About The Author

This Page Last Updated 03/05/2007

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Hello, my name is Mike Mould and I have been an online bookseller for almost five years now.  I have opted to keep my day job and participate in online bookselling as a supplemental income to support my travel.  My wife is Czech and we both like to fly over to the Czech Republic a few times each year to vacation.  I am a licensed professional engineer in the State of Washington and my regular job is in the flight testing of commercial airplanes.

I have a son that started in the online bookselling business a few years before me, and it was his enthusiasm and prodding that got me started.  He is a very talented musician and needed to do something that would provide him a steady and generous income while still allowing him time to write, practice, and perform his music.  After some encouragement from my son, I decided to give online bookselling a try. 

It took some time for me to get going, my first experiences were disastrous and all my profits were negative.  I had no idea what books to buy, but I seemed to be a master at picking all the wrong ones.  By the time I had 150 books that I paid $1 to $3 each for, I was just about ready to quit because they didn't seem to be selling.  I seemed to be spending more on the listing fees than I was even getting for the books I sold.  I was just stacking some very expensive firewood on my bookshelves.  I turned to my son for a few pointers and after a little coaching I was up and running.

During the past couple years I have coached a few friends, and friends of friends, to help them get their online bookselling businesses up and going.  In doing this I began to realize just how difficult it is to explain everything about the business, particularly the little nuances of daily operations, so, I decided to write this book about how to sell books online so that I could capture all the little things that take so long to explain.  There is nothing mentally difficult about running an online bookselling business, but there are a lot of little things that I have learned the hard and expensive way that I will be passing on to you as I have done with those I have coached.

Online bookselling is a fast-growing and increasingly popular home-based business.  It is still an evolving market with enormous potential and the amount of money you can make doing it is limited only by the amount of time you are willing to devote to it and the space you are willing to dedicate to an inventory.  The most amazing part is how little financial investment is required, particularly if you already have an Internet connected computer and a printer.  A monthly income stream of $2,000 to $4,000 is a modest expectation for someone willing to invest his or her time and energy, but don’t assume it is guaranteed to make you money; there is some work and it will require your time and effort.  I do not want to discourage you in any way, it is always better to work hard - for yourself - and make money for yourself - than it is to work hard and make someone else rich.

In my book I have captured not only the fundamentals of the online bookselling business, but the little things that make a big difference.  For example, I found during the first couple years that no matter what I seemed to do to avoid it, the Post Office was consistently able to assist with the escape of approximately 3% of all the books I shipped.  When I was conversing with one of the clerks in my local Post Office, I shared some of my frustrations with him and was given some very valuable packing tips.  After I implemented these tips, the number of escaping books dropped to 0.03%!!!  That is two orders of magnitude better.  Instead of losing 3 out of every 100 books shipped, I saw a drop to less than 3 out of 10,000 "Lost In The Mail."  I included these tips in my book, along with detailed color pictures (they are B&W in the paperback), to demonstrate what is difficult to put into words.  If you are already an online bookseller, these tips alone can pay for this book in very short order.  If you are only contemplating the online bookselling business, these tips will be the icing on the cake. 

As I said earlier, I am an engineer, which makes me a stereotypical nerd and fanatic for being thorough.  You can count on this book to answer all of your questions about getting your online bookselling business up and going on the path to being successful.  I went to great lengths to make sure it encompassed all the questions I had when I started and all the questions I have been asked by those that I have coached.

Naturally, if you do have questions after reading my book, you can send me an email and I will be happy to answer them.

I started a newsletter last year, but it did not allow me to communicate with my customers in a timely manner, and since I did not want to inundate them with email, I set up a "customer only" message board where I could communicate with them, and they could communicate with each other. 

It has been very well received and there are many booksellers registered that prefer the restricted access forum to those open to everyone because they do not feel intimidated or harassed.  I have to say that I have been very pleased with the number of participants and judging from the interaction they have had with each other, as well as the feedback I have gotten, it has been very helpful to everyone involved.

Best Regards,

Michael E. Mould

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