One of the most commonly heard pieces of advice about selling books on-line is to concentrate on non-fiction. But if you buy much of your inventory at garage sales, thrift stores, or book sales, there are plenty of opportunities to make some money with common fiction too.
A good place to start is with popular, best selling, authors who have written a series of books around one central character or theme. Because of the popularity of the authors and their series, these books are fairly easy to find and can often be purchased for $.50 or less.
The secret to making money with them is to sell them in lots. While you won’t get rich selling this kind of fiction, lots of 15 to 20 or more books by the authors explored below will offer you a reasonable chance of getting between $2 and $7 a book.
Janet Evanovich - Her popular series about Stephanie Plum currently consists of 13 books. A complete set of hardcovers with dust jackets will bring anywhere from $25 to $60 or more. Even a complete set of paperbacks has a chance of getting to $30 to $35.
Lawrence Block - His Matthew Scudder series consists of sixteen books and is his most popular, but his Keller, Evan Tanner, Bernie Rhodenbarr, and Chip Harrison series also have a large following. Lots of at least nine or ten Scudder books will bring between $2 and $3 per book in either hardcover or paperback. If you offer a mixed series lot you will likely need at least 20 books to get to that price per book.
Robert Parker - He has written roughly 60 books but he is best known for is Spencer series that consists of 36 books. Any size lot of 20 to 25 books will usually bring between $2 and $2.50 per book. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the lot is all hardcovers, all paperbacks, or mixed.
Sue Grafton - Her alphabetic series about female private detective Kinsey Millhone now consists of twenty books. A complete set of paperbacks will bring between $2 and $3 per book usually.
John Sandford - Best known for his Prey series consisting of eighteen books (with another one due to be released in May), he has written a total of 26 books. Hardcover, paperback, or mixed lots of 15 to 20 or more will bring between $2 and $3 per book in most cases.
You can take either of two approaches when selling lots of these books. List them in the auction format, start them at $9.99 or less, and see where the go. Or, decide how much you want per book in your lot and list them for 30 days in the fixed-price format. They will usually sell within the 30 days.
Although the sizes of lots talked about above may seem large, often when you find these they will be from someone who reads everything they can get their hands on by that author so the opportunity will be there to buy quite a few at one time. If you are at a garage sale, don’t be afraid to see if you can negotiate a better price for the lot since you are buying all of them.
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