Want to sell books online? There are many sites where you can list your books for sale. Here are our top picks (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. Please check with each site for complete and up-to-date information.
The biggest ones
Biblio
Biblio, Inc. 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
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, money order, 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
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
Other bookselling sites
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
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
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, $70 per year, must apply to join
- terms for sellers available to registered members
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.
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
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
Bookzangle
Bookzangle (established in 2004 as World Book Market, and recently renamed), is focused on “quality of books and quality of service.” Based in Australia, booksellers are based in the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.
- three membership tiers
- Bronze: free listing fee for up to 30,000 books; 10% commission
- Silver: $348/year (works out to $29/month) for up to 100,000 books; many extra benefits; no commission
- Gold: not yet available; price to be determined. Up to 250,000 books; no commission.
- shopping cart (with secure module for transmitting credit card details), but buyers complete sale with bookseller
- accepts many inventory formats
- over 250 booksellers
- website available in English
Where have you sold your books? Do you have any advice or feedback about any of these selling venues? Please add a comment below.
Peter says
Hi,
You can check out the new Booksrun Marketplace https://booksrun.com/marketplace/sellers
Denise says
Thanks, Peter!
I’ll add it to the page at the next update.
Denise
Sahat Nainggolan says
I am a novel writer and my novel has been marketed in various online bookstores in many countries. But the sales results are disappointing. Does your bookstore have privileges ??
Denise says
Sahat, I understand that it’s hard to sell books. Unfortunately, though, Empty Mirror doesn’t sell books — it’s just a literary website.
Antonio says
I nice option for booksellers is to get listed in price comparison websites. You can take Bonavendi as an example, this how they look https://www.bonavendi.com/sell/b/Books.html
E.M.Wilson says
As regards appraisals, you can probably come up with pretty accurate figure yourself by using a combination of bookscouter (there is a scanning app.) and Addall. Use Addall for antiquarian and rare books. Bookscouter gives you prices book buyers will pay for books in good or better condition. Sales rank on Amazon is a big factor regarding what they will pay but there are some books which are penny books on Amazon, which can be sold to buyers on books outer, for 2-4 dollars , sometimes more. These are usually larger text book sellers with direct ties to University book store sales. Also, as far as sales venues, it is still very hard, if not impossible to either ignore, or beat, the biggest elephant in the room… Amazon. I understand. If someone may not like them but realistically they both dominate and dictate the used book market. Not using them as a selling resource puts a vendor seriously behind from the start. They also buy a number of used books directly for Amazon credit.
Henry says
Another easy way to sell back books, especially textbooks, is to use textbook buyback companies. I’ve used Mybookcart.com in the past, they pay well, and the shipping for my books is free.
Empty Mirror says
Kostas, Really glad to hear about this service! I thank you for pointing it out to us, and wish you much success with it. all best, Denise
Donna Einhorn, ISA AM says
Under the section on finding out how much your books might be worth, you suggest “get an appraisal”. However, your advice is to “contact a local bookseller who offers appraisals. Check your local phone directory under “books, used – dealers” to find an appraiser.” As a full-time accredited appraiser (International Society of Appraisers), I offer qualified appraisals, either for Fair Market Value [e.g., when donating] or Replacement Value [for insurance coverage, or damage claims]. I can also help to broker a sale and estimate what the most likely Marketable Cash Value is likely to be, depending on supply & demand, condition, and what the market is doing. So it would be nice if you could suggest getting an appraisal from an Appraiser. Dealers tend to low-ball values, particularly if they want to buy. But then you probably knew that. Thanks for listening.
Empty Mirror says
Donna, thanks for your comment. Contacting a qualified book appraiser is a good idea. Both dealer and non-dealer appraisers can certainly make good appraisals.
As mentioned in the article, I do not recommend selling to the book dealer who provides the appraisal. And indeed it’s a conflict of interest for a dealer who makes an appraisal to also make a purchase offer.
all best,
Denise