If you want to sell books and eBooks online, there’s no doubt that you can turn it into a profitable business, part-time or full-time. Yes. You’ll face lots of competition, but there’s no doubt you can succeed and turn your bookselling business into a flourishing one.
You just have to do your research, plan well, and work hard at it. Fortunately, that’s what we’ve covered in this guide exactly.
Let’s begin.
Table of Contents
Selling Books & eBooks Online: What To Consider.
Did you know the annual print book unit sales in the U.S. alone was 675 million last year? That’s an impressive number.
The traditional books stores in the U.S. are showing a steady decline in revenue even though they still make around $10 billion each year. But that’s primarily due to large online retailers like Amazon.
But generally speaking, the decline is confined to the prominent book proposal. But there’s an increase in individual and independent bookstores.
So what are we driving at? Here’s what you need to consider:
- If you’re an entrepreneur, you can create commerce website for online bookstore and sell your books and eBooks. You can even sell them using eCommerce platforms like Shopify.
- If you’re a writer and can’t afford a publisher now, you can sell your eBooks through platforms like Amazon or Blurb.
- If you have tons of old or used textbooks, you can sell them online. These used books can be yours or from traditional stores or garage sales. You can sell the used books and make a profit on Amazon, Bookscouter, or bookdeal.com.
Let’s talk more about these points.
Create An Online Bookstore To Sell Your Books
If you’re a writer or an entrepreneur and want to sell your books or other people’s works, you have to decide how you’ll proceed. You can create an eCommerce store if you don’t prefer selling your books and eBooks via traditional online giants. So, you should create an online bookstore and sell your books and eBooks.
With a captivating and easy-to-navigate site, you can keep your potential customers on the side for a long time.
This significantly increases the likelihood of them buying your books. And because of that, it’s essential to invest time into developing a professional-looking and well-designed website.
It’s not advisable to create a store from an existing blog or add your books to a site already selling other products. You have to create something entirely different. That means getting a new domain and a website. If you’d like your online store to stand out from the rest, you can use tools like StoreBuilder from Nexcess to quickly and easily create a unique, custom storefront design for selling your books.
Incentivize Your Customers; Snoop, But Don’t Copy
Regardless of the eCommerce platform you choose, it’s important to give incentives to your customers. Even though you can snoop around and see what your competitors are doing, you shouldn’t copy. Just glean for inspiration.
Double-check the platform you choose whether you can set discounts for your sock. For example, let’s say you give 25% off if a customer buys several books from the same genre or author.
However, remember that major sites like Amazon offer discounts all the time, but you can’t since it’s a small store. So you need to be strategic about it.
If possible, you can run giveaways and competitions in addition to promotions and discounts. Plus, you can have events with authors to get customers from a particular geographical area. So if you can do it, go ahead. It’s a great way to incentivize people to buy your books.
Where To Sell Your Books & eBooks Online
If you don’t want to create your website, you can use bookselling sites that offer reasonable prices. If you plan on selling used or old books, use the following websites. You can get a good deal from them.
Best 5 Websites to Sell And Publish your eBooks
- Payhip
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publish
- Blurb
- Lulu
- Tradebit
Best 5 Websites To Sell Your Textbooks
- BookDeal.com
- AbeBooks
- Bookscouter
- TextbookRush.com
- Powell Books
These listed sites are good places to start with. If you want to sell your books, all you have to do is type in your book’s ISBN, choose your quote, and ship your textbooks. Then, when your package is processed, you get paid.
Conclusion
You can choose to create your online bookstore or use bookselling sites to sell your books and eBooks. But you have to decide which one works best for you. For example, if you’re planning on selling textbooks specifically, it’s better to use sites like Amazon or BookDeal.com instead of your website.
Also, you should do your research to know when it’s appropriate to sell your textbooks. In all, you should have a solid plan to make your business succeed.