Long gone are the days when books were bought and sold in dusty old bookstores by bespectacled old men in cardigans. The advent of chain stores and supermarkets all but put paid to such establishments decades ago and it is rare indeed to find such a place still in operation today. The reality is, however, that said chain stores and supermarkets have themselves now largely been supplanted in the bookselling business by the advent of the Internet and the online retailers who can not only afford to undercut their prices but allow customers to order their books from the comfort of their own home and subsequently have them delivered to them at that same destination.
The only question that therefore requires to be addressed in considering the best places to sell books in modern times is via which Internet companies and sites it is best to do so. There are of course a great many options available to us but as in all respects when dealing online, we have to be extremely careful that we deal only with a company which is reliable, trustworthy and likely to be recognised as same by our potential customers.
I am extensively involved in selling books online but I have only ever done so through two companies and at this present point in time am not aware of any other company which I believe meets all of the criteria listed above. Thos two companies - perhaps unsurprisingly - are Amazon and eBay. I am a registered affiliate for both companies and although they are very different in terms of the way in which they operate, I have found each of them to be extremely reliable, both for me as the seller and for my customers as buyers.
Amazon is perhaps the first name that many of us will think of when we think of online retailers. This massive company has divisions in a great many countries around the world, selling everything from books, to DVD's to garden furniture and a whole lot more besides. I have found their customer service and the quality of their products to be beyond reproach and their prices incapable of being matched anywhere. I would have no hesitation in recommending Amazon and all their many services to anyone.
Ebay are of course a very different proposition from Amazon in that eBay is an online auction site. The books in this instance are sold by individuals as opposed to eBay themselves but by paying heed to the individual seller's rating within the eBay community, we can largely determine their reliability.
Selling products from Amazon and eBay is all very well but of course we require an outlet from which to do so. There are a great many mediums which allow us to market our books in this respect very effectively. The Web 2.0 hosting sites, Squidoo and Hub Pages, are among my favourites in this respect. Both allow us to create a series of mini web pages, which we monetise in a variety of ways, one of which is by selling relevant products through Amazon and eBay. The traffic which these pages can attract if properly optimised is immense so the potential for sales is equally good.
The other principal way in which I sell books via Amazon and eBay is on my many blogs. While I would not claim that this has the same attraction as either Hub Pages or Squidoo, a blog which has found a successful niche can lead to very respectable sales figures.
By first of all determining through whom I am to sell books and subsequently in what manner I am to do so, I have found that selling books today has the potential to be a very lucrative business. I hope you will consider the suggestions I have made above and find the sites and companies I have mentioned to be of like benefit.