Selling Books From an Isolated City

This is the first post by our newest contributor Amanda Dixon of A Novel Book

I live in Perth, Western Australia. It is known as one of the most isolated cities in the world which can make it challenging to source good quality second-hand books. We can’t just “pop” over to Sydney or Melbourne and search their markets and sales for stock. Perth is approximately 4000kms from Sydney and 3500kms from Melbourne. We are actually closer to Indonesia!

I accidently stumbled into the bookselling business. I started, as many do, selling my old books on eBay. I found I was actually very good at it and have just recently started a website to compliment my eBay sales (www.anovelbook.com.au ). I do sell new books as well as the second-hand ones. The plan, of course, is that eBay will eventually become secondary to the website & that everyone in Australia will buy their books through me!

We have two really big second-hand book sales in Perth each year – and they are both within 3 months of each other. There are also several book auctions held each year that seems to be attended by every book seller in Western Australia – which can make for an over-inflated ending (you could read that as I haven’t won one yet). Other than that, finding second-hand books is the same as everywhere else: garage sales (yard sales) on Sunday mornings, swap meets (which don’t really have very good book turnouts) or Op Shops.

I read and participate in a number of bookselling forums and am often left feeling very envious of my East Coast peers. The casual mention of a weekend full of book markets and car boot sales leaves me drooling over my keyboard. I understand the population is much bigger on that side of the country but there seems to be some sort of second-hand book extravaganza on every weekend! We just don’t have that on the West Coast.

We do have access to 3 or 4 remainder warehouses – which can hold off the green-eyed monster for a while. But the stock in these warehouses isn’t turned over that frequently. I get the sneaking suspicion that a big percentage of “the good stuff” has already found its way into the East Coast warehouses before being trucked over to us.

I am also finding golden nuggets of information from my forums network. I have just recently discovered that the books that are left over from one of the recent book sales are all stored in someone’s garage and you can go there and pick over them for a few dollars a book! Now how have I never known this? And where is this Aladdin’s Cave?

All this being said – I wouldn’t change my job for the world. I love what I do. I’m getting very good at book selling. I really do enjoy the search for the second-hand books. I guess because they are a little harder to come by in this part of the world it makes for a more fulfilling experience. I also have a number of mentors that have been in this business for years and are more than willing to help out the “newbie”. The knowledge imparted by these people has helped make this a most enjoyable experience. In fact, I am sure this is the most support I have EVER received in any job I have undertaken.

I may live in one of the most isolated cities in the world but the internet has given me the world’s best job.  Now I can have it all, a beautiful city and a job I love. Now there is a garage sale on in one hour. They may have a book!