Selling Books on Amazon – What It’s Really Like (The Inside Scoop)

Have you ever thought about selling books on Amazon? It’s a flexible work-from-home business that can be lucrative (if you do it well!) I had a business selling books on Amazon FBA and will share the inside scoop on the good, the bad, and the annoying, so you can see if it’s for you!

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

If you’re new to Amazon FBA, you might want to start here: How Does Amazon FBA Work: Everything You Need to Know to Run Your Business.

How I Started Selling Books on Amazon

A couple years ago, I wanted to dip my toe into selling books on Amazon. Even though I started and ran a successful catering business and bakery, I was new to having an online business. I didn’t want to invest thousands of dollars into an Amazon business and then find out I didn’t like it.

So before I bought a single used book to sell…

I scanned every single book in our house!

Kids’ books, adult books, fiction, poetry, cookbooks, you name it.

I realized how many books you have to scan before you find winners. Out of all the books in our house, four ended up being profitable enough to sell.

The thing is, if you find four profitable books in a store, you will buy up all the copies of those books.

Then what many Amazon sellers do is drive to the other locations of that store and buy up all the copies of those books too.

Yes it’s another trip, but well worth it as you have already done the scanning part and know these books are profitable on Amazon.

Related reading: How to Make Money on Amazon FBA – Lessons From a 6-Figure Amazon Seller

Selling Books On Amazon: What You Need

A scanning app for selling on Amazon

There are lots of Amazon scanning apps out there you can use.

I tried a few of them:

Camel camel camel

Profit Bandit

Amazon Seller App

The Amazon Seller app was my favorite. It’s connected directly to your Amazon seller account which is awesome. It’s a free app and is pretty simple to use (there’s a bit of a learning curve with all the scanning apps).

What you need to know (this is SUPER important) is how profitable the book you’re scanning could be.

Just because a book looks great, sounds popular, unique, or you just have a good feeling about it, means boo-all.

You need to know with actual numbers, the profit you would make on that book after Amazon’s selling fees are subtracted for selling that item.

Find out how much it costs to sell on Amazon here: Amazon FBA seller fees.

Shipping boxes for selling books on Amazon

When I started selling books on Amazon, I didn’t even spend money on shipping boxes right away! I had a good stash of (ahem, Amazon) boxes stored up. Because when you become an adult you have to save the really good boxes.

So at first I used the large, strong boxes I had around the house to ship books to Amazon.

When I ran out of those boxes, I bought packs of boxes from Amazon (to then be shipping back to Amazon…I know, so meta).

These boxes are strong and a good price.

Persistence to be successful at selling books on Amazon

Selling books on Amazon is just like selling toys on Amazon or selling electronics on Amazon in one important way – it is a numbers game.

You have to scan A LOT of items to find books or clothing or toys that will be profitable to sell and not a waste of money. If you scanned 10 books and found 1 sellable one that would be lucky.

You might have scanning days that are discouraging. Maybe you scanned entire shelves of books and only found one or two sellable used books. Persistence is SO important with selling on Amazon.

Kind of like in Finding Nemo, this needs to be your motto: “Just keep scanning, just keep scanning…”

You could be a scan away from finding a REALLY profitable book to sell on Amazon!

Confidence

You have to have a very specific type of confidence to be successful selling books on Amazon. Or selling any used products on Amazon for that matter.

If you are using the retail arbitrage method of sourcing products (what I used when I sold books on Amazon), you will be scanning items in stores.

Retail arbitrage means buying new or used goods and then selling them somewhere else (ie. Amazon) for a profit.

It’s perfectly legal to scan items, but in some stores you will stick out.

Most people will completely ignore you. Some people will stare; over time you’ll probably get asked a question or two.

If you’re totally shy and don’t like sticking out at all in public, retail arbitrage for selling books on Amazon is probably not for you.

I didn’t always love standing out while I was scanning books for resale – you can read my selling on Amazon FBA review here.

On the other hand, if you are sourcing products online then you don’t need this kind of confidence because you won’t be standing out in public!

What you need instead is the knowledge of how to find and source profitable products online. The best tool I have found that does this is Jungle Scout.

Jungle Scout gives you everything you need to find a product, source it from a supplier, list it on Amazon, and start selling. It’s seriously amazing! They also offer private trainings so your Amazon business will be successful.

Jungle Scout even offers a risk-free 7-day money-back guarantee so there is zero risk to try it out! My link here even gives you a special discount if you want to continue past the 7 days.

The Secret to Finding Profitable Books to Sell on Amazon

Selling books on Amazon for a killer ROI isn’t about luck.

Sure, occasionally you might luck out and happen on a really great deal on a book that will be super profitable. But you don’t want to rely only on luck because you don’t know when that’s going to happen to you again.

If you are serious about making money selling books on Amazon, you need this course which will teach you how to source inventory, the most profitable book categories, and much more.

It is a steal of a price and it will teach you exactly how to find the best books to sell on Amazon.

Grab the course here:

I need this!

Selling Books on Amazon Using Online Arbitrage

An alternative to retail arbitrage (which is what I did – scanning in person in stores), is using online arbitrage.

Online arbitrage is a method you really shouldn’t try on your own.

You’ll make so many mistakes and waste lots of time (and probably money).

It is not as simple as scanning physical books in stores and calculating profit margins.

But there is a course you can take that will quickly teach you the secrets to sourcing books online using software.

If you like the idea of selling books on Amazon, without ever having to leave your home to scan books, this course is for you.

The Best Course to Learn How to Sell on Amazon

So here is the scoop:

My favorite course for Amazon sellers was discontinued. At first I was bummed, because I loved the course and was comfortable recommending it.

I don’t like recommending just any old thing when it comes to Amazon courses or anything I recommend on The Curious Frugal. I do a TON of research and wanted to find something I liked at least as much to recommend to you.

And now I’m so happy to share Jungle Scout with you – it’s an amazing resource that I believe all Amazon sellers should invest in if they want to be successful. And it’s actually even better than the one I used to recommend.

It’s a no-brainer and affordable for everyone at only $29/month for the basic plan. And even the basic plan includes their Academy Training, which is a comprehensive Amazon seller course.

Jungle Scout Academy includes everything you need to know to sell on Amazon. There are video trainings by Amazon experts and successful Amazon sellers. The videos are bite-sized (most are less than 10 minutes each) and you can learn what you want when you want.

This course is really a steal, especially as it’s included with the other features of Jungle Scout, like the Opportunity Finder, product tracker, keyword tool, and more.

Find out all about Jungle Scout and sign up here

Of course I want to learn from Amazon experts!

Good luck friends with your business selling books on Amazon! And more than luck, learn everything you can from people who are farther along than you. That’s the key to success in selling on Amazon, and just about anything out there!

And if you love reading, I have an awesome post for you! Here are 11 legit ways to get paid to read books!