How to sell Your Book on Amazon

Announcment: Amazon.com wrote to Chillibreeze on January 5, 2006 saying: "Individuals looking to sell their eBook through amazon.com need to work with our partner MobiPocket. All info can be found on their website at http://www.MobiPocket.com"

Please note the above update as you read the following article.

Can anyone sell a book on Amazon?

Pretty much anyone can sell his or her book on www.amazon.com. Whether you are an author, publisher, or a reseller you can merchandise your books on Amazon.

How do I start?

Amazon has two kinds of memberships for authors and publishers- Amazon.com Advantage and Amazon.com Advantage Professional. Amazon.com Advantage basically helps publishers of all sizes sell books directly at Amazon.com. All Advantage titles receive premium availability in the Amazon.com catalog and are listed as "usually ships in 24 hours." The Advantage Professional program caters to the special needs of professional, technical, medical, and nonprofit publishers who have higher-priced titles. Choose the one that best fits your needs.

Let’s say I go for Amazon.com Advantage. Then what?

You'll need to apply to the Advantage Program and submit one or more titles for consideration. If your application is approved, you can list your products in Amazon’s catalog and consign copies of your inventory in the warehouse. When customers purchase your titles, the orders are processed by Amazon within 24 hours and shipped to any part of the world. Amazon monitors your inventory and automatically sends you an e-mail request for additional copies based on customer demand. Listing your book on Amazon.com is a sure way to gain more attention in the world of writing that produces thousands of new titles everyday.

What are some of the steps involved? What about the rules and regulations?

The first step is application to the program. The application may be accepted or rejected based on whether you qualify (Look at the list of instructions and rules on Amazon.com).
You receive an email from Amazon confirming the acceptance of your application.
Amazon charges a non-refundable annual membership fee of $29.95 for the Program.
Then you must identify one or more Titles that you would like to include in the Program. You may identify additional Titles at any time during your membership in the Program. Amazon has the right to accept or reject any submitted title on the basis of the requirements for any product.
After your Title has been approved, Amazon will send you an order for the initial quantity. Thereafter, if your inventory of the Title falls below a minimum inventory level that is designated, you may be sent an order for additional units.
Amazon determines, at its sole discretion, the price at which it sells your Titles to customers, which may differ from the suggested retail price you choose when registering the Title.
In case of insufficient customer demand for your Title, Amazon may choose to no longer carry it in their fulfillment centers. In such case, all the copies may be returned to you at your cost.
Payment is issued at the end of each month for copies sold in the previous month. All payments are made in U.S. dollars by electronic funds transfer. If you do not have such a facility, you may have to pay a per-check fee to Amazon.
Other than the above, Amazon has other rules and regulations in its agreement that is binding on you till you are a seller on Amazon.
Before you start the process, make sure that you have an e-mail account and Internet access plus copies of your title ready to ship immediately.

What about Amazon.com Advantage Professional?

Amazon.com Advantage Professional is for professional, technical, and medical and nonprofit publishers. To be considered for this program, publishers must enroll at least five qualified titles and have annual worldwide sales of over $50,000. Only North American publishers can participate at this time. With Advantage Professional, select publishers can put their professional, scientific, technical, and medical (ProSTM) books into stock and get premium availability at Amazon.com. Advantage Professional members also get increased sales and exposure on Amazon.com. Advantage Professional uses the same sophisticated fulfillment platform as the regular Advantage program yet offers more flexibility on discount rates to suit the needs of publishers of specialized, high-priced books.

How do I sell my ebook on Amazon? Is it different from selling a regular hard copy?

You can do this through the Edoc program that is designed for electronic documents that customers download to their computers and read on their screen. Appropriate documents range from $2 how-to guides to $1000 industry research reports. Edocs are unencrypted PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files meaning they can be read using the free Acrobat Reader software. To start the process, send a blank email to edoc-inquiry@amazon.com and you will be sent an email with an inquiry form that will tell Amazon if your document qualifies to be sold under this category. Once you fill out this form and send it to Amazon, you will receive further instructions on how to sell your ebook on Amazon.com

What if I need further information?

If you have further questions about selling your book on Amazon, please contact Amazon via e-mail at advantage@amazon.com.