Finally, a romance novel worth investing in...

I remember early on in my online bookselling career, when I happened upon a huge crate of mint-condition Harlequin romance paperbacks priced at 10 cents apiece. I bought the whole lot, and thought I'd just won the lottery!

Some of those books sold for a few dollars, but most of them collected dust. Overall, I decided the whole experience was a pain in the butt, and I've never bought another romance novel since.

But that doesn't mean you can't make money selling romance, if you know what you're doing. Just because a book is mass-market fiction doesn't mean it's not a collectible -- or that it won't be someday.

Take, for example, this new book by Jayne Ann Krentz, White Lies. It's No. 4 on the New York Times' hardcover fiction list and at about 500 in Amazon Sales Rank.

Krentz isn't your run-of-the-mill romance novelist, her forte is paranormal tales. And because she's unique, her fans just love to collect her books. If you can get to your local Barnes & Noble or any other shop this weekend and find a First Printing of her new one, I'd snatch it. Don't bother buying on Amazon, they're probably stocking the third of fourth printing by now.

Here's why I'm going out on a limb about this book: Take a look at the Marketplace used prices for her previous books. Many of the paperbacks are selling for more than $150. And check this out: someone has a reading copy listed for $4,300. Holy Moly!

Now, how much will a First Edition of White Lies be worth 20 years from now? It's anyone's guess. Much of it will depend on the size of the First Printing, and I have no idea about that. But who knows, maybe Ms. Krentz will come to your town for a bookstore appearance this spring, and you could get your copy signed.

Krentz has written using several pseudonyms, so you might want to check those too. She writes historical romances using the pen name Amanda Quick, and she's also written some futuristic romance using her given name, Jayne Castle. She says she uses the different names to give her readers a quick idea as to what type of book it will be.

Q&A: Can I revive my online bookselling with signed books?

QUESTION: I have been buying books and listing them on Amazon for about six weeks now. I love the business but am in a lull period. I have sold 23 in the past month but none in the last five days. I primarily buy at Goodwill stores and I've found some gems. I also find many books that seem like interesting, possible good sellers but turn it turns out Marketplace has 200-odd listings starting at 1 cent.

Now I have about 130 books listed but nothing is selling. Should I be concerned? Should I continue to buy and trust that books will eventually sell?

Also, is a book signed by the author usually a good purchase?

ANSWER: To keep your sales going, you must add new listings constantly. That's because you inevitably end up with a certain percentage of books that never sell. If you quit listing new books, most of your attractive books sell, and sales dry up. The longer you sell, the more duds you end up with, and eventually have to get rid of.

If you haven't checked your prices lately, you might have been undercut by other sellers. In that case you'd need to come close to their price to maintain your visibility on Amazon's page, if you want to sell the book soon. Be careful about lowering the price of your expensive books. But for the cheapies, you've got to come close to the lowest price -- the bargain shoppers tend to grab the first thing they see.

Also, you may want to try some additional places to find books beyond Goodwill, like library sales and estate sales. You're fortunate to find anything in a Goodwill in my opinion -- the ones near me have been picked clean to the bone.

About autographed books: I've never gone out of my way to find signed books, but I've ended up with quite a few. The best one was a book I paid 25 cents for that turned out to be signed by Eleanor Roosevelt (but it wasn't a book she had written).

I've seen both sides of the coin. I've had lots of autographed books where there was no demand and I could never sell it. On the other hand I've gotten lots of autographed books where the signature added some value to the book. But none of my signed books were a case where the signature added much collectible value to the book. Amazon isn't a good place to sell collectible books, not yet at least. I hope that will change.

So in a nutshell, look for a book that's already a strong seller. Then the signature will be worth something.