10 THINGS TO MAKE YOUR BOOK SALES STAND OUT ON E-BAY

If you have ever searched for a book on Ebay you will notice that there are usually many titles, sometimes hundreds, that are the same.

So the question is, how do you make YOUR book stand out in the crowd?

Here are some tips for getting the most out of your listing and for getting top dollar for your books.

1. TYPE YOUR TITLE IN ALL CAPS - Skip the bold and the outline and all the extras that Ebay charges for extra fees. If you TYPE YOUR LISTING TITLE IN ALL CAPS IT WILL STAND OUT MORE. Also, make sure your description includes Paperback ( PB ) - or Hardcover ( HC ) -and Dust Jacket ( DJ ).

2. FINISH THE SERIES - Believe it or not most buyers want to buy all of the books in a series AT THE SAME TIME. So unless one or more of the books in a series have not been published yet, find the rest of the series (If you do not already own it) and sell the entire series at the same time (either in multiple listings or in one lot). If there are three books in the series and you only have two of them, find the third book for sale somewhere and buy it, when it arrives, put the entire series up for sale (once again, either in separate listings or in one lot), you will get a lot more bidders and a lot more for the entire series than you would for a single book in a series. The only exceptions to this are if part of the series has not been released yet, or if the series has one book in it that is very difficult to find.

3. Sell the books at the same time and offer a discount for combined shipping. - A lot of buyers purchase books by the Author, if a buyer is looking for a specific book by an author they will appreciate combining other books by the same author. Combining shipping allows them to buy more of YOUR books and not have to pay $4.00 shipping for each book or to purchase them from multiple sellers. A good rule is to charge an additional $1.00 - $1.50 for each hard cover book and $.50¢ - $.75¢ for each paperback book.

4. OFFER THE CUSTOMER A CHOICE IN SHIPPING - When you list your items you are required by Ebay to list a low shipping price ($4.00 for fiction books.. etc..) However you can offer to ship the books at different rates. So include an option to ship the books First Class, Priority and Overnight. Buyers appreciate being offered an option, sometimes they do not want to wait up to three weeks just to receive a book and are willing to pay extra to get the book sooner.

5. BE HONEST - Don't just say the book is in Good Condition, or Very good, etc.... Explain why the book is in the condition you are claiming it to be in. If the book has writing in it, put that in your listing and be specific about it. No one wants to purchase a book only to discover that it has writing all over it that was not mentioned in the listing.

6. DO NOT OVER GRADE YOUR BOOKS - If a book is in Good Condition, don't say it is in Very Good Condition. No one wants to buy a book that is over graded. And stay away from comments like "Good condition for it's age" age and condition have nothing to do with each other. Tell them the condition and tell them the age. If the age is significant, then tell them why the books age is significant. If a books condition is remarkable, tell them why it is remarkable. But remember the Condition for its age is NOT a proper grade. And remember for Hardcover books, having a Dust Jacket is important to a buyer, and the condition of the Dust Jacket is important as well so make sure your listing and description include mention of the Dust Jacket and it's condition.

7.  DON'T SELL GARBAGE - No one wants to buy a bad book, unless it is highly collectible or very rare. If you sell a book that is falling apart, you will have a very upset buyer who will give you bad feedback and demand their money back. If the book is garbage, toss it in the garbage where it belongs. The same advice goes for Dust Jackets, if the Book is in Like New Condition but the Dust Jacket is falling apart, then consider tossing the Dust Jacket and selling the book without it.

8. DO NOT OVER CHARGE FOR SHIPPING - No one will buy your books if your shipping charges are too high. Or if they do buy your book, you will get a lot less for it because you will drive away a large percentage of buyers. EVERYONE is trying to get the best deal on a book price including shipping charges they can find. If your shipping charges are too high, you will most likely lose sales.

9. PUT UP PICTURES OF YOUR BOOKS - Put a picture of the actual book you are selling, you can use the pre-filled item details, but add your own picture and make sure you put in your listing that the picture is the actual book the buyer will receive.

and finely

10. COMMUNICATE - Buyers have questions and they want answers. Be available to answer questions about your listings as often as possible. If you receive a question about your listing and you do not answer it quick enough the buyer will move on to another seller, so try to be available as often as possible during the day to answer questions.

One last note: Check the fees (Listing and final value fees) before you determine what type of listing you want to do. For instance, if you do an auction style sale, your LISTING fee will be higher but your FINAL VALUE fee may be lower than if you sell it on a fixed price. Ebay changed book listings so seller can list 30 days listings, but the FINAL VALUE FEE is 15% for these so take that into account before you list your book(s) for sale. It only takes a few minutes to the math before you decide if you want to list AUCTION STYLE or FIXED PRICE.

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I hope everyone finds this helpful. Thank you for taking the time to read this guide.