If you sell children’s books online you may be losing money. The children’s book market is a fun niche to sell in and can be lucrative if you know how to capitalize on the market. I’d like to share a few tips in making the most money with your book sales.
When collecting children’s books to sell there are several things to take into consideration. Condition is important but with the children’s collectible market we can find value in library discards. As you know, most of the books we show you that bring in very good money online are in fact library discards. The market is nostalgia based and many times a person remembers the book from the library. Sometimes the only copies still in existence are the exlibrary copies but often they are fondly remembered as such.
Normally an anthology (a single book which has several different stories written and illustrated by several different people in it) will not bring in very much money. Perhaps less than $10 in most cases. However, certain collectible illustrators and authors have been included in anthologies so we can take an otherwise common book which may not be worth much and market it to the collector of that particular illustrator or author. This is also true of certain story collectors.
An example is the Little Black Sambo story which is found in many books that are part of a set or anthology like The Book Trails, Better Homes and Gardens Storybook, and others. Most famous illustrators started their careers illustrating either a republished classic book, anthology, or magazine. Get to know your children’s books collectible illustrators and you may find money where there normally isn’t any to be found.
Illustrators include:
Jesse Wilcox
Arthur Rackham
Lois Lenski
Tasha Tudor
Maurice Sendak
When listing otherwise commonly found books highlight these secondary collector points. Some folks collect certain publisher’s works. You would want to include the famous illustrator’s name or publisher as keywords in your title or the story which is in demand as part of the title. Other words bringing in a cross market would include black Americana, dog breeds,cat breeds, vintage game words, doll brands, and some small animals.Be creative and think a little more about what makes your copy more collectible and noteworthy then proceed to tell your market all about it. This not only makes book selling a bit more fun and lucrative but does position you as an expert since you take the time to disclose more bout the book than the basics.
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