If you’ve read the very last chapter of my new eBook, you’ll know how I feel about trying out new things in business.  Trying new things and getting out of your comfort zone is something that I preach heavily.  If you’re not consistently pushing yourself to look to the future, looking for that extra edge or simply just trying something that you have no idea it will work, you’re losing.  You have to simply put your fear aside and jump out of the plane albiet with a working chute.  I’m not THAT crazy!

The reason I bring this up is because I believe I’m at a crossroads in my online bookselling business and wanted to share my experiences with you.  If you’re a regular reader of this blog you’d know that I typically buy most of my inventory in bulk.  I think my last load of books topped out at 10,000 or so.  Because I buy books in such large quantities that take a very long time to process I’m typically never “done”.  I’m never fully caught up to the point to where I’m just fulfilling orders every day, but I’m happy to say today that I’m officially caught up and have been for about a week.

Getting all of the books in my garage processed has been a very rewarding process and has also given me time to really sit back and reflect on my business as a whole instead of laboriously scanning books and looking up ASINs on Amazon.  I’ve been in the trenches for way too long and rarely have a chance to see my business as a whole.  I’ve used this time to start on my taxes for 2009 which I’m happy to say that I grossed over $56,000 for the year.  The bad thing is Uncle Sam will want his cut.   I’ve also been pondering where I want my business to go in 2010 and what it will take.

I’ve decided on two things; I’m going to spend more money on my business instead of nitpicking everything so I can ultimately make more money and I’m going to try out a new business model; both of which I’m very scared to do.

1. Spend money to make money – Whenever I first started this business I had hardly no money at all.  All the money I had went to buying more books.  I had to scrutinize over every single purchase.  It took me weeks of thinking to finally buy my barcode scanner and PDA to go book scouting.  I’d get everything I could for free and it worked well for me.  However, I’ve finally realized that I’ve hit my peak sales numbers just scraping by.  Sure, I’m happy with my sales figures.  Who couldn’t not be happy with $56,000 in gross sales working part time in the second year of operation?  However, I want to think bigger.

My goal this year is to get my sales into the $10K/month range still working part time.  I may not be able to quit my secure, full time job just yet but I think that this kind of number is possible still working part time.  It will just require some additional time and especially some more money.  In particular, what I’m referring to here is my recent acquisition of the Monsoon management system.  This was the biggest single purchase I’ve ever made for my business and will continue to be the largest monthly expense as long as I use it.

I made the choice to lay down some cash because this company is known for it’s professional software and services in the eCommerce world.  It is a more high-end service than FillZ which provides lots of features that FillZ does not.

2.Try a new business model – I’ve been buying used books in bulk for a long time from all kinds of different sales and this year I want to try something new.  This is in part of my $10K/month sales goal as well as the new software I have can easily track sources.  I’m going to give it a whirl and see how selling books for people works.  I’m pretty excited to see how it goes!

All in all, I think 2010 will be a great year for me since I’m adapting, consistently modifying my strategy to meet different demands of my customers and the marketplaces themselves.  Good luck in your business and see what kind of changes you can make in your business this year.

P.S.  If anyone is already selling books on consignment, please leave some comments to give me the scoop on what I’m getting into.

I’m so excited to finally announce the release of the revised edition of my much anticipated eBook Used Books: Big Business – The Secrets to Selling Books Online for Big Profits!  This eBook has taken me quite awhile to produce since it’s almost DOUBLE in content since the last one.  It’s now a staggering 92 pages of content including lots of new chapters, screenshots, lots of formatting changes, etc.    This eBook is meant to be the foremost authority on selling books online.  I take you from buying inventory all the way up through customer service.  I don’t specifically focus on one marketplace so you will also learn the ins and outs of all of the big marketplaces to sell your books.

I could go on and on about it but everything that you need to know is now on the updated Used Books: Big Business page.

I hope you enjoy it!  Let me know what you think.

It’s cold outside.  I mean, really cold, especially where I live at.  Currently, there is an eight degree wind chill.  At this time of the year, I envy those living in the southern states.  This weather sucks and I hate being out in it.  I know I’m not the only one that lives in the midwest or the northern states freezing their tails off.  I also know that I’m not the only online used book seller that depends on their income no matter what time of the year it is.  Because of this, I thought it was only fitting to write up a few tips that I do to stay warm yet still maintain and even increase my sales during this time of the year when I’d rather not brave the cold at a used book sale, head to the post office, drive to the thrift store to check on the book stock or anything that gets me out in the cold.

1. Buy Your Book Inventory Online

Buying books online is very different than what a lot of used book sellers are used to, however, it can still be very profitable, much easier to find inventory if you know where to look and the best part of all, let’s you stay in the comfort of your warm home with a hot cup of coffee while you search the entire globe for book inventory from your armchair!  Buying online requires a different mindset because A. your profit margins are going to be lower and B. you might have to buy in bulk.  Gone are the days of throwing a few bucks at the proprietor of a yard sale and getting a few dozen, highly salable books.  Buying books online requires you to do your research, but because you have plenty of time you can be 100% sure you’ll make the profit you’re wanting before you buy.  I discuss buying online in Chapter 2 of my eBook, Used Books: Big Business.

• Browse the Craigslist book listings in your local area as well as areas around the country.  Normally, Craigslist is meant for local-only transactions but I’ve had some great success with simply asking the seller if they’re willing to ship books to me if I pay for the shipping.  Craigster.net, for example, is a site that allows you to input any category that you wish, put in a search term and search every single Craigslist posting.
• Browse the eBay books category.  Specifically, check out eBay wholesale book lots to see if there are any listings going for cheap.  A word of caution though with the lots is that some are online booksellers like yourself just getting rid of penny books so your mileage may vary.  Also, pay attention to the individual listings.  By clicking through to a listing you can typically get the ISBN which you can easily plug into Amazon to get the current market price.
• Consider buying your books from wholesalers.  This method requires a little planning and an official business tax ID, typically, but these wholesalers sell to all kinds of booksellers.  They sell off remainders, hurts and other books for very cheap sometimes and you can get steals.  However, there might be a minimum you can order.  Check out sites such as Book Depot or the American Book Company to get an idea of what they have.

2. Take Advantage of Online Postage Printing

I’ve been blogging about this topic for a long time and still am surprised with the amount of people still going to the post office, standing in line and even paying higher postage fees.  Printing your postage online can save you money, create a more professional looking package and again, going with the theme, keep you warm!

• Read my newsletters.  I know, this is a shameless plug but this was a recent topic and is now in my past newsletters section.  Sign up at the main page to the blog.
• Use a service like Endicia.  This service is the most popular online postage printing service as well as the easiest to use.
• Buy yourself a new or used Zebra LP-2844 printer from Amazon or check out these search results from eBay.  This is again a very popular label printer and a purchase that I made that I would make again in a heart beat.  I made a real short video review on the Zebra label printer on YouTube.

3. Have the USPS come to you

Unlike UPS, the United States Postal Service will pick up any of your packages for FREE!

• Go online and schedule the USPS to pick up your books.  They have one catch though and it’s unfortunate for us booksellers.  There has to be at least one Priority Mail package in the group.
• Make friends with your mail person.  I’d been scheduling pickups for months and months and finally just asked my mail lady if I had to keep doing this since I ship orders every day.  She confirmed that it was OK and that she would just pick whatever I had on the doorstep every day.  Not only did I forgo the Priority Mail only stipulation, I also didn’t have to remember to actually schedule it all the time!

I’ve used these tips for a long time now and have been able to stay warm when others are out battling the awful winter weather making the same kind of money I’m making.  I love to think that while I’m sitting in my relaxing armchair watching the snow fall, laptop on my lap, hot cocoa in one hand and a mouse in the other, I’m able to maintain a constant flow of inventory and orders all while keeping toasty warm.  I hope that you can use these tips and others so you can do the same!

I hope everyone had a great holidays.  Welcome back!  Now get back to selling those books, you slackers!

Email from Amazon to me:

On January 6, 2010, your “Collectible” book listings will be removed from Amazon.com.  After that date, only collectible offers from approved sellers will be available for purchase in the Amazon.com Books store.

Listing in the Collectible books category was limited to approved sellers beginning on April 19, 2009.  Since then, we have been refining our listing tools for the Collectible books category and reviewing applications from sellers. At this time, we are ready to move ahead and remove listings from non-approved sellers from the category.

To prevent your current listings from being removed and to enable this account to create additional collectible listings, you must request approval by Sunday, January 3, 2010.  We will review applications and advise sellers of their approval status by Monday, January 4, 2010.

If you want to request approval to list “Collectible” books, please see the Collectible Books Requirements page in Seller Help, available at the following URL:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200327860

If you are not approved to list “Collectible” books, you must list your items as “Used” if you wish to continue selling them on Amazon.com.  Amazon cannot relist your items for you, as we are not in a position to evaluate the condition of the inventory you have on hand.

When collectible listings from non-approved sellers are removed from offering pages on January 6, 2010, they will appear in the “Closed Listings” section of your Manage Inventory pages and will be flagged as “Blocked” listings.  You can use the “Unblock” link and make the necessary changes to relist your items in “Used” condition.

Alternatively, to prevent your listings from being removed by Amazon on January 6, you may change the listings to “Used” condition now and continue to offer them for sale. Individual sellers can use the “Relist” feature to edit the condition of an item. Pro Merchants can also use Amazon’s bulk listing tools to upload new condition information for their SKUs. Please see below for detailed steps for doing so.

Using Manage Inventory
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As the Christmas season rolls around again this December with everyone doing their best to find just that perfect gift, spend time with family as well try to relax a little bit from work I, along with many other booksellers and retailers in general are still busily doing what we do which is trying to capture those Christmas sales!  Christmas time is a great time to make up for slow sales throughout the year.  It seems that everyone seems to get online and shop for gifts as well as doing a little shopping for themselves while they’re online.   Christmas sales have usually been great for me and this year has been on exception.  I tweeted about an almost record 2 week period in my @sellyourbooks account here recently.

To really try to capture those seasonal buyers I do a few things in order to make my books more enticing and thought I would share a little of my strategy.  So far, it’s been paying off!

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