Dropshipping Books - Best Suppliers & Books to Sell
We’ve sold self-published books using platforms like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) As well as dropshipped books on our own website.
We’ll share everything we’ve learned to help you decide if books are the right niche for you.
The article includes the following:
- Pros and cons
- Suppliers to use
- Where to sell your books
- How to market them
- Book statistics
- And much more
Let’s get started.
Key Takeaways
- Books are a competitive niche. In-depth research can help you find winning books to dropship. Use product research tools to spy on other sellers and look at online bookstores to see which books are in demand.
- Think about selling alternative books, like activity books, coloring books, learning books, art books, decorative books, etc.
- Consider self-publishing. There are lots of self-publishing platforms that make it super easy to dropship your own books. These include Lulu and Acutrack.
- Digital publishing is continually rising. If you can, release an e-book version of your books.
What is Books Dropshipping?
Books dropshipping is a method of selling books online without holding stock.
Instead, you source books from a supplier and list them on your own website or on a marketplace like Amazon.
Then, when a customer orders from you, you contact your supplier to place the order. The supplier will ship the product directly to your customer.
Dropshipping is a low-risk way of selling online, as you don’t need to buy or store the stock in advance.
Can I Dropship Books?
Yes, absolutely! It’s safe, possible, and profitable to dropship books.
Printed books are still the most popular option for consumers [1]. So, there are lots of opportunities to make money dropshipping books.
You can dropship books on your online store or use a self-publishing platform, like Amazon KDP, to sell your books.
Just make sure that the books you’re selling are legally allowed to be sold. And that they don’t violate any copyright laws.
Should I Dropship Books?
Dropshipping books is low risk, and there is a huge range of books you can sell.
However, books are a competitive niche. This can make it hard to stand out amongst your competition.
Let’s look at the benefits and risks of dropshipping. Hopefully, they can help you decide if books are the right product for you.
Benefits of Dropshipping Books
Low Risk
Dropshipping is generally considered a low-risk business model. You can start selling books with very little investment. You can list books on your site. And only once you make a sale do you need to buy the stock. So, if it doesn’t work out, there’s not much at stake.
Huge Range of Products
There are so many genres of books. Including fiction, non-fiction, children's books, activity books, cook books, notebooks, and tons of others.
Among this huge range of products, you’ll be able to find a winning book to dropship.
Plus, if you can’t find the book you want to sell, there are lots of options for creating and publishing your own books. Suppliers like Lulu and platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing allow you to upload your book files and publish your own books.
Book Type Variation
As well as physical books, you can also sell e-books and audiobooks. This can help boost your income. And once you’ve created the products, you can distribute them over and over again without paying for the product.
E-books and audiobooks are the future. Both have seen and are expecting to see growth year-on-year [2].
Risks of Dropshipping Books
High Competition
Books are a competitive niche. There are established authors and brands that customers choose to buy from. This can make it hard to stand out and generate sales.
How to Overcome High Competition: Do in-depth product research. Try to find unsaturated products with a unique selling point.
Low-Profit Margin
Dropshipping can often have low margins. It can be very competitive, which can drive down prices, and it costs a lot to advertise your products.
How to Overcome Low Margins: Shop around for a supplier. Lots of suppliers sell similar products at varying costs, so look for ones that are more affordable. Make sure to request samples to double-check the quality.
E-books will have a higher profit margin, as you don’t need to buy the book each time or pay for shipping. So, consider selling a digital version of your books.
Copyright Issues
Copyright protection is a form of intellectual property. This is how authors and artists protect their work. Before choosing a book to sell, you need to ensure it isn’t copyrighted or a counterfeit copy, as it’s against the law.
How to Overcome Copyright Issues: Check the copyright of the book before you agree to stock it. Often, a copyright page is at the front of a book. If this is there, you won’t be able to sell it unless you have permission from the copyright owner.
You can also use the book identification number, called an ISBN, to look up the book and copyright information.
How to Dropship Books
If you’ve decided that books are the right product for you, here are five easy-to-follow steps to help you successfully dropship books:
- Product Research - Find a book in high demand, with low competition, and that doesn’t have any copyright issues.
- Find a Dropshipping Book Supplier - Source the book you want to sell from a dropshipping supplier. AliExpress and CJDropshipping are some of the best places to find suppliers. Or design your own book and use a print-on-demand publishing company like Lulu.
- Build an Online Store - Choose where you want to sell your books. You can do this on your own website using an e-commerce platform like Shopify. Or sell on a marketplace, like Amazon, using its Kindle Direct Publishing platform.
- Market Your Books - Get your books in front of your ideal customers. Usually, we do this by running paid ads. You can also work with social media influencers, boost your website’s SEO, and more.
- Analyze and Optimize - After you’ve started making sales, analyze every part of your business. Then, based on what you find, you can make changes to improve your sales and maximize your profit.
Let’s look at each step in more depth.
1. Product Research
Summary:
- Look for high-demand and low-competition books.
- We recommend selling learning books, coloring books, decorative books, and art books.
- Use product research tools and bookstores for product inspiration.
The first thing you need to do is find winning books to sell. To find winning books, you need to know what you’re looking for.
This is our top criteria:
- High Demand - You need a product in demand. Without demand, there are no customers.
- Low Competition - Books are a competitive niche. It’s important to find a genre or niche with less competition. This will help you stand out and increase sales.
- No Copyright Issues - It might be tempting to create and sell books on popular brands or topics. Like a Marvel Coloring Book or a Disney Learning Activity Book for Kids. But unfortunately, you wouldn’t be able to sell these without permission.
We have a complete article on How to Do Product Research. It includes what to consider, as well as top product research methods.
We’ve done a bit of research for you. Based on our research, here are some books we recommend dropshipping:
Kids Learning Books
Children's books have continued to increase in revenue year-on-year.
It’s difficult to compete with the best-selling fiction books as a dropshipper. These include books like Harry Potter, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Black Beauty, Charlotte Web, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and more.
Therefore, we think that learning and activity books could be a great alternative.
The books could include reading, writing, drawing, spelling, and math activities.
Mindful Coloring Books
Mindfulness is continuing to gain popularity [3]. People are becoming more aware of mental health and stress reduction.
Mindful coloring books are designed to help adults relieve stress and calm the brain. And studies show that it can decrease feelings of depression and anxiety [4].
You could create a range of different mindful coloring books for different ages, genders, and interests.
Coloring pencils or pens would be a good product to add to your store if you sell coloring books. They’ll help increase your average order value.
We recommend adding them as an upsell product. When a customer adds the coloring book to their order, the pens can be offered at the checkout.
Decorative Books
The home decor market is expected to increase at a 5.33% compound annual growth rate between 2024 and 2028 [5].
Social media, like TikTok and Instagram, are also thought to be one of the reasons the home decor market is growing [6]. People are influenced by the variety of styles seen online.
This also makes social media a great place to advertise decorative books.
Decorative books are also easy to source, as there are fewer issues with copyright compared to other books (although be careful with the images, titles, and author names used).
Creative or Art Books
A recent survey showed that approximately a quarter of US respondents reported arts and crafts as one of their hobbies or interests [7].
There are lots of different creative and art books. For example:
- Crochet
- Flower press
- Sketching
- Knitting
- Woodworking and carving
- Painting
- Jewelry making
You could also sell them for different abilities, ages, and interests.
We also recommend adding the relevant supplies for the creative or art book you’re selling.
For example, if you’re selling a drawing book, you could add art paper, pencils, or other art supplies.
To find these books, we used the following product research techniques:
Dropship’s Product Database - Product research tools help you discover winning products by spying on real-life sellers.
Dropship’s Product Database has advanced filters to search for books based on their sales, titles, etc. Enter your criteria, and Dropship will show you products that match. You can filter through the products to find ones that match your winning criteria.
Check out the Product Database tool now, Dropship currently has a 7-day free trial.
To help you get started, this is the winning criteria we use to find books to dropship:
- Price - We always set the minimum price to $15 for books. We’ve found for dropshipping that we need to sell for at least $15 to generate profit.
- Monthly Sales - Ideally, we want to make at least ten sales a day. So, we’ll enter 300 into the minimum monthly sales.
- Include Title Keywords and Include Description - If you have a specific book title or niche in mind, enter it here. If you don’t, we recommend entering Book into the description keywords.
- Book Shop Search - Visit a store or look on bookstore sites, like Barnes & Noble or Powell’s Books. Check out their best-sellers and new releases for inspiration.
- Amazon and Marketplace Research - Amazon started as an online bookstore, and is still one of the most popular places to buy books. This makes it a great place to find what customers are looking for.
There are several categories to help you identify winning books. These include Best Books by Category, Popular Books, Amazon Book Reviews, Amazon First Reads, Book Club, and more.
Look through these categories to find topics that frequently appear. If a topic or niche is appearing frequently, it suggests that it is in demand and making sales. You can then investigate these books further to help you find winners.
For more information, we have a complete article on How to Find Winning Products on Amazon.
2. Find a Dropshipping Book Supplier
Summary:
- Find a supplier that stocks your book and facilitates dropshipping.
- AliExpress and CJDropshipping are popular choices for finding dropshipping suppliers.
- If you want to publish your own book, you can use print-on-demand companies like Lulu, Acutrack, or Kindle Direct Publishing.
You’ve found your winning book. It’s time to find a supplier from which to source it.
You can choose a supplier, like AliExpress, which is a popular choice for dropshippers.
Alternatively, if you are creating your own book, you can use a print-on-demand book supplier. These companies allow you to design and upload your book to the platforms. Then, every time you receive an order, the printing company prints your book and sends it directly to your customers.
Let’s look at a few of both options:
- AliExpress - AliExpress is a marketplace of small businesses. The majority of which are based in China. The businesses sell directly to consumers. There are millions of books to choose from on AliExpress. Most of them are affordable and you can purchase one item at a time. This makes it the most popular option for dropshippers. As it’s the most popular option, there is tons of software that allows you to integrate AliExpress with your dropshipping store. This allows you to import your product and automate your fulfillment.
- CJDropshipping - CJDropshipp is a dropshipping platform that connects your dropshipping store with manufacturers. Like AliExpress, there are lots of suppliers, most of which based in China. This gives you a huge selection of products to choose from. CJDropshipping also connects directly with your store and auto-syncs your orders. Your orders are then shipped directly to your customers, and the tracking details are passed on. They offer other dropshipping services, like product sourcing, custom packaging, photo and video shooting, and more.
- Lulu - Lulu is an online self-publishing book company. You can create and self-publish your own book. These include print books, photo books, notebooks, comic books, cookbooks, and more. They offer a print-on-demand service and integrate with Wix, WooCommerce, and Shopify. This means you can list your books on your own site and set your own price. Then, when you receive an order, you pay Lulu for the printing and shipping costs.
- Acutrack - If you have a larger order volume, Acutrack is a good alternative to print-on-demand. You can create a book and upload the contents to the platform. However, unlike print-on-demand, there is a minimum order quantity.
The books are printed just-in-time, rather than on demand. This means fulfillment is faster, as books are shipped within one day of ordering. However, it requires a larger upfront cost (and therefore, isn’t traditional dropshipping - but might work if you have a more established book company).
Acutrack integrates with multiple e-commerce platforms. This makes it easy to manage your business.
- Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) - If you want to list your books on Amazon, you can use its KDP service. KDP was my first introduction to selling online. It’s a great option for sellers, as it's super low risk. You can create a free account, upload your book content, and publish your book on Amazon. You can choose to sell physical and/or e-books. When a customer orders your book, Amazon automatically prints the book and ships it to customers (or shares it if it’s an e-book sale). You can set your price. Amazon deducts the printing and fulfillment fees, and you keep the profit.
3. Build an Online Store
Summary:
- Create a website on Shopify and list your books.
- You can also dropship books on a marketplace like Amazon using Kindle Direct Publishing.
You’ve found the book you want to sell and a supplier from which to source it. Now it’s time to find somewhere to sell it.
For dropshipping, we usually recommend creating your own store using Shopify. Shopify is still a great option for selling books. However, there are options.
You might consider using a platform like Kindle Direct Publishing to sell on Amazon or upload your books to a marketplace like Draft to Digital.
- Shopify - Build your own website easily with Shopify. You can create your book listings and accept orders and payments. Shopify makes dropshipping easy, as it connects with lots of dropshipping tools. These tools allow you to connect your Shopify store with suppliers like AliExpress, CJDropshipping, and many others. And if you want to create your own books, you could use a supplier like Lulu. You can also connect Shopify with automation and advertising tools to grow and optimize your business. Shopify currently has an offer - you can get three months of access for $3.
- Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) - We already briefly looked at KDP in the previous section. So, we’ll keep this brief. You upload your book files to Kindle Direct Publishing to sell them on Amazon. You can create the book or work with an author and illustrator to design your book. Then, upload the PDF and ePub files to Kindle Direct Publishing. This option doesn’t require you to use a supplier. Every time you receive an order on Amazon, Amazon prints and ships your book directly to the customer. This option won’t work for every book type. Kindle Direct Publishing only supports certain book types, including calendars or spiral-bound books. After you’ve chosen your platform and listed your books, you can start making accepting sales.
4. Market Your Books
Summary:
- Paid ads are the most common way to drive traffic and generate sales.
- You can also work with influencers, build a following on social media, and boost your website's SEO to increase your brand’s visibility.
To generate sales and help customers find your brand, you need to market and advertise your books.
Some of the most popular methods include the following:
- Paid Ads - For dropshipping, paid ads are the best way to boost your product visibility and help your ideal customer find your brand. This will help you generate sales.If you build your own website, Meta ads are the most popular option. Meta ads are those run on Facebook and Instagram. If you want to learn more about Facebook ads, we have several articles:
- Social Media Influencers - Contact influencers whose audiences match your target audience. You can either pay them to feature your products. Or, if they’re smaller influencers, they might accept your product in exchange for a feature. Working with influencers helps you get your products in front of your target audience. And it can help increase brand trust, as the audience trusts the influencer, and in turn trust your brand.
- SEO - If you sell your books on your own website, you can boost your website’s visibility by optimizing it. This means that your website appears higher in the search results. So, when a potential customer searches for something related to your book, your brand appears. You can improve your website SEO in a variety of ways. Such as, adding a blog, improving the load speed, providing accurate and useful information, and much more. For more information, check out Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.
5. Analyze and Optimize
Summary:
- After you’ve made sales, review every part of your business.
- You can always improve and optimize your business to increase your sales and boost your profits.
You’ve started making sales! Now, it’s time to optimize your business to make more sales and profit. We recommend analyzing and optimizing the following:
- Product Listing - Can you add more photos? Update your description? Add a video to explain your product in depth? Are there any keywords you can add? Your listing should sell your product and answer any questions a potential buyer has. But it also needs to be honest and accurately represent your product.Look at your competition and compare your listings. Make sure your listing is better than theirs.
- Advertising and Marketing - Are your ads profitable? What is your cost per acquisition? Can you adjust your budget or audience targeting? How does your ad copy and media showcase your products?It’s easy to overspend on ads as it's the main way you’ll generate sales. Overspending can destroy your profit margin. Make sure to keep an eye on your ads and use the budget tools to ensure your business stays profitable. We also recommend looking at your competitors' ads for inspiration. Dropship’s Ad Spot tool allows you to find your competition easily. Check it out for free with the 7 day trial.
- Product and Fulfillment - What are customers saying about your product? Are they happy with the product and its quality and the shipping process? Are you receiving a lot of return or refund requests? Look at the reasons why, and how you can either change the product or process. Or update the listing to more accurately represent your business. If you’re not already, consider using an automation tool. Automated fulfillment can reduce your processing and shipping time, as well as save you money and time. AutoDS is our preferred tool. It works with lots of different suppliers and all of the most popular e-commerce platforms.
5 Top Tips for Dropshipping Books
We’ve dropshipped books using Shopify and self-publish books using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing.
Based on our experience, here are our five top tips for helping you dropship books successfully.
1. Consider Self Publishing
When you create your own book, you have full say over what’s included, the size of the book, number of pages, paper used, processing time, and more. This gives you control over how much it costs to make and ship.
Freelance sites like Upwork and Fiverr have lots of authors and illustrators that can turn your book idea into a reality.
Your book will be unique and not available anywhere else. And you don’t need permission from the book's creator. This can set you apart from your competition.
There are lots of self-publishing suppliers you can use for dropshipping, such as Lulu and KDP.
2. Add an E-Book or Downloadable Book Option
E-books are super easy to create. Once you’ve created your e-book, you can sell it over and over again. There is no recurring product or shipping costs.
E-books also work great as complimentary products. If you’re selling another product, you can create an e-book to go with it. This can boost your product's value and increase your sales.
3. Check the Size and Weight of the Book
The number of pages and size of the book will impact the weight. Large and heavy books are expensive to ship. This will eat into your profit margins.
4. Compare Suppliers
If you’re selling a ready-made book, there are often multiple suppliers that sell the same book. Compare the suppliers to find the best ones. We compare the following:
- Reviews - Look at other buyers' experiences with the seller. We want as many positive reviews as possible.
- Communication - Ask multiple suppliers the same questions. Choose your supplier based on their answers and speed.
- Product Quality - Order samples from a few suppliers and compare the quality. Often, the products will look similar online, but the reality could be very different.
- Processing and Shipping - Check how quickly the supplier can process the orders and the shipping methods used. Ideally, you want all orders packaged and shipped within 24 hours.
- Policies - Compare the supplier’s refund, return, and warranty policies. If anything goes wrong during shipping or if there is a fault, you need to be protected. We want to find a supplier that will refund you if anything occurs. Otherwise, you’ll end up out of pocket.
- Location - Try to find a supplier close to your target audience’s location. The closer your supplier is, the quicker the shipping.
Dropshipping Books Throughout the World Statistics
Look at the language, trends, and culture of the locations in which you want to sell.
This can help you uncover hidden winners that are location-specific.
Let’s look at some statistics. Hopefully, they can give you some inspiration.
- The five biggest book markets are the US, China, Japan, Germany, and India [8].
- The US generated over 21 million dollars in digital publishing revenue in 2023. It dominates digital publishing worldwide. This is more than four times that of Japan, the next biggest digital publishing market.
- Print books still account for the majority of book sales revenue in the US [9]. This suggests there is still a good market for print books despite the increasing popularity of digital publishing.
- In recent years, fiction has become the dominant category. With 52.9% of all print book sales being fiction.
- Online book sales have overtaken physical sales. In 2020, over 71% of all book sales in the US were made online.
- Books could be considered seasonal, as 1 in 4 book sales occur over the holidays.
- In China, online education is fueling the digital publishing market size.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Books are Good for Learning Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is ever-changing, so we don’t recommend any books specifically. Instead, we recommend checking out blogs and YouTube channels for inspiration.
Not to blow our own horn too much, but Dropship’s blog has lots of up-to-date dropshipping information. Dropship’s founder, Nawras Ganim, also has a YouTube channel with lots of valuable information about dropshipping.
We also have an article on the 27 Best Dropshipping YouTubers. It has the details of each YouTuber, as well as the video content it includes, and much more to help you find the right YouTuber to learn from.
Can I Dropship Books on Shopify?
Yes! Shopify allows you to sell books on its platform. Shopify also integrates with lots of dropshipping suppliers and tools. Like AutoDS. This allows you to automate your dropshipping business.
Shopify also connects with publishing companies. These include Lulu and Acutrack. So, you can sell your self-published books on Shopify.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this article has given you all the information you need to decide whether dropshipping books is right for you.
If you need help finding the right book, use Dropship’s Product Database and Sales Tracker to find, track, and analyze books before you sell them.
There is currently a 7-day trial that allows you to access all of Dropship’s features completely free!
