Latest changes to this page: 08/22/2006, 18:55 PST

Are you interested in making $2,000 to $5,000 per month running your own part-time bookstore from home?  How about $7,000 - $10,000 running one full-time?  My book, "Online Bookselling: A Practical Guide with Detailed Explanations and Insightful Tips" will teach you everything you need to know to be a successful online bookseller.  I cannot guarantee you will make this much because a lot of it depends on your dedication to success and the availability of good books for your inventory, but I have traveled all over the U.S. and I always find quality books to add to my inventory.  My service to you does not end with the purchase of my book, you can always email me with your questions, and if you subscribe (free for customers of my book & software) you will hear all about the marketplace changes and new tips from myself and other subscribers.  I encourage you to spend some time browsing my website; I promise it will be worth your time.  I also want to thank you for stopping by.  Please don't hesitate to email me if you have questions. - Michael E. Mould

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Sometime in the next few days I will be uploading a completely redesigned website that is organized in a manner that makes navigating much easier.  The reason for the new look is to provide better visibility of the newsletter and an organized way for subscribers to read the posed questions.  I am very pleased with the massive number of people wanting to be on the newsletter distribution list, but would still like more questions from subscribers and more sharing of information.  The real benefit of the newsletter is going to be what you as booksellers choose to share.  When I attended the booksellers' convention, there was a lot of information sharing and that fosters trust and a willingness to share more.  I am not asking you to share any proprietary secrets, but if you have something you can share, it will foster other subscribers to share with you as well.  Please keep checking back for the new website and get your inputs submitted soon.

 

Today - 8/21 is my birthday, so I will not be spending the evening working on the website, I am going to go out for a nice dinner with my son, my wife is not due back from the Czech Republic until 6 Sept. :(

 Here are some sample review titles:

Comprehensive, Easy to Follow Guide to Online Bookselling

The best value for your bookselling future

New seller gets turbo charge

This Book is Worth Every Penny!

Best book on this subject

Above are sample reviews of CD-ROM & Paperback versions,

read all the Amazon.com reviews:  CD-ROM Book,  Paperback Book

 

 

The Paperback Is Now Accessible on Google Book Search™!

 

I put this entire book on Google Book Search™ for anyone to preview.  It is 100% searchable and Google will allow you access of up to 20% of the book in a single session.  You choose what you would like to preview based on the search topics you use.  Google does require that you sign in (account is free) before doing a preview search.  

Click Here to preview.

  

If you don't have a Google account, you will be prompted to set one up when you begin your search.

 

Search For Anything On Amazon.com

A Newsletter is in the works, scroll down to learn more.

The 2006 Independent Amazon Booksellers' Convention has ended, and what a really GREAT event it was.  We got to interact with: 1) each other as independent booksellers. 2) some of the third-party product/service providers that we have become increasingly reliant on, and 3) some of Amazon.com's finest!  Today, we had the undivided attention of six Amazon.com vice presidents, and we were treated with an appearance by Jeff Bezos.  I for one learned a lot; I made some new friends and professional acquaintances, and I had the very special privilege of meeting some of the people that have purchased my book.  I very much appreciate their supportive feedback and compliments on my book, it really makes the effort worthwhile and was the highlight of the convention for me.  This is the principle reason for me publishing a newsletter as a means of saying thank you to my customers and to provide a valuable "continuing education" for myself and the entire subscriber base.  For those of you signed up for the newsletter (beginning in October) there will be some great information about the convention included.  Click Here to find out more about the newsletter.

 

My support will not cease with the purchase of my book, I will be happy to answers your questions, just send me an email: mike@online-bookselling.com

A Newsletter is coming!

 

Beginning on October 1, 2006 I would like to distribute a free newsletter to all of my customers, so please Click Here if you want to know more about the planned newsletter.  If you are still undecided about whether or not to buy this book, consider what the hundreds of other booksellers that have already purchased it might be discussing in the newsletter and how it might benefit you.  As booksellers we tend to be loners and operate independently, but that doesn't mean we can't learn a lot from each other.  I will even be including a lot of things I learned at the 2006 Independent Amazon Booksellers' Convention.

Are you a bookseller looking for:

 

According to the poll results for the 2006 Sellers' Conference for Independent Amazon Booksellers, these are the top five concerns and/or interests of the people voting.

 

Specifically, they weighed in at 29.8%, 25.5%, 23.4%, 8.5%, and 4.3%.  If you add these numbers up it tells quite a story. Of all the votes cast, and from the ten concerns addressed by the poll, 91.5% of the respondents were most concerned about these five issues.

 

I personally find the results both astonishing and gratifying because these are precisely the topics I set out to address when I published "Online Bookselling: A Practical Guide with Detailed Explanations and Insightful Tips" and my "Bookkeeping for Booksellers" software.

 

The vast majority of my customers are people that were only considering getting into online bookselling, but several of them are well established booksellers with several years of experience and inventories larger than my own.  It is personally satisfying to know that what I set out to do is exactly what the people in the industry were looking for; I am also very pleased with what all of my customers have had to say about the products I am selling.

 

Whether you are only thinking about getting into online bookselling, or whether you are already an established bookseller, I believe my book and software combination will help you as it has already helped many others.

 

I know you have several other options when considering books about online bookselling. I have even purchased and read some of them myself.  As the reader of many of the other books on this subject, and the author of "Online Bookselling," I can honestly say that if you are looking for more than an overview of the business and you want to know more than just the fundamentals, "Online Bookselling" is for you whether you choose the CD-ROM version or the paperback version.  I don't expect you to take my word for it, read the reviews on Amazon.com for yourself and then browse the testimonial I provided (Reader Response) with links to my Amazon.com seller feedback.

 

I was personally let down when I bought some of the other books that are nothing more than "cheesy books of lists" with no insight or description of the online bookselling business.  When I started my online bookselling business I took a lot of notes, and I continued doing this as my business grew.  When I started coaching some friends and friends of friends about how to sell books online, I continued taking notes.  Then, when I decided to write this book I went back through all those notes and captured what I learned and experienced along the way.

 

This is not a "how to" book devoid of reality, it is a true guide to starting, building, and maintaining a home-based bookselling business.

 

To put it in perspective for you, consider the following analogy. 

 

You are moving to a new city and do not know your way around so you decide to buy some information.  Your options are:

 

1) You can buy a list of the street names in the town for $X.

2) You can buy a map that shows all the major highways and thoroughfares for $Y.

3) You can buy a detailed map that shows you every street, highway, point of interest,

     and everything else you need to know to get established in this new city for $Z.

 

If you buy the $X list, you are going to find out soon that it isn't really much help and you will need more information to navigate the new city, so you are faced with now buying either item 2 or 3 for an additional $Y or $Z.  You also realize that options 1 and 2 add up to more than option 3, i.e.,

 

$X + $Y > $Z

 

and $Y is about 75% of $Z, so you are annoyed that you ever bought $X and decide to save a little so you buy $Y.  When you combine $X and $Y, you still don't have the information you would have gotten had you purchased $Z in the first place. 

 

"Online Bookselling: A Practical Guide with Detailed Explanations and Insightful Tips" is an option $Z book.  The others I have read mostly fall in the option $Y category, but a few are only option $X.  If you opt to buy one of the option $Y books, there are a lot of things you are not going to learn, and maybe you don't really want or need to learn them, that is okay too.  I just want you to be aware that there is an option $Z should you want to learn the entire business of online bookselling.

 

This is even more apparent with "Bookkeeping for Booksellers." I am not aware of any other bookkeeping product available that is tailored to the concerns of the online bookseller. I developed this software to use myself and I can see in seconds how my business is doing on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. I know how many books I have sold for any given month, quarter, or year, and I know if my inventory is growing or shrinking (by number and percent) just by looking at a graph.

 

Being an engineer, a.k.a. a nerd, I built in all kinds of graphs, charts, and tables, so that I could monitor all the sales and expenses at a glance.  I can instantly see if the reimbursements I am getting for postage are covering my actual shipping costs, I can see my average book selling price for any month, quarter, or for the entire year, how much I am paying in marketplace commissions & fees on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, how much I am re-investing in inventory on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis, etc., etc.

 

I cannot put into words how helpful it is to flip through a few graphs and instantly see how my business is performing, or how great it is to print out a summary of everything I need for filling out my Schedule C and my state retail sales tax forms. All I have to do is type the summary numbers from "Bookkeeping for Booksellers" into "TurboTax," or write them into the corresponding field of the tax form and I am finished.  I am not a bookkeeper, accountant, lawyer, or tax consultant. I am good with numbers, but I despise spending time doing tax forms and wanted something simple to use, easy to understand, and complete. There really wasn't anything available, so I spent the time

to create it. You can read more about it if you Click Here.

 

Why Even Consider Online Bookselling?

 

The online bookselling industry is rapidly growing at an estimated rate of 30% year over year.  There is absolutely no reason for you not to be a part of it.  You could earn $3,000 to $5,000 per month working only part-time with very flexible hours that you decide.  I want to emphasize "working" because nobody is going to come to your house, ring your doorbell, and tell you they want to sell you $1,000,000.00 worth of books for whatever change you have in your pocket.  I will tell you everything you need to know to about online bookselling from getting started to growing your business into a rewarding and successful one.  If you are already a successful online bookseller I even have tips for you that will boost your bottom line and pay for the book in very short order.

 

Why look for a part-time job in the fast-food industry that will only pay you a fraction of what you could be making from your own home-based business?  Consider starting today.

 

I don't want you to get the wrong idea here; I am not selling a business opportunity.  The opportunity already exists!  All I am selling is my book that will help you get started, answer your questions, guide you through the process of building a successful business and point out all the costly lessons I learned the hard way.  These tips alone make "Online Bookselling" a valuable reference.

 

I have already coached several successful online booksellers from the time they started, and I have captured this training in my book along with the questions that arose along the way.  I have also included many of the costly things I have learned over the course of five years as an online bookseller.  There are packing tips in my book that will help even an experienced online bookseller boost their profits by reducing the number of books the post office is able to lose.  Just check out the Reader Responses, many of them have links to Amazon.com reviews of my book.

 

Online bookselling is a legitimate business with thousands of sellers on Amazon.com, Alibris.com, Abebooks.com, Half.com, eBay.com, and a myriad of lesser-known Internet marketplaces.  Like any other business, there is work involved in building your inventory and establishing your business, but unlike being someone's employee, the profits are yours and you do not need to support or pay for their overhead.

 

Also, unlike other business opportunities, the investment is low, as little as $100 if you already have a computer, printer, and an Internet connection, the risk is low, there are hundreds of millions of customers regularly visiting the online marketplaces looking for books, and the profits are high, most books can be bought to sell online for as little as $1.00 and sold for $10.00.  Check out some of the gems I have bought and sold.

 

My entire business was started with a $350 investment because I wanted to have about 300 books in inventory before going online.  I started with very little guidance, so it cost me more to make the common mistakes and learn everything the hard way.  I have grown my business to an inventory level of about 3,000 books and that is about as big as I want it to get because it is only a supplemental income for me.  Even at this small level, I have made a substantial profit over five years in the business.

 

If you want the freedom of working for yourself or just a nice supplemental income, I am certain that by using my book as your guide, you too can be a successful online bookseller. 

 

When I set out to write this book, I had several other key goals in mind, and a couple gripes about the "How To" books that I have read on various topics over the years.

 

An issue that has always bothered me is that if you buy any "How To" type of book, read it, and still have many questions, the book did not really do what it was supposed to do for you, and that is exactly what I wanted to avoid.  Sales indicate that I was very successful in meeting this goal as customers have not had trivial or fundamental questions about how to become a successful online bookseller.

 

Please take the time to do your own research and determine which book about online bookselling is likely to have the answers you are looking for and does not require you to ask the author more fundamental questions or do more research to get your answers. 

 

If you buy another book for $20 just to save the extra $10 that my book costs and you then find yourself spending a couple hours asking the $20 book author a bunch of things that should have been in his/her book to begin with, you should probably reconsider starting your own business because you haven't grasped that two hours spent writing messages, sending emails, or researching the information that should have been in the "How To" book you already bought is working out to $5/hr for your time.  Even most fast-food jobs pay better than that!  I don't mean to sound obnoxious or condescending here, I just want you to understand the real cost of such a decision and that making a decision to spend the extra $10 up front could substantially increase the probability of your success in online bookselling.  If you really want to learn anything you won't find the best instructional materials at K-Mart prices.

 

A quick survey of Amazon.com will demonstrate my point as many authors of similar books find it necessary to post answers to the questions that should have been answered in their books.  If you want a book that will guide you to success with everything from introductory materials to being a reference for the experienced online bookseller, this is the book for you.  I am available to answer questions if you do have any, but thus far my book seems to have answered all the fundamental questions that a startup online bookseller might have.

 

Another key goal of mine was to reduce the amount of time it takes you to find what you are looking for.  If you need to find the website address of a wholesale or remainder distributor, it shouldn't be necessary for you to:

 

  1. Find your paperback on your bookshelves

  2. Find what you are looking for in the index

  3. Flip through the book until you find the page listed in the index

  4. Turn on your computer

  5. Open your browser

  6. Type in their web address. 

 

With my CD-ROM book, all you have to do is look in the index, find the distributor, and click on the provided hyperlink.  You will be taken immediately to the page of the book where this and other distributors are listed and you can click on their name(s), then a browser window will open with the website of the distributor you want to visit.  You don't even need to look for my book, it can be stored right on your computer to reference any time you want, and you don't even need a keyboard to navigate it, everything is just a mouse click away.

 

If you are going to be a successful online bookseller, you need to take advantage of efficiency improvements, and searching through a paperback and typing are not the answer, but I have even conceded there is a need to publish my book in paperback as well because since initially offering my book in CD-ROM format only, I have been repeatedly asked by my customers to do so.  It seems there are many people that just do not want to be tied to their computers to read a book.  I can relate to this as my regular job requires that I travel and I like to take a worthwhile book along to read myself. 

 

So, despite my belief that my book, "Online Bookselling" is more efficient in the CD-ROM format, I have updated and expanded it, and it is now published in paperback format.  You can navigate the rest of my website by using the hyperlinks at the top of the screen, or if you prefer to get started, you can click one of the links below and get you copy of "Online Bookselling" ordered now.

 

Click Here To Order CD-ROM Book or "Bookkeeping for Booksellers" Software

Click Here To Order Paperback + "Bookkeeping for Booksellers" Software

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