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Episode 6, How Not to Run an Online Bookstore: Working with Amazon.com
With Writing Show host, Paula Berinstein
DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN TO “HOW NOT TO RUN AN ONLINE BOOKSTORE, EPISODE 6″ MP3 HERE
VIEW A TRANSCRIPT OF “HOW NOT TO RUN AN ONLINE BOOKSTORE, EPISODE 6″ HERE
In 2003, Paula Berinstein and her husband did a really stupid thing: they started an online bookstore. In 2004, humiliated and a great deal poorer (but wiser), they closed it.
In episode 6 of “How Not to Run an Online Bookstore,” Paula talks about what it was like working through Amazon.com’s third-party marketplace, including:
- Why they ended up selling through Amazon in the first place
- How much it costs to sell through Amazon
- What’s involved in listing your books for sale
- Why the physical condition of a book sold through Amazon is so critical
- How to clean dirty books
- Why it’s so tricky pricing books for sale through Amazon’s marketplace
- What they did about sales tax
- Why customer ratings aren’t all they’re cracked up to be
- How they managed to sell books they didn’t have and what they did about it
- How Amazon could do a lot better by its marketplace sellers
- Why it isn’t profitable to sell new books through Amazon’s marketplace.
Join Paula for this multi-part series that will be aired a little at a time. And for heaven’s sake, don’t do what she did!
Interviewee: Paula Berinstein
Host: Paula B
Date: June 19 2006
Running time: 28:38 minutes
File size: 28 megabytes
Rating: G