Amazon Textbook Support

Sell to Amazon Student members by listing with Fulfillment by Amazon

Put your textbook listings in front of more students during the busy Fall back-to-school season!  List your books with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and offer free shipping to members of the Amazon Student program.

Amazon Student is a membership program designed to help student customers shop for textbooks, dorm supplies, and even food. Amazon Student members sign up with a .edu e-mail address to receive a free year of Amazon Prime shipping benefits including FREE two-day shipping on millions of items sold by Amazon and sellers using FBA.    

When you list your textbooks using FBA:

• Your textbook orders are eligible for Amazon Prime and FREE Super Saver Shipping. Students love free shipping and can sort, find, and buy products based on these shipping features.
• Your used FBA-fulfilled books are eligible to win the Buy Used Box on Amazon.com Books detail pages.

In a recent survey, we found that professional sellers on Amazon who use FBA generally report growing satisfaction with FBA services and increases in unit sales on Amazon since joining FBA.  In particular:

• 91% of survey respondents who have shipped at least one unit through FBA reported their unit sales have increased since joining.
• 57% of survey respondents saw an average increase in unit sales of 20% or more.
• 89% of survey respondents would recommend FBA to a friend or colleague.

Register for Fulfillment by Amazon today!

Amazon Marketplace – Top Selling Textbooks for Spring 2011

With the spring term over and the summer term under way, textbook sellers are making plans to list and sell on Amazon Marketplace for the upcoming fall term. To help you decide which used and new textbooks to include for sale on the Amazon Marketplace, we are providing the following list of bestselling textbook titles.

These textbooks were the Top 100 textbooks sold by Amazon Marketplace sellers during the peak weeks of the Spring 2011 textbook season. Please remember that due to seasonality, books that are big sellers for the spring term (January 2011) may not be indicative of the books that will sell in the fall term (September 2011). Also, historical sales on Amazon Marketplace may not be indicative of future sales, as used textbooks have a limited lifespan.

When listing textbooks, it is important to note the publication date and edition. For the best buying experience, sellers should be careful to match the ISBN of the textbook they're listing to the exact detail page on Amazon.com to ensure that the title and edition are correct. Sellers should also note differences in cover art when checking for matches.

For example, one of the top selling textbooks on this spring's list, Mankiw's Principles of Microeconomics is the 5th Edition published September 24, 2008, ISBN 978-0324589986. The 6th Edition of this textbook, ISBN 978-0538453042, was published on February 7, 2011. While older editions of this textbook have value and can be sold on Amazon Marketplace, demand for the most recent edition will likely increase. (You may notice that several of the top-selling textbooks on the Spring 2011 list have upgrade editions.)

For additional information on each title, click on the image to see the product detail page in the Amazon catalog.

The table below shows the top 10 bestselling textbook titles for Spring 2011.

Click on the following link to download a full table:

Top 100 Textbook ASINs - Spring 2011

For comparison to the earlier lists, click on the links below:
Top 100 Textbook ASINs - Fall 2010
Top 100 Textbook ASINs - Spring 2010

We hope that providing information about top-selling textbook titles will help sellers be more successful in the upcoming Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 textbook seasons. If you have feedback about this effort, feel free to write to textbook-selling@amazon.com.

Thank you for selling on Amazon.com.

Selling Textbooks on Amazon: Your Feedback Requested

Throughout this winter/spring textbook season (December  2010 through the first week of February 2011), we provided sellers with best practices and resources for selling textbooks on Amazon. Our blog posts, tips in your Seller Account home page, and informative e-mails were designed to address the specific needs of our textbook sellers.

Now we want to know what communications were helpful and what could be improved upon. Please take a few minutes to complete our short Amazon Winter/Spring Textbook Selling Survey 2011. Your feedback helps us serve you better in the future. Thank you for your time.

All about buyer feedback

Buyer feedback is important to both sellers and buyers. Feedback is a metric by which Amazon measures seller performance, and buyers use seller feedback when making purchasing decisions. To get a head start on good feedback, read our Help page on How to get a great feedback score.

Buyers can leave a seller feedback for up to 90 days after the transaction. Once a buyer has left feedback, it cannot be edited, but the buyer can remove it for up to 60 days. Learn more in our Buyer Help page on feedback.

We encourage you to contact buyers about leaving and removing feedback. Remember, though, that ultimately it's the buyer's decision whether or not to give you feedback and what kind to give. Be courteous and professional. Inappropriate contact is a violation of our Selling Policies.

You use the Feedback Manager in your account to contact buyers. You can also use this tool to leave a response on your own Seller Profile to feedback buyers have left. Learn how in our page on Using the Feedback Manager and Feedback FAQ.

Good feedback rewards sellers who list products correctly, communicate well with buyers, and ship orders promptly. Customers are more likely to purchase products from sellers with higher feedback ratings. In the long run, it pays to be a flexible, fair, and professional seller!

Handling returns for textbook orders

Be prepared for increased returns during textbook season. Students sometimes need to return books due to class cancellations. All sellers must accept returns, even if the order is fulfilled correctly.

Here are some situations when you may need to refund, accept returns or cancel orders:

• You can't fulfill an order.
• The customer doesn't receive your order.
• The customer returns an item.
• The customer files a credit card chargeback or an A-to-z Guarantee Claim.
• The customer requests you cancel an order.
• The buyer is unable to receive the order at the address provided.

Whether you need to issue a full or partial refund, you can do so using the Manage Orders tool in your seller account.

Still have questions? Read our Fulfillment, Returns and Refunds FAQ.

Refresh your knowledge: Policies on Selling Textbooks

We all know that textbooks are big sellers on Amazon! But did you also know that certain editions of your textbook might be prohibited for sale on our site?

Prohibited Textbook Items:

• Promotional Instructor's Editions
• Teacher's Editions and Annotated Instructor's Editions
• Solutions Manuals
• International/Foreign Edition Textbooks

Learn more.

 

Tips for Managing Orders Effectively

Spring textbook sales peak in the first two weeks of January. To keep up with a higher volume of orders, use the tools in your selling account and follow some suggested "best practices":

• Don't rely solely on "Sold, ship now" e-mails to let you know you have new orders. The Manage Orders tool in your account provides up-to-the minute views of orders.
• The Manage Orders tool gives you lots of information about orders, including buyer name and shipping address.
• If you need to refund an order, do so promptly. You can make refunds through the Manage Orders tool.
• If you have a Pro Merchant subscription, you can download Inventory Reports to help you track open listings, sold items, order fulfillment (items sold and paid via Marketplace Payments), and listings cancelled by Amazon.
• Get in the habit of shipping your orders right away. You’ll have more time to resolve any problems that might arise.

Listing Textbooks FAQ

  Answers to the most common questions from new sellers about listing textbooks.

1. What should I do if I can't find what I want to sell in your catalog?

If you enter your book's ISBN into our system and cannot find an exact match, it means that Amazon.com does not currently have a page for that book in the catalog. When creating a listing in our Books store, sellers must match exactly to the ISBN, title, author, edition, binding, publisher and publication date on the catalog page. Learn more.

If you are a Pro Merchant subscriber, you may be able to use the Create a Product Detail Page feature to create a new catalog page for your book. Otherwise, if there is no catalog page that matches your item, you may not sell that book on Amazon.com.

2. How do I price my item? What are the fees involved?

When you price your item, consider the Amazon fees as well as your shipping costs. When your item sells, we deduct a 6 to 15 percent commission, a variable closing fee, and a fixed closing fee from the purchase price. (The fixed closing fee is waived for Pro Merchant subscribers.) Amazon also passes on a set shipping credit for each order. There are no up-front fees to list an item on Amazon Marketplace.

The standard fees for selling a book are: a commission of 15% of your book price; a variable closing fee of $1.35; a fixed closing fee of $0.99, and a standard shipping credit of $3.99. Learn more.

If you believe your shipping costs will not be covered by the shipping credit, you should increase the asking price for the book. You may not invoice buyers for any additional postage or fees. Learn more.

3. How do I cancel a listing?

To cancel a listing through your Seller Account, go to the Manage Your Inventory section and click "View your current inventory." Find the listing you want to close, click the box in the Close Listing column, and then click "Save Changes." After your listing display is updated, you can view your closed listing by clicking "Your Marketplace Closed Listings" at the top of the page. Learn more.

4. Can I list international editions of textbooks?

International Editions of textbooks that publishers have not authorized for sale in the US may not be listed for sale on Amazon.com. Learn more about our Policies for Selling Textbooks.

Amazon Marketplace – Top Selling Textbooks for Fall 2010

As the Fall 2010 semester ends, textbook sellers are making plans to list and sell on Amazon Marketplace for the upcoming spring semester. To help you decide which used and new textbooks to include for sale on Amazon Marketplace, we are providing the following list of bestselling textbook titles.

These textbook ASINS were the Top 100 sellers during the peak weeks of the Fall 2010 textbook season.* Due to seasonality, books that are big sellers for the fall term (September 2010) may not be indicative of the books that will sell in the spring term (January 2011). Also, historical sales on Amazon Marketplace may not be indicative of future sales, as used textbooks have a limited lifespan.

When listing textbooks, it is important to note the publication date and edition type. For the best buying experience, sellers should be careful to match the ISBN of the textbook they're listing to the exact detail page on Amazon.com to ensure that the title and edition are correct. Sellers should also note differences in cover art when checking for matches.

For example, the top selling textbook on this fall's list, Campbell's Biology is the 8th Edition published December 7, 2007, ISBN 0321543254. The 9th Edition of this textbook was published on October 7, 2010, as Campbell Biology, ISBN 0321558235. While older editions of this textbook have value and can be sold on Amazon Marketplace, demand for the most recent edition will increase. (You may notice that the 7th Edition, ISBN 080537146X, is currently at #91 on the list of top sellers.)

For details on each title, click on the image to see the product page in the Amazon catalog.

The table below shows the top 10 bestselling textbook titles for Fall 2010.

Click on the following link to download a full table:

Top 100 Textbook ASINs - Fall 2010

For comparison to the earlier lists, click on the links below:
Top 100 Textbook ASINs - Spring 2010
Top 100 Textbooks ASINs - Fall 2009

We hope that providing information about top-selling textbook titles will help sellers be more successful in the upcoming Spring 2011 textbook season. If you have feedback about this effort, feel free to write to textbook-selling@amazon.com.

Thank you for selling on Amazon.com.

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*Marketplace sales figures for July 18 through October 9, 2010, excluding Amazon Retail textbooks sold.

Selling Textbooks on Amazon: Your Feedback Requested!

Throughout this Fall textbook season, we provided sellers with best practices and resources for selling textbooks on Amazon. Our blog posts, headlines in your seller account home page, Textbook Selling Help pages, and informative e-mails were designed to help you make this the most successful back-to-school season ever!

Now we want to know what communications were helpful and what could be improved upon. Please take a few minutes to complete our short Amazon Fall Textbook Selling Survey 2010. Your feedback helps us serve you better in the future. Thank you!