Why Sustainability Is Not a Differentiator in Used Book Sales

“Our books are more sustainable because they are used, we are a sustainable company.” I hear some permutation of this when talking to almost every used bookseller.

If a book is re-read one time, the environmental costs of production are cut almost in half. This is a great outcome that only gets stronger and stronger if a book can cycle through the shelves more than once. This is the core of the sustainability argument for reading used books, and it rings true. If comparing a used book to a new book, a used book is far more sustainable than a new book.

The Real Competition

The issue that must be realized is that used booksellers are not competing against new books for the majority of their business. The individuals that buy books used for sustainability reasons have already been converted. The sustainability-minded reader is buying used, and the buyer who wants the latest book, has a connection with their new bookstore, or wants a fresh copy is not being swayed by a promise of sustainability—or they would have already been converted.

Used bookstores are not disruptors. They have inherited the business from a long tradition that far outlasts the environmental awareness of the last century.

Sustainability Is a Baseline, Not a Differentiator

Although there is a match with sustainability, we must reckon with the fact that this is not a competitive angle. All used booksellers offer the exact same promise of sustainability with their books. And if every seller offers the same promise of sustainability, then this is a baseline of the industry rather than a competitive angle through which a seller can expect to position their business.

So What Is a Differentiator?

So what is needed to create a differentiated buyer experience?

I talked about this at length in a previous post regarding the six competitive angles available to booksellers here:👉 https://www.authoradvantage.org/post/how-to-build-a-loyal-customer-base-without-competing-on-price

What I explored there is that the traditional competitive options are not available to most sellers except for the very largest. No seller is going to compete with Amazon on number of titles, shipping speed, or price.

Where there is an angle for sellers is through environmental or social benefits. Booksellers have the right idea by focusing on environmental aspects—they’ve just chosen the wrong horse with environmental sustainability.

Environmental Actions That Could Matter

There are environmental aspects to used bookselling that are different from the baseline benefits of reuse.

There has been a relatively widespread adoption of planting a tree for every X books sold. Although I can think of dozens of marketplaces and stores that do this sustainable action, I can think of none where this partnership is being used as a lever for growing the business. A buried sustainability page isn’t enough to sway customers. Saying that in 2024 your company planted 400 trees is admirable—but it’s not visible, and it’s not driving sales.

Similarly, I actually had a really cool experience with a seller that has worked to minimize their packaging. This sounds like a small thing, but the experience of opening a tightly packed soft-sided cardboard envelope with four books nestled inside vs. a giant box containing one book and some bubble wrap was a clear environmental differentiator.

This is a sustainable difference led by company operations that was tangible and exciting—granted, there is a specific person like me that would get energized by this. While this is a clear environmental difference, I am likewise unconvinced that more sustainable packaging is going to be the competitive angle that grows a business.

Why I Started Author Advantage

This lack of viable ways to excel as a used bookseller is one of the core reasons that I started Author Advantage.

Prior to this, I worked at Books4Life Amsterdam. As a fully non-profit bookseller, we would collect community donations, sort and sell them through marketplaces and our own storefront in Amsterdam. Our profits were then donated at the end of every year to a couple of charitable causes.

What I found was that even with this model being deeply community-based, fully charitable, and having free inventory—we did not generate a lot of business.

Visibility Is Key

The solution that I saw and have been working to put into place gets to the heart of the issue here: visibility is key.

Think of the Fairtrade label. When a bag of coffee is produced by a cooperative in Guatemala, their coffee beans can go on to be sold either as a commodity for low prices or they can work to become Fairtrade certified. This takes some effort and adds some cost, but the result is a visible certification that resonates with customers and drives higher prices.

Left to their own devices, the cooperative would be entirely unable to generate the large-scale recognition and adoption that is facilitated by partnering with a third party that drives the messaging and creates value for all partners.

Author Advantage as a Visibility Partner

In the used book space, Author Advantage is working to become that partner.

If individual sellers cannot create differentiators that drive business, it may be an issue of both scale and focus. The focus has been wrong since the start. Used booksellers cannot claim differentiation on environmental sustainability.

The focus must then be a true difference. Used bookstores supporting writers is a unique selling proposition that cuts to the core of why we love to read. This is a clear focus around which to build a community of booksellers. But alone, this focus is insufficient to change the industry.

World of Books in the UK has had an author distribution model in place for several years now. The mechanics of their distribution and network are similar to our own. The issue comes from scale.

Similar to the coffee coop in Guatemala, doing the right thing is lost without visibility. It does not matter if you are outcompeting if there is no clear signaling to the customer that the seller is participating in a true social good.

Through building multiple like-minded partners into a network, both the knowledge of why author support is so important as well as the amount of author support will increase.

The Final Question

I like to ask everyone I talk to: Why should someone shop at your shop vs. Amazon?

A lot of answers I get are around sustainability. This is not enough.

If sustainability is your competitive edge, it is too dull.

If you want to race ahead of the competition, you must have a compelling answer to that question. Most booksellers do not.