Friendly Tips for Successful Book Selling Online

Friendly Tips for Successful Book Selling Online: Wrote these up for a discussion forum and thought would post here as well.

* I only sell through Amazon. It was too much work juggling multiple outlets and Amazon has by far the highest sales speed/rate.

* I only sell if the lowest "used book" price is $10 or more. Pick your own floor but even at $5 you are barely going to make a cent.

* Check the Amazon sales rank on a book. (Once you are a registered seller you can see this when you click on the "Sell On Amazon" button.) A sales rank of 10,000 or less will sell very fast, a sales rank of 1,000,000 may not sell for years, if ever.

* I buy postage and print shipping labels through Amazon because after shipping many books using my own postage and meticulously calculating weight and various stamp denomination combinations and procuring said stamps, I decided my time was worth the few cents they take off the top.

* I highly recommend investing in a good food scale for weighing packages. (Postal scales tend to be lower quality and you have to replace the dials when the postage prices change.) The difference between a 12 oz book and a 15 oz book will cost you money.

* If you choose to do your own postage, print out the current media mail rates and keep them near your shipping supplies.

* I almost always ship in recycled envelopes or cut up brown paper bags. Buying envelopes cut into profit margins; buying shipping tape also cuts into profit margins.

* Keep all your sale books in one place. Do not tell yourself "Oh, I'll list it but I want to keep it on this shelf instead of in my for-sale pile."

* Keep your shipping supplies all in one place.

* There is an Amazon Seller app, but I find it tricky because it often suggests a high profit margin but later research will reveal it's a $0.01 book in another format or edition.

* If you start buying books specifically to sell, also create an Excel spreadsheet documenting true costs at all stages. There is virtually no margin in book selling so you have to see clearly what brings in what income and what costs you are really incurring.

FLORIDA: Jackson Jason Jennifer & Sylvia Go to the Everglades

EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK: S and Baby J work on their Junior Ranger book.

Almost certain you aren't supposed to ride the Florida panther statue, but I didn't have the heart to stop him.

We were at the Anhinga Trail for 30 seconds before we met our first Florida alligator.

Everglades scenery: the sea of grass

Big gator, a foot or so off the trail.

BISCAYNE BAY NATIONAL PARK: Most of the park is underwater so we took our time enjoying the visitors center.

Junior Ranger!

Even more junior Junior Ranger!

We were honored that the park ranger let the boys help raise the American flag over the park after the rain cleared for the morning.

In Homestead, Fla., we visited the grave of Elizabeth Weston Godwin Plummer, Jackson & Jason's great-great-great-great aunt. 

If you are ever visiting Florida, the Fruit & Spice Park is a terrific destination for kids. Highly recommended.

The boys try out star fruit for the first time.

The park shares a taste of the many exotic fruits that grow there. You can also pick up and eat anything you find on the ground.

A multitude of bananas and plantains from around the world.

Jackson uses his coconut.

Jackson meets his first jackfruit.

I was there too! Jackson took this photo of me.

Apparently my great-aunt and uncle used to docent at Corkscrew Swamp. A wonderful walk if you're ever in the area.

Jackson on the Corkscrew Swamp boardwalk.

Airplant in flower.

Corkscrew Swamp scenery.

Corkscrew swamp gator.

This is a bittern pulling a snake (black racer? garter?) off a reed and eating it for dinner.

Kids and grandma on the boardwalk.

We were watching a raccoon eat leftovers that had fallen below a birdfeeder.

Jackson checks out a model of a manatee skeleton.

There were 150+ manatees in the water the day of our visit to Lee County Manatee Park. The park canals are adjacent to a power plant outflow drain, and the manatees like the warm water in the winter when the Gulf of Mexico is cold.

Those lumps in the water? Manatee sexy beasts.

Jackson clowns around at BIG CYPRESS NATIONAL PARK.

Picnic after another visitor center and boardwalk.

Jackson took this photo of the Big Cypress sky.

Junior Rangers at their last swearing-in ceremony of the trip.

LAPD Pacific Division Open House (and Pancake Breakfast)

Station tour including the kit room where the officers are issued their gear.

Memorial wall

Roll call.

Jackson's favorite part was seeing the guy in the drunk tank, but if they run out of spaces in the division jail they can always handcuff ya to the bench.

This was a great event and we will definitely attend similar in the future.

Las Days of Summer in Vegas

Stuffed animal party at the Big House.

Grandma's rotating waffle maker is amazing.

All aboard the baby triceratops, at Clark County Discovery Children's Museum.

Dinosaur cave is a perfect fit.

Slide!

We made it all the way to the scenic lookout at the top!

Life-size Lite Brite wall!

The artist at work, exploring the work of Roy Lichtenstein.

The wonderful water room comes with kid-size mouse-eared raincoats.

The ball goes up, up, up!

Jackson and Grandpa.

Showing off at the little Bellagio fountain.

Come for the Picasso exhibit in the gallery, stay for the Dale Chihuly glass.

The solarium at the Bellagio has an ever-changing Rose Parade-style exhibit of living art.

And...exhausted. Asleep in the Little House in front of an episode of Adventures of Superman.

Thanks, Vegas! See you next time!