Selling books online can be a rewarding business.  There are a few major pitfalls in starting a business selling books online.  I wanted to share some that I have made in order to help out others and I would love to hear from others about some of the mistakes you have made.

 

 

The below is an edited excerpt from my eGuide called “An Insider’s Guide to Selling Books Online” which is available here www.booksellingguide.com.

 

·    Too vague in my book descriptions – call a tear on the dust jacket a “tear” and not something else such as “light wear”.

 

·    Not being careful enough in examining books for underlining/highlighting then listing and selling them as having “clean text”.

 

·    Attach the mailing label to the wrong package – make sure what you print comes out in the right order.

 

·    Losing inventory – I have sold a few books then torn up my office looking for it because god knows where it is.  I end up with a refund and a lost book

 

·    Entering an ISBN and for some reason it is recognized as a title different than the book I have.  ISBNs are sometimes misprinted on the back of a book or on the copyright page.  The mistake here is I don’t catch the mix-up until after I have listed the wrong title and sold it.

 

·    Listing a really heavy book and accidentally allowing expedited shipping or international shipping.  You can lose a lot of money shipping really heavy books this way.  I once had to spend $34 to send a book to Australia of which Amazon only gave me $5.64.

 

·    Not updating the price info on my scanner.  I try to do this every week but sometimes I forget and I scan books that seem like winners only to list them and find out their prices have dropped.  Prices can drop quickly on books that have great sales ranks.

 

·   Taking feedback to personally.  If a customer is not happy with the book it is their privilege to comment.  Do not respond to negative feedback when you first read it and are upset.  Contact the buyer and try to work it out but be professional.  Do not post a response until you contact the buyer directly.  Empathize, apologize and offer a refund if you feel their complaint is legitimate.  I try to recognize that they are upset and then gently prod them that it is more productive for them to contact you directly rather than post negative feedback.  Request that they remove their feedback (which can be done on Amazon) and when they do provide them their refund.  These situations can be uncomfortable so be calm and do not make it personal.

 

·    Not re-pricing my books.  Many of my books are high value and high sales rank which means they do not sell frequently but there is a lot of profit.  I do not ever get wed to the idea of how much my inventory should sell for.  This is a market and prices fluctuate.  If the book does not sell because all the competition has lowered their prices to make mine the most expensive then I need to re-visit my price.  Never price my books to be the lowest – I will match the lowest price at times but never set the lowest price.

 

·    Using cheap, unpadded mailers – I had a stack of cheap unpadded mailers that my wife had left-over from something she did.  I thought I could use them for my smaller paperbacks and save money (and make some more profit on the shipping).  I had to refund two buyers because the books got damaged in the mail.  Don’t get so driven to make a profit that you skimp where you should not. 

   

Do not let your mistakes stop you from enjoying this business.  Learn from them and get back online and sell more books. 

 

Textbook Season Ending & Return Season Starting
There is almost never a case when I do not accept returns - most markets require you to accept them (see Amazon's A-Z policy). I keep my return policy simple. The only time I have not accepted a return is when a significant amount of time has passed between the purchase date and the return date or if the books condition is materially different from when I sold it (such as full of highlighting). Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of the customer experience when I run a business from home and do not interact with the customers. Continue reading
Amazon Charge When Shipped (Amazon CWS)
What does CWS mean for us booksellers? Not much. You will not have your account credited until you ship a book. If you use The Art of Books or a similar inventory management system Amazon should be automatically updated when the book is shipped. There are a couple of downsides to Amazon's Charge When Shipped - you do not get to send your own confirmation email to the buyer and the buyer can still leave feedback on a canceled order. Continue reading
Is the Amazon Kindle bad for Online Booksellers
Sales of the Kindle are one thing but it remains to be seen if people are actually going to adapt to using it as their primary way to read - as we have seen with Amazon recenlty deleting Orwell titles there are several issues with the Kindle that will effect its popularity. Continue reading
Tags:bookselling mistakes,guide to selling books online,make money selling books,responding to feedback on Amazon,selling books on amazon,Selling books online

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