Selling Books on Amazon

I had the strangest Amazon.com experience last week. But first, as they say on TV, a little background. I occasionally offer Amazon books for sale in this blog. I also sell books through the Amazon Seller program--anyone can do it. Some of the books I've listed are first editions with inscriptions and autographs by the authors. These are categorized as "Collectible." Presumably the author's literal scribblings add value to the literary ones.

On November 10, Amazon sent me a notice which included:

Beginning Monday, November 16, 2009, we will remove "Collectible" book offers that have not been listed by sellers approved in the category. Once listings are removed, only collectible offers from approved sellers will be available for purchase in the Amazon.com Books store.

I thought I was already approved because I've sold in that category for a few years. I also have a hazy memory of filling out a form about it. To be safe, however, I jumped through the Amazon hoops again, and Amazon acknowledged my application. All this on the same day.

Three days later, I received a rejection notice which included the phrase "we are only qualifying sellers to list collectible books that we judge to be experienced, professional collectible booksellers." It also mentioned considering feedback and ratings and performance. I fired back a message pointing out that at no time were we ordinary sellers required to be professional collectible booksellers and cited my excellent scores on all their scales. I refrained from mentioning the lousy grammar.

The same afternoon brought an apologetic message that began with the first identification of who sent it:

Greetings from the Amazon.com Collectible Books team.

The denial message you received earlier today regarding your application to list Collectible books was sent in error. We apologize for this error on our part and regret any concern it caused you. We have reviewed your account again and want to confirm that the information below correctly represents the decision of our category management team.

Absolutely nothing about books is easy. From writing to getting rid of them, it's agony.

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