The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site
The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site
|
 List Price: $9.99 Sale Price: Too low to display. Availability: unspecified 
|
Product Description
Want to know the most profitable, lowest-risk idea for your home business? It's selling used books online, which is growing 33 percent annually, according to a November 2005 study by U.S. publishers.
Here is the complete text of the most popular book about online bookselling of all time: The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site
Learn how to start your business part-time, then work as little or as much as you want. This step-by-step guide, written by one of the most successful and highly rated sellers on Amazon.com and eBay, includes everything you need to know:
-- Where to find books
Find books in your own neighborhood to resell profitably to a worldwide pool of ready buyers. Get the best sources for valuable used books at low prices.
-- Where to sell Learn
How to list your books to sell at the best price on Amazon.com and eBay, and even your own Web store. -- Which books to buy What to look for in fiction, nonfiction, and collectibles to resell at the highest profits.
-- Grading and pricing your books
How to describe and price your books. Learn what buyers are looking for.
-- Handling customers
Tips on handling online book buyers. See the author's time-tested scripts for responding to customer issues. Learn how you can get and maintain high feedback ratings.
-- Fulfilling orders
Easy-to-use ideas for storing, organizing, and shipping your books and handling returns.
-- Automation tools
Maximize your efficiency with these tips on automating your business. Automatically notify customers about shipments, and print postage to ship your books without leaving home.
-- Taxes and legal requirements
How to register your business to obtain the proper permits and be exempted from paying sales tax on your inventory.
-- Exclusive list of wholesale book distributors
Exclusive profiles and contact info for 32 wholesaledistributors of used and new books. Order inventory at up to 90 percent off retail, shipped right to your door.
About the author:
Steve Weber started his home-based bookstore as a hobby in March 2000. Two months later, he quit his day job to sell used books full-time on Amazon.com and eBay, using his one-bedroom apartment in Virginia as warehouse and shipping depot. In the meantime, he has sold more than $1 million of used books to buyers in all 50 states and 31 foreign countries. In this step-by-step guide, Weber tells you how he took $80 in savings to buy his first batch of books, then invested the profits to build a successful business, and how you can too.
Details
No features available.
Rating
There are untold thousands of books on the market that promise the buyer a way to make money. Most just provide an outline, or some ideas that the author claims will produce guarenteed millions, buying distressed properties, government surplus, whatever. Some are by successful business owners, but don’t really get into the details of running a business. And some are out-and-out frauds.
This book, though, is almost unique among how-to business books. It’s written by a successful busienssman, and it’s a real, practical nuts-and-bolts guide to setting up an internet-based used book store. In fact, it’s so detailed you have to wonder why the author is going to such pains to help set up his own competition.
There are chapters on where to buy books, what books to sell and which to avoid, how to grade books, the best selling venues, how to describe books, how to set up an inventory system, how to deal with problems- if you can’t run a business using this book alone, you shouldn’t be running a business, period.
Now reading this book won’t guarentee you can make a successful go of an on-line used bookstore; you still need the kind of drive and perseverence that characterize all successful business owners. This isn’t something you can make a go of in a few hours a week; it requires dedication. And you need to be flexible; I suspect that this business model won’t be profitible forever, as the publishing market changes. But it’s a good model for more than just books. I could see applying the same model to other used goods.
If you are, in fact, the kind of person who has the drive and the devotion to make a business work, and you’re looking for a good business model to start with, you could do a lot worse than to get a copy of “The Home-Based Bokstore”. I strongly suspect that this book will spawn a lot of new Internet entrepenuers.
Rating
I started selling books by mail order in 1968, probably before Steve Weber was born. He didn’t start until 2001, but he clearly knows what’s going on and further has the ability to explain it to even the most casual reader. As I said, I’ve been in this business a long time, and I picked up some new ideas to try in my own business.
There are just a few comments that I feel necessary to make regarding some of his statements.
1. He says that lowballing pricing just leaves money on the table. Price your book at the lowest price anyone else charges, to do otherwise is to leave money on the table. No – Amazon lists used books with the lowest price first, even if it’s just a penny. If it’s a $10 book, make yours $9.99 or maybe $9.95. That penny or nickel buys you positioning on Amazon’s page. If it’s a slow selling book, you might sell yours a month before the other seller. $9.99 now is worth more than $10 a month from now. I check prices at least every day, sometimes twice a day and alter mine. I wrote my own program to do this so it’s not an effort, but Amazon has just made it easier with the way they display your inventory.
2. Shipping Overseas – Most used book sellers don’t ship oveseas. The problems are the ones he mentions plus when shipping to the third world the books often don’t arrive at all. You have to refund the customer and you’re out the selling price, the shipping charges, and whatever you paid for the book. Why bother?
3. He didn’t mention that you can respond to readers comments. One customer complaining about me said that he was afraid to order by mail anyway and because the book he ordered from me never got there he was probably justified in his fear. I responded: He ordered on August 1. I shipped on August 2. The book wasn’t there by August 25, he requested and I sent a refund. The book got there on September 4. 34 days in the hands of the post office, but he ordered standard shipping, what else could I do.
Mr. Weber is right about the post office delays. The 30+ day shipment mentioned above was only about 300 miles away. Another shipment across the country took 64 days. That’s Media Mail!
4. He talks about printing postage on line. I find that using a low end postage meter is easier, faster, cheaper than the on line services. The on line guys require a laser or ink jet printer and the labels for them are quite expensive and you have multiple labels to apply to your packages. I use the same mailing label that I use for the customer address which is an inexpensive label printed on a dot matrix printer.
These are minor little differences. As I said, this fellow knows his business. Don’t kid yourself that you’ll make a fortune with only a half hour a day, this is a business like any other. But the entry costs are low, he said he started with $80 worth of books. You’ve also got to have a computer, you’ll need a supply of packaging materials, mailing labels, etc.
One last point. Mr. Weber sells books on line, but now he has also written a book, which he sells on Amazon. The ability to write a book, self publish it using new low cost techniques, and then establish a market for it through Amazon has the potential of completely changing the publishing industry. It will be interesting to watch over the next few years.
Rating
I’ve been selling books online since 2002. The business is constantly evolving, such that “Intro to online bookselling” guides written even a couple of years ago are now grievously out of date.
If I were to recommend a guide for the new bookseller today, this author’s book would be my pick. He covers all the relevant areas, with insight gained through experience. He clearly knows his subject area. For example, his section on “What Books to Buy” wisely steers the new bookseller away from the tempting lure of cheap books, pointing out the hidden costs of buying, stocking, & selling low-value inventory.
I found myself nodding as I read, thinking that this is the book I would have written.
Rating
`The Home-Based Bookstore’ is written by Steve Weber, who solicited this review from me and supplied me with a copy of his book. I expect this will not influence my review, but it is good for you to know this up front.
Before I opened this book, I posed some questions I thought the book should answer. These questions, with the author’s response follow:
1. What are the criteria for choosing Amazon.com, eBay, or one’s own site for selling a particular title?
The author clearly prefers Amazon over most other options, although he gives some good reasons for setting up your own web page.
2. How do you pick titles to sell? Some obvious examples, such as Stephen King hardcovers are really poor second hand sellers.
The author gives some very general suggestions on which titles to pick and which titles to avoid. I agree with him almost entirely, although I can think of some exceptions to most of his titles to avoid; however, that is based on special knowledge of certain fields such as cookbooks.
3. How do you acquire interesting titles cheaply? Whenever I browse a second hand bookstore, 99 out of 100 titles are pure junk. I have yet to find, for example, an important out of print cookbook at any used bookstore.
The author provides many good sources, including every one I could think of, plus one or two I did not think of.
4. How do you track your stock so you can quickly determine whether or not you have a title OR where you may be able to acquire a title for a book hunter.
The author gives many useful answers to this question, including some new technology options that really surprised me, based on accessing the Internet through your cell phone.
5. What is the best shipping option considering cost versus speed?
The author gives some very good analyses on the advantages and disadvantages of fast versus slow delivery options.
6. Is there any value to branching out to recordings?
The author never once discusses how to apply his suggestions to other merchandise, even though he does go so far as to consider expanding an Internet sales operation to a brick and mortar store.
One of the reasons the author does not deal with other goods is that marketing books through the Internet is so much richer a subject than I imagined, in spite of the fact that I am a major customer of these services. The amount of software written to support this enterprise is staggering.
In a nutshell, Mr. Weber has given us an excellent manual on how to do this very specialized, albeit very popular form of Internet marketing.
The first sure sign that Steve was not pulling the wool over our eyes was when he stated that while this activity can be really rewarding, it is still hard work. The plus side is that you get to keep all the rewards of this hard work.
Since running a bookstore was always one of my secret ambitions, I really appreciated almost everything Weber had to say about this adaptation of the corner bookstore. If I were to point out any one thing where the author was light on his recommendations, it would be with the fact that I think a person who really knows and loves books in the first place will do much better than the average entrepreneur. I suspect that one could get into real estate investing without a good knowledge of law, carpentry, or finance, but unlike houses, books are something which not everyone knows well. One test for an aspiring book merchandising operation would be to name the leading textbook authors in statistics, economics, symbolic logic, and organic chemistry. I cite these because Mr. Weber makes the excellent point that non-fiction books hold their value much better than fiction, especially current popular fiction. The author does not point this out, but a major exception to this rule should be manuals on computer software. No one has any use anymore for a text on Multiplan, dBase III, or Wordpro.
I especially liked Mr. Weber’s recommendation that the reader consider specializing in a particular field, such as cookbooks. This is an especially good suggestion as everyone must eat and so everyone needs someone to cook for him or her. It is also a good field as there is a rich bibliography of out of print cookbooks which most foodies would love to have access to, such as English writer Jane Grigson’s catalogue.
While Mr. Weber does not deal with any other type of goods, I suggest his suggestions would work almost as well for records, toys, or collectibles in general, as long as you know your subject.
I am very happy Mr. Weber provided his book to me for review as it is very unlikely I would have found it on my own, and it is an especially fertile plot of ideas, suggestions, and guidance regarding this enterprise. I am happy for him that he got his work into print when he did.
Rating
Weber’s book about starting a business out of your home selling used books is well-written and easy to read. I was grateful that this self-published book had a good typeset and contained no typographical errors!
When I read that Weber took in over $1 million in four years I really wanted to hear how and what he did to earn that kind of money!
Weber is very enthusiastic about how any person can start a home based business selling used books. He suggests that less than $100 can be spent on building and starting inventory and getting up and running. As I suspected, his main source of books is library used book sales. (Although later in the book one realizes how much time and energy can be saved by using various computer programs and services which are additional expenses. If some of these computer programs are to be used an upgrade to a new computer and to a broadband internet connection is recommended.)
Weber explains he started this as a part time venture but when his book sales exceeded his “real job’s” 40K per year salary, he quit it and now sells used books full-time. Weber speaks of his experience including discussing which genre of books he chooses to focus on, which are nonfiction books and books which are selling the most frequently on Amazon.com. He also favors books that will sell more quickly rather than buying inventory and holding it for many years.
What this book will not do is tell you everything you need to know about selling every single genre. It also does not go into detail about rare and out of print, or highly collectible books, for that information you will have to refer to other books which he recommends or do other research on your own (and/or learn by experience).
I learned things that I was curious about such as how to decide what to initially charge for a book, strategies for pricing books such as how he drops the prices over time to move the inventory. When to get rid of stock that isn’t selling and what to do with the `dead wood’ is also covered.
Weber goes into detail about the details of the operations of running an internet based and mail order service. I appreciated hearing these details as these are things that he has learned from experience that work. Examples are what types of packaging to use for what type of book, where to buy shipping boxes and materials at wholesale prices, pro’s and con’s of places and ways to buy postage (online vs. at the post office). Weber recommends good communication with customers (which some online book sellers I have patronized should read and follow)! Weber even gives sample form letters to use. Inventory methods and organizational systems are also discussed.
Weber’s favorite website for selling used books is Amazon.com and he discusses why this is his preference in detail. The con’s of eBay are also explained and were eye-opening to me. I was also surprised to learn that computer programs exist that will upload your data to up to 19 different online book selling websites.
There are also some basics about being self-employed and running a business from your home, such as tax issues every business owner should be aware of. There are some basic record keeping recommendations and legal issues discussed-enough to get you up and running without breaking the law.
There are a couple of things that were not discussed in the book. The problem of the odor of used books is not even mentioned yet as a used book-buyer I know this is a problem. I feel that the odor of books should be taken into account when deciding the condition of the book but not all booksellers feel this way. I think it is something every bookseller should carefully think about and that full disclosure should be given when describing a book’s condition.
Weber did a good job of summarizing the fee schedules for each of the various large online book sellers. It was helpful to see everything laid out in one place, to see how fee structures compare and contrast. It was clear to me why Amazon.com is his favorite place to sell the books that he specializes in selling.
If you want to get into the used book selling business this book will lay out everything you need to know to get up and running. The book contains a wealth of information and is inexpensive. The things you will learn from the book will pay for the expense of buying it and will save you time and energy.
You can start out slowly and add in everything that Weber recommends, over time, if you need to and want to. More research and information will be needed if you choose to focus your area of expertise in areas which are different than Weber’s. Even if you are just curious about this business this is a worthwhile book to read.
The book is 165 pages, is indexed for reference and is a quick and easy read. The tone of the book is upbeat and enthusiastic and you will be left with the feeling that not only can you do this but that anyone including you, can be successful at it and can make quite a lot of money doing it!
Disclosure: The book that I read was a free copy from the author. I was under no obligation to review it and received no payment from the author.
Rating
Selling stuff online has been a profitable way to make money for those who want that extra bit of cash to those who actually want to make it into a legitimate business. Steve Weber fits into the latter category, having made over $1 million selling books and having moved from a one-bedroom apartment to a house proper. A definite measure of success is the fact that his book, The Home-Based Bookstore, is published under his own imprint.
According to Weber, books are the most profitable commodity (as opposed to CDs or DVDs I imagine) to sell because of their relative inexpensiveness and their weight when it comes to shipping. And the Internet has made it possible for those who didn’t have substantial capital to start their own business from home. Why hassle with high rent, advertising in the Yellow Pages, hiring employees-some who may be unreliable or dishonest-and going through the headaches of payroll taxes? Those who took a Small Business Accounting course will know what I’m talking about. It of course wouldn’t hurt to take an intro business and accounting course so one can do one’s own bookkeeping with Microsoft Excel and organize the business as a small proprietorship, or better still, an S-Corp or something else with limited liability.
Buyer relations are important here, and he uses Amazon’s Marketplace as an example, fitting as it is user friendly, and what he humorously refers to as the “800 pound gorilla of online bookselling,” plus I’ve used it myself for buying and selling. Weber emphasizes the importance of feedback in maintaining an online business, and has some great ideas on economic and efficient shipping, such as online postage, not to mention the URL links one can use to send customers their delivery confirmation numbers. I’ve always wanted to figure that out-now I know! That leads to dissatisfied customers who claim to have not received their book, where delivery confirmation is proof that one sent it. Yet again, another effect of the Net is at work, where customers expect their book within the week instead of the four to six weeks via snail mail. Weber advises the seller not to take things personally, to use courtesy in email responses, and just move on, chalking things up to experience.
He lists certain categories as being profitable sellers, and those that don’t. The best ones are rare and esoteric titles, much of them nonfiction, given that there isn’t the ridiculous mass production of those titles as there is in fiction. And avoid introductory textbooks, as those undergo so many editions. Sure enough, when I needed some extra money, I found that the texts used in my upper division courses sold quickly.
As a regular peruser of Amazon, I was astounded to see the many mass market paperbacks that were selling at one cent. And hardback remainders on the bargain tables, i.e. publisher overstocks aren’t worth it due to their reduction of cost-I should know, as I work at Waldenbooks. And having gone to frequent second-hand bookstores to see what ends up being dead weight as well as the treasures one unexpectedly finds, I can see a lot of truth in what’s being written, as I was overjoyed when finding the out-of-print novel of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and a copy of Jimmy Carter’s first memoirs, Keeping Faith, at a cheaper price.
A list of wholesalers, online postage services, advanced automation services, is also included. Thus, Weber’s book is a very helpful guide for those wanting to start on their own. And a big thanks to Steve for sending me a copy of his book to review.
PS. Despite working retail for nearly nine years, I never found out what SKU meant. I do now thru this book-Stock keeping unit. Thanks!
Rating
Beginner or seasoned book dealers will find valuable information inside. The format is easy to read and also easy to find specific information. The third party software section (Advanced Automation) described the sites fairly well, but I could have asked for an opininated review. For example which is better Fillz, Art of Books, or Mailextractor, and why? I did like the suggestions on what books to buy, and where to find them. There are a few places suggested that I hadn’t known about. Easily worth the price.
Rating
As the author of another book on the same subject, I purchased Steve’s book about a week before mine went into publication and found it to be very well written and all encompassing of the online bookselling fundamentals. Great job Steve!
I have been an online bookseller myself for almost five years, and I have read several books written about it, few include as much as this one and I would encourage anyone contemplating getting into the business to buy Steve’s book.
Anyone reading this review might be wondering why I would want to promote Steve’s book when I am trying to sell my own. The answer is simple, Steve’s book is very good and I am sure there is a large enough market to go around, besides I don’t really look at our books as being competitors, I think they are very complimentary of each other. We do not cover all the same things and the things we do both cover are for the most part approached from different perspectives.
I know the history of Amazon.com and the tendency of one author to trash the work of another when the books might be viewed as competitors, but I would not stoop to that level. I know a good book when I see it, and Steve has put together a well-organized and complete book about online bookselling. I learned a few things from his book myself as I am sure he would admit to learning from mine if he has read it.
I wish you the best with your sales Steve and success to those that buy your book.
Rating
I knew I was going to like this book when after a short treatise on “Why Online Bookselling?” the author immediately launched into the nitty gritting of what every aspiring book seller wants to know: “Where to Find Books,” beginning on page 13, followed by “What Books to Buy.” One by one he not only lists his most successful sources for finding valuable books for resale, he goes into depth to explain how to extract the maximum benefit from each source.
No minced words, no fluff, just hard-hitting facts that smacks you between the eyes with the realities of online bookselling. What a superb job Steve Weber does of explaining with crystal clarity the day-to-day operations of the business. The book is short; just 158 pages. But they’re 158 information packed pages. I’m often disappointed with books of this length claiming to provide useful “how to” information about a subject. Typically, what you’ll get is a string of superficial generalizations and unsubstantiated claims of supposedly successful transactions.
However, Weber’s book delivers the goods when he names hard-to-find sources of supply, guides the reader through real-life examples of the intricacies of inventory management, the nuances of dealing in collectable books, making your operation more efficient, saving on postage, and negotiating with wholesalers and distributors. Next he gives you his advice on giving outstanding customer service and how to establish a professional fulfillment system. He then wraps it all up with a few insightful comments about the future of bookselling.
In short, this book is a concise, to-the-point, bullet-styled information warehouse about online bookselling. If you want to sell books over the internet, don’t do it without reading this book first! You’ll give yourself a much needed edge in today’s competitive marketplace while avoiding many of the pitfalls associated with starting a new business.
Rating
As a fledgling bookseller I bought almost every book available on the subject and studied them all. The Home-Based Bookstore is the only book that I refer to again and again. It covered everything I wanted to know when I started selling and a few crucial things I wasn’t even aware of.
Steve Weber gives step by step instructions in building your business. I was astounded to find lists of remainder dealers, innovative ideas to find decent books, the contact information for the best place to get shipping supplies.
While obviously preferring Amazon, Steve gives information and advice about the requirements of eBay, Abebooks and many other venues for booksellers.
This is a must have for anyone even considering trying to sell books online. In the first few months it will be your bible.