News Update, A Friends of Libraries U.S.A. Publication
A wealth of information about the bookselling business, including descriptions of major online bookselling resources complete with detailed fee structures.

Rebecca Hanneman, About.com, October 2002
Thousands of book enthusiasts are selling books online. If you'd like to join their ranks, this book is a must-read.

from Bob Spear, Heartland Reviews, October 2002
Incredible business resource.... an experienced authority candidly describes the pitfalls and the realities of ... book dealing with no punches withheld.

Book Description
Book Description Selling Used Books Online is a comprehensive how-to bible for America's newest and fastest growing group of entrepreneurs, the sellers on Amazon Marketplace and other online venues. Author Stephen Windwalker, a successful online seller himself who has also operated a brick-and-mortar bookshop, provides a treasure trove of up-to-date information with verve, clarity, and wit. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has reported that the number of third-party sellers on his company's website grew from over 100,000 in the fourth quarter of 2001 to over 150,000 in the first quarter of 2002, and roughly one-third of these appear to be entrepreneurial sellers who are operating full- or part-time businesses in competition with each other, with Amazon, and with very large Amazon Marketplace sellers such as Powell's, the Strand bookstore, and Alibris. For these 50,000 entrepreneurs, Selling Used Books Online will be a powerful business resource that will help them level the playing field, stay in business, and prosper. Selling Used Books Online meets the needs of booksellers and business readers who want to stay current on market changes, best sources, insider's tips and tactics, and best practices, and is also a essential addition for public libraries, the small business and entrepreneurship market and related agency and educational markets, and publishing industry and bibliophile readers. Back matter includes several useful appendices that online booksellers will use on a daily basis: a glossary, a list of standard bookseller abbreviations, a casual bibliography of resources on bookselling and collecting, and an online bookseller's "Rolodex." The Most Up-To-Date Book In Its Field, Covering: · THE BOOKSELLING BUSINESS· SUPPLIERS AND SOURCES · WHERE TO GET YOUR BOOKS · WHAT BOOKS TO GET · WHERE TO SELL YOUR BOOKS · GRADING AND DESCRIBING YOUR BOOKS · POSTING AND PRICING YOUR BOOKS · ORGANIZING YOUR BUSINESS AND HANDLING TAX ISSUES · FULFILLMENT AND CUSTOMER SERVICE · EXPANSION ISSUES AND FUTURE PLANS · HANDY REFERENCE TOOLS YOU WILL USE EVERY DAY

From the Publisher
For Online Booksellers, Authors, Independent Publishers, Public Libraries, and Software Authors: Whether your bookselling vision is brick-and-mortar, click-and-mortar, dot-com or dream-on, this is the book that will take you to the next level!

From the Author
To quote the 20th century literary critic and memoirist Anatole Broyard: "To own a bookshop is one of the persistent romances, like living off the land or sailing around the world." The advent of online used bookselling has greatly lowered the stakes involved in failing as a used bookseller. Instead of losing anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000 and having to hire a lawyer to negotiate one's way out of a multi-year lease and a mountain of publisher and distributor debt, a failed online used bookseller might lose $500 and a lot of time and effort. But it remains true that many will fail. It doesn't have to be this way, so our mission with this book is three-fold: First, we hope that by providing a candid look at the nitty-gritty of used bookselling, to persuade a significant number of people to do something else for which they may be better suited; Second, we believe we can provide and organize information and suggestions that may accelerate progress on the learning curve and make the difference between success and failure for a significant number of current and future online used booksellers; and Third, we hope to improve the overall quality and market strength of online used bookselling by helping sellers to raise the bar when it comes to customer service and fulfillment, business practices and efficiencies, diversity of offerings, and pricing strategy, so that the ensuing improvement in customer experience will ultimately mean more customers and more selling for the sellers.

About the Author
Stephen Windwalker is the owner and manager of Windwalker Books, an online bookseller since 1999, and a former long-time member of the American Booksellers Association and owner of an independent neighborhood bookstore. Windwalker also operates a very popular free website for booksellers and will soon publish his next book, Buying Books Online: Finding Bargains and Saving Money with Booksense, Amazon's Marketplace, and Other Online Sites.