Strategies for Listing Books on Amazon.com

So you've come to a point in your life where you've looked at your heavily-laden bookcases and thought, "Do I really need all of these books?" Perhaps you are planning to move soon and the thought of filling box after box with heavy books bothers you. Re-selling these books on Amazon.com may be the perfect solution to cutting down on that clutter, and a great way to make extra cash on the side.

Though there is no up-front cost to listing books on Amazon.com, it can be tricky to balance the need to get rid of your books with making money off of them. Here are some strategies on how to select and price your books that will both sell and be profitable on Amazon.com.

Picking which books to list can be frustrating, since you may have heaps of books in your collection that you want to get rid of that simply won't sell. Below are some general guidelines to help you choose the books that are most likely to sell.

*Hardcover books are more durable and initially more expensive, and usually bring a higher re-sale price.

*Books with nice dust covers that are barely touched sell well.

*Books on non-fiction topics will sell more readily than fiction (unless it is well-known fiction such as Harry Potter etc.)

*Sell computer-related books quickly. They age fast and become obsolete with each new edition.

*College text books are gold because if a student can get a Differential Equations book for $20 instead of $150, he'll buy it, no matter how much highlighting and doodles there are in the margins.

*If you have a book that includes another piece of media (such as a Software CD), be sure to emphasize this in the comments

*Some books by specialized publishers (I.e. Reader's Digest books) will not be able to be sold on Amazon.com

*Think of recent news topics. Do you have books that relate to current events in some way that people might be looking for?

*New age, yoga, tai chi, etc. books sell very well right now.

*Books and DVDs on fitness are also very popular at the moment.

*Any romantic fiction paperbacks will simply not sell, or not be worth the selling price. Donate these.

*Anything that was/is on the New York Times Bestseller list will still be worth selling.

*Older collectible and antique books, though they can be listed on Amazon.com, will bring you more money if you go to an antique bookstore or list them on a specialty site or E-bay.

*Consider the time of year when listing your books. If you have a book on Christmas Crafts, you may not want to list it in July.

Go through your books and pick out the best candidates for sale. There isn't any cost for listing books on Amazon.com, so the worst thing that happens is your listing expires without the book being sold. Your next step is to create a seller's account on Amazon.com, and list the books. You can start this process by clicking on the button that says "Sell your stuff" on Amazon.com's main page.

Most books have a number known as an ISBN that is located near the bar-code on the back or inside of the book. I have found that this saves me a lot of time and is more accurate than searching for the book that I'm planning to sell by title or author. Type in the ISBN, and make sure that the book that it pulls up matches what you have. If you have a different edition of the book (or it is imported from another country) you cannot sell it, per the terms and conditions on Amazon.com's site.

Part of the process of listing books on Amazon.com is the part in which you are asked to choose the condition of your book. Read the descriptions available carefully, and select the condition that is the closest fit. Realize that the part of the books most important to most readers is usually the inside. If the cover has a scratch, tear or stain, note it in the comment section, but emphasize that the inside is perfect. Honesty is important here because feedback from buyers can improve your sales, and you want to be as truthful as possible. Start with good news, as the comments are shown in a few sentences, and you always want to start with what's good about it. Also, if your book is hard-cover or has the original dust jacket, say so in the comments. An example of a well written comment is: "Hardcover. Inside like new, no highlighting, small scratches on back cover"

When pricing your books, it is always important to look at the prices that other copies are going for. When you are at the screen which asks you to list your price, on the right hand side it displays how much Amazon.com lists the book for, how much the lowest-priced "new" version is selling for from other users, and the lowest-priced "used" version is selling for. This is a good guideline, but you don't always want to just be the lowest price, because you'll end up losing money in the long run. Click on the "Used" link to see a listing of all the other used versions of the book that are currently listed. If the lowest priced version is in much poorer condition than yours, you can list it at a higher price and still have a good rate of success. When the lowest price in the list is more than you expected to get for the book - then list just slightly under that lowest price. That way, your listing will be on top. If the highest price of the book is less than $1.00, I would not list the book, but instead donate or sell it in another venue. If you are going to the post office daily to mail books that you've made a 50 cent profit on, it won't be very fun.

Another benefit of using Amazon.com to sell your books is that they actually include money in the price of the book to allow for shipping. You don't have to put up your own funds to ship the books, and most of the time I go to the post office and use "media mail" which does not use up the full shipping allowance, earning me a few more dollars each time I ship a book.

Another thing I do to keep myself organized and to make this process as easy as possible is to segregate all the books I've listed on Amazon.com. You don't know which books will sell first, so digging through all your bookcases for the one random book that sold is a waste of time. I dedicate one shelf or pile to be the "listed" pile; this also prevents me from getting rid of any of the ones that are currently being listed.

Amazon.com can be a fun way to clean out your home of old books, and make money while doing it. Hopefully these tips will cut through some of the frustration and mystery of selling your books on-line, and will lead to clear space on your bookshelves.