Archive for the ‘Strategies’ Category

SalesRank and Strategy: A Tale of Three Sellers

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

A lot of people are drawn to selling books because of the freedom it provides. You get to be your own boss, set your own hours and do business the way you see fit. However, the fact that there is no one to impose rules on you doesn’t mean that there are no rules and anything goes. If you want to be successful at selling books it’s important to set up rules for yourself, to have a coherent strategy. Otherwise, as much as you love the freedom of being a bookseller, you may not be one for very long.

One very useful tool for building a strategy is Amazon’s Sales Rank. If you’re not familiar with Sales Rank, it’s basically a measure of how high sales are on Amazon for a given book. A lower number means higher sales so for instance, a book with a Sales Rank of 1,000 might sell 100 copies a week, while a book with a sales rank of 500,000 might sell only one copy a week.

You can make good use of this information when you are developing a strategy for the books you add to your inventory. You can set down a boundary and say “I will only buy books that have a page rank under x number” (remembering of course that lower number s are actually better, just like it’s better to get 1st place than it is to get 128th).

Let me illustrate the importance of having a strategy like this with three different real-life examples. I’ve briefly mentioned that I have helped other booksellers to set up their own businesses. However, as time as progressed, they’ve each decided to run their business in their own distinct way.

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The Ethics of Bookselling

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

As I’ve said before, finding books to build and maintain your inventory is one of the most important keys to being successful at selling used books online. Finding books is getting more and more competitive every day. The pressure to get to the books first, combined with people’s desire to make money has led some booksellers into some ethically gray areas.

Let me just start out by saying that I am in no way condoning, endorsing or recommending any of the methods I’m going to be talking about. That being said, I have also heard some fairly convincing arguments from those who contend that using, shall we say, “unconventional” methods is actually justified in many ways.

In any case, you don’t have to go any further than your local thrift store to see what I’m talking about. It’s not uncommon for booksellers to engage in pay-offs, $20 “tips”, even bringing around donuts or food, anything to ingratiate themselves and allow them to get first crack at incoming books.

But granddaddy of these ethically questionable methods involves our old friend the library sale.

As I mentioned in a previous post, library sales (sometimes called Friends of Library sales) are a great source for finding used books to sell online. I also briefly touched on the practice of booksellers “volunteering” at library sales.

This is exactly the practice that raises what I think is the most interesting philosophical question of bookselling:

Is it ethical for booksellers to “volunteer” at library sales in order to increase their own profits?

You may notice that I’m repeatedly putting the word “volunteer” in quotations. Before we go any further, let’s take a quick look at the definition of the word “volunteer”.

Volunteer:
vol·un·teer
Pronunciation: \ˌvä-lən-ˈtir\
Function: noun
Etymology: obsolete French voluntaire (now volontaire), from voluntaire, adjective, voluntary, from Old French, from Latin voluntarius
Date: circa 1600

1: a person who voluntarily undertakes or expresses a willingness to undertake a service: as
a: one who enters into military service voluntarily
b: (1): one who renders a service or takes part in a transaction while having no legal concern or interest (2): one who receives a conveyance or transfer of property without giving valuable consideration
2: a volunteer plant
3: capitalized [Volunteers of America] : a member of a quasi-military religious and philanthropic organization founded in 1896 by Commander and Mrs. Ballington Booth

- Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

If we sift through the portions about joining the military, plants and religious organizations, the part that’s relevant to what we’re talking about is that one that reads: “one who renders a service or takes part in a transaction while having no legal concern or interest”. Of course, any bookseller who renders their services to a library sale has a very real financial concern and interest, which is why I hesitate to call them volunteers at all.

It usually works like this: If I’m a bookseller who wants to get first crack at library sale books, so I volunteer to work the sale. I get to go through the books before the general public and buy whatever books I want. Perhaps the most surprising thing of all is that most libraries know this goes on and don’t think anything of it. They just consider it a perk that goes comes with volunteering, and if I as a “volunteer”/bookseller happen to be able to make money off the books I get, well, good for me.

It sounds ethically questionable at best, but there’s also a way to look at it as a win-win. The library gets free labor to help sell books and raise funds, and the bookseller gets to make some money on the side.

A more recent wrinkle is that some of the more savvy libraries are hiring booksellers to sell their books online on behalf of the library. For their trouble, the booksellers of course get a percentage of the sales. Again, the bookseller is making money through what is supposedly a purely charitable fundraiser. On the other hand, the expertise of the bookseller allows the library to maximize their profits, getting much more for their books than they would be able to otherwise. Libraries and library societies tend to be lovers of books, but not necessarily experts on book pricing. Without the help of the booksellers they probably wouldn’t know, in monetary terms anyway, what they had.

It’s a tricky subject. Arguments can really be made for or against it. What do you think? Is the practice of “volunteering” at library sales ethical if it’s done to fatten your own wallet?

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Selling Books Knows No Borders

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Many booksellers consider questions like “What books can I sell?” and “How can I sell my books?” but fail to ask themselves “Where can I sell my books?”.  Where on the planet can you find customers? What countries can you ship your books to?

Where can you sell your books? Worldwide.

It’s too bad that some booksellers don’t consider the international market, because they’re essentially closing themselves off from countless potential customers. Maybe they think selling internationally is too complicated, or they just don’t want to spend the time to learn how to do it. I can’t say for sure why some sellers don’t take advantage of the world of opportunities out there, but for me, it’s a no-brainer.

Think about it. There’s 6.7 billion people out there. How much are you limiting yourself if you only sell in one or two countries? Admittedly, in practice selling worldwide doesn’t mean exponential increases in sales. But if there are any customers out there who want to buy my books, why wouldn’t I make myself available to them?

I’ve sold books in more countries than I can list. Name a country and I’ve probably sent a book there. A lot of those sales (especially the ones to more exotic locales) are from my website, but I’ve also sold on:

  • Amazon
  • Amazon UK, DE, FR, CA
  • Alibris & partners
  • AbeBooks
  • Ebay

To sell on Amazon UK [United Kingdom], DE [Germany], FR [France], or CA [Canada], you need to set up a bank account in whichever country you are doing business.

If you want to get into international selling I recommend checking out WorldFirst a UK-based foreign exchange broker. They specialize in this kind of thing.

Shipping
Just like shipping domestically, you have different options for shipping abroad. There are Brokers, UPS Mail Innovations, DHL (usually for larger shipments), and of course, our old friend USPS.

Pricing
Be sure to take into account currency exchange rates. You may also need to compensate for the fact that shipping credits won’t always cover your costs.

This is just the briefest of brief overviews on selling internationally. The point is to be aware of what’s out there, and to take advantage every opportunity.

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Selling Used Books To Bookstores: How, When and Why

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Buying and selling books to bookstores is something I’ve mentioned briefly before. I went over it pretty quickly though, so lets take a little bit of a deeper look into exactly why I do it and how it works.

I am fortunate to live the SF Bay Area. There’s still some bookstores left around here that will pay cash or store credit for books I bring in.

library_015The key to the whole thing is that I know the types of books each store wants. If you know what they are looking for, you have a pretty good idea of what they will buy.

I usually take a in about 10-15 boxes at a time. Depending on the day, I’ll sell up to 25% to 30% of what I bring in. On a bad day I’ll sell maybe only about one box worth of books. Keep in mind that I bought a lot of these books dirt cheap at bag sales, so my average cost per box works out to about $10. Again, depending on the day and the store, I get up to $100-150 in trade-in credit for each box.

I then take that credit and use it to buy other books in the bookstore for “full price”. I put “full price” in quotes because since I’m paying with store credit I’m really getting quite a discount. Once again, I know what I’m looking for, and select books I know I will be able to quickly resell online.

When I do sell the “full price” books I usually make back about 1/2 the value of the store credit I paid for them, around $50-75 per box. All in all, not a bad profit on a $10 investment.

I stress that this is a method that requires a little experience and knowledge, both about what your local bookstores are looking to buy, as well as which books to invest your store credit in. It can be tough, and it’s definitely not for everyone. It’s also a method which unfortunately is not nearly as lucrative as it was even a few years ago. But I do make money this way, and it keeps me in touch with the market and helps keep my eye and mind sharp.

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Can You Make Money Selling Books For A Penny?? (part 2 of 2)

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

In part 1 of this series I talked about the math of selling books for a penny and explained the narrow profit margins that selling penny books may (or may not) make possible. Given the seemingly miserable financial outlook of penny selling, lets take a look at some of the reasons people do it anyway.

First of all there are the books listed for a penny by small, individual sellers.

Some of these are people who just can’t stand to see a perfectly good book recycled into pulp. They knowingly lose money selling their books for a penny, in exchange for the peace of mind of knowing their books have found new homes. While I can appreciate the sentiment, to me selling books is my business, and such an elaborate method of paying to recycle my books just doesn’t make any business sense.

Another group of individual penny sellers are newbies. A lot of people go on Amazon, see a bunch of books listed for a penny and decide they need to list for a penny too. They either don’t know enough about how the process works, or they just don’t do the math, but whatever the reason, they usually learn fairly quickly that they’re actually losing money.

For the big bulk sellers on the other hand, there may be other reasons that penny selling makes sense (and not just cents).

Speaking for myself, I have used penny selling in the past. I don’t right now, but who knows, I might go back to it at some point.

I can’t say for sure what other sellers’ motivation for penny selling is. Some people argue that penny selling is a good way to generate positive feedback. Others are happy with the few cents of profit they make per book. For me, penny selling isn’t about either of those things.

Penny selling makes sense to me as a means to drive people to my own website. It also makes sense when it leads to multiple sales. For example, when someone buys a penny book as well as another book from me. Amazon sends me two shipping fees, and I can ship the two books together, leaving me a more reasonable profit.

Another reason that some larger sellers might use penny selling is as a means of inventory control. As a bookseller, you need to be able to identify and remove books that have no profit potential. If books aren’t going to sell, they’re not only failing to make you money, they are actually costing you money by taking up space in your warehouse, space you are paying for, space which could be used for profitable books. Going through your inventory, pulling and disposing of the books that need to go is sometimes referred to as “culling”. Some sellers may decide that rather than having their employees go through and cull their inventory, it makes more sense to list those books for a penny. The logic is that they might make a small profit, and even if they end up losing a little money on the deal, they would have had to pay anyway, in the form of their employees’ time spent culling their inventory. I don’t subscribe to this theory myself, finding it’s better for running an efficient operation to regularly cull my inventory.

So those are the main reasons people list books for a penny. Have you ever sold penny books? Do you have a reason for doing so other than the ones listed here? Please let me know, I’d love to hear from you.

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Can You Make Money Selling Books For A Penny?? (part 1 of 2)

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

pennyOne of the most common questions new sellers have is “Why are there so many books listed on Amazon for a penny? How can people make money selling books for one cent???”

Well, they can and they can’t. The truth is that when a customer buys a “penny” book, they’re really paying the one cent plus $3.99 shipping. Amazon collects the $4, deducts their fees, and gives the remainder of the shipping fee to the seller to ship the book. Let’s look at an example, just to make things clearer.

Let’s say I list a book for a penny. Joe Blow in Nowheresville, Il purchases it and pays Amazon the $0.01+$3.99

From that $4.00 Amazon deducts $1.35 as a “closing cost” ($4.00-$1.35=$2.65)

I have an Amazon Pro Merchant account and am therefore exempt from Amazon’s usual additional $0.99 fee.

Amazon gives me $2.65

Assuming I can package and ship the book for less than $2.65, I have made a small profit. (Very small, actually. No more than a few cents.)

Expedited and international orders means larger shipping fees are collected, meaning a slightly higher profit margin. Larger sellers can also save even more if they use bulk rate shipping.

It should be noted that even if you are a Pro Merchant and don’t have to pay the .99 fee, it costs $40 a month for the Pro Merchant account. So even if you sell a couple dozen penny books, if your monthly profit doesn’t exceed $40, you’re still losing money on the deal.

Some people go so far as to use improvised packaging materials, shipping their books wrapped in butcher paper, or even cut-up paper grocery bags.

No matter how far people go to try and squeeze a few extra cents out of selling a penny book, the bottom line is that there’s just no profit in it for non-bulk sellers/shippers, and not much profit even if you do deal in bulk.

For this reason, it seems like traditional penny sellers, those who just try and eke out a few cents of profit per book, even they are moving away from literally selling books for a penny.

Still, there are plenty of books listed for a penny. In Part 2 I’ll discuss some of the different reasons books get listed for a penny, both by small, individual sellers and by larger bulk sellers.

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The Book Buyer’s Dilemma: To Scan or Not to Scan?

Monday, June 8th, 2009

In talking about buying used books, and explaining why it is that I’m sharing information about selling books, I’ve already mentioned “scanners” and “scanner people” a couple of times, which to some of you out there may beg the question “Just what the heck is a ‘scanner’ anyway?”

To understand scanners, you first have to understand lookup services. There are a number of services out there, ScoutPal, ASellerTool, MediaScouter, etc. who (for a fee of course) give you access to the current listing price of books. Amazon lookup is pretty much the standard, but some are starting to expand into other marketplaces as well. In addition, some companies that offer Inventory Sales Management throw in lookup service for free.

No matter who’s providing it, lookup services work in one of two ways: they either let you request and receive prices in real time, or they provide a download of all the latest prices at once. Of the two, the download variety is the more efficient, letting you look up more prices in a shorter amount of time, especially if you are using a scanner.

A scanner is basically a barcode scanning device attached to a handheld computer of some kind, usually a cell phone, smart phone or PDA. It cross-references the book’s barcode against the lookup service’s data and displays the price of the book. Say you are a brand new bookseller and you walk into a thrift store that is selling used harlequin romance novels. Even if you’re completely unfamiliar with the books, you can pull out your scanner, scan the barcode and instantly know what price you can get for each book.

Scanners have become quite controversial lately. They have become something a necessity for new booksellers, or booksellers who haven’t developed an eye for what books they will be able to sell for a profit. There’s nothing wrong with this, in and of itself. The problem comes when enthusiastic sellers, armed with scanners show up to library sales or other events, grab books by the armload or suitcase-full take them off to a corner and scan them all, leaving their discards all over the place. Unfortunately this has become all too common, and there has been a recent backlash against scanners, with some library sales considering strong restrictions on scanners or banning them altogether.

I am fairly neutral on the issue. As far as I am concerned scanners are a tool which can be used in a responsible way just as easily as it can be used in a disruptive and inconsiderate way.

I myself have used scanners in the past. I used ScoutPal and BookHero, mostly because they were some of the first services on the scene. I’ve used a couple since then too. I don’t use scanners at all any more, however. I find that there’s really just no benefit in it for me. I have been in the game long enough to have developed a tool faster and more powerful than any scanner: my eyes. I can look at a book and have a good idea of whether I’ll be able to make money on it, and how much.

To scan or not to scan, that is the question. If you’re new to the business of selling used books, by all means, go ahead and use a scanner (and I would recommend using a download service). It may be a great help to you. But if you’re serious about making this a career, I cannot stress how important it is to invest the time and energy into developing your knowledge of books and cultivating the ability to recognize their value.

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Where To Find Used Books To Sell Online (2 of 2)

Friday, June 5th, 2009

You need to buy books to sell books. There’s no two ways around it. In Part 1 of this guide I discussed buying books from libraries, bookstores, remainder dealers, and thrift stores. Now let’s look at some of the other resources experienced booksellers use to build and maintain their inventory.

Estate Sales
This is where you will find a lot of the old school Book Scouts practicing their craft. Estate sales are not about “scannable” books. Here you’re looking for real quality, rarer books, older books. Estate sales have become very competitive. There will be expert book buyers with years of experience and keen eyes, as well as not-so-experts playing the numbers game buying up just about anything. Do not be afraid to make a mistake. Even if you end up buying books you can’t get much money for, books that perhaps aren’t as valuable as you might have thought, it isn’t a really a loss. What you’ve actually done is spent a little money to learn a valuable lesson that will benefit you over the long term. Keep in mind that you aren’t only a book buyer, but also student, investing in your own experience and knowledge.

EBay
There are good opportunities on EBay, especially if you specialize in collectable books. You can find people who sell used books by the lot. In fact, I’m one of them. I sell wholesale on eBay all the time. It’s a win-win situation. I get to move inventory without having to find individual customers, and you get a good price on books you can turn around and sell yourself.

Yard Sales
Yard sales are a still a largely untapped resource, and for a good reason: it’s hard. Just finding the ones that actually have books can present something of a challenge. I suggest that if you spend time going to yard sales, do what I do. When I go to yard sales I’m not just there to buy books, I’m also buying ham radio equipment, old electronics, old documents and papers, etc. If there’s anything you have a little expertise in, invest in that too. If you don’t know much about other collectibles, find something that interests you and spend a little time and learn about it. It will make going to yard sales worth your while.

Classified Ads
I can’t speak from experience about using newspaper ads. However, there is a colleague of mine who often goes to different shows in different cities. Before he goes he always takes out an ad in the paper in his destination city saying what days he will be in town. He’s actually done very well over the years using this method.

CraigsList
The main challenge in buying books on Craigslist is that it can be difficult to sort through all the clutter. From time to time you will find that family or household which is really just trying to get rid of a bunch of books they have had sitting around for years. The catch is that you will usually it in the garage sale category rather than the book category. The book listings will generally be booksellers just like you. When you do find that quality listing, you have got to be fast. If you don’t get there in the first couple hours, it will probably be gone.





These are your best bets for steadily increasing and replenishing your inventory. If you’re serious about selling books, you’ll probably need to use some combination of most or all of them. If it all sounds like hard work, that’s because it is. Selling used books is not for everyone. It is increasingly competitive and requires a serious commitment of both time and effort. But if you are willing to put in the work, these resources can be incredibly valuable and put you well on your way to success as a bookseller.

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