Most Profitable Books to Sell on Amazon

In these delicate financial times, people are seeking ways to make some extra cash. Lots of these people appreciate the fact that selling anything on Amazon doesn’t require a mask and social distancing. So, they look for the most profitable books to sell on Amazon.

Books? We bet you didn’t know the e-commerce giant began life as an online bookstore. Bezos himself found out what used books sell best on Amazon, and laid the foundation for top-selling book categories on Amazon.

With the groundwork having already been done, you simply need to know what books sell best on Amazon in 2022, and you can begin earning your own extra cash. This tutorial is designed to show you what Bezos found out about the best books to sell on Amazon.

What You Should Know About The Most Profitable Books To Sell On Amazon

The first thing you need to know is how the selling process works. You can comb garage sales, stores closing their doors, discount store clearouts, or your own shelves to get books. Now what?

Go to amazon.com to establish a regular account. Next, point to your username. A drop-down menu will pop up. Tap on “start a selling account.” Tap “sign up.” You’re in:

Decide if you want to be an individual seller with an account or a professional seller with an account. The snag to this is that the professional account costs more. If you don’t think you’ll sell that many books, then stick with the individual account, which is only so much per sale.
Next, you’ll list your books by the ISBN number. Tap “have one for sale.”
Now, you’ll describe the condition the book is in.
Here is where you’ll make a major decision: fulfillment by merchant or fulfillment by Amazon. Read up on the pros and cons of both before making a decision.

Categories Of The Most Profitable Books To Sell On Amazon

Also called a genre, you’ll need to know the main categories of books, and that includes the sub-genres. We’ll only list a few here to get you comfortable with the idea, but keep in mind there are up to 16,000 genres of books on Amazon. The main categories are:

Action-adventure gives us Westerns, treasure hunts, tomb raiders, space adventures, the paranormal, military adventures, disasters, and escapes.
Biographies and autobiographies
Classics
Comic books
Fantasy, you can look for such categories as horror, goth, vampire, sword and the sorcerer, magic, psychological, and, of course, zombies.
Fiction
Mystery
Romance comes the sub-categories of historical romance, romantic comedy, Christian romance, glamour, erotica, and young adult, just to name a few.
Suspense and thrillers are some of the best books to sell on Amazon. They give you such subject matter as legal thrillers, law and order type police procedures, medical thrillers, forensics, espionage, crime, disaster, and I need to stop here before I run to find a book!
Even classics have their sub-categories like the horror in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, romance like Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, epic tragedies such as the story of Troy, glamour such as The Great Gatsby, as well as anything Trollope wrote like Barchester Towers.

What Are The Most Profitable Books To Sell On Amazon For 2022?

The number one seller of 2022 is “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. For the last 20 or so years, self-improvement has been a keyword.

We’ve heard from the late Bob Proctor with his “The Secret,” and Tony Robbins’ “Awaken the Giant Within.” Now we introduce you to a personal development guru who speaks to major league sports teams, Fortune 500 companies, and writes detailed newsletters, audio, and books about self-improvement.

Mr. Clear’s research prompted him to follow his own step-by-step program of self-improvement by starting with one small improvement and working his way up to 100 percent better habits. His online course teaches all kinds of leaders and teachers how to do this.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Check on Amazon ➞

The tenth best-seller on Amazon is Shannon Bream’s The Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak: Lessons on Faith from Nine Biblical Families. This genre might fall under both Christian and Women’s Issues. Shannon Bream, an anchor on Fox News At Night and the legal correspondent for Fox News Channel, wanted to know what faith looked like in everyday life.

She took to the Bible to find the answer and came up with mothers and daughters who wanted the best for their families and set out to get it. Sometimes it didn’t turn out so well for them, because we’re all, after all, human. Sometimes it did, as in the case of Moses (whose mother was Jochebed,) but it’s a pretty good bet it was God’s plan all the time.

The number three best-seller on Amazon is Colleen Hoover’s “It Ends With Us.” Hoover, who’s cleaning up with three books in the Top Twenty, writes about the girl who wants a better future, goes to college to get it, and finds herself the object of fascination to a real jerk. She can’t forget her childhood love, who comes to the big city to find her. It’s the typical formula of romance books, historical or contemporary. Hoover does it quite well.

It Ends with Us: A Novel - Colleen Hoover

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Number eight on the best-selling Amazon list is Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” You’d expect some children’s work among the horror stories, the historical romances, the White House thrillers, and the comedies, but caterpillars? Oh, well, why not?

This one resides on the heavy cardboard pages of the types of children’s books with which we grew up. It’s just the right size for itty-bitty hands to hold and flip the pages and counts down the caterpillar’s meals on each page on each day of the week. It even comes with the empty spaces that used to be an apple, a cherry pie, pears, and plums. When the caterpillar is very stuffed, the child has finished the book.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar: Eric Carle

$78.99

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02/18/2024 02:08 am GMT

Number 23 on Amazon’s best-selling list is The 48 Laws of Power. If it isn’t self-improvement, it’s what the Universe is all about. This book is about control and how to get it. If you want to crush a domineering person, there’s a law for that. Need to learn boldness? There’s a law for that. Even if your need is simple self-defense, there’s a law for that.

Robert Greene culled information from Sun-Tzu, Machiavelli, and other control experts to bring you the roadmap you need to either beat control or assume it.

The 48 Laws of Power - Robert Greene

$14.55

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01/12/2024 02:48 pm GMT

What Used Books Sell Best On Amazon?

Guessing what used books sell best on Amazon is a hit-or-miss gesture. Research the categories for yourself. The most profitable books to sell on Amazon that is used include:

Textbooks. Make sure they’re newer and in decent condition before you list them.
Manuals. Owner’s or repair manuals should be newer and in decent condition for obvious reasons.
Computers/technology. The same as above.
Health and wellness. Includes diet, fitness gadgets, and herbal remedies. This can be a bit iffy, but health and wellness are huge right now.
Educational. Math, sciences, medicine, testing, and teaching. Make sure they’re up to date.
Spirituality. This is huge right now, as is Christianity, Bibles, and similar religious studies.
Self-improvement. Also huge right now.

Tips And Tricks For What Books Sell Best On Amazon

1. Keywords

The Amazon algorithm searches for keywords like Google does. The niche and AMS ads further use keywords to snag a wondering reader. The first lifeline for any writer of any copy in any industry is keywords. Develop the keywords that best describe the books in your collection, into which niche they fall (and that doesn’t necessarily mean categories, so you’ll need to research niche,) and which AMS ads best compliment your books.

2. Book Covers

It’s a cliché, I know, but people really do judge a book by its cover. If you want to sell more books, choose tomes with eye-catching covers.

3. Social Media

If you want the world to know something, such as your awesome collection of books for sale, then you need to go to the world. That’s accomplished on social media. The posts are good, but a video is better. A short, attention-grabbing video of the book with you doing a voice-over that further grabs their attention will sell more books.

4. Good Reviews

More people decide which of the most profitable books to sell on Amazon they want to buy based on reviews than any other method of research. Visit book review sites, sites dealing with the subject of the book such as medicine or law, and touching base with influencers go far towards getting good reviews of your books in front of searching eyes.

5. Hook

Make sure your books begin with an unforgettable hook:

“Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm like the Tarleton twins were.” Margaret Mitchell, Gone With The Wind.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” Jane Austen, Pride, And Prejudice.

“I have just returned from a visit to my landlord – the solitary neighbor that I shall be troubled with.” Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights.

“When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.” Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird.

Tips For Choosing The Best Book Category On Amazon

Kindle will tell you more about the categories of the most profitable books to sell on Amazon than Amazon will. Amazon tipped the scales in 2017 by only showing on your sales page three categories when you were entitled to ten. You might even have gotten your books into the ten categories, but three only appeared to buyers.

The trick to seeing all the categories into which your books fall lies in buying Publisher Rocket. This is an analytical tool into which you’ll type your ISBN number for the book of which you want to check the category. Menus and pop-up boxes will appear. You’ll tap the boxes and pop-up pages on which every single category of books appears.

The tool includes category strings, which simply means the many sub-categories into which your books will fit. Click the export tab to put your books into these categories. If you aren’t in a position to buy Publisher Rocket, then nerdygirl.com offers booksellers a free tool that lists categories. Just type in the ISBN number of your books, and you’re off to the races. The only difference is the nerdygirl tool doesn’t offer sales analytics as Publisher Rocket does.

Most Profitable Books To Sell On Amazon FAQ

What Are The Most Lucrative E-books To Self-Publish?

Fiction, fantasy and science fiction, young adult, romance, and mysteries are the most lucrative e-books to self-publish. Additionally, biographies, children’s books, and self-help sell very well in the e-book format. The charm of e-book publishing is that authors don’t have to be rejected by every Tom, Dick, and Harry Publishing House. Some even pull in six figures per year.

What Types Of Books Can You Sell On Amazon?

Some of the most profitable books to sell on Amazon are the hardest to find: books out of print (although you’ll pay out the checkbook for them,) classics, first editions (although you’ll pay out the checkbook for them,) comic books, textbooks, and the list goes on. Check the categories page, and you’ll see what your books can do for you.

Why Sell Books On Amazon?

Amazon began life as an online bookstore. I’ve found books I read as a young person that I haven’t been able to find elsewhere (yeah, I paid out the nose for it, too.) It’s a researched and statistical fact that more people shop on Amazon than not. Add to this the fact that the pandemic has forced more people to buy online. You’ll sell your most profitable books to sell on Amazon to more people than you would with a brick-and-mortar bookstore.

How Much Can I Make Selling Books On Amazon?

An influencer website tells us that your basic beginner bookseller pulls in $42,000 per year selling books on Amazon. Publishing assistant Jungle Scout tells us that many Amazon sellers make between $1,000 and $250,000 per month.

Final Thoughts

The most profitable books to sell on Amazon can make you a lot of money. You have to research the categories, research what used books sell the best, and add your books to as many categories as you can find, although you’re only allowed ten categories. A tool such as nerdygirl.com and Publisher Rocket can help. Gentlemen, start your engines!