I have had some success in getting books sold during the last week, so I have decided to extend my 10% off sale for one more week.
Jennifer's Series Books on eBay
Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy
I still have way too many books listed, especially on eBay, so I hope that more books will sell.
Etsy sales are better than when I wrote these posts:
At a Crossroads with Etsy + Back to School
Continuing to Mull Over the Etsy Situation
This does not mean that the situation is great. It's just better than it was.
As I started writing this post, I decided to see if my listings are showing any better in Etsy's search. I thought that my listings would have better placement since I have had an increase in sales. I didn't see my listings in the first few pages of results, and I didn't care to keep looking. I know that my placement is bad just from what I saw (or rather, what I didn't see).
Etsy's search looks even worse than back in the summer. A "Nancy Drew" search just shows t-shirts and crafts. The search "Nancy Drew books" also shows t-shirts and crafts with some scattered books. Huh? If I add "books" to the search, then I expect to see books. Silly Etsy.
I wonder, though. Maybe I should add "book" to my titles. It's not a word I've ever needed to add, but I think on Etsy it might be needed.
My Etsy sales come from repeat buyers and people who come in off the search engines. Most of my sales do not come from Etsy's search, since the search won't show my listings.
Since my sales have improved somewhat on Etsy, I will remain on Etsy. When I wrote my Etsy posts back in the summer, I was seriously considering shutting down my Etsy shop by the end of this year. Etsy has earned a reprieve, although the site still has serious problems.
Books are not selling well on eBay. I must confess that I've had great sales of the newly-listed books from Thanksgiving break. Other than those, my sales remain quite flat. I feel better about Etsy right now than I do eBay, although that's not saying much.
I should also disclose that my gross sales on eBay are much higher than on Etsy. That's because I have my more expensive books on eBay and far more listings on eBay. I do fine on eBay, but it's not what it has been in the past.
A few weeks back, I followed some of eBay's tips on store setup. These tips are supposed to improve sales. One of them was to create prominent category links that display at the top of the store. I set that up, and this is what it looks like.
I'm not impressed by the results. I finally just sold one original text Nancy Drew picture cover. Otherwise, nothing from the featured categories has sold. They are not helping, probably because no one can see my books via search, so they never visit my store to see the featured categories.
During the last few years, Nancy Drew picture covers have been more in demand than other Nancy Drew formats. For some reason, the picture covers are suddenly not selling. Interestingly, I see a surge in blue and tweed Nancy Drew sales on Etsy.
Several people purchased tweed and blue Nancy Drew books on Etsy during recent weeks. This week, someone purchased 23 tweed Nancy Drew books on Etsy. Right now, there is an increased demand for blue and tweed Nancy Drew books.
Curiously, the blue and tweed Nancy Drew books that I have on eBay are not selling. The increased demand is just on Etsy. I have no doubt that my Nancy Drew listings are buried in eBay's search results just like they are on Etsy.
The difference between the two sites is that I have more repeat buyers on Etsy who like buying reading copies, and Etsy is doing better at pulling people in off the search engines through offsite ads. Of course, Etsy forces me to pay for offsite ads, so I ought to have better sales from the search engines. At least there's that.
I have a bunch of vintage teen books on eBay that aren't selling, like Sweet Valley High, R. L. Stine, and Christopher Pike books. It's unusual, considering how many listings I have. It could be that the books are buried in eBay's search results, or it could be the economy, which is to blame for the overall decrease in sales.
Whatever the reason, I decided to list some on Etsy to see if I will have any better luck. I listed around 50 vintage teen books on Etsy, and I hope that the offsite ads pull in buyers for some of those books. They certainly don't get noticed on eBay.
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