Amazon offers multiple programs for selling books, the most popular and well-known being Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). But since this is only print-on-demand (POD), how does a self-publisher or small press sell books on Amazon if they’ve already printed books in bulk, or even in small quantities?
There are two choices:
- Amazon Advantage, Amazon’s bookselling program for publishers—new print books only.
- Amazon Seller Central, a selling service for anyone with a print book—new or used.
This article delves into both programs, explaining their features, differences, and suitability for specific needs.
Understanding Amazon Advantage
Designed for publishers and producers of physical media, the Amazon Advantage program works on a consignment model. In this arrangement, your book becomes a part of Amazon’s inventory. When a customer purchases your book, they pay Amazon, and Amazon takes care of the shipping and customer service. If the shopper is a Prime member, your book is shipped via Prime.
The cost of Advantage
Amazon Advantage charges an annual fee of $99. Further, Amazon pays you 45% of the list price for each book sold, akin to the terms of selling your book in a brick-and-mortar bookstore. It’s crucial to remember that you will need to bear the cost of shipping books to Amazon’s warehouse.
Marketing and perception with Advantage
As an Advantage member, your book is marketed and recommended to readers in a similar manner as other books on Amazon, leveraging Amazon’s powerful intrasite marketing programs. Moreover, customers cannot distinguish between a book offered through the Advantage consignment program and any other book offered by Amazon, thereby lending a professional sheen to your book’s online presence. However, pricing control is relinquished to Amazon, which can set the price as long as you are paid your wholesale price.
Understanding Amazon Seller Central (Marketplace)
In contrast, with the Amazon Seller Central program, also known as the Marketplace, you act as the retailer, essentially advertising your book on Amazon. When a customer buys your book, Amazon holds the payment while you ship the order to the customer.
An alternative to you doing the shipping is using Amazon’s Fulfillment by Amazon, FBA. With FBA, you ship books to an Amazon warehouse and Amazon fulfills customer orders, thus making your book available for Prime shipping.
As the publisher, you do not “own” or control your book’s Amazon sales page when using Seller Central. You are competing with anyone that has a copy of your book.
The Cost of Seller Central/Marketplace
Amazon Seller Central has two programs: Individual and Professional.
- The individual plan charges $0.99 per item, plus 15% of the item’s price (referral fee), plus a closing fee of $1.80 per book. Importantly, Amazon provides a reimbursement of shipping fees according to a schedule.
- The professional plan has several marketing and selling features designed for those selling 40 or more books per month. The monthly charge is $39.99. The referral fee of 15% and closing fee of $1.80 apply here as well, as does the reimbursement of shipping fees.
Marketing and perception with Seller Central
While using Seller Central, your book is shown to shoppers when they search for it. However, even though you are the publisher, your book will be displayed as available from a third-party seller, which might not be as appealing to some customers. On the bright side, with Seller Central, you retain control over your book’s pricing, which can be critical if you wish to maintain consistent pricing for your distributors.
Comparison of Seller Central/Marketplace vs. Amazon Advantage
| Seller Central/Marketplace | Amazon Advantage | |
|---|---|---|
| Acceptance into program | Virtually anyone | Publisher must apply |
| Selling costs | Two plans: $0.99 per item sold or $39.99/month. Plus: 15% of book price and $1.80 per item sold. Shipping costs to customer reimbursed by Amazon. | Annual charge of $99. Publisher receives 45% of the list price, which publisher sets. |
| Shipping to customer | Seller ships or FBA | Amazon ships; no charge to publisher |
| Shipping to Amazon | Amazon pays if using FBA | Publisher pays |
| Return of inventory stored at Amazon | N/A if seller is shipping; seller pays if using FBA | Publisher pays |
| Customer service | Seller unless using FBA | Amazon |
| Product-detail-page book description | Controlled by Amazon; seller’s descriptions may not be used | Controlled by publisher |
| A+ Content | Not available | Available |
| List book for pre-order | Not available | Available |
| Setting book prices | Seller controls the book’s price; Amazon cannot discount. | Publisher chooses price, but Amazon can discount. |
| Perception | “Ships from [seller name]” and “Sold by [seller name].” If using FBA: “Ships from Amazon.com” and “Sold by [seller name].” | “Ships from Amazon.com” and “Sold by Amazon.com” messaging on the product detail page. |
Disclaimer: This information is subject to change at any time. We’ve provided links to these programs so readers can research current terms, rules, and offers. If you wish to discuss your specific circumstances, we offer consultations.
What’s best for you?
The choice between Amazon Advantage and Seller Central truly depends on your reseller relationships and objectives. While Seller Central might offer a higher margin, it could appear less professional, and you have limited control over your book’s listing information. Advantage, on the other hand, might erode your control over pricing and could potentially strain other retailer relationships.
It is exceptionally rare for traditional and hybrid publishers to use Seller Central. Self-publishers who are not using POD, on the other hand, often consider both. Amazon Advantage was closed to new publishers for several years and it reopened in the fall of 2023.
A recent success story is that of the author-publisher team behind The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies, The Lost Ways, and The Holistic Guide to Wellness, all of which made the Hot Sheet Bestseller List (Nov. 2023) based on sales made through Seller Central, rather than through Advantage.
Other considerations
- Both programs require your book to have a legally registered ISBN.
- You must apply to be granted an Advantage account; applicants are not automatically accepted.
- With Seller Central’s marketplace, Amazon monitors your shipping performance to ensure customers receive their orders promptly.
Do you have more questions about self-published book distribution?
- AuthorImprints founder David Wogahn offers consults on this topic.
- Selling Books on Amazon—Are They Ripping Me Off?
- Learn more about Ingram programs for publishers.
- 10 Things Author-Publishers Should Know About Amazon Advantage
AuthorImprints offers a full range of book distribution options for self-publishers. Contact us about your forthcoming book.
One other point to mention is if you use the advantage system you also have to pay a ‘storage’ fee for the space your books take up in the Amazon warehouse. Over time that can mount up a bit if the books don’t sell very fast..
I’ve never been charged a fee. Can you provide a link to an explanation?
Great article…very well written and informative! Would you be available to talk with me a little more about this? I have some questions about what direction to go for our specific book….and Amazon is IMPOSSIBLE to contact.
Warmly
Nicole
Nicole, you can ask it here. Perhaps I can point you to an Amazon resource, or, if this is really specific to your needs, we can setup a consult call. I charge $99 for 30 minutes. Email me via the contact form if you’d like to arrange a consult. Thanks for stopping by.
We publish 3 titles – law books designed for law school students – which I wrote and self-publish (printed by Lightning Source). Our audience is limited, of course, but we sell approx 1000 book per year – mainly on amazon.com. We sold 3800 books in 2008. This was before the economic downturn effected law school admission numbers,
Currently we are sellers on the Marketplace with fulfillment by amazon and merchant fulfillment options for purchasers. We have considered the Advantage program but do not think it is suitable for us as a small publisher.
Rather, we are considering an Amazon Webstore and wonder if you have an opinion about the webstore option for publishers like us. It seems to offer SEO (which we have never managed to figure out how to do) and also to allow us to direct purchasers to our own website. The monthly fee is higher than other options and we have months when we sell very few books. Nevertheless, we think it may improve our sales as amazon has an incentive to market the books and since we cannot place ad on amazon as a bookseller.
What are you thoughts?
Thanks, John and Pat Delaney
John, this may be too obvious but I’d crunch the numbers for the options for a full year. I’d make some assumptions on sales and then test them in the Excel model. I suspect you’ve tried to build some type of store for your imprint and use Amazon as a marketing tool…that’s the long term play, as you probably know.
Thanks for the info. After reading Advantage agreement & your info here, several hours of research & crunching the numbers, I anticipated a $9 profit. So I signed up for the Advantage program. Correction on the percentage mentioned in your post, it’s 55% going to Amazon & 45% to the author. Then I learned you cannot use USPS when you mail your book to Amazon & they will only mailing the number of books ordered. It was my understanding I could mail 50 books to one place. & Amazon took care of mailing each book. But due to the multiple warehouses across the country, you can only send the amount of books ordered to the warehouse they assign you. So my book lists for $24.99, I get $11.25, Fed Ex postage is $8.58. It’s a 152 page soft cover, book, this is not express, & the lowest price FedEx shipment. Amazon insists in using UPS or FedEx. You have to package the product properly including, bubble wrap, proper envelopes, several forms to fill out per Advantage with each order. & print an Amazon shipping label. My profit was $2.67. Factor in time, gas & packaging supplies, and it’s zero profit. I’m beyond disappointed & thought authors should be clear on the process.
Your frustration is shared by many others. I should also point out that the 55% that Amazon takes (thanks for pointing out the typo) is not unique to Amazon, it is an industry standard for these types of sales. IngramSpark is also 55% although they offer publishers a second option of 40% (but not all stores will accept that). FWIW, I mailed to their warehouse using USPS Priority Mail as recently as September of 2014. Maybe UPS or Fedex is a new requirement…or not enforced in practice.
I sell CD’s and a live concert DVD’s from one artist ( my father) and have been with Advantage for over ten years. I’ve always shipped my product by USPS media mail. ( formerly known as book rate) I’ve never heard of the restriction mentioned above. I’ve also never been charged a storage fee but then again my item is a regular seller. Small numbers but continuous. I imagine if they were collecting dust on the Amazon shelves, there may be fee imposed. Seems only fair.
Hi David,
Excellent article. Very informative and helpful. I work with a small publisher who is trying to decide between these two Amazon selling options. You mention that your listing on Amazon will look “less professional” if it’s in the general marketplace as opposed to via Amazon Advantage. What are the specific perks you get when listing a book via AA that you don’t get via marketplace? Does the book listing page look any different? If you have an example of each, I’d be very grateful if you’d share it.
Thanks again!
Joel
Joel, I created the Kindle eBook for this print book a couple years ago and the publisher didn’t want to use Advantage. It doesn’t look bad but note that is says it is available only from third party sellers. (as opposed to Amazon, the retailer). So they are saying: you are on your own folks.
http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Siberian-Tiger-Folktales-Russian/dp/0965389170/
Hi,
I am an indie filmmaker considering which way I want to sell my movie on DVD/Blu-Ray via Amazon. This website is the only place I could find anyone even coming close to explaining the difference. What is the difference between selling via advantage or via marketplace and choosing fulfillment by Amazon??
First off, if it’s under the banner of marketplace, what do they charge for fulfillment? That is listed no where! And can I just ship a box of product to one place?
Regina, with Advantage you are basically treating Amazon as your retailer. You list the product on consignment, recommend a price, but they charge the customer what they want. Marketplace is more like a fixed price eBay sale. When you add FBA, it is similar to Advantage, except I think that solution is geared to larger vendors. Most indies–book or video–would choose Adv or Marketplace. Sorry I can’t add more detail about FBA but here is a short link to take you to info about this program: http://www.epubhelp.com/fba (epubhelp.com is a sister site of authorimprints.com for DIY publishers).
Sorry, I did not understand your reply at all. I am trying to decide BETWEEN 1. Amazon Advantage or 2. Amazon Marketplace with FBA. As far as cost, control and ease of use. I cannot find what the cost is for FBA at all.
That sort of information can change frequently so I suggest you contact Amazon directly.
Thank you so much for this helpful article. I read an entire book on selling on Amazon and your article taught me more!
I already sell one product on Amazon Advantage but will likely be switching to Marketplace for the pricing control.
Beyond this, I have a question I cannot seem to find an answer to anywhere on Amazon. I have MP3 versions of two guided meditation CDs, as well as MP3s of teleclasses that I want to sell on Amazon. Try as I might, I can’t find out how to place these in Amazon. There don’t seem to be any categories for this. Any suggestions/advice/info? Thank you so much.
Hi Teresa, I’d be surprised if this isn’t supported. I don’t know the answer off the top of my head. If you have an Adv or Marketplace account you should message Amazon. Best of luck and glad the article helped you.
Can Amazon sell the book at less than 55%?
“As an Advantage member your book is marketed and recommended to readers like most other books on Amazon. E.g. Readers that bough this book also bought/viewed… This is a powerful benefit.”
This is the only benefit I need from Advantage. Could I not use Marketplace, then pay several friends to purchase my book and a similar one in order to achieve the same effect?
Thanks
I don’t understand your question. Like any retailer, Amazon can buy something and sell it for what they wish (subject to various laws). Can you provide an example of what you mean?
Yes, I’ve heard of people doing that and it can work. Keep in mind that their software may treat books in Advantage more favorably than those in Marketplace. Like any retailer they want to maximize their revenue.
I have never tested this and I have not heard of anyone trying. If it does work, I wonder how long it will last.
I got an email saying that Advantage is creating more benefits and annual fee for 2016 is $99. I frequently get an order for say 1 book from Advantage – and as someone pointed out earlier – once i add in the postage from Canada, the mailing envelope etc – I am spending more money than the $7.18 that they give me for a sale. I see some people are able to store inventory there – that would be very helpful. Do you know anything about that? I have not figured out a way to actually talk to anyone at Amazon.
Thanks!
I have not been selling anything for months. Please someone help me find out why! I have nine self published paperbaoks and nine kindles for sale. At this point I don’t know if they are listed as marketplce or advantage.
You need to contact Amazon or your publisher, whoever set up your books. We are a private company and could help but it would be a consulting arrangement. More details when you click CONSULT on the website menu.
You need sales volume (which means reader demand) for Advantage to make sense financially. You can try Marketplace, or look up FBA: Fulfillment By Amazon.
My problem with Advantage was over a budget
item affecting shipping procedures, so I tried to
find out what it meant (some phrase like “fulfillment
stock processing”) and how it might affect me. Question
after question, answers always “We have assigned you
inquiry number AC5497LM7790Op6654321 — Sahib
Marawari Blobbo, Director, Fulfillment Stock Processing.”
They were always “Do Not Reply” messages.
Finally, a year and a half later, I received a message that
the budget and shipping procedure line item did not
affect me.
Please define what you mean by “moderation”
I searched the page for that word but didn’t find it. It is an older post so I can’t recall everything there. Let me know where in the post you read that and I’ll try to help clarify.
Guess what? The Advantage Program will now be charging $99 per year for their “updated” and “improved” services of which several of them will include additional charges. I have had my books on Amazon for over 10 years and have seen any returns diminished to the point where I owe them money every year. I am finding a different way to sell my books, through Facebook and web site and personal appearances. I am very resentful of the power of this corporation and the ‘advantages’ they take over their vendors. Thanks for letting me vent.
As a small publisher I am finding there is NO advantage to using Amazon Advantage. We are now paying the $99.00 a year they are charging that they say gives us access to their marketing programs. However, those programs run anywhere from $600-$1500 per book. Way to expensive for our small company. And we find that year after year, due to shipping and packing we are barely breaking even. Do you recommend we try the Marketplace, and if so how do we end our Advantage program with them?
I’m actually taking a second look at Marketplace to better understand the differences. I’ll write a new post and notify my mailing list when it is live.
Hello David- I have had 4 items on AA for several years. I am now ready to launch a video series and need to incorporate a hosting platform for the digital version of the video. The hosting platform only uses Amazon Seller. The question is do I move all my items over to amazon seller or just the one? I am having trouble finding the total costs for me and the profit. Do you have any advice or recommendations. Thank you much, Jan
I can’t give specific advice Jan. But I can tell you that you generally give up more margin to Amazon in the Advantage program and you should make more with Marketplace. The “problem” is that you will show up as a third party seller and complete with others even though you are the publisher. Seems to me you could move one over and see how that works.
Response to Karen Brege
(I am a direct vendor to Amazon & have been selling as a direct vendor to Amazon since 2000 (16 years). I am direct with computer software & music instruments & use Advantage for our DVD’s (only option) and I have used Advantage for books as well.
One new feature recently added to Advantage is the addition of coupons to the marketing options. You are able to dictate a dollar amount that you wish the selling price to be or a % off. This means it also be featured in a promotional space similar to a Best Deals of the Week. Although with Amazon taking 55% there is typically not much margin to work with.
It is a tad (a lot) ridiculous that they are using the 55% “industry standard pricing discount – Amazon broke the standard. They work off a heck of a lot less on other categories (10-30GPM) and that is also on terms based business and NOT consignment. They are raking it in off Advantage sales & they only reason why is because the 55% discount was standard when they started the business. But where else are you gonna go, right?
Considering Advantage vs. Seller + FBA for a $47 book. One factor is the need to go international – we want our book posted on Amazon.ca, Amazon.uk, and some others. Doesn’t appear to be any international option for Advantage – does that mean than the world would have to come to Amazon.com, pay the international shipping, and live with the long delivery times?
Hi Rick. Canada and the UK have their own Advantage programs. I looked into the UK program 18 months ago and you needed an in-country bank and mailing address to get it setup. Perhaps Marketplace (Seller Central) is the better option here. Nevertheless, I would not be surprised if there were extra shipping charges if this is the only country from which you can sell.
Glad to find a [revived] live feed for Amazon Advantage inquires. I have a ‘temporarily-out-of-stock” book on Advantage that is sold out with the exception of a “lost” 150-book restock inventory. We have been in email and phone communication every day with Amazon Advantage for the past 8 days leading up to the last possible day to guarantee shipments in time for Christmas. We know of 31 paid orders placed with Amazon and a few dozen requests for more from direct sources, but nobody can ship! Do you know of any workaround to get to the AA fulfillment folks instead of customer service representatives? Or better, to the legal team. It has come to that!
Sorry I am unable to help.
Can someone tell me, if I list a book with amazon advantage, who do I need to talk to in order to get the categories/paths for the book set up properly. We want to launch a best seller campaign for a new children’s book but we need to make sure the book is listed in the correct 3 categories first. THANKS!
Bonnie, you can select one when you add your book listing via Advantage. Once live, email the Advantage support team to add others, or adjust the one you start with if it doesn’t match the Amazon.com store categories.
This thread is great. Thanks for sharing.
My question is about selling DVDs. I currently sell on Advantage.com as well as .ca (I’m in Canada).
It is my understanding Advantage is my only option. Is that true? Yearly profit is minimal and it’s barely worth it.
Can you sell DVDs on Marketplace? Susan
Hi Susan. Yes you can. Keep in mind that some seller categories require Amazon approval, although I don’t believe that is the case for DVDs.
I’m finding this page a bit mystifying. Have I correctly understood that if I publish a book via Createspace, I do not need to have anything to do with either Advantage or Marketplace? Cheers.
I have shipped a couple of orders by USPS and got the media rate discount. They received it faster that my receipt showed but My profit margin is so low with Advantage with them taking 55% plus the $99 annual fee that I want to convert it but don’t know to what. I am an indie publisher for 1 book. Recommendations?
Correct.
If you have one book, and you are using POD, it doesn’t make financial sense. The best reason to continue is that you are marketing the fact you have a book so just showing it is important. 55% is an industry standard.
Thanks for the great info. Can a publisher print offset and sell on advantage and also use the POD and kindle at createspace? Will amazon get confused?
Why would anyone do that? You can use a different ISBN but I think it would be confusing to your customers even if Amazon wasn’t confused.
I have a new book that is POD via Ingram Spark and sold primarily on Amazon Marketplace. I am getting a lot of orders, but I want to avoid the “Temporarily Out of Stock” notice on my Amazon listing (it is off-putting to potential customers and customers who do order are suffering long delays to get their books).
Would it make sense to join Advantage to “fill the pipeline” and have Ingram-Spark ship to Amazon Advantage on my behalf (so I don’t have to deal with packing, shipping)? In essence, use Marketplace to sell my book and Advantage to keep it in stock. Or does the math (or other reasons) make this idea a poor one?
Related Question: Is it typically an either-or issue (a self-publisher either does Advantage OR the basic Marketplace)?
Thanks for your help.
I am a small publisher from the UK with about 150 titles. We print and distribute with Ingram but I have been largely dissatisfied with sales and want now to do direct sales on Amazon. We have registered with Amazon Advantage. Will our titles be available across the various Amazon countries or do we need to register separately with each country?
Also we cannot find the ‘Contact us’ button on our account – we have uploaded about 40 titles to them and waiting for their orders.
Hi Dan, sorry for the delay. It was nice helping you with this. Continued success.
Advantage is a country-by-country program.
Hello David
First of all your knowledge and patience is amazing. My question is, I had two books published through an established publisher and the book was listed on Amazon in the UK and in the States. Since my publisher has unfortunately died I have decided to self publish and what I am struggling with as I am learning about the process is whether an established publisher would use the Amazon Advantage route or is there a route that I am missing? i.e. paying someone to be a distributor who then lists it on Amazon? This really isn’t about the money but I do intend to write 3 more books and I want to set this up in the best way that I can. Your thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
Pamela, anyone can use Advantage, assuming they are the publisher and selling new books. So yes, you can do it. I have more about how I help with distribution on this page: https://www.authorimprints.com/distribution/.
Hi! Thanks for this article, it’s really informative. Just wondering, can you generate discount coupon codes with amazon advantage? If yes, is there a limit of the % of discount we can apply?
Thanks!
Clem
No Clem, you can’t do that.
Hi, is it possible to specify a minimum order quantity on Amazon Advantage?
I have a book that is selling very well through POD, and have now printed copies that I was planning to ship directly to Amazon. However, despite selling around 1000 copies of the book every month POD, since registering with Advantage last week, I have so far had 4 orders from Advantage, 3 of which are for single copies, and 1 for four copies (all to different warehouse locations). I had expected to be shipping them a box of at least 100 copies at a time, not sending them out one by one!
At this rate I will be paying them to sell my books.
Help!
To answer your question, no. You can specify minimums. The number they ask for is based on your sales history. However, you can submit a ‘stock up’ request. This is in anticipation of a marketing event that might result in lots of orders. You need to convince them and get approval. You will also pay the shipping back to you if the books don’t sell.
Hello. I’m having trouble finding information on shipping costs once a buyer purchases a book, whether in Marketplace or Amazon Advantage. Does the customer pay for shipping? Or does the seller? Either way, how can find out the costs so that we can factor them into the book pricing? Thank you.
One more question. Which program allows books to be eligible for Amazon Prime?
Alison, great questions and I’ll reply to both. Prime: Books made available via KDP Print or IngramSpark. Advantage. Seller Central when you use FBA, fulfillment by Amazon.
Amazon will take care of shipping if you use Advantage. Marketplace/Seller Central has all sorts of options and you can choose which ones to offer customers. Each option has a cost the customer pays and this goes to you regardless of your costs. For example, if you specify standard shipping and the cost the customer pays/is charged is $3.99, but you ship it Priority Mail, you pay the difference.
Hi David, great article – thank you! I am a first-time author, self-publishing a printed book. I will have my own printer, was planning to use Amazon Advantage and should be able to have books to ship to Amazon by early December. When I tried to registered for an AA account today, I received a message that “New Advantage enrollment is currently paused as we make improvements to the registration process.” I am lost now. Do you have any insight or advice? Thank you! Yan
Hi Yan, some printers and fulfillment companies have accounts. I offer 30 min consults in this regard, details here: https://www.davidwogahn.com/consult.
Hi David, I am trying to sell my book through Amazon Advantage. My book is available on Prime. The problem is they keep ordering the books making me pay the postage and in few weeks I get the books back from Amazon as the book was not sold. I have lost more money on postage than making any money from my book. Amazon keeps on ordering books and then in few weeks I get the book back. What should I do as I am losing hard earned money instead if making it even though my book is a winner of Honorable Mention at 4 book festivals. Please suggest the right solution.
Hello Mony. Your only viable option is to try Seller Central.
I used to sell my four novels self-published between 2008 – 2015 on Amazon Advantage. At one time they stocked them but for years I simply fulfilled orders that Amazon sent to me, posted the books to Amazon and I received the small payment. This became unviable with Amazon’s cut and postage so I stopped promoting, really not wanting to be out of pocket. I still want my books to be on Amazon in case things change – I may write and promote a new novel, I may get a book to screen, who knows? but now I cannot access Amazon Advantage and when I have tried to contact them, any email has a link directing me back to Advantage login. It is totally hopeless and so many things have changed, I am at a complete loss!!
Since your username would be the same or link to your Amazon purchasing account is there a point that you were lockout of your Amazon purchasing account you were able to unlock it and gain access to it but when you were logging in to the amazon.com advantage it doesn’t allow you to says that unauthorized login. What did you do?
You need to contact Amazon.
Hello David!
Thank you very much for this very informative article.
I have just published a book in Italy through a publishing house and the publisher wanted to sell it on Amazon using Amazon Advantage.
The book has never become “available” on Amazon. It is written: “Currently not available. We do not know if or when the article will be available again.” since the beginning.
Publisher told me that Amazon does not order the books from him since it was not search on Amazon at a sufficient number. I’ve never used Amazon to sell, so I do not know if this explanation is true but it seems somehow tricking. Do you think really this could be the case? So many people should search my book on Amazon to make Amazon order the books from the publisher?
Thank you in advance for your patience!
I’ve never heard of Amazon turning down any book, regardless of sales.
I love this article!!!!! I learned a lot and I have been selling as a small publisher on Amazon since 1995. I sell on Marketplace (seller central), Advantage, Kindle, POD, the app store–sooo I should know what you just wrote, but didn’t.
I recently had a “problem” with them that you answered and I could not get the answer anywhere else–One of my books (small, blank pages like a journal) sells for $5. I sell a 3 pack for $12. People like to give it as a gift. That is why I created a 3 pack so they would get a bit of a price break. For 7 or 8 years, it sold well on Advantage. Then suddenly it stopped selling–almost to zero, BUT I just thought maybe the market was saturated. Then a couple sold so I went in to update the A page and noticed they were charging $15.14 for the 3 pack, not $12!!!! So customers were paying MORE to get a 3 pack than a single copy. I wrote in thinking it was a mistake and they wrote back that they could charge anything they wanted and they could not discuss their pricing choices with me! So either they are a consignment store or they buy them and charge what they want–but obviously if they “buy” them they could not just send them back when they don’t sell. If consignment, they could. So they place vendors in a horrible position. They order the 3 pack, price it higher than the single so it won’t sell, send it back to me because it doesn’t sell, then order more to keep it in stock, and the circle continues while I lose money. It’s silly.
You said, “Amazon can buy something and sell it for what they wish” which is true except they don’t really buy them if they can send them back at any time–So basically they take it on consignment, control the price, and make vendors lives miserable. They do not buy the books and should not have the ability to control the price.
Your article has given me much needed info. Thank you so very much.
You’re welcome, Shelly. Btw, the pricing control and consignment issue is a book trade matter and not limited to Amazon. It can be a very frustrating business. Selling direct to readers, if you can, is one thing to try.
Dear Sirs:
I received an e-mail that there is an order for my book, Orphan in the Sands. When I click on the link there is no “log In” It says if I do
not reply within three days it will be cancelled. Would you please help me. My phone is 248 334-4644 or e-mail, virhart@yahoo.com.
Tha nk you, Virginia Haroutunian
Contact Amazon. We are not Amazon.
For the past twenty years we have sold physical audio CDs on Amazon, through Advantage Amazon on consignment. Our experience has been very good. We have always had the issue of Amazon ordering large quantities of our Christmas albums in the fall to stock up, but then returning many of them in the summer because sales on Christmas slow down, and then they re-order in the fall so we lose money on shipping costs sending product back and forth. It’s crazy, but our other product helped cover the seasonal costs and when we were selling a lot of product it made sense. Now, CDs don’t sell like they use to because people tend to buy digital music. Now, Amazon will order one or two CDs, but return them a few months later. Then a week or two later, order them again. Because it costs about $6 to send one or two CDs to Amazon at a time, I recently raised the price of a physical Christmas CD to $15.98. Which means Amazon pays us $7.19 a unit. This way, we don’t lose money on shipping, but we still make less than a $1 on each unit (and if you consider my printing costs for those units, we still end up losing money overall). Twice in the last two months, Amazon has sent me back a Christmas CD, and then a week later ordered 1 unit of the exact same CD. It’s nuts. Why return it, if they just order it again a week later?! If I keep playing this game, we are just throwing $6+ dollars away to pass the product back and forth. It makes no sense. Is there a way to set it up so we can still sell on Amazon, but bypass their inventory by selling directly to the buyer? Because so few people buy physical CDs anymore, I am happy to manage the shipping myself. Is it possible to set something up like that on Amazon?
If you’ve already explored Seller Central and it won’t work, there is no other option I’m aware of.
I HATE this program. Been with them for 15 years and am leaving. Horrible customer service and charge back for items you can’t ever win or prove. I’m done with them.
Please get this fixed. Back in 2010, before Amazon Published books, I wrote & published the novel Piasa. To sell on Amazon I created a an Advantage account. In 2017, when POD became available the novel was republished with a new cover (ISBN 978-0998923000). In 2020 it was re-edited and published with a new cover and ISBN, 978-0998923079. Frustratingly, I could not get Amazon to show the 2020 edition as the current one. It still shows all three editions as separate novels. I had heard nothing from Advantage in years but lately I keep getting messages that I have an order and telling me to logon to my account. When I log in to my OLD account [pt says i do nott have an account. Can you fix the Advantage messaging and advise me on how to show Piasa on Amazon as one book?
You need to contact Amazon. We are not Amazon.
David, Can you point me to a place that tells me how to close an Amazon Advantage Account or if I can change it to a personal account from a business account?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Gwen, just log in to your Advantage account to close it. I don’t believe there is a distinction between personal and business within Advantage. If you mean the email address, that’s something to update within your account.
This was a helpful article. We are running into an issue in trying to advertise through Amazon Advantage. We are unable to find the option to Advertise in the US but can in any other country. When we ask for help to get permission with Amazon Ads they tell us to go to KDP. Since we already printed, our book isn’t listed on the bookshelf. Then the suggestion is we that we need to registrar a seller account in addition but I thought that was the purpose of having an Amazon Advantage account. I’m looking for guidance. We keep getting the run around.
Hi Mary, when I log into one of the accounts we manage, the advertising “tile” is on the home page. Clicking it, I get a ‘Choose your campaign type’ heading with 5 types of ad options. It says it’s for the US and the URL switches to their advertising.amazon.com page. Have you applied for/set up an Amazon Advertising account? Maybe that needs to be connected?
I have been selling on AA for 15 plus years. As said previously… it’s painful when some orders cost more than they pay. But overall I’m hitting $500 a month in net revenues so.. I can live with it. My problem is I get hit with a non-compliance on case labeling nearly every month. When I call, they will waive it, but won’t actually tell me how to solve it. I go into AA to the open PO, accept it, print shipping address label and barcode, print the PO to place inside with the books. Then place the printed label on outside of the box, USPS places their label next to it. I’m not sure what else I’m supposed to placing on the box? Any links or suggestions welcome. Thank you
I know they change their requirements from time-to-time and I believe they have in the past year. My only suggestion is to revisit those if you haven’t lately.
Is it still true that you can’t utilize advertising campaigns for your print books on Seller Central? Is it only allowed through Amazon Advantage still.
Also, you charged an extra fee variable closing fee on Seller Central.
That’s my understanding, Jarrid.
I’ve been fighting to get advertising on my Advantage account. They really haven’t been cooperative. Is this a thing with Advantage? I just want to do sponsored ads to get more flow through my listed inventory.
It should be possible but getting support from Advantage does take longer. It sometimes depends on the support person. Keep trying and be patient.
We just purchased a small publishing company with an extensive backlist that was entered into Amazon Advantage at some point before our purchase. The most recent owner seems to have abandoned Amazon sales about three years ago but our titles are still listed on Amazon, many of them as out-of-print when they are still very much in print. In many cases, one of our titles is available through us at, say, $20 but is selling through used booksellers at hundreds–and in a few cases, thousands–of dollars with no mention of the publisher’s (ours) edition. When we try to change this on-line, we’re not able to do so. Two questions: Why can’t we update the listing? What do we do to change this? Thanks, Carolyn Bennett, Purple Mountain Press, Catskills, New York
Carolyn, anyone can sell a book on Amazon but publishers can control the book’s product detail page if they have an Advantage account or work through a third party like a distributor or wholesaler as the publisher. If you need more or specific advice, you can book a consult. 30 minutes would likely be enough time unless you feel your questions and/or a deeper review is necessary. Details here: https://www.authorimprints.com/consult/