May
27
Selling Used Books Online: The Complete Guide to Bookselling at Amazon’s Marketplace and Other Online Sites (Harvard Perspectives in Entrepreneurship)
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Selling Used Books Online: The Complete Guide to Bookselling at Amazon's Marketplace and Other Online Sites (Harvard Perspectives in Entrepreneurship)
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Product Description
Selling Used Books Online is a comprehensive how-to bible for America?s newest and fastest growing group of entrepreneurs, the sellers on Amazon Marketplace and other online venues. Selling Used Books Online meets the needs of booksellers and business readers who want to stay current on market changes, best sources, insider?s tips and tactics, and best practices. Author Stephen Windwalker, a successful online seller himself who has also operated a brick-and-mortar bookshop, provides a treasure trove of up-to-date information with verve, clarity, and wit.
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Categories: Selling Online
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I’ve been selling books for a long time — offline and on. I’ve learned a lot by observing others, but it took too long to feel confident with how I choose books, offer, and sell them.
Windwalker’s book is more than a primer; it’s a manual for all sellers. Even those with experience can and will profit by reading this. First, examine your motives for wanting to sell books online. Then, if this is truly a venture for you to pursue, see how to set up your business (or hobby, if that is your interest). Learn how to choose your inventory, what venue is best for your selling, what your payment options are, what preparations to make for taxes, and where to go for information, other readings that will be helpful. And learn some of the possible (even, likely) pitfalls.
Sure, it is easy to ‘sell your stuff’; anyone can do it. Once. If you want to sell regularly and over a long-term, it pays to gather all the advice and information you can early on in the venture. This book is a good place to start, or to come when things are not going as well as you hope.
In full disclosure, Windwalker is a colleague and has been a friend since I emailed him asking for some online selling suggestions a couple years ago. His help then was the beginning of a fruitful and enjoyable correspondence, and consequently I had the opportunity to read this book in manuscript.
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I have been doing reasonably well as an online bookseller for about a year now, but I found this book very helpful just the same. I do wish it had been available when I got my start because it would have saved me countless hours and my share of mistakes along the way. The appendices and “tables” will probably save me countless hours in the future, as will a number of computer related suggestions and suggestions for how to get good book inventory without too great an expenditure. I read this over the weekend and frankly I expect it to make me my [money] back every week I am in business.
My hat is off to Stephen Windwalker, he has done an excellent job here and made it a very readable book as well. In fact, the second chapter in which he discusses the current changes and state of affairs in the bookselling and publishing industries is a bulls-eye that will make anyone who’s interested in these topics stop and think.
I wouldn’t want the job of trying to keep this up-to-date in the future, but it is right on the money in June 2002.
There are plenty of people who have probably considered writing a book about this; I’m just glad it was Windwalker, somebody who knows the business as well as he does, who wrote it.
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Stephen Windwalker’s book is an indispensable resource for anyone wanting to sell books on the Web. It is a VERY enjoyable and informative book. I have already read it thoroughly and reread portions of it (almost a complete reread, in fact). His conversational style of writing is extremely easy to follow.
I personally found every chapter to be informative and an interesting read. The up-to-the-minute information and tips are well worth the price of the book. Just the appendices in the back of the book are so helpful.
I highly recommend it to anyone who is contemplating selling online or if they have sold online for some time. Even the most experienced seller will find this information-packed book to be a quite helpful resource to keep handy right by the computer. This book is a “MUST-HAVE” for all online booksellers, whether you sell part-time or full-time.
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As an online bookseller since 1998, I have often wished for a friend to sit beside me, guiding me through the complicated maze of selling used, rare and collectible books …. Stephen Windwalker’s new book, Selling Used Books Online, is that friend for new booksellers and seasoned veterans alike.
Windwalker gives the reader all the inside tips and information needed to succeed in online bookselling. He begins with the basics, including background and history, and progresses on to the nuts and bolts of the business such as finding your books and supplies and building your inventory. Much of the book is devouted to selling on Amazon.com, one of the most profitable selling venues available to seller’s today. But most of the information in the book also applies to just about any sales venue on the Internet.
If you are new to the business of online bookselling, this book is an absolute must-buy. It will teach you the basics and will continue to provide useful advice and valuable information as you grow and progress in your online business. Veteran sellers also will appeciate this source of bookselling information at their fingertips.
Buy it, read it, absorb what you’ve read, then keep it by your computer as a friend while you list, sell and profit from online bookselling. In my opinion, it’s the best book out there for aspiring, beginning and veteran online booksellers.
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“Wow! I sold a few of my used books on Amazon and made a nice little chunk of change! I think I’ll find some more to list, and become a bookseller!”
Whoa, hoss. Yes, this is exactly how many people start selling used books online. But before you grab those Grisham and Clancy paperbacks at your neighbor’s yard sale, do yourself and the marketplace a huge favor: Read this book.
Whether you’ve been selling used books for years or just barely getting started, there’s much to be found between the covers of “Selling Used Books Online”. It’s a well-organized, thoughtfully presented and thoroughly readable business resource. The selection and pricing strategies alone, if conscientiously applied, will likely return your investment in this book many times over. But this should also go hand-in-hand with appropriate book grading and description, as well as good customer service; these, too, are covered quite well and amount to best-practice models which would significantly improve the buying and selling experiences alike if widely adopted.
The only book of its kind (at this writing) with relevant and up-to-date information specific to selling at Amazon, “Selling Used Books Online” is far more than a narrow formula for success in that venue alone. A cover-to-cover read will leave you more knowledgable about the used book marketplace in general, help you to avoid common mistakes, and give you the tools you need to achieve your goals. From a part-time “kitchen table” enterprise for extra spending money to a full-time career, there aren’t many who wouldn’t benefit from the advice of an articulate mentor with a great sense of humor who really knows his business. If you buy only one book on the subject, you can’t go wrong with this one. You’ll refer to it time and time again.
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Five things strike me after reading this book and using it as a resource each and every day for the past month.
One. It is like one long, enjoyable, rewarding conversation with a colleague, or maybe a mentor, who is blessed with a really terrific mix of experience, intelligence, humor, and humility. He really understands bookselling, and he articulates what “Amazon.com” is all about and how we independent sellers fit into the larger picture better than anyone I have ever encountered in person or in print.
Two. He presents some very specific and original ideas that can be worth thousands of dollars to a bookseller when it comes to finding and selecting inventory. (A previous reviewer who said there was no new information in this book either did not read it or is not a bookseller, or both, in my opinion.)
Three. The book is a terrific ongoing reference that I expect to consult and annotate on a daily basis for years.
Four. Anyone who is going to prosper as a bookseller also has to be a good businessperson, and this book includes some well organized worksheets that got right to the heart of business and tax planning for booksellers.
Five. This is not a book about selling widgets or wombats or bobble-head dolls. Windwalker loves books and bookselling and that reverence and love comes though in every chapter. The book does honor to what he calls the “noble profession” of bookselling, and that frankly makes it nice, maybe even empowering reading.
I think, personally, that one of our own has written a classic bibliophile’s and bookseller’s book that will really help, over many years, to improve the quality of book life for online book buyers and sellers.
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Wow! Down to earth, entertaining information that I wish to heck I had prior to starting what has been one of my biggest delights and one of the biggest headaches I have ever known.
I left a job due to high stress levels and needed a way to make some money. I had bought a few books from Amazon and decided that I might be able to turn some of my already reads into some cash. Amazon sales has now become my main source of income.
Stephen Windwalker has written a book that takes you from the simplest nuts and bolts explanation of how to list a book all the way to properly dealing with Uncle Sam. His comments are accurate and if I had read his book sooner I could have saved some significant dollars. Some of the other books I have read on this subject left me wondering what world the author lived in (cause it sure wasn’t this one).
If you intend to sell on Amazon for fun and profit, READ THIS BOOK.
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If you have ever had a passing thought about selling books online, either as a business, a hobby, or a decluttering project, do yourself a BIG favor, and read this book first.
It’s true that you can wade through lots of online Discussion Boards which contain the same or similar material, but Windwalker has shared his own experience in a thoughtful, conversational way, thus condensing the best of the online discussions to a short read.
It’s true that you can plunge in and learn by trial and error as many of us have, but the time and grief saved will more than pay for this book, plus you have the advantage of having your own reference work at your fingertips & can take it with you to read away from your computer.
It’s true that experienced book sellers may offer differing opinions on a few issues, but Windwalker’s ideas and methods are tried and true, and offer a great starting point for examining your own strategies and business plan.
It’s true that the online bookselling arena changes rapidly, but I trust that we’ll see regular updates and new editions because the author is passionate about books and bookselling.
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Oh, how I wish I’d had Stephen Windwalker’s book when I first started selling books online!! Actually, it’s a dream come true. I used to sit around and say, “Gee, I wish someone, an experienced seller, would write a book about this.” This book really and truly eliminates guesswork about how to sell, the ins and outs (believe me he thinks of everything!). I especially like the section on the myriad places online that a seller can sell! I felt like a kid in a candy store when Windwalker’s book arrived.
He will tell you things that no one else will about selling online, things you really want to know if you’re even halfway considering selling books online.
Do you wonder where to get books to sell? He will surprise you with his suggestions. One favorite section is where he gives you the e-mail addresses for shipping carriers, bookselling venues, shipping supplies (that alone has saved me money already).
This is a very fun business. One of the things I like about it is the nice people you interact with, book buyers and sellers like Stephen Windwalker.He writes in a friendly style–you definitely “get it” that he genuinely wants to help you and see you succeed, and he goes into a lot of detail in an organized manner to help you do just that. It’s a must-have book, I think, for the novice as well as seasoned seller.
This book is VERY comprehensive, easy to read, it’ll inspire you to sell books and tell you step-by-step how to do it successfully!
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You got it all figured out – you’ll ditch the day job and you’ll sell your old Danielle Steele and Tom Clancy books on Amazon. You get up (after a little sleep-in) and after your second cup of Irish Breakfast tea, check your listings to see ten items have sold – a slow day! Your little darlings will be playing quietly, your cats will be snoozing on the sofa and the bunny will be making “binkies” around your work area. Life is good. And sales will pick up after 10:30am, they always do. You’ll quickly pack your books, effortlessly mail them at the post office and search your favorite used book store before eating some lunch. Not too bad a haul today – a signed first edition by Hemingway, that rare, out of print William Fonner’s groundbreaking child rearing book, “My House, My Rules”, a signed and illustrated first edition by Hirshfield – all in like new condition – and a cookbook going for $60. Not too shabby a day.
Before you tell your boss to go do something physically impossible, read this book. It will save you from many “newbie” mistakes and you will see online bookselling for what it really is – _possibly_ a money maker but a job that you have to want to do and do well to profit. You’ll understand your day could be more similiar to this: you check your listings, no new sales. You wait in line at the post office behind the person that is packing their mail at the counter and paying with a beginner’s old of state check. And your trip to the thrift shop yields 10 books, all of them selling for a penny.
Mr Windwalker covers a lot of basics in this book – some say the book is too basic but I don’t think so. You have to know the nitty-gritty of what you’re getting into before you decide to take a huge plunge. He doesn’t recommend specific books, but recommends books that have worked for him. He recommends possible book buying sites. Some of the stuff seems common sense, but I never thought of things quite that way.
So if you are planning to become an ongoing online bookseller – meaning you will probably be selling more books than your own weeding out from your personal library – I recommend this book highly. It’s an inexpensive business course that can save you from making some big mistakes – so give it a try!
Good luck!