and labor costs on your own, you pay Amazon an FBA fee to cover those costs.
Use FBA if you have a lot of orders to fulfill and your operation isn’t large enough to have shipping costs lower than the requisite FBA fees. On the plus side, you won’t need a place to store your books as Amazon’s fulfillment centers will hold them for you until they sell.
2. What type of Amazon seller should you be?
There are two types of Amazon sellers.
Individual sellers
Individual sellers typically sell fewer than 40 products per month. This method is recommended for sellers who only have a few items to sell or are only selling as a hobby. Individual sellers have different fees than professional sellers (see the FAQ section below).
Professional sellers
Professional sellers are Amazon sellers who sell 40 or more products per month. This method is recommended for sellers who have large inventories and want to create a regular monthly income from their Amazon sales.
Note: To find out what types of Amazon sellers are most successful, and what other categories they sell in, check out “The State of the Amazon Seller” report.
3. How do you find books to sell (ie. what is your inventory)?
Most folks want to sell books they already have online, but you can also source your inventory from a number of different places to continue growing your book sales on Amazon.
Here are some of the most popular methods.
Sell your own books
This one is probably the simplest way to find books to sell and it’s how I got started. Look around your house (yes, second-hand Marie Kondo-style) and see if you have some old books collecting dust.
Consider textbooks, rare topics, or — as I did — old comic books. (See the FAQ section for more on which types of books are best to sell on Amazon. )
Book sales
A lot of sellers love going to book sales as it can be kind of like hunting for treasure. Plus, there’s always a book sale going on somewhere, especially at libraries.
Head to these sales with a book scanner and look for some good picks that you buy and list online.
Online arbitrage
Don’t feel like going out? Some sellers look on websites other than Amazon for books with prices lower than what you could sell the same book for on Amazon. This is usually called ‘online arbitrage. ’
All you do is purchase the book from the one website, wait for it to arrive, and then list it on Amazon.
Bulk purchase/wholesale
You can often buy entire lots of books online for super low prices. You can buy full lots of used books on eBay, CraigsList, and Facebook listed at low rates.
Estate/closing sales
Estate sales, closing sales, and moving sales are awesome ways to find books since large collections of books will be sold all at once. I used to go to estate sales and make offers on entire collections for pennies on the dollar.
Free books
Check out CraigsList or Facebook Marketplace; there is always someone who is looking to offload books at no charge. All you have to do is go get them.
Just be careful, as sometimes these free books could be listed by other sellers who are getting rid of the books that don’t sell.
What kind of books can you sell on Amazon?
Finding books to list on Amazon is usually pretty easy. However, you don’t want to spend your time listing books that no one will buy. That’s why it’s important to know how to find the right books to sell on Amazon.
Here are a few tricks you can use to sort through the clutter.
Check the book’s Best-Seller Ranking
Every single product on Amazon gets a ‘‘Best Sellers Rank’ (BSR). The lower a product’s BSR, the more often that product sells on Amazon.
For example, a book ranked #1 on Amazon sells 1, 500 copies per month. Meanwhile, a book ranked #1, 000, 000 might not sell a single copy for months — if ever.
A book’s best-seller ranking can be found on the book’s page listing in the product details.
Note: The Amazon Best Sellers Rank you need to focus on is the BSR for the Books category. You can ignore the BSRs for the subcategories.
In my experience, you want to sell books that have a BSR lower than 100, 000. That means there is a pretty good chance that your book will sell within 24 hours.
Estimate the book’s likelihood to sell
There are a few tools you can use to estimate how likely a book is to sell on Amazon shortly after you purchase it.
Jungle Scout’s Free Estimator Tool: Simply put in a book’s BSR, the market you’re selling it in, and the category. From there, the Sales Estimator tells you the monthly sales for that product. For example, if a product has 3, 000 sales per month, it sells about 10 copies per day.
Keepa: Keepa creates a graph that shows you how a book’s BSR has changed over time. Using that data, you can predict how often sales are made. Keepa’s premium version, which shows a book’s BSRs, costs $149 per year.
Jungle Scout Extension. Jungle Scout — an all-in-one platform for selling on Amazon — offers an extension too, which not only shows you the sales history for a single product but the estimated sales for an entire page of search results as well. This is useful if you ever expand your business beyond selling books, and the cost is $228 per year.
Book Scanners: Many book sellers use a handheld scanner to help them while they’re looking for inventory. To make life really easy for yourself, you can always use Amazon’s mobile seller app instead. It comes with a scanner of its own that gives you the product price, FBA fees, approximate profits, BSR, total number of sellers, and official Amazon category.
Note: If you don’t mind storing books in your own home for a longer period of time, or paying the additional storage fees (if you’re an FBA seller), then you can list books that sell more slowly. Just go with what you’re comfortable with!
How to list your book on Amazon
Once you become registered to sell on Amazon, you can start listing your books.
The easiest way to do this is to go to the actual product page for the book you want to list. That’s right—you can actually list your books from the Amazon page itself instead of creating an entirely new listing. Then, once you list your book, it appears on the same page.
Here’s an example:
To access the product listing page, type in the book’s ISBN (which is the book’s registration code) into Amazon’s search bar — just like you do when you’re searching for a product to buy.
The ISBN can usually be found either on the barcode or somewhere inside the book’s dust jacket.
However, if the book was printed before 1970, it won’t have an ISBN. In that case, you’ll have to enter the title manually.
Once you’re on the product listing page, you will find a gray button that says “Sell on Amazon” just below the Buy Box.
After clicking on that button — and as long as you’re permitted to sell the book — you should see this screen:
From there, enter the following information:
SKU: This is your own personal code for the book. This can be whatever you you want it to be, though it’s best if it’s something that will help you remember it. If you leave it blank, Amazon randomly generates one for you.
Price: I recommend selling the book for the lowest price possible, unless there is a large difference between the prices on the varying conditions of the book. For example, books of ‘Acceptable’ quality usually sell for less than books of ‘Very Good’ value. For your convenience, Amazon has a button you can click to match the lowest price.
Quantity: If you have more than one copy of a book, enter the total quantity here. Otherwise, it defaults to one unit.
Condition: There are five conditions for Amazon books: ‘New’, ‘Like new’, ‘Very good’, ‘Good’, and ‘Acceptable’. If you can sell Collectible books (see FAQs), you will also have options for: Like new, Very good, Good, and Acceptable books. Furthermore, hardcover books with dust jackets have separate conditions for just the dust jacket.
Fulfillment Channel: FBM or FBA (see above in this article for the difference).
Once you enter that information, one of two things will happen:
If you selected to sell the book FBM, your listing for the book will appear on the book’s product listing page in 15-30 minutes. All you have to do is wait for it to sell.
If you selected to sell the book FBA, you have to prepare the book to ship to Amazon. It typically takes 1-2 weeks for your inventory to arrive at the destination fulfillment center. Then, it will take Amazon’s staff another three days to a week to unpack the inventory and distribute it to their network. This time could be longer if it’s a particularly busy period for Amazon, like the holiday season.
Frequently Asked Questions
WHERE ELSE CAN I TAKE MY OLD BOOKS FOR MONEY?
Where else can I take old books for money?
If Amazon isn’t the solution for you, or you only have a handful of books and it’s not worth all of the rigamarole, then here are a few more options for you to consider.
Donate them
The easiest option is scheduling a donation pick-up with the Salvation Army, Goodwill, or another non-profit. All you have to do is box them up, set them on your front porch, and they’ll send a truck to pick it all up. In exchange, you’ll get a receipt that you can write off on your taxes. This isn’t the most exciting option and you won’t receive cash, but it is pretty simple to do.
Yard sale/garage sale
You might also try selling them from your garage in a yard sale. Again, this is pretty easy to do. However, in my experience, books rarely if ever sell at yard sales. The last three yard sales I’ve had we just ended up giving the books away.
Used bookstores
Another option you might consider that’s pretty simple and a little more profitable than a yard sale is selling your old books to a used bookstore. Spots like Half-Priced Books pay decent cash for good, used books. The only drawback with this method is that they won’t necessarily take every book you try to sell them. And they pay a pretty low rate for most books; even the goods ones!
Sell books on eBay
When it comes to selling books on Amazon vs eBay, personally, I feel Amazon is the better option. I’ve sold books on both platforms and I’ve had a lot more success with Amazon.
Here are a few reasons why:
You don’t have to hold your own inventory. Amazon keeps your inventory for you in their fulfillment centers and ships the products for you (FBA).
Amazon gives each book a best-seller ranking. You can use this metric as a guide to estimate how likely a book is to sell on Amazon. This saves you a ton of time.
Amazon has more than double the online traffic of eBay with less than 1/10th of the sellers eBay has. That means a lot more opportunity for you.
WHAT TYPES OF BOOKS SELL BEST ON AMAZON?
What types of books sell best on Amazon?
Textbooks. If there was a “gold standard” of used books that you can sell on Amazon, it’d definitely have to be textbooks. Textbooks are always in high demand, especially during the fall and spring, and tend to have high prices — even old editions! The only drawback with textbooks is that sometimes publishers “brand gate” their books to prevent non-certified sellers from selling new or used copies.
Niche books. Books that had low print runs and are a part of a larger collections do well on Amazon thanks to a lack of competition. For example, I made a lot of money purchasing Dungeons & Dragons books on eBay and reselling them on Amazon.
Comic books. You can sell comic books on Amazon, too. Both single issues and graphic novels perform well on Amazon, and if you have collectible issues they can fetch a decent profit.
Collectibles. First edition books, signed books, and any other book that could be considered “collectible” are also popular on Amazon.
Non-fiction. Overall, non-fiction performs a lot better than fiction on Amazon. That’s not to say that fiction does poorly, but in my experience, fiction books tend to lose their value faster than non-fiction books.
Hardcovers. Naturally, hardcovers have higher prices than paperback books and tend to hold their value better.
What types of books don’t sell well on Amazon?
Fiction. As I noted above, fiction doesn’t sell well on Amazon. I believe there are a few reasons for this. First, fiction books have larger print-runs than non-fiction books, meaning that there are more copies in circulation. Also, readers are less likely to hold onto a book of fiction they’ve read than a book of non-fiction which they can still reference. Finally, fiction books have cheaper cover prices.
Children’s books. Another type of book people tend to get rid of quickly once they’re done reading them are children’s books. Children’s books tend to have much lower prices, as well, meaning that it’s tough to turn a profit when selling them competitively.
Cookbooks. For whatever reason, cookbooks perform poorly on Amazon.
Mass market paperbacks. Of all the books you can sell on Amazon, mass market paperbacks probably perform the worst. Not only do they have high-print runs (which means more competition) but their sales prices are low. It’s not uncommon for major book sellers on Amazon to sell these books at a loss.
Popular new books. New books — even new, hardcover, non-fiction books — don’t perform well on Amazon. The chief reason for this? Because you have to compete against Amazon! Anytime Amazon is selling a book, it’s going to be tough to beat their prices.
Tip: Overall, supply-and-demand dictates how well a used book will perform on Amazon. If there is a lot of demand for a title but there aren’t a lot of sellers selling that title, then it’s likely that the book will perform well.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO SELL BOOKS ON AMAZON?
How much does it cost to sell books on Amazon?
Like most online platforms, Amazon has certain fees you have to pay to sell on their platform.
Here is a brief description of the fees you should expect.
Individual fee OR subscription fee
As mentioned above, individual sellers are sellers who sell 40 or less products per month. If you are an individual seller, you do not have to pay the professional seller subscription fee, but you do have to pay $0. 99 individual per-item fee. Like the referral fee, the individual per-item fee is deducted from the proceeds of the sale so you do not need to pay these fees in advance.
Unlike individual sellers, professional sellers are Amazon sellers who sell more than 40 products per month. A professional seller does not have to pay the individual fee for each sale. However, they do have to pay a $39. 99 subscription fee every month. This fee is deducted from your account balance or charged to a credit card you put on file.
Referral fee
When you sell a book on Amazon, Amazon takes 15% of the sale price. For example, if you sell a book for $10, the referral fee will be $1. 50. This fee is subtracted from the proceeds after a sale is made, so you don’t have to pay it upfront.
Closing fee
Media products such as books, DVDs, CDs, and Blu-Ray, come with a flat $1. 80 fee per sale, and only sellers who focus on selling these products need to worry about these fees.
Like the referral fee, the closing fees are deducted from the proceeds of the sale so you do not need to pay these fees in advance.
Shipping costs
In addition to the two types of seller plans, there are also two ways to sell on Amazon: Fulfillment by merchant (FBM) or Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).
A FBM seller is responsible for shipping their own products once a sale is made. Your shipping costs depend on your carrier, resources you use to ship products, and the cost of labor.
A FBA seller uses Amazon’s fulfillment network to store, pick, pack, and ship their products. This comes with an FBA fee that replaces the costs you’d normally spend shipping goods. Your FBA fee is determined by the size and weight of the book sold.
You can learn more about FBA fees in our in-depth article on the subject. However, it’s worth noting that FBA fees tend to be much less than what it would cost to ship your own books. Plus, Amazon does all the work for you! It’s a win-win.
Example
Let’s say we’re selling a first edition copy of Stephen King’s “It” for $100. We’re shipping the book ourselves, so it will be shipped FBM. And we are an individual seller instead of a professional seller.
In this instance, Amazon takes $15 for referral fees, $1. 80 for the closing fee, and $0. 99 for the individual per item fee. We’ll use an old box we have lying around with some packing peanuts in it and ship it by USPS Media Mail, costing us $3. 86. Finally, we factor in the cost of the book itself. In this scenario, we purchased it for $10 at a yard sale.
After subtracting the fees, that leaves us with $76. 07.
CAN I SELL BOOKS ON AMAZON FOR FREE?
Can I sell books on Amazon for free?
Yes! Well, kinda. Amazon has a program called Amazon Trade-in, which allows you to exchange video games, electronics, old books, and other items that you may not have a need for anymore. The only catch is that Amazon is pretty picky about what they accept.
Furthermore, Amazon only offers Amazon credit for the goods that you trade-in. And much like trading your books into a discount book store, they do not offer very much for your books.
Still, if you’re looking for another simple solution to getting rid of old books, Amazon Trade-in is the way to go.
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Have you sold books on Amazon before? What tips do you recommend for people just starting out? Share them in the comments below; we’d love to hear them!
After 6 months of selling books on Amazon, this is how much I ...

After 6 months of selling books on Amazon, this is how much I …

One day in November of 2017 I decided to reorganize my office. I discovered that I had way too many books for my available bookshelf space. I considered donating the books, but I decided to research selling books on Amazon based on a friend’s a customer, I think Amazon is great. I am a card-carrying Prime member. I have the Amazon credit card, and I have been known to shop at Whole Foods. I was very curious to explore the perspective of an Amazon are plenty of how-to videos and articles that guide you step-by-step through the process of selling on Amazon. Here is one I used. I will describe the process at a high an Amazon Seller account. This process is straightforward especially if you already have a regular Amazon account. You may choose a Professional Seller Account, which costs $39. 99 per month with no per-sale closing fee, or an Individual Seller Account, which has no monthly fee but charges $0. 99/sale. Since I planned to start out small, I opened an Individual Seller wnload the Amazon Seller app, which is separate from the regular Amazon the Amazon Seller app to scan barcodes and identify sales rank and current prices of books on a listing of each book you want to sell. You can take pictures of the books and upload them through the app, describe the condition, and set the this point, if you want to fulfill the orders yourself you are done. I travel a lot for work, so this would not be practical for me. I opted for a different option known as Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA). This should not be confused with BPA, a chemical contained in various polycarbonate plastic products that you should avoid for health Fulfilled by Amazon program allows you to ship all your books to an Amazon fulfillment center, Amazon takes care of the rest of the sale, and you kick back and collect the money. Sounds great, right? Not so fast, as you shall listing each book I wanted to sell, I printed out barcode labels and attached one to each book. I packed all the books into a box and created a shipping label. I weighed the package to calculate the shipping costs and then headed to UPS, which is one of the Amazon preferred shipping partners. Yes, (surprise, surprise) I had to pay to ship the books to a fulfillment second surprise is that you have no idea where Amazon will have you ship the box until you print the mailing labels. If you are sending the package across the country, the price will be higher than shipping to a closer destination. Another surprise was a split shipment. In one case I had 20 books in the box, and 18 were scheduled to go to one fulfillment center, and two were scheduled to go to another. I decided it was a waste to ship two books, so I kept them and saved them for another shipment. I sent a total of 41 books in three different shipments. Total shipping cost to Amazon fulfillment centers: $26. 84. Even though this was cheaper than shipping the boxes through the USPS, it was still a surprise cost and an unpredictable takes roughly 1–2 weeks for Amazon to receive the packages and make the inventory available for purchase on the is an example of the difficulty of pricing. One of my listings was the hardcover book Just After Sunset by Stephen book price with Prime shipping: $14. 74Lowest used price with Prime shipping: $7. 72Lowest used price without Prime shipping: $4. 99Since I am using the FBA program, the books I am selling are eligible for Prime shipping. This means I am competing with the middle $7. 72 price is a breakdown of the fees to sell this one book through the FBA program:Amazon Referral Fee: $1. 35Variable Closing Fee: $1. 80Per Item Fee: $0. 99FBA Fulfillment Fees: $4. 71Total Fees: $8. 85“Amazon should be from A to FEE! ”Based on these fees I would have to list the book at $8. 85 to break even (not counting the per-book cost of shipping the books to Amazon. ) I suspect the seller listing this same book for $7. 72 is a high-volume, professional seller who can afford to list a lower price because he fulfills his inventory instead of using FBA. By some miracle, I did sell this book for $8. 99 and made a whopping $0. addition to the fees layered on each sale, there is a monthly inventory storage fee, which is seasonal (higher around the holiday season) and has fluctuated between $1. 17 and $0. 41 per month. I sold my first book on 12/7/17 and the most recent book on 6/10/18. Here are my totals:Total books sold: 25Total gross sales: $242. 07Total fees: $236. 28Total profit: $5. 79I still have sixteen books listed on Amazon. In some cases, my listed price is a few pennies above the cost with fees. The best case scenario if I sell every book at the current price, I will make a total of $25. 38 less inventory storage fees assessed every month until the books are mittedly 41 books represent a small sample size. These are all books I had rather than books I picked specifically for their resale value. For all the work and hassle with no guarantee of selling every book, I think a profit of around $30 is just not worth you want to peruse the selection and help me earn a few more pennies, here is my page of products: Brandon’s Book HavenI am sure individual sellers are making money on Amazon, but they are doing it with high-margin products or high volume or a combination of both. The category of books is a tough road for individual sellers. I am happy to remain an Amazon customer, but I do not wish to pursue any additional selling at this time. I do not want to discourage anyone from becoming a seller on Amazon and creating a business for yourself. If you have the passion for this type of business and are willing to put in the time and effort, you can be successful. Just look at this guy. Amazon Seller experiment is over. Was it a failure? No. I did not make a significant sum, but I learned a lot in the I have been thinking a lot about my “why” and my credo that I wrote about last year. I am working on the next great adventure, which I hope will be the start of something big. When I am ready to share, you’ll be the first to read about it! Thank you for your time. If you liked this article, click the hand to clap as many times as you want so other people will see it here on more of my content at

Frequently Asked Questions about selling books on amazon software

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