Every day on this blog, I get to hear stories from my fellow online booksellers: how they got started, what they are looking to accomplish, great finds and missed opportunities… it’s among the most interesting and satisfying things about being a part of this community.

One of the most common complaints from new sellers is that they begin with a big burst of excitement, acquire a bunch of books to sell, are ready to rock, and then… nothing?!?  Temporary slack times can even dull the fervor of experienced sellers.  The motivation to sell books can be fickle.  The bloom is off the rose pretty quickly once the reality of being at the mercy of customers sets in, and they’re stuck with some book-filled boxes sitting around, just gathering dust.

That right there is a big part of the problem – their books are just tossed in boxes, out of sight and increasingly out of mind.  This isn’t how you stay emotionally invested in running an online bookselling business… it’s how you prepare for a featured role on the show Hoarders!

I really feel strongly that proper organization of inventory has immediate and lasting benefits for anyone who is interested in selling used books online (and that includes people who are selling simply as a hobby or additional revenue stream).  Organizing your books is a very tactile, hands-on experience and you are forced to take notice of each book, consider its merits, compare & contrast it with all of your other books based on look, feel, and content.  Taking the time to properly organize your books gets you intimately acquainted with them, which gets you motivated to SELL THEM!

Some organizational considerations:

• Go through your books and figure out a way to organize them that combines common sense with functionality.  You want to be able to find things quickly, so if that means organizing alphabetically, by subject, by your own numbering system, whatever, make it work for you.

• Get your books out of boxes and into the open.  Set aside a place that is specifically for your books – I have a small warehouse, but you could use a room in your house.  Install some shelves and get your books on them.

• Acquiring new inventory is an opportunity to review your stock.  When organizing the new books, take time to review what’s still there and how you might get it sold.

• Even if sales are light, don’t spend too much time away from your books.  If it’s been a couple days since you’ve had to pick & pack, go take a quick look at your books to remind yourself what exactly you are trying to do.  Out of sight is out of mind!

Staying motivated to sell books is extremely important, especially for beginning or part-time sellers who do not have an established routine that helps them stay focused.  The business is books, and the best way to stay invested in them is to take the time to organize them properly.

Even if you are a busy homemaker or you have a fulltime job – you can still earn extra bucks by selling books online.   Sound difficult? It’s not when you learn some time management skills.  When you are able to manage your time effectively you can accomplish a lot of things in your home or in your fulltime job while successfully running your online bookstore.  You don’t need to be in front of your computer the whole time also to be able to sell your books.

Time management is all about the proper scheduling of your tasks and accomplishing them at the right time in the right amount of time.  Time management goes well with both your fulltime job as well as your online bookshop.  First, you have to identify your priorities then rate them according to their urgency and importance.  Next write down your plan and set the time you will do these tasks.  Lastly, do your tasks within the scheduled time and put your best effort to accomplish them within that period. This way, there’s no need for you to go back to the same task again.

Here are some tips on how you can run your online bookstore with proper time management:

• Since most inquiries sent to your online bookshop is received through email, you may set a schedule when to check them and respond to these queries. Say, twice a day, you will respond to orders and inquiries.
• Shipping the books is another thing that you can set a schedule with.  You don’t need to go to the post office every time you want to ship a book.  Invest in a service like Endicia to print all your postage online and then schedule a pickup with the USPS for them to come to you!
• If you’re a small seller, to get your current inventory, download an inventory listing report from Amazon and keep it up to date with attributes that Amazon does not track such as what shelf the book is located on, where you got the book from or how much you paid for the book.  If you’re a larger seller, invest in some software that will give you this capability such as an all-inclusive software like Monsoon.
• Speed up your listing.  This topic is contested by some due to the different business models that exist out there.  Some large sellers have a boiler plate that is used for a specific condition book.  To list a book, they’ll simply assign a condition and then paste a generic description in.  This saves time but does not give the buyer a real clear idea on what kind of condition the book is in.  On the other hand, if you are you an antiquarian bookseller that needs a degree of detail then, by all means, continue to create detailed descriptions but if you are selling typical, commodity used books then the buyer may not really care if the book has a crease in the cover or a rip in a page.

If you follow some of these tips then you will have a start on managing your time and getting the most out of the limited time you may have.

No, no, I don’t mean THAT kind of help.  I know you guys are completely sane after selling used books online, right?

If you’ve just begun experience selling used books on the Internet this stage in the game may be a little ways off for you but for all of the veterans or booksellers that have grown too fast, you may know what I’m talking about.  I’m barely keeping my head above water!  Whenever I first started this silly business I had a few dozen books in my house and had a couple sales a day; nothing too stressful.  However, when deciding I’m going to make something out of this I jumped in head first.  At first, it was OK because I was lucky enough to have an entire garage and small one-bedroom studio apartment space (“the warehouse“) to dedicate to my books but things sslowly grew past my level of comfort to finally 6,000 books listed, 200-300 books going to Amazon FBA every week and 25 orders/day.

Let me back up a little and tell you about my schedule.  Does this sound familiar to anyone?  Monday through Friday, get up at 7AM to be at the full-time job by 8AM to then leave at 5PM.  Get home by 5:30, eat, spend some time with the family and head to job #2 fulfilling orders, checking customer emails and trying to process some incoming books.   Get home by 8PM, try to spend some more time with my wife and catch a TV show then head straight to the computer to think about new strategies, update listings, etc to get to bed by 10:30.  Saturday and Sunday, get up at 6AM and begin processing new incoming books to see what’s listable and what’s junk, usually skipping lunch to get home by 6 to rest.  Repeat.

As a solo entrepreneur with a full time job, you’re expected to spend a considerable amount of time on the business but at what cost?  Would you rather be scanning books than spending time with your daughter?  Not me!  Time is limited and if you can pay someone less than what you’re making it’s a good idea.  This is the dilemma I’m in at the moment and have been for the last few months.

So I want to hire someone to help me grow this business but who?  Family, friends, a random guy from a Craigslist posting?  I’ve been having a family member help me out a few hours a week but it’s just slowing the increase in the amount of work that needs to be done.  I need someone to work full-time for me or either quit my full-time job.  I don’t foresee quitting the full-time job any time soon so what’s a bookseller to do?

Is anyone else in this predicament or already have employees?  If so, I’d love to hear any comments you may have.

Amazon.com today launched a beta version of the new Rare & Collectible Books store. During this beta phase, we will be testing new features and gathering feedback from buyers and sellers.

The new store can be accessed through the Amazon.com Books store, or you can see it now by clicking on the following link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=2056775011

The Rare & Collectible Books store consolidates advanced search, browse categories, product merchandising, and targeted content to enhance the shopping experience for book collectors on Amazon.com. The following features are now available:

• Advanced Search: The search widget on the Rare & Collectible Books landing page is specific to “Collectible” condition books.  It includes checkboxes for First Edition, Signed, and With Dust Jacket, in addition to standard fields such as Author, Title, Publisher, Publication Date, and Keywords.
• Browse: The store-specific browse allows buyers to view lists of only those books that have “Collectible” offers.
• Community Forums: Collectors can interact through a new Rare & Collectible Books Community advertised on the main store page.
• Customer Feedback: Buyers and sellers are invited to provide questions, comments, or suggestions on our Rare & Collectibles store through a widget on the main store page.
• Content about Book Collecting: The store includes specific information for new buyers and sellers to guide them in understanding bookselling terminology and the complexities of determining the value of collectible books.

In April 2009, Amazon announced that listings of “Collectible” books on Amazon.com would be limited to approved sellers only. Since then, we have enabled a number of specific features for “Collectible” books: the removal of price restrictions, the addition of collectible attributes such as ‘Signed By’, ‘Collectible Edition’, and ‘Dust Jacket Condition’, and the launch of Offer Specific Images.

For more information regarding listing “Collectible” books and the above mentioned features, see the Collectible Books Condition Guidelines and our pages on Collectible Books: Listing Attributes and Images. To request approval to create “Collectible” book listings on Amazon.com, please see the Collectible Books Requirements.

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We wish to thank booksellers on Amazon.com for the thoughtful feedback you have provided about the new Collectible Books category. Seller feedback has helped us to shape the requirements for selling in the category and to refine the listing features available to approved sellers. We will continue to review our requirements and introduce new features over time as we work to enhance the customer experience in the Amazon.com Rare & Collectible Books store.

If you have comments or suggestions about changes to our Collectible Books category, please write to collectible-books-feedback@amazon.com.

Thank you for selling on Amazon.com.