Great question.

So you're searching for profit, and you have this voice in your head going: "How do I know if I'm choosing the right books?"

When you signed up, I sent an email inviting you to send me the ISBN of any book you were considering so I could give my analysis.

That offers stands, but there is no substitute for learning how to spot value yourself.

So here is the formula...

A “good book” is any book with strong demand that has a big gap between the cheapest copy overall, and the cheapest FBA price.

That's the guiding formula, but let's go into it a little deeper...

What makes for a "good book"?

Three things:

1. Demand (how quickly the book will sell)
2. Cost
3. Profits

Let's examine each...

#1: Demand

How quickly do you want the book to sell?

You're probably thinking: “As soon as possible.”

Three problems with this:

1. More competition for the high-demand books.
2. Higher cost for high-demand books.
3. Higher percentage of restricted textbooks among higher-demand books.

I advise keeping the average rank to 500,000 or better to start (you could relax this a little as you get more experience).

(Go more in depth into sales rank by studying our sales rank chart here.)

#2: Cost

Good news: This one is totally up to you.

If you can invest $50 per book, there are virtually no end to your options.

If you have to keep to $10, not a problem either (you'll just be searching longer and having lower profit margins).

Cost only makes a book “bad” if you’re spending a lot to get a small return.

I.e. Spending $40 to get $7 in profits.

Things to understand about cost:

1. The less you spend, the less you’ll make.
2. Strike a balance between spending too little (books with too much FBA competition) and too much (tying up money in one book you could put into two or three).

#3: Profits

Once you identify a book with good demand, for the price you're willing to pay, only one thing left: Find the ones with the biggest profits.

The Zen Arbitrage built-in net profit calculator calculates all fees, so you can anticipate how much you’ll make when all the smoke clears.

So how much should you aim to profit?

Approach #1: 200% returns (triple investment).

• Example: $15 book, list for $60, receive $45 payout.

Approach #2: 100% returns (double investment)

• Example: $9 book, list for $26, receive $18 book

Approach #3: 50% returns

• Example: $5 book, list for $15, receive $7.60 payout

Which approach you should take?

Ask yourself:

1. How much will you spend per book?
2. How much time will you spend searching?
3. How quickly do you want sales?

Tying all this together

Demand: Average rank of 500k or better (800k at the worst).

Cost: Best opportunities are $20 and up, but you can still get 50% returns easily spending $10 (+postage).

Profits: Aim for 50%, 75%, 100%, or more in returns depending on:

1. How much you can spend per book.
2. How long you want to spend searching.
3. How quickly you want sales.

Sound good?

- Peter Valley & Team Zen

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