Is Selling Books On Amazon Worth It – Selling books on Amazon is really a good idea. According to The Atlantic, “Amazon controls 64% of online print book sales.” They also “have the largest share of the e-book market… with 67 percent.”
Whether you want to work from home as an online seller, sell your own books, or just free up some space on your bookshelf, Amazon is the place to start.
Is Selling Books On Amazon Worth It
But where do you start? How do you deal with shipping, competition and everything else? Can you really make money doing it?
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If you plan to sell books on Amazon for profit, then you need to know what makes a book profitable. To do that, you have to know the true cost to sell each book, as well as which books have a good chance of selling.
Many Amazon sellers set a minimum sale price like $12 or $15. If the book can’t sell for that price due to competition, condition, or lack of demand, they won’t touch it. They know meager returns won’t make up for lost time and the risk of problems like Amazon chargebacks.
For detailed information on Amazon fees and how profit versus loss is calculated, see “How much does it cost to sell on Amazon?”
Whether you’re selling new or used books, you can’t waste money on losers. You have to find the books that will sell. Luckily, all you need to determine that is an Amazon Best Sellers list.
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Best Sellers in Books shows only 100 bestsellers. But all the books rank somewhere on the list and you can find it in their list.
Extremely popular books (like those in the top 100) will have stiff competition. For example, the #1 bestseller shown below has 218 used and 119 new available copies. Used prices fell to as low as $1.61. That’s less than Amazon’s closing fee—they’re paying Amazon for their books!
You will see this a lot with the top 10,000 books. Sometimes a quick sale can make up for that, but not always.
Now to the other end of the spectrum: unpopular books that sell forever. For example, this book is rated lower than #650,000 (no reflection on the quality of the book, I personally think it’s great!). Look at the quantity offered and the price:
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The piling up of new and used copies of a 1992 book, with prices as low as $10 new and $1 used, shows that it’s not a fast trend these days. Price competition has become as tough as a bestseller.
What you usually want is something in between. For example, this book ranks around #30, 750. Take a look at the price and number of sellers:
None of the nearly 100 sellers offered a discount much lower than $9 used or $11.25 new. Chances are, anyone who drops the price makes a sale almost immediately. Also, Amazon’s own price is $14.35, indicating that people are still willing to pay that amount for it.
For the most part, aim for books like this—books that have a price point where you can work with books that sell for a reasonable price. These are usually average books, below 10,000 points (like
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Sell any book that is still readable. However, anything that is old, tattered, and/or covered with text has lost so much value that you probably won’t monetize it. Brand new, almost new and rarely used books will make up the bulk of your inventory.
Now you know which books are worth selling. But where do you buy books to sell on Amazon?
You can start selling used books on Amazon with any budget. It’s a low-risk, low-cost, easy way to start and is highly recommended for beginners. Here are a few places where you can find them:
There’s nothing better than nicely hosted no-cost inventory! Check your bookshelves (and closet/basement/floor) for any books in good condition that you’re willing to part with. List them all, even if they have a low chance of selling.
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Remember to set these books aside so you don’t accidentally lend them or lose them! Now they are inventory. No one touches your inventory.
People always want to throw away old books when they move house. Yard sales and flea markets are great places to find new and rarely used books.
Most people will happily sell you a whole box of books for a fraction of what they cost individually, because that means they’re selling a bunch of books at once. Of course, you may have to toss most of them (preferably in the donation bin). But often you will find enough winners to make a solid profit. Plus, the time you save makes a big difference!
Always check the contents of the box carefully before making a purchase. Look for good signs like the author you recognize and bad signs like mold.
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Bring your smartphone. Follow the steps outlined earlier to find books that you can sell for a profit and select only those. Doing this means you won’t waste money or space on the losers, but it will take longer and increase the risk that someone else will buy the winners first.
Due to shipping costs and the inability to check the status of individual books, this is riskier than buying a box of books at a market store.
I only recommend this method if you can afford to lose money on the order. Most of the time, this will yield solid returns, but you have to buy smart and be prepared for the occasional scam.
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Used bookstores often sell for too high a profit (often much more than the price on Amazon), but sometimes have good deals. Also, you should always ask about buying their unsold inventory whenever they decide to clear out shelf space. This would double if they weren’t selling on Amazon themselves.
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Libraries regularly hold sales to free up space. Contact libraries in your area to find out if they hold sales and when to tick your calendar. A quick online search will almost always reveal something!
EBay sellers love to sell real estate. They often offer great deals on libraries stocked with second-hand, antique, and collectible books.
If you’re not familiar with real estate sales, they’re essentially a more sophisticated form of yard sale. They are usually done after the death of the homeowner or before moving to a smaller living space. Usually, they are held as auctions and require attendees to register.
You don’t always find books worth selling at real estate sales (or winning bids on them). But if you have an eye for antiques and collectibles, there are few better places to find them.
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Keep your eyes open and exploring. A lot of thrift stores will sell used books to change bags. Non-profit organizations like churches and schools sometimes accept donations of used books and then resell them for peanuts. If you donate your unsold books to these organizations, they may even be happy to let you go out with some of their books for free.
Selling new books on Amazon is a tough business and not one I recommend for beginners. But it can be profitable and stable if you do it.
Be very careful to choose the right books to sell here. Amazon sells most new bestsellers directly, sometimes for half the list price. Plus, new books with moderate competition may have too little demand. You will need a lot of business savvy to make the right decision.
I mentioned the wholesalers above as a good source of second hand books. For new books (and any kind of new product), the wholesaler is
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Go to source. These guys buy large quantities of books from publishers, then sell them to mass book consumers like bookstores, libraries, and you.
There are many well-known, well-known wholesalers. Ingram and Baker & Taylor are two such giants. You can find other great wholesalers in this helpful article, although it’s aimed at authors.
These big wholesalers have a lot of power. They can buy from publishers at extremely low prices, and then pass on a lot of that savings to you. But how much you save depends on your purchasing power.
If you buy thousands of copies a month, you can often negotiate a lower price with a wholesaler. But if you can only buy in small quantities, you will always face high prices that seem impossible to make a profit.
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Your goal is to build strong business relationships with wholesalers. The longer you work with a person and the more you buy from them, the lower the price you can negotiate.
Big wholesalers like Ingram are difficult to negotiate because you are just one of millions of customers. They often have demanding requirements and applications. However, they are safe and reliable.
With smaller wholesalers, it’s easier to close deals and lower prices. But you’ll also have to find them, make sure they’re not scamming you, and determine if they’re doing their job. In the end, they will only be able to discount so far. They can’t ask publishers for the same discounts as the big boys.
Distributors are always on the hunt for new retailers to
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