Selling Books Yourself on Amazon.com

By Steve Weber, Author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Sales for Authors

Big publishers depend on distributors to get their books into the hands of retailers. But self-publishing authors have more options. They can sell books on their Web site, or even sell copies as a third-party vendor on Amazon Marketplace.

You'll pay Amazon a commission of 15 percent and a few miscellaneous fees. That's a pretty good deal, if you consider your exposure on Amazon as free advertising to the world's largest group of book buyers. You don't pay anything until your books sell. Compare this to the nickel-and-diming you'll suffer when working with a chain of wholesalers and distributors -- by the time these middlemen each take their cut, publishers are lucky to be left with 30 percent of their book's original cover price.

Another important advantage of handling the sales yourself is access to customer information. If you're willing to handle the fulfillment, you'll receive buyer information, such as name, shipping address, and e-mail addresses. This can be an important part of building your business. With a list of customers, you can sell a line of related books or upsell customers to more expensive items, like seminars and consulting services. However, when you let Amazon or other retailers fulfil the sales, you won't know who is buying your books.

Anyone with a U.S. bank account can open an Amazon seller account to list copies of their books for sale. You can also sell remaindered copies, hurts, and used books on Marketplace. Amazon handles payment collection and fraud prevention. Funds are deposited to your bank account in about a week, and sellers receive a shipping credits to help cover mailing costs. If you prefer, you can take your proceeds in the form of an Amazon Gift Certificate.

Sellers pay Amazon a 15 percent commission on Marketplace sales, a miscellaneous fee of $1.23 plus a 99-cent "closing" fee. However, the 99-cent closing fee is waived if you become an "Pro-Merchant" subscriber, which costs $39.99 monthly. If you sell more than 40 books per month, the subscription pays for itself, and if you sell lots of books, the savings multiply. Having a Pro-Merchant subscription also gives you access to bulk listing and inventory tools that can help automate your bookkeeping.

The Pro-Merchant Subscription fee is assessed once a month, beginning on the date your subscription begins. It can be charged against any sales you have completed. Also, there's a promotional price of $19.99 per month during the first two months of your subscription. If you go Pro-Merchant and later decide it was a mistake, you can always cancel the subscription. At that point you'll have the option of keeping your listings open and continuing to sell as a non-subscriber.

One other benefit of being a Pro-Merchant: You have the ability to add book detail pages to Amazon's catalog. This would allow you, for example, to list your self-published book on Amazon without depending on the services of a self-publishing company. You could even list your book for sale if it doesn't have an ISBN.

If you’re ready to get started with Amazon, here’s where to sign up:

www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161232

Steve Weber is author of "The Home-Based Bookstore." For more information, see:
www.weberbooks.com/selling/selling.htm