Selling new books

Selling new books on an Internet marketplace is a tough, low-margin business due to the aggressive discounting by Amazon of 30 to 40 percent for popular titles in recent years. Normally the biggest dis-count you’ll be able to get on new books from a wholesaler is around 45 percent. That leaves little room to cover costs like returns, lost packages, damaged books, and other mishaps.

But this business model can work, and there are several sellers who sell thousands of the latest bestsellers right on Amazon Marketplace, just a few cents under Ama-zon’s price. Of course Amazon gets the vast majority of the sales because of their name brand and free shipping offers. But some buyers will choose the Marktplace seller for a single item since standard shipping is $3.49 versus $3.99 from Amazon.

With such a small profit margin on the top best-sellers, some sellers of new books opt not to compete with the most popular bestsellers. Instead, these sellers search for steady sellers in the 100,000 Amazon sales rank range that are not heavily discounted.

Unfortunately several Amazon Marketplace vendors have been known to “game” the system without actually having the books on hand. Only after the customer orders does the seller place an order with his wholesaler. This leads to shipping delays at best, and as a result the feed-back ratings of these sellers are usually horrible. These sellers cancel many Marketplace orders when the book becomes unavailable through their wholesaler, which irri-tates customers and casts a pall on the online shopping experience. Sellers advertising an item for sale should have it on hand for immediate shipment.

The following is a listing of new book wholesalers who service retailers.
Ingram Book Co. of Nashville is the largest U.S. wholesaler to independent book dealers, serving about 9,000 retailers including Amazon itself. With five regional warehouses, Ingram manages next-day delivery to nearly every address in the United States.

If you want to expand your sales potential by adding new books to your inventory, your first step should be to call an Ingram representative at 800-937-0152. The com-pany will want to know if bookselling is your primary busi-ness. If so, you may be eligible to establish an account. If not, it would be necessary for you to purchase at least $5,000 in inventory annually. Initial orders must be for at least 100 books or a wholesale value of $500 or more.

To be eligible for an account with Ingram or most other wholesalers you will need to provide your resale certificate or tax exemption certificate number, which you should obtain from your state’s tax department.

If more than half of your offerings are Christian books, Ingram will probably want to refer you to its Spring Arbor Distributors unit, which can be accessed on the Web at springarbor.com or 800-395-5599.

Baker & Taylor of Bridgewater, N.J., is the pri-mary alternative to Ingram. Baker & Taylor carries more titles than Ingram, but is more oriented toward schools and libraries.

The other major book wholesalers serving U.S. booksellers include:

Academic Book Center. Portland Ore.
800-547-7704
www.acbc.com

Ambassador Book Service. Hempstead, N.Y.
800-431-8913
www.absbook.com

Blackwell’s Book Services. Blackwood, N.J.
800-257-7341
www.blackwell.com

Bookazine Corp. Bayonne, N.J.
800-221-8112
www.bookazine.com

DeVorss and Company. Marina del Rey, Calif.
800-772-4304
www.devorss.com

The distributors. South Bend, Ind.
800-348-5200
www.thedistributors.com

Sunbelt Publications, El Cajon, Calif.
800-626-6579
www.subbeltpub.com




New in paperback: The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site (by Steve Weber)