This query is a little confusing to me, because like, are you asking how to sell other people’s books on Amazon as a reseller, or are you asking how to self-publish your own books on Amazon? Are you asking about the selling books to Amazon for cash through the (now defunct) textbook buyback program? Amazon actually does not buy back books anymore, but there are workarounds of course!
Whatever you’re looking to do with books, we have covered all the options here. Hopefully one of these concepts will point you in the right direction!
In fact, I now have an entire website dedicated to the self-publishing process! Go on over to SelfPublishingChecklist.com, where we walk you step by step through the entire self-publishing process.
If you’re talking about selling other people’s books (like from a bookstore, yard sale, or thrift store), that is called reselling (or retail arbitrage) and that’s a whole different thing. I think the vast majority of people who are Googling “sell books on Amazon” are talking about their own books (i.e. self-publishing), but I did just want to provide comprehensive information to point you in the right direction, so here’s how you would go about that:
- Create an Amazon seller account: To start selling on Amazon, you need to create a seller account. You can either sign up for an individual account or a professional account. An individual account is free, but Amazon charges a fee for each item sold. A professional account costs $39.99 per month but has no per-item fee. Selling books is a great way to get started with reselling (also called “retail arbitrage”).
- Find books to sell. For this step, you’ll need to start with your own bookshelves, then hit thrift stores, garage/yard sales, and the clearance section of bookstores. Because of fees, you’re not going to be able to just buy full-price books from bookstores and sell the books on Amazon, so you’ll need to get creative with how and where to get the books that you’re selling.
- List books for sale: Once you have created your Amazon seller account, you can start listing your books for sale. You can list your books one at a time or in bulk by using Amazon’s seller tools.
- Set the price: When you list your book, you need to set a price. You can either set a fixed price or use Amazon’s pricing tools to set a competitive price based on the condition and demand for the book. Be sure to look at all of the fees involved and take into consideration the cost of postage or of shipping the books to Amazon when you set your price. Setting the price too low is the # 1 cause of losing money
- Fulfillment: You can either fulfill the orders yourself (this is called “merchant fulfillment) or use Amazon’s fulfillment service called Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). If you choose FBA, you send the books in to the Amazon fulfillment center, then Amazon handles the shipping, customer service, and returns for your orders.
- Receive payment: Once you have sold a book, Amazon will deposit the payment into your seller account. Amazon pays every two weeks for sales made during that period.
- Get customer feedback: Encourage customers to leave feedback on your seller account. Positive feedback can help increase sales and improve your seller reputation.
It’s also important to keep your inventory up-to-date and be responsive to customer inquiries and concerns. By following these steps and providing excellent customer service, you can successfully sell books on Amazon.
Oh, and just in case you’re curious, no– Amazon does not have a “buy back your books” program anymore. If you want to sell your textbooks on Amazon at this point, you would need to just do that on the seller marketplace, which I’ve outlined above.
Barnes & Noble DOES have a textbook buyback program, which you can find right here!
