For this post I’ve decided to share a short story from a reader, Mike. With his permission I’m publishing it in it’s unedited entirety.

I’ve had a life-long love affair with books. I’ve read them, cherished them, collected them, and hoarded them for as long as I can remember. Now that I have entered the world of online book-selling, I wonder if that love affair is actually more of a curse than a blessing. I’ve loathed to give up books in the past. A family member who had my copy of “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” for so long that I nearly stopped talking to him had to buy me a new copy to re-open the lines of communication. How can someone so attached to books become someone who has to find a way to make money selling them for pennies?

I view this burgeoning venture as a side-business; something that will provide income, but also give me ownership. As a sure-to-be life-long resident of corporate America, I find myself wrestling with an inner entrepreneur. Nowhere near a point where I can exit the rat race without taking my wife and kids with me, online book-selling offers me a little company of my own. I have no illusions about growing this into a business that fully provides for me and my family. For me, this is something to help put a little cash in our bank account, allow me to Lose Weight Exercise my own entrepreneurial skills, and continue my intimate relationship with the written word.

Cleaning out the garage one day, my wife and I decided it was time to get rid of the boxes and containers of books that had been sitting in our garage for more than two years undisturbed. A couple of calls to local used bookstores revealed that there was to be no financial windfall from my collection. Why not sell them on my own, I thought? As long as I make some money, I’ll come out ahead. That one thought. That singular thought was like a snowflake falling on the side of a mountain. The flake rolled downhill, collecting momentum and other snowflakes, and soon, a one-time selling of my book collection became the opportunity I had been searching for.

My first step was to go through all of my books. I had several hundred sitting in containers and boxes in the garage. Many of them had boarding passes situated in between their pages, memories of flights taken and time passed happily reading. While the Lose Weight Exercise was wistful and nostalgic, at no point did I hold back or pull anything out. Everything must go.
Once entered into my inventory spreadsheet, I went to Amazon.com and signed up for my seller’s account. Coming up with a name was a fun Lose Weight Exercise. I settled on Rebound Books. A literary double entendre. I am now in the process of putting my books up for sale.

I have also begun searching for new books to add. I have read blogs and e-books and searched Google to find suppliers. I have signed up for mailing lists and reached out to friends and started accounts on Twitter and Facebook. There are days when I do nothing because I am scared and lack confidence. And there are days when I spend hours reading and learning. As long as the good days outnumber the bad days, I’ll forge ahead. I know I have a lot to learn. I can’t wait.

A real-world story that rings true for many booksellers [ 4:13 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (119)

The Story

This week, I’m going to change the style up a little bit to teach an important lesson.  I’m tired of the dry how to do this, how to do that, don’t do this instructional posts on how in succeed in your online book-selling business.  Let’s immerse ourselves in the life of an ordinary American consumer for a few minutes and see how the decisions that are made in this fictious story can be a strong lesson for building a successful book-selling business or any successful business for that matter.

Meet Alice.  Alice represents your run-of-the-mill, ordinary working a 9-5 job Monday through Friday kind of girl.  She’s an administrative assistant in a successful lawyer firm, single, 28, living in a one bedroom apartment and, for the most part, is happy with her life and her dog Sparky.  She’s content with her ordinary life, but always has a nagging feeling that she wants something more, something bigger, something sustaining that will allow her to have fulfillment in life, work hard (on her own terms), take modest vacations and to build a life that will sustain her until she decides to “retire”.

On her lunch hour, she’s always dreaming up new business ideas that may allow her the freedom to work her own hours, envision new products that will help others and ultimately build a highly successful business all on her own.  Alice is an aspiring entrepreneur and dreamer and hopes one day she can get the courage to fulfill her dreams of owning her own business and running the show.

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