Q&A: How can I sell books on Amazon.com without ISBNs
QUESTION: I recently read your book "The Home Based Bookstore." I'm already to start selling my books on Amazon. Unfortunately, all of the books that I have collected are very old. Amazon requires an ISBN number for every item they list without exception. How do I get started?
ANSWER: If you have a big collection of older books, you're likely to have some real gems in there. But some of the books might not be worth anything -- just because a book is old doesn't necessarily mean there's any demand for it.
Most books published before the 1970s don't have an ISBN. So of course you won't be able to look them up in Amazon's catalog in the usual way -- by typing in the ISBN.
To look up these older books on Amazon, you'll have to do an "advanced search," typing in the book title and author name. The link for the advanced search on Amazon is here.
This is certainly a much more tedious process than just typing in the ISBN. But it will probably be well worth your effort, since some of your books may be scarce, and worth a nice sum. Sometimes you'll be able to find the book in Amazon's catalog simply by typing in only the first few words of the title and just the author's last name.
With older books like this, it's likely that some of them won't be in Amazon's catalog. In that case, you can create a product page on Amazon for the book yourself. After you've entered the book into Amazon's catalog, then you can go to that page and list your copy for sale. This is an even more tedious process, but as I said, some of your books could be quite valuable, so it may be worth the time and effort.
Here are the links to Amazon's help sections for creating a product page.
This page gives an overview of process. And here is where you start to actually create a product page.
One caveat, though: Amazon only allows "Pro-Merchant Subcribers" to create catalog pages, and the subscription costs $40 a month. Since you say you're just getting started selling, you may not have made the decision yet to be a Pro-Merchant subscriber. If you are going to sell books regularly on Amazon, then this $40 fee is worth it, since it eliminates the 99-cent fee customarily charged on Marketplace sales to part-time sellers. So if you sell 40 books per month, the savings will pay for the subscription fee. If you're not ready to decide about this yet, you should probably put aside the books you can't find that are already in the catalog, and save them for later if you decide to become a Pro-Merchant.
Here's the link on Amazon for more info on the Pro-Merchant subscription.
Also, for books that don't show up on Amazon's catalog, you should do a bit of research to try to get an idea on their value, before listing them for sale. The fastest way to do this is to enter the title/author name on the AddAll search engine at this link.
For the vast majority of books, you'll be able to find listings for them using this AddAll search engine. Most of the results you find will be listings from used bookshops and dealers who sell online through listing services such as Advanced Book Exchange (abe.com) and Alibris, but not on Amazon.
The reason it's so important to look for other listings on AddAll is that you don't want to price your book too low on Amazon. For example, let's say you enter a book into AddAll and you find three listings for that book. Two are priced at $50 and one is priced at $80. Then you should list it on Amazon at $80 or $100. Or you could even list it at a higher price, and if it didn't sell after six months, you could lower the price if you wish.
When I first started selling books online, a few times I made the mistake of not researching the prices of old books online. In one case, I listed a book for sale for $5 simply because I was too tired to look up the market price on AddAll. The book sold immediately, and I found out it was really worth $25. So another minute or two of work would have made me $20.
So listing these old books will be a very tedious, time-consuming process, but it will likely pay off in the end. Good luck in your selling!
ANSWER: If you have a big collection of older books, you're likely to have some real gems in there. But some of the books might not be worth anything -- just because a book is old doesn't necessarily mean there's any demand for it.
Most books published before the 1970s don't have an ISBN. So of course you won't be able to look them up in Amazon's catalog in the usual way -- by typing in the ISBN.
To look up these older books on Amazon, you'll have to do an "advanced search," typing in the book title and author name. The link for the advanced search on Amazon is here.
This is certainly a much more tedious process than just typing in the ISBN. But it will probably be well worth your effort, since some of your books may be scarce, and worth a nice sum. Sometimes you'll be able to find the book in Amazon's catalog simply by typing in only the first few words of the title and just the author's last name.
With older books like this, it's likely that some of them won't be in Amazon's catalog. In that case, you can create a product page on Amazon for the book yourself. After you've entered the book into Amazon's catalog, then you can go to that page and list your copy for sale. This is an even more tedious process, but as I said, some of your books could be quite valuable, so it may be worth the time and effort.
Here are the links to Amazon's help sections for creating a product page.
This page gives an overview of process. And here is where you start to actually create a product page.
One caveat, though: Amazon only allows "Pro-Merchant Subcribers" to create catalog pages, and the subscription costs $40 a month. Since you say you're just getting started selling, you may not have made the decision yet to be a Pro-Merchant subscriber. If you are going to sell books regularly on Amazon, then this $40 fee is worth it, since it eliminates the 99-cent fee customarily charged on Marketplace sales to part-time sellers. So if you sell 40 books per month, the savings will pay for the subscription fee. If you're not ready to decide about this yet, you should probably put aside the books you can't find that are already in the catalog, and save them for later if you decide to become a Pro-Merchant.
Here's the link on Amazon for more info on the Pro-Merchant subscription.
Also, for books that don't show up on Amazon's catalog, you should do a bit of research to try to get an idea on their value, before listing them for sale. The fastest way to do this is to enter the title/author name on the AddAll search engine at this link.
For the vast majority of books, you'll be able to find listings for them using this AddAll search engine. Most of the results you find will be listings from used bookshops and dealers who sell online through listing services such as Advanced Book Exchange (abe.com) and Alibris, but not on Amazon.
The reason it's so important to look for other listings on AddAll is that you don't want to price your book too low on Amazon. For example, let's say you enter a book into AddAll and you find three listings for that book. Two are priced at $50 and one is priced at $80. Then you should list it on Amazon at $80 or $100. Or you could even list it at a higher price, and if it didn't sell after six months, you could lower the price if you wish.
When I first started selling books online, a few times I made the mistake of not researching the prices of old books online. In one case, I listed a book for sale for $5 simply because I was too tired to look up the market price on AddAll. The book sold immediately, and I found out it was really worth $25. So another minute or two of work would have made me $20.
So listing these old books will be a very tedious, time-consuming process, but it will likely pay off in the end. Good luck in your selling!
posted by Steve Weber at 1/16/2006
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