How to profit from Amazon and its ever expanding catalogue

By Sharon Fussell, July 13, 2011

Ever find how from time to time when you are listing your books for profit on Amazon that one or two cannot be listed as they are not in the catalogue? This of course is very frustrating, especially when you can see that it is a really good topic.

So what can you do?

As a marketplace seller – very little. You can try selling them using other forums such as ebay or car boots. Or keep them until you reach pro merchant status. Why? Because as a pro-merchant seller you can add items to amazons catalogue by creating a product description.

Although this is quite a simple process, it may not always end with success, due to some books being listed on amazon.com and not amazon.uk. If this is the case you are not supposed to list them, but I have discovered a way of bypassing this rule!

How to ensure you profit from Amazon by conquering its ever expanding catalogue!

First I will demonstrate how to go about producing a product description page. If you are not ready to become a proseller and feel this is something you may consider to be useful in future, print off the ezine and keep in a safe place.

So, first of all make sure the item is not in Amazon’s catalogue by putting in the ISBN or try typing some key words into the search box. If it doesn’t come up, go to your sellers account and click on ‘Create a product detail page’. A list of items will appear and you will need the ‘media’ link. Click on ‘books’ when the option link appears.

You will have a page of information and those marked with an asterisk are compulsory. e.g The author, the Title, the Binding and the Publication date.

The next part of the form will require you to put in further information, including (if there is one) a 10 or 13 ISBN number. Personally unless there is a volume edition number – e.g volume 2, edition 12 whatever I bypass most of this, except page numbers and the publishers name.

Click on ‘continue’ and in most cases you will be able to expand on the product identification, adding an image, a product description and some search terms. In this section you can put the writer, the title, the subject matter i.e. religion, large print, etc.

Try to think of terms that a buyer might use to find an item so that you have a better chance of your book being found. (For example one book I listed was a Dylan Thomas book on Christmas. I put his name and Christmas and poetry). Once this page is completed you click on ‘save’ and ‘continue’.

If all goes well the listing page will come up and you can carry on with listing your item. Usually you will find that you have to create a suitable price for you product too. I recommend that if you have no idea what price to use, google the book to see if you can find anything on other sites relating to your book. If not think of a fair price you are happy with if it sells. I usually aim for £14.99 for non fiction, £6.99 for fiction paperbacks, or if I have a particularly interesting book -or up to date study book -£49.99. However, put whatever price you are happy with as you can always reduce the price over time until it sells.

Now sometimes I have found that although my book has not shown up in the normal search engine, once I go through the process of creating a product description page, a little box comes up informing (warning) that it is not possible to list the item at this time.

This is because it is being sold in USA only. Why I have no idea – probably because it was created and added by someone in the USA.

So how did I get around the problem?

I just went back a page removed the ISBN number and clicked the little box ‘no isbn’ and carried on.

Result!

You can also add videos and DVDs in the media section too which is also quite a simple process.

How cat litter can mask the smell of Smoke!

I’m always asked what can be done with books that smell of cigarette smoke. Of course the obvious thing is not to smoke near your books.

However, I have bought books that smell of smoke. I found this useful solution on the discussion board ‘odour extracting cat litter’ No idea if it works but if smoke smelling books are an issue for you -give it a go!

Signed Copies

I’m often asked how it’s possible to price signed copies of books compared to the ‘run of the mill’ copies of the same title. I always advise to google the book to see if any comparisons can be found on other sites. Alternatively check out these links and bookmark them onto your toolbar just in case in future you come across a signed copy and you need to verify its authenticity and price it accordingly.

http://www.frasersautographs.com/gallery.asp

http://www.historyforsale.com/html/search.asp

Happy bookselling!

TESTING TESTING

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