Selling books online can be fun and profitable and I have already mentioned a few reasons why it is a good home-based business.  There are a few frustrating aspects to it also.  The downsides of selling books online mostly have to do with customer service, the markets, and seller mistakes.

 

Here are my Top Five Reasons Why Selling Books Online Can be NO Fun

 

  1. Customers – Please read the book description before buying it.  It drives me nuts when a customer gets a book and wants a refund or threatens negative feedback because the dust jacket of the book is torn (even though it said so in the item description).
  2. Customers – please stop sending me the “How much for shipping to Canada” (or whatever country) email when the book is listed as not eligible for international shipping.  I get it – you didn’t read the item description.  This is more of a pet peeve then a real frustration.
  3. Alibris – Please give me my money more than once a month.  I would appreciate the ability to get it transferred to my account whenever I want – like Amazon allows.
  4. Penny Sellers – is making a nickel on the shipping worth it.  You are the bane of the online bookselling world.
  5. Library Sales – people these sales are not rugby scrums.  If someone dropped $10 in front of you would you push me and grab the money and quickly stuff in your pocket?  Likely not but somehow this behavior is ok when going for a $10 book.

 

The above list is not enough to make selling books online a “tough” business.  Despite any frustrations I do love selling books online.  The above list is mostly tongue-in-cheek (except for the penny sellers) and could be tripled in size as I continue to nit-pick.  

 

The biggest frustrations are not even on the above list.  I have saved them for another post which will focus on all the mistakes I have made as an online bookseller.

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:guide to selling books online,how to sell books online,make money selling books,online bookselling,selling books on amazon,Selling books online

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