Amazon Cashflow........

   More cash in from Amazon this week. I've just listed a couple of hundred books in the last 48hours so I should see a pick up for the next fortnight or so.

Dear uncommonadvice@googlemail.com,

We initiated a transfer to your current account (ending in 771) in the amount of £21.78 on 27/11/2012.

Secrets for Sale.....

   People who say "Don't judge a book by it's cover" are probably right, on the other hand we are all guilty of doing it - and of judging a book by it's title too. I'd wager you that a book with any of these titles would sell. Note that you could knock up a half decent book pertaining to these titles in one night easy.

Titles:

• Make Money from driving
• Have a flat stomach in 3 months
• Fight back against hair loss
• Cash from your Camcorder
• How to win the UK Lottery
• Self Hypnosis made easy
• Winning at casinos
• How to obtain a second passport
• Speed reading made easy
• Develop your own super memory
• Your own profitable import agency
• Low capital home business ideas
• Slash your tax bill
• Complain and win every time
• The secrets of mind mapping
• Improve your IQ
• Short story writing for profit
• How to avoid paying parking tickets and speeding fines
• Story Sparks plot ideas for creative writing
• Convert used cooking oil to run a 6kw silent diesel generator (God I'd buy that myself!)
• Tax tips for the Self employed
• Make money at home with cake decorating
• Earn £100s per week using your digital camera
• Live on farmland without planning permission
• Glamour nude wedding photography
• Make a million from hypnosis
• Pyschology for beginners
• How to make money while you sleep
• Learn Spray tanning
• How to earn from life coaching
• How to remove gold from computer boards
• How to spray paint your car
• How to make £1000 in 1 week
• How to get laid 365+ times a year using hypnotic techniques
• How to write an ebokk in under 1hr
• A Traders guide to self discipline
• How to make $385 in one day using Ebay

King Human

   I've mentioned Avril Harper a lot on this forum. Other than Avril another Internet Biz Opp spin merchant that I like to follow is a Youtube Vlogger called "King Human". As per Avril I have a strong suspicion that much of his posts are there to promote Clickbank links. Apart from that though there are occasional gems and points of interest. One of his recent posts of interest was regarding his system for the Antiquarian Book business:

1) Go to Ebay - Books - Antiquarian & Collectable
2) Go to completed listings under £1000.
3) Find a Sold item with > 10 bids
4) Trawl the net to find that product at 50% or less of the Ebay sold price

This system sounds stupid but in his vid he shows how many books selling on Ebay can be had elsewhere, for example Abe Books, at half the price.

Rebel Bookseller

   Further to my review of "Kingdom of Books", I thought I would write a few words about "Rebel Bookseller" by Andrew Laties.

   The blurb on the back of the book would lead me to believe that it was right up my street - "Everything you wanted to know about the book business but were afraid to ask. Even I, after 40 years of writing, found this an eye-opener. Publishing, bookselling, 'should I open my own bookstore' it's all in this entertaining, biting book - Eric Carle".

   My problem with this book is the over detail. If it was 60 pages less I'd probably have been more taken. The author goes into such florid descriptions of the past that we probably end up knowing what he had for Breakfast on every day of his blinking career. He also drops more names than a Chinese phone book. The unfortunate thing as that I, as someone with no knowledge of the American Publishing industry, haven't got a clue who he has just name-checked. He writes in a conversational style - the only problem is that the conversation he is having is with Hank Wittenberger, the ex-CEO of some long defunct American Bookstore Chain.

   At 33, I am young enough to have been caught up in the 5-minute attention span-Youtube-Youporn era. I need short and to-the-point chapters, infographics, bullet points, website back-up and audio. If the written word hasn't grabbed my attention by the end of the first page of each chapter then forget it. Sad but true.

   If anyone reads the whole of  "Rebel Bookseller" and can summarise it down to one cue card then please get in touch.

Richard Booth - My Kingdom of Books

   I recently sold my copy of Richard Booth's "My Kingdom of Books" on Amazon. As I wrapped it up to send I was reminded what an absolutely fascinating life is described within its pages.

   In a nutshell Richard Booth started selling the dusty tomes from his family's bookshelves in the backwater (and I can say that as a regular visitor) of Hay and Wye in the Welsh Marches. As his business grew he started to go far and wide buying job lots of books. His ever increasing stock pile meant he had to find more premises and he even invented the "Honesty Bookshop" where books are stacked up outside with a tin box for donations alongside. Over time other booksellers gravitated towards Hay. Today it is a thriving rural community - and an excellent place to visit. Richard began to know as much about developing rural towns as he did about selling books. Many of the views he puts forward in the book are the same sort of things that Mary Portas tells the government and big firms (for a fee) nowadays. Keep it local, keep it friendly but professional, bigger doesn't always mean better.

  I'd recommend this book to anyone looking to get started in the second hand book business or even anyone interested in how business can thrive away from the crack-riddled drug dens of the inner M25.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Booth