Book Review: Selling Used Books Online
Subtitle: The Complete Guide to Bookselling At Amazon's Marketplace And Other Online Sites
Author: Stephen Windwalker
Overview
Selling Used Books (often referred to as "The Windwalker Book") is a soup-to-nuts guide to getting involved in the online bookselling business. Books such as these can easily fall into trap: they can become boring compilations of lists, quick-to-stale screenshots or rigid how-to lists. Windwalker is able to avoid all of these traps while still maintaining to-the-point details and insights into the costs and profits available with online selling.
Content
The content is typical of the genre; there are chapters about scouting sources, what type of books are easiest to sell and how to handle the business end of selling. The book hits in all areas, with great advice about where to find books, and detailed information about tax and paperwork issues. It's hard to give details without giving away the whole book, so I'll lay back on that. However, let's just say that this book literally saved us years worth of trial-and-error, and helped us come up with a focus for our book acquisition, order fulfillment systems and even the selling sites we use.
Tone
While filled with anecdotal experiences in the battlefield of online selling, Windwalker has found a balance between easy reading and hard data. One of the most important pages in any bookselling book is the page that provides a brief "spreadsheet" of expected income, sales volume and the related costs. This is an eye-opener, and will either get you excited or scare you away. Windwalker is clear about the rigors involved with online bookselling, and seems to want to raise the bar on the quality of sellers by providing good information.
Helpfulness
Um, this one is easy. This is one of the two most helpful books written about online bookselling, and is "required reading" for anyone serious enough about the business to open an Amazon account. If you are even *thinking* about online bookselling, Selling Used Books Online has to be in your library.
Conclusion
What else can I say about this? It's a pleasant read for a must-read bookselling book, and we can't recommend it more highly. Stephen's website is no longer available, but the book can be purchased on Amazon, eBay and most other venues. Just pull out the credit card and order the thing, OK?
Rating: 10 out of 10 (Get This Book!!!)
Author: Stephen Windwalker
Overview
Selling Used Books (often referred to as "The Windwalker Book") is a soup-to-nuts guide to getting involved in the online bookselling business. Books such as these can easily fall into trap: they can become boring compilations of lists, quick-to-stale screenshots or rigid how-to lists. Windwalker is able to avoid all of these traps while still maintaining to-the-point details and insights into the costs and profits available with online selling.
Content
The content is typical of the genre; there are chapters about scouting sources, what type of books are easiest to sell and how to handle the business end of selling. The book hits in all areas, with great advice about where to find books, and detailed information about tax and paperwork issues. It's hard to give details without giving away the whole book, so I'll lay back on that. However, let's just say that this book literally saved us years worth of trial-and-error, and helped us come up with a focus for our book acquisition, order fulfillment systems and even the selling sites we use.
Tone
While filled with anecdotal experiences in the battlefield of online selling, Windwalker has found a balance between easy reading and hard data. One of the most important pages in any bookselling book is the page that provides a brief "spreadsheet" of expected income, sales volume and the related costs. This is an eye-opener, and will either get you excited or scare you away. Windwalker is clear about the rigors involved with online bookselling, and seems to want to raise the bar on the quality of sellers by providing good information.
Helpfulness
Um, this one is easy. This is one of the two most helpful books written about online bookselling, and is "required reading" for anyone serious enough about the business to open an Amazon account. If you are even *thinking* about online bookselling, Selling Used Books Online has to be in your library.
Conclusion
What else can I say about this? It's a pleasant read for a must-read bookselling book, and we can't recommend it more highly. Stephen's website is no longer available, but the book can be purchased on Amazon, eBay and most other venues. Just pull out the credit card and order the thing, OK?
Rating: 10 out of 10 (Get This Book!!!)
posted by The Well Read Blogger at 9:24 PM
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