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Tips for Selling Your College Textbooks Online

2011-01-03T10:10:00.522-05:00

Without a doubt, selling used college textbooks online beats any other method. Selling your used textbooks to a college bookstore is the easiest way, but you get next to nothing for your books. Similarly, online buying services are easy but also give you very little back, sometimes even less than the bookstores. Classified Ads are another popular method. Unfortunately this method has two major problems. One, they reach a relatively small buying audience with a lot of seller competition. Two, you have the hassle of having to make arrangements to send your book and collect the money from a total stranger. Selling online gives you a global buying audience of millions of people, simple automated systems to make it easy and quick to list a book and most important of all, the potential to get you the best price for your books anywhere.

If Selling Online Is So Good Why Doesn't Everyone Do It?

One of the reasons many students don't sell their books online is because they think it's too much trouble. Without the right information to guide you that might be true. As an ex-teacher and experienced, online book dealer I will share all my knowledge and resources in this post to not only make the task of selling textbooks online easier and more profitable. You never know. The experience could even grow to become a nice, second income while in school.

Let's Get Started

The first thing you want to do is take stock of what you're selling and to get a better idea of the competition in the marketplace. The best place to do this is to log on to Amazon using the ISBN number in your book which sometimes has 10 digits or 13 digits (these usually start with 978). Using ISBN numbers are more accurate than identification by title and author because ISBN numbers will also identify the correct edition, extremely important in selling textbooks. If you have trouble finding the ISBN numbers, look for them either on the back cover or the reverse title page where all the publishing information is. Picture below shows examples of 10 and 13 digit ISBN numbers.

After you get a better idea of the competition and what you're books are worth it's time to jump in and start selling. If you presently don't have an Amazon account go here for all the info you'll need to set it up. It only takes minutes. You will have to list a checking account, credit card, billing address, phone number, etc. After you set up your Amazon account get ready to start listing your books. But first you have to clean them up to make them look as presentable as possible. Here are some tips:

Clean 'Em Up

You'll need: Paper towels, Windex or other quality window cleaner, hairdryer with hot heat setting, label remover like goo gone or lighter fluid (which is much cheaper and works better). Optional items cleaners would be Fantastic or something similar and graffiti remover (usually in a spray can).

1. Provide good ventilation

2. Start by cleaning front and back covers with clean paper towel and window cleaner. Dry thoroughly

3. Remove all stickers by hitting them with hair dryer on hottest setting. The heat will melt the label adhesive. Pull label off slowly with hair dryer heat directly over it.

4.Check pages for writing, underlining, notes, stray marks, dog ears, etc. If you can't erase marks just leave them. Marking in textbooks is usually acceptable as long as it is listed as such and properly graded as either "good" or "acceptable" (see recent post, Grading Books for Online Sales).

5. If you have a lot of textbooks to sell and you don't want to stand in line in the post office to mail them consider a home-based post office account. They're easy to use, relatively inexpensive and work off of any printer, Windows or Macs. My favorite is Endicia. I've been using it for years. It's only $16 a month and you could stop it anytime. There are others such as Stamps.com and even Pay Pal which I use occasionally.

Good Selling Strategies

1. Think in the long term. Don't just view each listing session as a means to an end to dump a book and get paid. Begin to establish a reputation in the seller community. A good feedback rating will stand out from the competition, eventually get you a higher price, sell your books faster and is something money cannot buy. A seller account in good standing is worth its weight in gold. It will always serve to be a valuable resource for the future whatever you need to sell, not just textbooks.

2. When you begin listing, you'll type the ISBN number in the Amazon search window. Click book title. This will bring you to the Amazon product detail page. Check the reverse title page of the book you're listing. Check the following information: title, author(s), publisher, date of publication and edition number. It should match the product detail page. I can't stress enough the importance of accuracy when selling textbooks online. If the information isn't a match I can almost guarantee you'll be issuing a refund.

3. When you receive your e-mail from Amazon acknowledging your sale, get the book out ASAP to the customer. No more than two days. I try to do it the same day. (My highest feedback comments are from buyers thrilled with the speed in which they received their books).

4. Pack it well. My suggestion is use either book mailers or A Flute, a cheap, single sided corrugated roll that looks good and protects the book in transit. I get mine locally from M&G Packaging 1-800-240-5288. Enclose the book and invoice in a large, plastic baggie(this will help weatherproof it during transit) and wrap book twice, both horizontally and vertically in A flute. See steps below.

Spread Your Listings

After your items are listed on Amazon look to other good, selling channels for textbooks. Although chances are you'll probably sell the most on Amazon additional listings elsewhere will further increase your chance of sale. I recommend Alibris, E Campus, and Valore Books. At the time this was written they all offer free listings like Amazon.

Important Resources

The links below will take you to the different components of Amazon's textbook Selling Guide. A fabulous resource designed for new sellers. Good luck and let me know how you make out. Your comments are appreciated.

Textbook Season Best Practices
Textbook Sellers FAQ
Textbook Selling Tips Video

Some more related sites that might be helpful:

Selling Textbooks Online Made Easy - Well, the good new is that selling textbooks online is easy. In fact, nowadays students have other options such as the ability to rent textbooks as well! There are many different websites where it is easy to sell your textbooks. ...

Pros and Cons of Selling Textbooks Online: Dealing With Textbook ... - Learn the upsides and downsides of selling old textbooks via the Internet.

Make Money Selling College Textbooks Online: How to Turn Unwanted ... - Make Money Selling Textbooks Online - Congressman John Salazar Website. There are options other than selling used textbooks back to the college bookstore. Here is how to make more money by selling books online. ...

Selling Textbooks Online Made Easy - You Can Find Original Post Here: Selling Textbooks Online Made Easy. Related posts: Online Homeschooling | A Guide To Finding High Quality Homeschool Textbooks And Supplies; Journey to the River Sea best selling book explore and enjoy ...

Grading Books for Online Sales

2010-12-28T21:30:00.023-05:00

The proper practices of book grading, listing and pricing can make the difference between profitable margins on your sales (accompanied by glowing positives from customers), to lackluster sales and enough negatives to get you booted off your selling venue. This post will discuss the basics of book grading, one of the most important components to successful online sales.

Grading Books

Grading books is accurately describing each book's condition in your listings. Like many items bought online your customers' purchases are usually sight unseen. Most large selling venues other than eBay usually have a stock photo, or photo of someone else's book for sale. That doesn't help the customer much in their buying decision. The person on the other end of the sales transaction is buying your book on faith. They expect to open their package and see their purchase matching or looking better than your listing description. There will be times that you conscientiously make every effort to write an accurate description just to discover a negative "bomb" in the customers' comment section of your seller account.

Unfortunately many buyers either don't read the listings carefully enough. Another possibility is they bought several books from a variety of other sellers confusing your listing with one of the other sellers. You'll never prevent this from happening a hundred percent of the time. To minimize this possibility I do the following. With a highlighter I simply highlight the entire portion of the customer invoice containing the condition notes. If the invoice doesn't have the condition notes listed (i.e. common on Barnes & Noble customer invoices via Alibris) I copy, paste and print out the condition notes that appear on the seller's order. With a scissor I cut this out and using a glue stick, paste it neatly onto the customer's invoice that's missing the condition information.

First rule in grading is to avoid buying any seriously tattered books, books with missing pages, broken bindings, and worst of all, any books that wreak of a cigarette smell or any other detestable odor. Even thought there is a category for acceptable books, try to avoid books of questionable condition unless they're worth a great deal online. In that case make sure you mention every flaw in dust jacket, cover boards, binding, pages, etc . This might cover you to some extent in the event you find yourself he target of an irate buyer.

Grading Conditions

At the beginning of your book selling career grading books might become a little confusing. Amazon's condition guidelines will be very helpful. Amazon posts a lot of information and guidelines for sellers. This one you should commit to memory. Get familiar with the Amazon Condition Guidelines before even listing your first book. Amazons guidelines pretty much set the standard for book grading. The simple, guideline terminology popularized by Amazon will do in most cases. Be aware that many of the dealers in rare and antiquarian might have guideline terminology that's a little different (i.e. As New, Fine, Fair, Poor, Ex Library, Book Club, and Binding Copy). Many of these condition terms are traditional to the rare and antiquarian book dealers from an earlier time period. It is strongly recommended you review the condition guidelines for each site you sell from. Below are the Amazon condition guidelines (the link to the Amazon condition guide above will be helpful when you're listing and logged onto Amazon). You will find these guidelines help a great deal in removing the subjectivity you might experience when trying to list books for online sale.

Acceptable A readable copy. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (the dust cover may be missing. Pages can include considerable notes--in pen or highlighter--but the notes cannot obscure the text).

Good A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact including dust cover, if applicable. The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels.

Very Good A copy that has been read, but remains in excellent condition. Pages are intact and are not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Like New An apparently unread copy in perfect condition. Dust cover is intact, with no nicks or tears. Spine has no signs of creasing. Pages are clean and are not marred by notes or folds of any kind. Book may contain a remainder mark on an outside edge but this should be noted in listing comments.

New Just like it sounds. A brand-new, unused, unread copy in perfect condition.

Common sense dictates that the following book conditions below would be totally unsuitable for selling, hence, the category called unacceptable. Don't even think about selling books that fall into this category.

Unacceptable Moldy, badly stained, or unclean copies are not acceptable, nor are copies with missing pages or obscured text. Books that are distributed for promotional use only are prohibited. This includes advance reading copies (ARCs) and uncorrected proof copies.

The best advice that I can give at this time is to grade conservatively. Your customers will definitely appreciate it. I guarantee that if you adhere to this consistently you will be gratified with customer comments describing their surprise and delight with the book you sold them in better condition than they expected. I personally feel that buyers perceive sellers who don't promise a perfect book as being more honest. It's true. You'll often find that books listed with a whole list of imperfections, that you felt would never sell, sell faster than those with less flaws listed . That's probably why a book listed in "very good condition" will sell as fast as a book listed as "like new".

This list below will give you additional information regarding book grading.

Independent Online Booksellers Association

Associated Content

Bookseller World

The Amazon Sales Rank. How Important Is It?

2010-12-27T17:58:00.003-05:00

Since Amazon presently has over 70% share of the online book business I think it would be fair to say that the Amazon Sales Rank is one of the best, free tools for choosing and pricing books to sell online. However, there is much debate among online booksellers regarding the Amazon Sales Rank, its importance as well as accuracy in determining value. A good number of booksellers completely disregard the Amazon Sales Rank as a criterion for online purchase. I feel it's worth considering as long as its put into proper perspective.

What is the Amazon Sales Rank?

With millions of titles in its catalog, the Amazon sales rank, simply put, is a measure of how often a particular book sells compared to every other book in Amazon's catalog. In Amazon's own words "...it is based on Amazon.com sales and is updated hourly to reflect recent and historical sales of every item sold on Amazon.com". The rank could be as low as 1 or higher than 3,000,000. The lower the number the higher the sales volume. A sales rank of 1 designates the top selling book on Amazon. Assuming its priced competitively, a book ranked in the low thousands, let's say under 2,000 would probably sell in a few hours. At times I've listed books with an Amazon sales rank under 500, selling it within an hour of listing it. Below is a screen shot of the Amazon Sales Rank that is found in every Product Details page of the title's web page on Amazon.

In this example, the Amazon Sales Rank is a little over 188,000. These numbers change frequently. I've read that Amazon recalculates the sales rank of books in the top 10,000 every hour. Books with sales ranks of 10,000-100,000 achieve a new rank once a day. I find that these numbers work best as a means of comparison, an aid in your buying and pricing decisions. Don't necessarily write off a book with a high Amazon sales rank as long as that book has a decent resale value. You have to set your own basis for an acceptable resale value /sales rank ratio.

Books with a High Amazon Sales Rank

Personally, I wouldn't buy a very high Amazon sales ranked book (i.e. over 800,000) that I couldn't sell for less than $40. Interestingly though, books with high Amazon sales ranks usually have less listing competition. Sometimes you're the only one selling that book. You might have to wait a year or so to sell it but if you price it high enough it will be worth the wait. Keep in mind that a book you buy this month wih a sales rank of 500,000 or higher, in time often comes down to a lower rank increasing its sales prospects. This does happen often. Unfortunately, it could also go the other way. What's worse are books with no ranking. These are books that have had no prior copies sold. If and whenever I've ever bought these for resale they usually ended up in the donation box in my garage. Again, if you're the only copy holder of this title, having enough inventory space and asking a high enough price, it might be worth listing.

How Does Amazon Sales Rank Translate into Books Sold

There are many experienced online booksellers and even MIT economists attempting to calculate a given Amazon sales rank in reference to how many books sold. It almost seems like every Amazon seller has a formula, graph or equation justifying their opinion about this. Some estimates say books ranked 10 on Amazon will sell 5,000 copies a week. A rank of 100,000 will sell 1.6 copies per week. Other booksellers estimate a sales rank of 10,000 translating into two sales per day and those ranked 1,000,000 having a single sale bi-monthly. Like everything else regarding online book selling, it's hard to make hard, fast rules. There always seems to be an exception to that rule. If you're interested in learning more about Amazon sales ranks and how they can help you as an online book seller there's a multitude of articles and web sites discussing the topic. Below are just a few that might be helpful.

WebPro News

Dog Ear Publishing
David Airey
Amazon
Novel Rank- (allows you to track Amazon sales rank on any book)
Beneath the Cover
Official Website of Author Timothy Fish

The Best Books to Sell Online

2010-12-24T13:39:00.000-05:00

To maximize your profits you have to hone your skills to find the books that are scarce, usually with uncommon titles that could fetch upwards of $25 or more. Finding a few winners like this several times a month can really bring up your bottom line. To illustrate, I recently sold a book for over $79 called Frogs into Princes and another book for over $60 called Serena Food and Stories. On the other hand, many common, special interest books that you'll pick up along the way are what I call the "bread and butter" books. These will most likely be your average sale, somewhere in the area of $8-$10. Books like these are a dependable source of income, dealing with popular subjects that are published in larger numbers. Books on common or popular subjects like the Fix It and Forget It cookbook or Edgar Cayce the Sleeping Prophet or Alaska the Inside Passage were sold recently for about $8.

These Books Sell Best Online

What you want to look for are out-of-print books which could be worth many times their cover price. This is not to be confused with rare or antiquarian books which is a whole other subject. Books dealing with specialized topics are a good bet for selling online.A short list of examples are topics like Bridge, engineering, gourmet or ethnic cooking (I just sold a book on Vietnamese cooking this week for $75), investment/trading, medical and legal, Zen and other mystical religions and philosophies, local history, specialized topics for hobbyists like model trains, knitting, fly tying, etc. etc.

Stay Away From These Books

As a rule of thumb, the least profitable books are the best sellers, particularly fiction. The exceptions are those presently on the best seller list. A few years ago when it was a top ranking seller, used copies of the Da Vinci Code in hardcover were earning $15-$25 and more. Once the demand began slacking off the Da Vinci Codes's online resale value dropped down to one cent. One of the reasons is the extraordinary amount of volumes competing for sales online . At this time there are over 4600 copies available on Amazon. Books published in large numbers like fiction are usually worth much less than those published in smaller numbers like most nonfiction. Also, I have a rule of thumb. Even if its a nonfiction; never buy a book with the author's picture on the back dust jacket. These type of books are usually overly abundant on the online marketplace. There are occasional exceptions but I've found very few.

Why Nonfiction are the Best Books to Sell Online

Unless you you have much prior knowledge collecting fiction, nonfiction are generally the best and safest books to build your used book inventory. There are several reasons. First, nonfiction are not over published like fiction therefore they hold their value a little better. Second, nonfiction holds its value in the used market because nonfiction informs, teaches, explains. People seek out nonfiction to learn new ideas and skills like investing, car repair and maintenance, cooking, magic, collecting etc. The most popular nonfiction save people time and money. By contrast, fiction competes for a reader's valuable leisure time. As mentioned previously, there are 4600 copies of the Da Vinci Code available on Amazon all priced at one cent. Unless your copy is signed by Dan Brown you're probably better off donating it to a local charity or your public library. Most blockbuster fiction will be in demand for about 6 months or so and its resale value will appear to drop overnight. A quality nonfiction title will sell steadily at a good price for many years.

Text Books

Used textbooks, overlooked by many online sellers, could be your number one money maker.
If one is fortunate enough to have steady access to used college textbooks (such as teachers or college professors) this is one of the most profitable type of books you can sell online. The selling season for textbooks usually runs from August to the middle of October. There is also a smaller selling season, usually falling between November and mid December when many colleges begin their spring session.

Many book sellers are scared off from textbooks because they're afraid of dropping values when new editions are published. This is not entirely true. Many professors today, sympathizing with students' plight regarding the high cost of textbooks, often allow them to use older, earlier editions of assigned texts to save them money. I've picked up earlier editions of college textbooks at garage sales, usually no more than five years old, and have sold them for between $25 to over $100. Keep in mind, I usually don't pay more than a dollar for these, unless they're in great condition. In these situations I might go as high as $5. Graduate textbooks are even more profitable because they're not updated as frequently as undergraduate textbooks. If you're not fortunate enough to have a steady source of textbooks, an upcoming post on book sourcing will share a little secret that has worked for me many times finding textbooks for pennies on the dollar.

Non Fiction Books to Avoid

There are many types of nonfiction that have a very low appeal on the online marketplace. You'll probably hear this many times from other book sellers, but avoid: encyclopedias, Reader's Digest condensed books, Time-Life series (unless you have a full set in great condition; better for eBay), National geographic titles, most sports, popular art and coffee table books. I'll buy coffee table books only if they're brand new. New and shrink wrapped is even better. Books on political figures and autobiographies are usually duds for book sellers. Even in the case of better selling nonfiction you have to be careful of titles that have a tendency to get outdated. Examples of this are topics like computers, investment, law and travel. Avoid buying these categories if they're more than a few years old. Even within the same genre you have to be careful. History books are considered a good category for sellers. In particular, the Civil War, World War II, Vietnam and any thing on the Confederacy are usually strong. Interestingly, most World War I is a dog for online sales.

Supply and Demand

The whole trick to buying books for online selling is gaining the experience to determine the potential resale value of a book by balancing out the supply and demand of the book in question. With enough book scouting experience under your belt this skill will eventually come in time. One of the best free tools to help you determine a book's value is the Amazon sales ranking for their catalogue of over 6,000,000 books. This will be discussed in detail in an upcoming post.

Part 2. Selling Books for Cash. Where?

2010-12-23T17:47:00.000-05:00

In addition to selling through the larger online channels like Amazon, Alibris and ABE (see last post) there are quite a few others. Although these venues might not come close to giving you the steady volume as the first three, they still have the potential of offering additional income streams. Half.com http://sell.half.ebay.com was bought out by Ebay several years ago. Although part of Ebay, it's dedicated solely to books and other media products. I personally found Half to be an uneven selling experience, with infrequent sales of mostly lower priced books. After Half's sales commissions and slow account disbursements, I felt it didn't even pay to to go through the trouble and expense of packing and shipping these low priced books. Several years ago booksellers had a saying, "buy it on Half and sell it on Amazon".

Even though I started my online selling career selling books on Ebay, it wouldn't be my first choice if I had to do it again. I got tired of the tedious listing process, listing fees and chasing after customers to get paid. After selling on Amazon with its free listings, pro merchant program (to be discussed in upcoming posts), simple listing process, frequent disbursements to my sellers account and strict policing of its site, it was very hard to go back to Ebay. I'm not alone. Droves of Ebay booksellers have been flocking to Amazon for years.

There are other smaller, book selling channels, many predating Amazon. Although I haven't sold on all of of these sites, some might be the right fit for the right sellers looking to expand their income channels. For example, if you're interested in selling rare and collectible books as well as ephemera and periodicals TomFolio might be a good choice. It was launched in 1999 as a cooperative, designed as a refuge for independent book sellers wanting to operate free of corporate influence. It is especially appealing to specialist dealers. TomFolio has a monthly listing fee that varies with inventory size. You could check their site as well as others in this post for the latest prices

Biblio has been around a few years hosting booksellers from around the world. It has a sliding commission based on the size of your active inventory. I find the site to be a little quirky and difficult to navigate. I personally haven't sold one book since I joined on several months ago. Halfvalue is a relative newcomer. It seems to have attracted a good number of sellers. The big question is – have the buyers arrived as well? It reminds me a little bit of A1 Books which is really part of Overstock.com.

Yahoo Stores like Ebay stores, has several different packages for sellers to set up their own online store. Definitely not for a beginner. A good size inventory and previous, online book selling experience would be a must. It could also get pricey. There is a monthly fee, setup fee, and transaction fee. Results have been mixed with participating book sellers.

Textbooks are one of the most profitable items you could sell online. With a steady source of supply, you could make a very lucrative income on just textbooks alone (an upcoming post will share a secret for sourcing textbooks for pennies on the dollar). Two of the larger sites targeting the college textbook market are Valore Books and ECampus. I personally haven't sold any textbooks on Valore, but I have had books listed on ECampus. I didn't have much luck here. During the height of textbook season(usually August-October) I was racking out hundreds of dollars worth of textbook sales on Amazon, the same books inventoried on ECampus went nowhere. In this particular instance I didn't sell one textbook on ECampus. Someone else might have better luck there.

After gaining additional experience and accumulating enough inventory you might consider setting up your own website. White Oak Books and Chrislands are two of the most popular. White Oak Books has one of the easiest setups. There's no sign up fee, and no setup fee. They give you a 30 day preview, categorize and maintain your Amazon inventory for a modest monthly fee, (depending on size of inventory) and provide a control panel that you let you adjust the look and feel of your site which is totally maintenance free. Chrislands charges a little more than White Oak Books but gives you more options. Here they have a $200 setup fee and a monthly fee starting at $24.99. The advantage at Chrislands is that you can sell books or any other types of merchandise and you're not tied in with Amazon. Which means you don't have to pay the 15% Amazon commission as you would at White Oak Books. At Chrislands, your inventory is automatically uploaded to the Google Products website (formerly Froogle).

New, almost daily changes in the online marketplace could be advantageous for sellers. Sites like Alibris are frequently adding new selling partners. A1Books has been part of Overstock. Amazon has recently acquired ABE, and some sites like Alibris have created new selling arrangements with Amazon. Over the last few years Amazon has initiated its very popular FBA program (Fulfillment by Amazon) giving sellers more time to scout books and less time spent on packing and shipping. For the bookseller this means a larger, more concentrated marketplace offering new, potential selling opportunities, increased selling exposure and more efficient ways to sell books online.

Selling Books for Cash. Where?

2010-12-22T13:33:00.000-05:00

I have been selling used books for over five years. I can't think of any other product you could buy for twenty five cents to a dollar and make a profit of several hundred percent. Selling used books is the ultimate in arbitrage, that is, buying cheap and selling way, way high for a profit. As my first post I thought discussing the best places to sell your used books would be a great place to start. Let's take a look at some of the most profitable outlets available. Naturally, the first place that comes to mind is Amazon. And yes, it probably is the best.

AMAZON

You will probably get the most money for your used as well as new books at Amazon http://www.amazonservices.com/content/sell-on-amazon.htm?ld=AZFSSOA. They will probably sell faster here than anywhere else. Despite some of the occasional technical glitches you'd expect from an online bookselling behemoth like Amazon, it is generally a very well run place to sell. It can be extremely competitive, but then again, the whole online used book business is competitive. But keep in mind Amazon gives you a selling exposure to tens of millions of buyers. Even though the other selling venues might not come close to getting you the cash flow that Amazon does, it's a good idea to sell on as many venues as possible, it all adds up.

ALIBRIS

In my opinion, and some might disagree, the next best place to sell your used books would be Alibris http://www.alibris.com. The advantage of selling books on Alibris is that it has many book partners like Barnes and Noble, Borders, Better Books and several others, including libraries all over the country. http://sellers.alibris.com/ops/saleschannels.cfm. Like Amazon, maybe not to the same extent, Alibris offers a large marketplace. Generally, I find that for every ten books I sell on Amazon I might sell one on Alibris. Of course this varies. In some months this ratio can even be better. Like Amazon, Alibris gets a small commission (about 15%) for each book sold and offers sellers several different selling programs that have varying commission arrangement. Interestingly if you're an Amazon seller, Alibris provides order fulfillment and inventory processing services for sellers who have an Amazon.com Pro Merchant account for a fee (we'll discuss the pros and cons of setting up an Amazon Pro Merchant account in upcoming posts).

ADVANCED BOOK EXCHANGE

One of the oldest, online book selling venues that made its debut in the 1990s is Advanced Book Exchange, more commonly known as ABE books http://www.abebooks.com. Just a little more than 10 years ago ABE had 90% of the online book selling market. After Amazon came on the scene, ABE's position dropped down to about 25% of the market (now it might even be less). Unlike Amazon and Alibris where a small seller could list for free, ABE has a subscription fee which rises depending on the size of a book sellers inventory. Large sellers with large inventories (i.e. 15,000 books) could pay as high as $300. Sellers make their own shipping and return policies. I don't see ABE as a good venue for small booksellers unless these book sellers happen to have rare, valuable editions of older books. The higher price a book seller could receive from these type of books would justify ABE's higher costs. Besides, you might need a little experience first before competing with the large number of experienced booksellers at ABE.

An upcoming post will discuss a few more selling venues. As you might imagine, selling on multiple sites could be potentially lucrative. However with orders coming in from multiple sources a major consideration would be the need for management options to coordinate inventory, tools to automate order fulfillment, postage printing, inventory repricing and managing customer e-mails. The good news is there are options. One online service, in particular, gets rave reviews from many of its users and is dirt cheap. This info will all be available in an upcoming post. In the meantime, if you're a newbie check out the three sites above and try to get an idea which ones would be your best.