Q&A: I'm fed up with Amazon. Where else can I sell my books?

QUESTION: I'm really upset that Amazon didn't raise its shipping credits to sellers after the recent Postal Service rate hike, like other selling venues did. The cut Amazon takes from sellers is high, but their regard for us is low. So I'm looking for alternatives. Should I list my books on Half.com, and is there a shortcut?

ANSWER: I'm with you. Amazon should raise shipping credits to sellers suffering from the postage increases. Unfortunately, Amazon's standard practice is to ignore input from Marketplace sellers. From first-hand experience, I know Amazon receives tips every day from sellers with ideas on improving its business and fixing the bugs on its site. The advice Amazon gets from its sellers is solid gold, yet it goes straight in the trash folder.

But I digress. Back to your question on alternatives:

Unfortunately, I can't recommend listing on Half.com right now. It used to be the major alternative to Amazon, but I think some big changes are in the works.

First, some background: A few years ago, eBay purchased Half.com. The strategy was to take a bite out of Amazon's share of fixed-price selling of books, CDs and videos. After all, most people buying a cheap book or video just want to buy it, without the hassle of bidding on an auction and checking back a week later to see if they've won.

After a while, eBay decided it no longer wanted to support Half, and tried to merge it into its main site by forcing Half sellers to open eBay stores. Sellers were given a few months' notice to relist all their books in Stores. This sparked a huge outcry, since most Half sellers didn't want to pay the fees for eBay stores. At the last minute, eBay backed down, and kept Half open. But eBay hasn't been promoting the site, and sales volume has withered.

Now, eBay has a better idea, it thinks. Shortly it will launch eBay Express, and this time, they're really going after Amazon's typical customer -- the buyer who just wants stuff, without thinking about auctions or PayPal.

Once Express is up and running in a few weeks, my hunch is eBay will finally kill off Half, although they flatly deny it. Today, I directly asked eBay's headquarters if they might close Half after the Express launch. Their response was:

We continue to value the Half.com marketplace, as do many members of our community, so we have no plans to phase it out.

Time will tell. But given the possibility that Half.com may be shuttered -- or at least continue its slide -- I wouldn't invest much time listing books there. Previously, high-volume Half sellers -- those with more than 5,000 listings -- could upload their inventory using a text file, but Half no longer allows it. To me, that says a lot.

Sure, if you can get a few sales there in the meantime without much effort, go ahead. I know some of the seller tools like Bookrouter can automate uploads to Half. But if you're not already paying a subscription for something like this, I wouldn't start now just to get listed on Half.

In the future, it's possible somebody else could buy the Half.com domain and revive the brand. But until someone with big bucks does it -- and can challenge both eBay and Amazon -- I'd wait until the dust settles.

And it's a shame. Half.com was a good alternative to Amazon until just recently, and I think competition is good. Hopefully, eBay will do a good job on this transition and create new opportunities. Unlike some, eBay does listen to sellers, so perhaps there is hope. Make no mistake, they are deadly serious about making a run on Amazon Marketplace's business, given their recent hiring of a Wal-Mart star to head their program. And that's exactly how Amazon got rolling a decade ago.

So, I'll be keeping my ears to the ground for the next few months, and you should too.