You can make some serious cash selling books on Amazon – and even start an Amazon business by doing so.
However, you’ll have to first learn how Amazon works, where to look for books to sell, as well as what you should and shouldn’t sell.
How to Sell Books on Amazon 2023
What are the steps to selling used books on Amazon?
You need to decide three things before you can sell a book on Amazon:
- How you will fulfill (FBA or FBM)
- (Are you an individual seller or a professional seller)
- The process of sourcing inventory
Your books can be listed on Amazon immediately after you’ve made these decisions – and then you can just wait for your first sale.
Let’s take a closer look:
1. How will orders be fulfilled?
Amazon offers two fulfillment options: Fulfillment by Amazon and Fulfillment by Machine.
Using this method, you pick, pack, and ship your own books when you make a sale on Amazon (eg, FedEx, UPS, etc). Sellers who have chosen FBM must also store their own inventory.
As you calculate your costs, remember to account for the cost of storing your books if they will not be stored at your home, as well as the amount of time it will take you to pack and ship them.
Using FBM is a good idea if you only need to fulfill a few orders or if you have a large operation that offers lower shipping costs than Amazon does. In addition, you will need to have somewhere to store your books.
As a result of this method, Amazon will pick, pack, and ship the book for you when you sell a book on Amazon. They will also store your inventory and handle customer service for you.
Therefore, you pay Amazon an FBA fee to cover the storage, shipping, and handling costs as opposed to paying them yourself.
If your operation isn’t large enough for your shipping costs to be lower than the necessary FBA fees, you can use FBA to fulfill a lot of orders. Amazon’s fulfillment centers will hold your books for you until they sell, so you won’t need a place to store them.
2. How should you approach selling on Amazon?
Amazon sellers fall into two categories.
Individual sellers
A typical monthly sales volume for an individual seller is 40 products. Selling items as a hobby or with only a few items to sell is a good use of this method. Individual sellers charge differently from professional sellers.
Professional sellers
Amazon professional sellers are those who sell 40 products a month or more. Amazon sellers with large inventories and who desire a regular monthly income are recommended to use this method.
3. What are your methods of finding books to sell?
You can source your inventory from a variety of sources to keep growing your book sales on Amazon. While most folks want to sell books they already have, you can also sourcebooks from other places.
Listed below are a few popular methods:
Sell your own books
One of the easiest ways to find books to sell is to browse local bookstores. Many sellers start here. If you have old books collecting dust in your house (yes, second-hand, Marie Kondo-style), look around.
Book sales
Buying books at book sales can be like finding treasure, as it can feel like a treasure hunt. It’s always a good time to buy books at a library, plus there are always book sales.
You might be able to find some books that are great to list on Amazon if you head to these sales with a book scanner. You will be able to find profitable books at these sales much faster if you use a Bluetooth scanner together with a book scanning app.
Online arbitrage
Feeling lazy? The prices on other websites are typically lower than those on Amazon, which is why some sellers search other websites for lower-priced books. Online arbitrage is what this is called.
You simply purchase the book from a low-cost website, wait for it to arrive, then list it on Amazon for a higher price.
Bulk purchase/wholesale
A lot of books can be purchased online for very low prices. Used books are listed for sale at low prices on eBay, Craigslist, and Facebook.
Ensure you buy books that haven’t been sorted or scanned if you choose to go this route. This means you may be purchasing unprofitable products from another Amazon seller.
Estate/closing sales
Since large collections of books are sold at once at estate sales, closing sales, and moving sales, these are excellent places to find books. The average price for a collection is pennies on the dollar.
Free books
Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are always full of people looking to get rid of their books for free. It’s just a matter of picking them up.
Be careful, as these free books might be listed by other sellers who want to get rid of hard-to-sell books.
Amazon allows you to sell what kind of books?
Amazon is a good place to find books to list. In any case, you don’t want to list books nobody will buy. To sell books on Amazon, you should know how to find the right books.
You can use these tricks to sort through the clutter.
Ranking of the book’s best-sellers
Amazon’s “Best Seller Rank” (BSR) is given to every product it sells. A lower BSR means a product is more likely to sell on Amazon.
I believe you should sell books with BSRs lower than 100,000. This means that your book is likely to sell within 24 hours.
Estimate how likely it is that the book will sell
If you purchase a book from Amazon, there are a few tools you can use to estimate how likely it is to sell quickly.
- Jungle Scout’s Free Estimator Tool: The BSR of the book, the market where it is sold, and the category are all that you need to fill in. A Sales Estimator informs you of the product’s monthly sales from there. The average product sells about 10 copies per day if it has 3,000 sales per month.
- Jungle Scout Extension. The extension shows the estimated sales for a whole page of search results as well as the sales history for one product. Also on the product detail page, the Extension displays a graph that shows how the BSR and price have changed over time.
- Book Scanners:
- They use handheld scanners to find inventory when they’re looking for books. You can use Amazon’s mobile seller app instead if you want to make things really easy. The app comes with a scanner to give you information on the product’s price, FBA fees, profits, BSR, number of sellers, and official Amazon category.
How to list your book on Amazon?
As soon as you become registered on Amazon, you can list your books.
You can do this most easily by going to the book’s detail page. That’s right. Instead of creating an entirely new listing, you can actually list your books directly from Amazon. Afterward, your book will appear on the same page.
Just like when you are searching for a product on Amazon, you need to type the ISBN (the book’s registration code) into the search bar to access the product listing page.
There will usually be a barcode or a few lines of text within the dust jacket that specifies the ISBN.
The book will not have an ISBN, however, if it was printed before 1970. You will have to manually type in the title in that case.
If you’ve reached the product detail page, you will see a gray button below the Buy Box that says “Sell on Amazon.”.
You should see this screen if you’re allowed to sell the book after clicking that button:
You will be prompted to enter the following information:
- SKU: The code is unique to you. You can make this anything you wish, but if it helps you remember, it’s best. Otherwise, Amazon will generate one for you.
- Price: The price should be determined by the book’s condition. The price of books of “Acceptable” quality is generally lower than that of “Very Good” quality. It’s not a good idea to match the lowest price as it could cause a “race to the bottom.” If your book is in good condition, it will typically sell regardless of whether there is a cheaper, lower-quality alternative.
- Quantity: Enter the total quantity of the books you have. Otherwise, one unit is used by default.
- Condition: A book must meet the following five conditions to be accepted by Amazon: “New”, “Like new“, “Very good“, “Good,” and “Acceptable.“. Collectible books will also be available for “Like new”, “Very good”, “Good”, and “Acceptable”. Even in perfect condition, I do not recommend listing books in “New” condition. The publisher may report you or Amazon may ask for an invoice if you are reported.
You will either receive an email or you will receive a text message:
- Your book listing will appear on the book’s product listing page in 15-30 minutes if you choose to sell the book with FBM. Once it sells, you are finished.
- You must prepare the book to be shipped to Amazon if you selected to sell the book using FBA. Inventory usually arrives at the fulfillment center within 1-2 weeks. Amazon’s staff must then unpack and distribute the inventory within three to a week. If Amazon is especially busy, like during the holiday season, then the wait maybe longer.
Quick Links
- How To Find Profitable Products To Sell On Amazon
- How Much Can You Make Selling On Amazon
- Pros And Cons Of Amazon FBA
Conclusion How to Sell Books on Amazon 2023
You can sell other products after selling books on Amazon. You can benefit from this information whether you’re a novice, an experienced seller, or a professional seller.
You can earn a lot of money while distinguishing yourself from the competition by keeping all the factors and steps mentioned in this article in mind.
