By now you probably know how much i enjoy talking about making money on Amazon.
There is definitely a few different ways to do it.
Today i want to show you how to make money selling books on amazon.
Now, i haven’t had too much experience selling books on the Amazon platform but…
I do know somebody that does…
I’ve been following someone called Elliot for a little while now, he looks to have started an online business in a similar way to me.
Currently, he still has a full time job but he makes extra money each month selling books on Amazon.
I thought this would be a perfect fit for a blog post, someone that may well be in the same position you are in…
Elliot kindly agreed to contribute this guest post to help you guys learn more about selling books.
How I Started Selling Books On Amazon FBA
My name is Elliott aka @fbajourney, I’m 27 years old and I’m from Brighouse – West Yorkshire in The U.K.
As well as selling books part time on Amazon I’m a full-time Head of Department for Physical Education in a secondary school (In Leeds).
I have been selling used books on Amazon now for over three years.
The reason I started to get into selling online was because I knew as well as teaching I had to fulfill my desire for making an additional stream of income.
The thought of one job dictating my rent, car and food bills frightened me enough to take action and get started…
Selling on Amazon initially began when I came across Gary Vaynerchuk’s podcast.
On the podcast he spoke about earning an extra income and reducing the amount of hours spent watching TV, scrolling through Instagram.
It encouraged me to look at how i could be more productive with my time.
He dropped ‘Amazon FBA’ a few times into the conversation and i was instantly very intrigued.
I had no idea what Amazon FBA was all about and if i’d be able to get into it.
Immediately after the talk I began YouTubing everything and reading around the subject.
I figured out that Amazon FBA – ‘Fulfilment by Amazon’ refers to Amazon’s sophisticated network of fulfillment warehouses.
In simple terms, Amazon will handle the fulfillment side of your business (for a cost of course).
When a buyer purchases your product online Amazon pack it, ship it and deal with all those admin tasks we really don’t want to do.
In a nutshell, once the book leaves my home I don’t have to touch or deal with it again.
This suited my busy lifestyle and full time employment.
In addition to this Amazon FBA sellers like myself also receive the ‘PRIME’ badge for their products.
Data tells us buyers prefer this option, this instantly makes my products more attractive to amazon customers.
To add a cherry on the top, Amazon FBA also offer international listings.
This means that you can store your products in the UK but the marketplace opens up to Spain, France, Italy, Germany and soon to be Netherlands.
Essentially, your target audience increases by millions, all thanks to Amazon’s market reach.
Amazon will literally pick, pack and send your items all over the world.
With this information I got £50 together and went out to local charity shops.
I bought random books along with a few board games and sent these into Amazon FBA.
I still remember my first sale like it was yesterday…
It was a used Monopoly Yorkshire Edition board game and it sold for £40, I only bought it for £2.50!
I was instantly hooked and the rest; as cliché as it sounds, is history.
That is when I decided to document my journey of re-selling on my Instagram – @fbajourney
I did this to demonstrate to ‘working’ people that it is possible to earn an extra income even with a full-time job.
On here I go through everything from sourcing, to packing, to day to day hurdles you may come across.
How To Start An Amazon Book Selling Business
Some tips to start, download the free Amazon Seller App.
Start scanning everything with a barcode in your house.
Books, toys, board games, video games etc and get familiar with the platform.
This app allows you to find out how much each book or product is worth, the sales rank (lower sales rank means the more often it sells) and how many sellers are on the listing.
Specific books to keep an eye out for are non-fiction, including academia, photography, art, history, cooking and niche books…
Scan everything on the shelves and do not leave a book behind, you never know, you may come across a diamond in the rough.
One book can change your whole day…
Big tip: there are roughly 19 million books in total on Amazon, my aim would be to buy books within the top 2% of that category.
But that’s just me…
I like quick cash flow and to have books being sent in and sold as quickly as possible.
Also start an Instagram page! You might have one already but consider creating a business specific one.
Follow other Amazon sellers in the industry.
The tips out there and value you can absorb is significant…
People are always willing to help those who need it, it’s a great community to be a part of.
Also, Keep your expenses down.
You don’t need to pay for services such as re-pricing software when you’re beginning or spending money on cardboard boxes.
Think thrifty…. Where could you get FREE cardboard boxes from to send your products in?
Another tip, source online also known as OA (online arbitrage).
Buying books or products doesn’t always have to be from charity shops or retail stores.
Check out Shpock, FB marketplace or gumtree.
If you finish your day job after 5pm it doesn’t matter anymore, you can still work and source from home.
You can even buy books from merchant sellers from Amazon (sellers who store their own books) and flip them back onto Amazon but under FBA for more money.
FBA essentially has its own market so you can charge more than merchant sellers.
Books sometimes cost as little as £0.25p yet the ROI is one of the best in the game…
Plus, your bank account won’t feel so bad when you’ve just bought 10 books for £5 rather than £100 on 10 toys.
With over 3 years selling experience on Amazon, i decided to create an eBook.
I have collated an 10pages of tips/rules for growing a successful FBA book business…
Nearly 300 people have bought it so far.
To get the e-book simply message me on Instagram – @fbajourney.
Is Selling Books On Amazon Worth It?
Selling books on Amazon is definitely worth it however that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a few hurdles to get to this point.
When I first started out I bought every book I laid my eyes on without a thought for the sales rank and how many sellers were selling the same copy.
My mind-set was just to bulk buy and hope for the best.
Surely if I had thousands of books I’d make thousands? Oh i was very wrong.
I learnt the hard way by receiving a 12 months long-term storage fee from Amazon.
Amazon are a selling business not a storage business…
I instantly changed my business model to more of a ‘cherry picker’ style and only selected the best books that confirmed were selling frequently and the competition was not so saturated.
If I was starting out again I would definitely recommend only buying books that come up on your phone as profitable and illustrate a reasonable turn around.
I start sourcing books on a Saturday and it takes 5-6 hours travelling around each town.
I then come home to price them up.
This takes 1 hour and then I put them into a box to ship out which takes another 30 minutes.
Amazon FBA can label your products for you if you’d prefer – this of course saves time.
I also spend roughly 1 hour every 3 weeks re-pricing and taking care of admin. And that’s it…
Selling Books On Amazon Vs eBay
In terms of selling books on Amazon vs eBay, Amazon is the winner in my opinion.
First of all, Amazon gives a specific sales rank for each book as well as already made images, specifications and descriptions.
This ultimately means all you have to do is condition the book and price it.
Done. End of.
No photos required, no effort in preparing the book.
And just an FYI, Jeff Bezos started Amazon by selling books…
Kind of makes sense to sell what essentially made Amazon what it is today.
I’m a one-man operation and my monthly product sales range between £1300-£2500.
Please don’t get confused though, these certainly aren’t my profit numbers…
There are a few people on Instagram that post their Amazon product sales and they are significantly higher however they may only be making £10 profit on a £100 toy for instance.
Another reason why I prefer to deal with books…
They are super cheap to buy but the minimum profit I’ll look to make is £5.
The best flip I’ve ever made is buying a used fashion book for £1.99 and flipping it in the Spanish marketplace for €243.
I now spend roughly £400 on buying books each month but this is solely taken from the business.
It may seem a lot of money, but I only started with £50 a month.
Things have just snowballed to the point i’m now at.
I am so grateful that sales have grown year on year and that I have now fine-tuned my Amazon business to suit my lifestyle.
However, I am weirdly never satisfied and believe you should aim to become 1% better every day.
With that said, because education and helping others is truly at the heart of what I do, the next goal is to empower and inspire as many people as possible to start making a side income.
I now run a successful FBA Beginners Mentoring Programme that allows anyone to start with zero knowledge to actually generating money from Amazon.
This, together with my e-book and free content on my Instagram account – @fbajourney, will hopefully save people the most precious asset we all have – time.
Thanks for reading, if you have any questions get in touch on my Instagram (link above).
Elliot
FBA Journey
Concluding Thoughts – Why Selling Books On Amazon Is A Good Way To Start
You should now know how to make money selling books on amazon…
I really hope you’ve found it useful, i thought speaking to Elliot would be great for anyone thinking about different selling methods.
Elliot and I both started our business in the same way…
We both had full time jobs, as did my business partners Sam and Ed.
If you have got a limited amount of start up capital selling books could be a great way to build up your bank roll.
There are a lot of different ways to make money selling on amazon.
You just need to be willing to put in the work…
If you have any questions for Elliot, i’d encourage you to follow him on Instagram and send him questions.
He will be more than happy to help you out.
Full disclosure, i haven’t purchased Elliot’s eBook myself but if his free information is anything to go by i bet it’s worth while investment.
I’m going to keep my eye on Elliot and his progress, we may well get together soon to record a video for the YouTube channel.
If you haven’t done so already, i’d recommend subscribing and turning on that notifications bell.
This way you won’t risk missing out…
We are committed to dropping useful videos every single week, link to channel: eBusiness Boss YouTube Channel
Thanks for stopping by the blog…
Keep your eyes peeled for more useful content, you know it’s coming soon.
Nick
eBusiness Boss
