How Long Does It Take to Sell Books on Amazon?

Someone once said to me, “Steve, I’ve got a bunch of books in Amazon FBA, and most of the ranks are around 400,000. It’s been about a week, and the books haven’t been selling. So how long does it take for a 400,00-ranked book to sell?”

Good question. How long does it take for a 400,000-ranked book to sell? Quite a few different factors come into play here. To be honest, sometimes it’s random. I’ve had 2- million-ranked books sell in a day. Then I’ve had hundred-thousand-ranked books take a couple weeks or more. Sometimes they never sell.

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Factors to Keep in Mind
You’ll have some factors to consider. Even if your book has a good ranking—say, ranked at 50,000—you may be fifth or seventh in line in terms of the lowest price; so it might take a while for your book to sell. But if you’re the lowest price and there’s a market for that book and it’s selling and there are a lot of people who want to buy it, you’re going to sell fairly quickly.

Another thing to consider is the condition. If you’re selling a textbook, does it include a CD? Is it in an acceptable condition? Is your competition selling it in very good condition? Price is going to play a role. Are you selling it as a merchant or are you selling it FBA? That’s another big thing to take into consideration as well because you could have a 50,000 ranked book, but people might not want to buy from you as a merchant because they might want that two-day shipping through FBA and the hassle-free returns.

But really there’s no exact science to all this. It really, really depends on a number of factors, but even that is ultimately unknowable. Sometimes the competition will come in and knock the price down. Sometimes people have repricers as well, so they’ll undercut you by a penny. If there’s not a big enough market, it can just take some time.

Be Aware of Your Competition
It could take a couple of days. It could take a couple of weeks. What I would advise you to do is check in on your competition and check in on your price to make sure that you’re competitive with other sellers. You don’t necessarily always have to be the lowest price. But if there’s not a huge market and you’re not the lowest priced—if you’re third or fourth in line—it could take a while to sell.

Keep an eye on things. Keep an eye on the price, the competition, and your condition. You want to be competitive with the condition. If all the other sellers are Like New and you’re Acceptable, you’re going to have a tough time. If you’re a merchant, it could take a lot longer versus going FBA.

But just hang in there. Keep on shipping books. If you are new, just know that there’s a little bit of a learning curve associated with it. Be patient. Success in selling books will come to you!