Want to sell books online? There are many sites where you can list your books for sale. Here are our top 12 (in alphabetical order), with some details about their size, fees, and other requirements.
Please note: The bookseller terms and fees listed below are not complete, and may change. We accept no responsibility for the accuracy of these details; please check with each site for complete and up-to-date information.
Bookselling sites
1. A Book Search
A Book Search is based in California, with mostly US & UK booksellers.
- $10-$50 per month, depending on number of books offered
- no commission
- 3-month free trial period available.
- no shopping cart, does not process sales: buyers contact the bookseller via a form, to arrange purchase
- accepts many inventory formats
- about 55 booksellers
- website available in English
2. Antiqbook
AntiqBook‘s slogan is “fine books, fair prices.” They hold booksellers to a high standard. Based in the Netherlands; 250,000 searches daily.
- no monthly fee
- 15% commission, billed every 2 months
- minimum commission of €1.00 per book sold, maximum of €50.00
- shopping cart, but does not process sales; buyers complete sale with bookseller
- accepts many inventory formats
- over 8 million books, hundreds of booksellers
- website available in English, Dutch and German
3. Biblio
Biblio was founded in 2003 and is independently owned. This company is dedicated to giving customers and booksellers alike excellent service, and to charitable works. (There’s also a UK site, Biblo.co.uk.) Offers a choice of two different fee schedules.
- first fee schedule: 15% commission per item sold ($.50 minimum and $40 maximum), with no monthly fee.
- second fee schedule: $10 and up, depending on number of books listed, with 7.5% commission (with same commission limits noted above)
- no commission on member-to-member sales
- shopping cart; they will process sales for you, or you can choose to process your own; their credit card processing cost varies but is something like 4.5% plus $0.25 per transaction.
- accepts many inventory formats
- over 5600 booksellers
- website available in English
4. Bibliophile Bookbase
Bibliophile is based in Switzerland with a few hundred booksellers located around the globe, but mostly in the UK, US, South Africa and Australia.
- free: no monthly fee or commission
- offers optional web hosting, image hosting & other services (fee)
- shopping cart, but does not process sales: buyers complete sale with bookseller
- accepts many inventory formats
- about 250 booksellers
- website available in English, French, German and Italian
5. IOBA
the Independent Online Booksellers Association is a trade organization founded in 1999, for reputable booksellers who sell online. The site lists books from a portion of IOBA’s 300-plus members.
- membership in IOBA required, $60 per year, must apply to join
- terms for sellers available to registered members
6. Livre Rare Book
Livre Rare Book Based in France, with booksellers worldwide.
- from €5 to €105 per month, depending on number of books offered
- no commission
- shopping cart, but buyers complete sale with bookseller
- accepts many inventory formats, also offers their own software
- over 3.4 million books, about 500 booksellers
- website available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian.
7. Maremagnum
Maremagnum is based in Milan, Italy. Its sellers are located worldwide. Sellers must ship within 2 days.
- no monthly fee
- commission: 5% + 1 euro on the total amount of the order (book, shipping, credit card fees
- shopping cart, processes sales (pays out monthly)
- accepts many inventory formats
- over 8 million books
- website available in Italian, French, Spanish, and English
8. Scribblemonger
Scribblemonger is US-based and includes about 300 worldwide booksellers, most of whom are located in the United States.
- no monthly fee
- commission: 5% commission on sales with a maximum of $5.00 per item.
- no shopping cart, does not process sales; buyers complete sale with bookseller
- accepts many inventory formats
- about 300 booksellers
- website available in English
9. Tom Folio
TomFolio is a co-op, founded in 1999, whose members must adhere to a code of ethics. They offer books from booksellers from the United States and a handful of other countries, along with a small selection of antiques and collectibles. You can optionally buy into the co-op by purchasing a share.
- $25 and up per month, depending on number of books offered
- no commission
- shopping cart; they will process sales for you, or you can choose to process your own
- accepts many inventory formats
- about 120 booksellers
- website available in English
10. World Book Market
World Book Market established in 2004, is focused on “quality of books and quality of service.” Booksellers are based in the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.
- $75 to join (includes first month’s fee)
- monthly fee is $30 and up per month, depending on number of books offered (very economical; that $30 covers up to 20K listings!)
- no commission
- shopping cart (with secure module for transmitting credit card details), but buyers complete sale with bookseller
- accepts many inventory formats
- over 40 booksellers
- website available in English
11. AbeBooks
AbeBooks was established way back in 1996, making it one of the first sites of its type, and it is one of the biggest. Amazon now owns ABE.
(They have international sites, too: AbeBooks.co.uk, AbeBooks.de, AbeBooks.fr, Abebooks.it)
- $25 and up per month ($25 minimum, even if you have no books currently listed)
- 8% commission, paid on total (book, shipping and “extra charges”) with $0.50 minimum and $40 maximum
- shopping cart, with credit card processing: 5.5% plus $$0.50 per order; booksellers can choose to also receive payments on their own via check, m.o. or PayPal
- accepts many inventory formats
- also offers book inventory software for free (Homebase); Homebase files are accepted by most other online booksellers
- many millions of books, offered by thousands of booksellers
12. Alibris
Alibris has been online since 1998 and offers many millions of books offered by thousands of booksellers. It is the largest independently-owned book marketplace and they are involved in several social responsibility campaigns. Offers DVDs, too. There’s also a UK site.
Alibris has two fee schedules.
- Basic: no monthly fee; $19.99 yearly fee; list up to 1000 items; $15% commission + $1 per item sold.
- Gold: $19.99 and up per month, depending on number of books listed; 15% commission.
- For both options, there is a $19.99 sign-up fee, a minimum $0.50 commission and a maximum of $60.
- Also assesses a “variable closing fee” on each sale, of $0.80-$1.25. Lots of fees at Alibris!
- Books will be listed on Alibris as well as other bookselling sites
- Offers 100 million books from many thousands of booksellers
