If you’re cleaning out your bookshelves and trying to figure out where to put your old textbooks and picture books, consider selling books on Amazon.
Amazon offers both a personal and professional account level depending on how many books you plan to sell. They also provide the option to ship directly to the customer or send it through an Amazon Fulfillment center.
Here’s how to sell your textbooks, niche and rare titles, or older edition books on Amazon.
Why Should You Sell Books on Amazon?
Some people want to get rid of their old books. Others want to start an Amazon FBA business.
No matter what’s your goal – here are the top four reasons why you should sell books online:
Reason 1: You can make money selling books on Amazon
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This reason is pretty simple: you can make money selling books on Amazon. No matter if you want to sell used books or new ones. In both cases, you can get profits.
Selling books on Amazon is also great to save money for future investments. For example, if you want to sell private label products on Amazon.
Pro tip: to make your sales soar, don’t forget to ensure enough reviews on product listings. Why? Because it’s the main thing 90% of users pay attention to when making a buying decision. SageMailer can help you communicate with your buyers in a more meaningful way with the help of customized emails sent at the right time. With our tool, you can send review and feedback requests, and create campaigns tailored to the order status or specific ASINs. As a result, you will get up to 37% more Amazon reviews and seller feedback.
Reason 2: People want to buy books
Today, there are ebooks, digital magazines, and almost everyone is looking for information on Wikipedia rather than in an old-school encyclopedia.
One might think that the demand for books has dropped dramatically in recent years.
But according to Google Trends, this is not the case. People worldwide search for books, and demand hasn’t fallen over the last five years. So we think the demand for books is huge. In 2024, the net revenue of the U.S. book publishing industry was about 25.93 billion USD. 10 billion USD were generated in bookstores. And as we all know, bookstores sell printed books, not eBooks.
Reason 3: Amazon is a great marketplace for selling books
Amazon is the largest online marketplace for products worldwide. 59% of 16-36 Year-Olds head to Amazon before to any other Ecommerce Website. If you want to sell online, there’s no better option than becoming an Amazon seller.
Reason 4: Amazon makes your life easier
On Amazon, you can choose between three fulfillment options:
- Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM): You list your product on Amazon, pack it and ship it to your customers.
- Amazon Vendors (AMZ): You sell your products directly to Amazon.
- Processing by Amazon (FBA): You list your products on Amazon. Amazon stores, packs, and ships your product to your customers.
Amazon FBA is a great way to get started as an Amazon seller. That’s because FBA sellers only have to do marketing for their products, and they don’t have to worry about storage or shipping.
When you start selling on Amazon, you can pack and ship products on your own. But as soon as you sell more products, we recommend switching to Amazon FBA.
Amazon Selling Books Online: Popular Types
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You can sell almost any type of book on Amazon, whether it’s paperback, hardcover, ebooks, comics, or collectibles. You can sell books by other authors, or you can also write your own and self-publish through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). In this article, we’ll focus on the former.
However, there are books that you can’t sell on Amazon, and if the system detects these books, they may be restricted in one sweep. These include
- Books with illegal or infringing content. Amazon doesn’t allow companion books based on copyrighted works to be published outside the US without written permission from the copyright holder. These include study guides and summaries.
- Books with offensive content. While the actual book itself is not harmful, there are ideas that are. Books that contain pornography or promote terrorism, for example, are prohibited.
- Books in unacceptable condition. Amazon doesn’t allow certain books like advanced reader copies (ARCs), those that have missing pages, and those with unreadable text.
As for the book condition, Amazon does allow used books to be sold, even those that have markings. You can also sell collectible books, i.e., those that have features that make them more valuable to collectors, such as when it is signed by the author.
How to Find Books to Sell on Amazon?
The process of finding books to sell on Amazon comprises many factors. Take into account the Amazon BSR as it highlights the pace at which a product sells on Amazon. Also, consider the profit you can make after deducting all the costs and fees associated with a book.
Some methods to find books to sell are:-
Online/offline
Online arbitrage Is one way to buy books at a cheaper cost from places like eBay and Craigslist, and then sell them back on Amazon for a profit. You could also look for books offline in bookstores and flea markets as I’ve mentioned earlier in this article.
Bulk/wholesale
Buying in bulk gives you the best lowest price on books even though you don’t get to handpick what you want. Real estate and farm sales and bookstore closures are great places to start.
Conduct research
Checking the Amazon Best Sellers’ list along with the sales rank for a particular book that you want to sell is good input. This will show you the sales of a particular book title on an hourly basis in comparison to other titles by taking the number of orders into account. A BSR of 100,000 or lower is what you should aspire for as it is a testament to how popular the book is.
- For new sellers, it is best to avoid those that attract a lot of competition since it’ll be difficult to break into that niche. Take into account the popularity and seasonality of books and remember, the lower the sales rank, the better.
- If you’re a writer yourself, you can make use of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to turn good profits. It provides one with the opportunity to publish books in a digital format on Amazon and the amount you write and sell is directly proportional to the money you make.
- Downloading a book scanner is a useful tool to check the price of a product, its profits, fees – BSR, FBA, and more. This will all help you with deciding on a price range for the kind of book that you want to sell. If you’re fulfilling using FBA, you can use the FBA calculator to figure out your margins.
How to List Your Book on Amazon?
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Once you’re a verified Amazon seller, you can begin to list your books based on previously sold Amazon items or as a new item.
To sell books on Amazon:
- While logged into your seller account, go to Amazon’s homepage.
- With the search filter set to Books, enter the title or ISBN (the book’s registration code) for the book you want to sell into the search bar.
Change the Amazon search bar filter to Books. Christine Kopaczewski/Insider
- Select the book you want to sell from the search results to open its product page, then click on the “Sell on Amazon” button located beneath the Buy Box and current for sale listings.
Click the Sell on Amazon button beneath the price listings. Christine Kopaczewski/Insider
- If you’re permitted to sell the book, a listing screen will appear. Begin the process by entering the SKU number for the book if you have it.
- Now, set the price you want to sell the book for on Amazon based on its condition and competitor’s prices. (As a new seller you may need to set your price lower than other sellers until you build up your reputation.)
- Enter the quantity you are selling as well as the condition. Select whether you want to do Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) or fulfillment by merchant (FBM).
Note: FBA will see the company pick, package, and ship the book entirely on your behalf while FBM will require you to send it to Amazon before it’s sent to a customer, which will likely take longer.
- Click Save and Finish to list your book for sale on Amazon.
A Few Words to Crown It All: Selling Books Online on Amazon
Jeff Bezos started with books when he built Amazon because, according to him, “there are more items in the book category than there are items in any other category by far.” So you have a lot of options, and on top of that, books tend to have a huge profit margin (especially when you’re getting them for free from family and friends).
Selling books on Amazon requires a lot of legwork and patience. You might spend days combing through thrift store shelves, but this business can be very lucrative.
Whatever you sell, you can benefit from using automated feedback management software. Register for a free 30-day trial, and you should see an increase in reviews, profits and Buy Box ownership. Get started on your feedback collecting journey today, no credit card required.
