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Dear Edith Reynolds:
Thank you for editing the Bookologist site.
I just finished reading your article on the three top-tier online bookselling venues. But after reading it, I am left with the same fundamental questions I had before I read it: Which site will be most profitable for me to list my books on? Why do some sellers prefer one to the other?
What I did get from the article was just a round up of what I already learned from spending a few minutes checking the individual web sites and their selling instructions.
Do you think in the future you might be able to offer any help evaluating these sites beyond what we can learn at the sites themselves? And perhaps including feedback from sellers who have used all three of the sites?
Or would you rather not get into offering helpful evaluations and opinions because you fear offending your web site advertisers such as ABE? I can well imagine how that might be of concern to you.
Best wishes,
David Ciaffardini
Oceano, California
Thank you for your letter. Answering it poses some difficulty but not because we fear offending Web advertisers. Bookologist was created to help booksellers and provide information. Advertisers choose to buy space on our site because we have a large audience that fits their target profile to a "T".
We began by introducing an overview for a variety of sites that are both large and small. There are many other sites that I left out simply because including them all would be overwhelming. As a newsletter, our articles have to be shorter and more to the point and thus my choice to begin with an overview to get our feet wet. After the holidays, Hannes Blum has agreed to an interview about the new Abe.com changes. Kate Lindemann of ChooseBooks.com has agreed to give us the inside scoop about their first year in business and a glimpse at the behind-the-scenes action of a selling venue.
Picking the perfect site for our readers is nearly impossible simply because it is a subjective topic. Some sites are better suited for mass-market sales because of the enormity of buyers attracted to the site; some are more amenable to attracting sales for very high-end items. And some are so new they haven't had a chance to earn a track record.
Booksellers are a diverse lot. Some are more interested in saving up-front costs; others choose to spread their costs through volume. My choices for our books came from a mixture of dealer recommendations and a bit of gambling. Much of what I learned that was new came from discussions during book fairs but this past year I had the opportunity to see sales patterns for other dealers through my involvement with American Booksellers.
American Booksellers is an e-fulfillment warehouse my husband, brother-in-law, and I developed. As it turns out, no two of our customers are alike both personally and inventory-wise. Some have thousands of books, some only hundreds. Some specialize in rare items or specific topics; some only have newer ISBN books. One customer lists only with Alibris, others use services unfamiliar to me. What I have observed is that no matter how many books or what kind of books a dealer is selling, choosing the right sales venue makes them equal in terms of book turnover.
Your question seems to be: how do I determine what is best for me?
Ask yourself a few questions.
How many books do you have listed for sale? Larger inventories may benefit more from sites that only take a percentage of sales rather than a fee based on the size of the database.
How much are you willing to spend for the cost of doing business? Measure the fees for each of the services and see if the number of sales they generate warrants how much you share in the profit.
Are your books specialized or rare? Rarities will be found by avid collectors no matter what site they are on. Run of the mill books need the volume an Amazon or Alibris can offer.
If your books are geared to a college or scholarly crowd, go with a service that advertises on campuses.
Rest assured, this topic is not over. I recently participated in a survey done by Susan Siegel of Book Hunter Press who is trying to corral information in a more scientific way and she has agreed to share her findings with us when they are complete. She anticipates this will be a tremendous job and will take some time but if you are familiar with the Book Hunter Guides Susan and her husband put out you will understand how useful the information will be once it is put into a final format.
Stick with us meanwhile and if you have specific questions about your own needs, share them either here or in our forums. We have a large family of helpful sellers who are friendly and giving.
Edith
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