If you want to start an online book store, the data is on your side: over 783 million Print book unit sales in the U.S. from 2004 to 2024, which is a 23% increase compared to the previous year.

Dropshipping books is a viable business in 2025 and easy to start without the need to store towers of hardbacks in retail locations across the globe.

The Dropshipping business model allows entrepreneurs to sell books online.

At the same time, suppliers handle the logistics and fulfillment parts, so the store owners don’t have to worry about inventory management, returns, or shipping the books.

You are going to discover the benefits of dropshipping books, the route to take to get started, and how to find the best book dropshipping suppliers for your ecommerce business.

Can you start dropshipping books in 2025?

Yes, you can dropship books in 2025. Books are a convenient choice for a dropshipping business model, as they are small in size, lightweight, easy to ship, and in high demand worldwide. This makes dropshipping books an ideal choice for any e-commerce business.

To start dropshipping books, you must first build an online store and create a vibrant relationship with the book suppliers you intend to use.

When a customer places an order for one of your books, your book dropshipping supplier is automatically notified of the order and ships the book directly from their warehouse to the customer without you handling the product.

What are the Benefits of dropshipping books?

The fact that you don’t have to store products or manage inventory before starting dropshipping books makes it an ideal business venture for any entrepreneur.

You can literally sell books without worrying about lump-sum start-up costs, inventory management, shipping, packaging, and everything that comes with traditional retailing. Instead, focus on acquiring new customers.

There are a lot of benefits that come with dropshipping books, such as

A very green growing market for books:

Dropshipping books comes with other benefits, such as:

If you thought the growth of online books, kindles, or audiobooks was a threat to the physical book market, then you are wrong. No digital book format can surpass the popularity of physical books in the US alone 65% of adults have had access to a print book or read one in the last 12 months.

Huge book catalog selection.

As of 2024, there are over 170 million unique books and publishers globally, offering a wide range of book niches and topics to choose from. You have a huge book catalog to browse through and decide on the one you want for your ecommerce business.

No upfront storage costs.

What can deter one from selling books online is the involvement of storage. You choose the dropshipping model, which means you don’t have to handle any stock; hence, you are not required to pay warehouse or storage fees, or any damages incurred during shipping or packaging of the books.

Passive Income Opportunity.

Once your Shopify store is set up and running, you can then connect it to your preferred third-party dropshipping book suppliers, who will handle everything operationally. You pay only when you have an actual order, and you keep the profit after the book is fulfilled to the customers.

Options for Multiple Niches

As I previously stated, there are millions of books available, and thousands are being published every day; hence, there are plenty of niches to choose from, ranging from anime to inspirational, business, and more.

You have numerous lucrative options available to you online.

How to start dropshipping books: Products and Suppliers

Now that the definition of dropshipping books is out of the way, it’s time we do the actual dirty work of setting up our book dropshipping business.

Here’s a step-by-step method to guide you through the entire process.

1. Choose your niche

To start a dropshipping books business, you need to identify a niche for books and find reliable suppliers who will source the books, packaging, and shipping to your customers. You can browse through marketplaces like Alibaba or IngramSpark for book suppliers.

You can decide to niche down your books dropshipping business or go all the way out and sell a whole range of books, from anime to adventure or fiction books. However, for successful entrepreneurs, dropshipping books often focuses on a specific niche and branding.

Therefore, you must take the time to conduct thorough product research, which will help with audience targeting and segmentation.

Focus on a niche with strong demand but not saturated in the market, as this will help you stand out and convert easily.

Research trending genres using research tools like Google Trends, keyword planner, and create a solid marketing strategy around your niche.

2. Set up your Shopify store

After you’ve settled on the kind of niche or book you’re going to sell, choose an ecommerce platform to use to build your online store. I recommend setting up a Shopify store, which comes with a 3-day free trial, followed by $1 per month for the next 3 months.

You can then connect a dropshipping app of your choice to help you find products and manage orders whenever you get a book sale.

Start a free 3 Day trial and enjoy 3 months of Shopify for $1/month Instead of $39/month on selected plans. Sign up now

You can either set up a Shopify store on your own or hire us to do it for you. We will create a store from scratch and hand over a ready-to-launch store with your brand colors, desired fonts, and visuals, along with your information.

The store will have unique store graphics, book banners, and a clear Call to action to draw attention and convert readers into actual customers.

If you decide to run your store independently, ensure it’s professional and doesn’t resemble another dropshipping store.

Let us design your store. Book a 15-minute consulting meeting here.

3. Choose your book supplier for fulfilment

Not all book suppliers are reliable and provide high-quality services. Take your time and research the best dropshipping suppliers for books in your niche who can handle bulk orders and have the capacity to fulfil products in time and ensure they are a perfect match based on the book catalog they sell and the niche you’ve chosen.

You can also use popular supplier platforms like Alibaba to find book suppliers with good ratings, low prices, and options for white labeling or branding, as well as minimum order quantities (MOQs).

There are specialized distributors you can consider if your preferred book suppliers are not meeting your standards of operation in terms of inventory management, logistics, and quality.

Before engaging with a supplier, ensure that a contract is signed or some form of agreement is in place, and understand how the supplier operates and the fees they charge for processing, shipping, and other services.

4. Create a marketing strategy for your dropshipping books store

You need to create a solid marketing strategy designed to attract customers from all channels. Exhaust all your social media options, venture into serious email marketing, SEO, paid ads, and affiliate marketing.

Create an affiliate program for your affiliates, complete with dedicated landing pages and unique tracking codes. Ensure you collaborate with content creators and create unique referral codes or coupons with special discounts to attract their followers to click and buy books on your store.

Once you have a valid customer base, you must keep them coming back for more. Work on increasing your repeat customer rate through targeted campaigns and rewards.

Focus on running targeted Ads to attract customers to your online bookstore, and running marketing campaigns will help your business stay afloat in the long run.

10 Best Dropshipping book suppliers

To start dropshipping books, you must connect with a third-party supplier either through API access, the Shopify app, or manual updates via CSV.

Your book supplier will help source and manage your inventory, package your books, and ship the orders to your customers.

Here are 10 of the best dropshipping suppliers for books.

1. AmericanBookCo

AmericanBookco has a vast catalog of books to browse, featuring over 20 different categories, including entertainment, fiction, and history.

They offer wholesale prices for the books in their collection, which are up to 80% off the retail price. You have a good chance of making a profit as a retailer.

2. BooksRun

BooksRun has over a million books, including both new and used titles. They offer a variety of book titles and niches to choose from. They have a ready-to-ship dropshipping catalog that seamlessly integrates via API, allowing entrepreneurs to automatically send orders to them when customers place an order on their store.

3. Half Moon Bay

This is a UK-based dropshipping supplier with the most unique book selection to choose from. It easily connects to a Shopify store, and there are millions of books and titles to browse through for quick selection.

It’s free to use with prior permission before you start selling, and you must have a license to dropship branded products.

4. Lulu Express

Lulu allows merchants to print and dropship their own writing. This applies in case you want to write and sell your own book. They offer a high-converting, pre-built template and ship to more than 150 countries, seamlessly integrating with Shopify for easy automation.

It’s free to use, and payment is only required when you need books printed and shipped to your customers.

5. AliExpress

Aliexpress is one of the famous marketplaces, a sister company of Alibaba. It is one of the most reliable and largest dropshipping suppliers in the e-commerce world, with millions of books in its catalog.

They offer the lowest shipping fees and deliver products to over 300 countries and regions worldwide.

You can find reliable dropshiping book suppliers on aliexpress, filter through the manufacturers, or search for books by name or title.

6. IngramSpark

IngramSpark is a renowned self-publishing platform that enables authors to produce and distribute their own publications.

This is not your traditional book supplier; they will ship your printed books directly to your customers and handle everything for you.

It’s free to create an account on InstagramSpark.

7. Amazon

Amazon Marketplace offers a vast catalog of books, including both physical and digital titles, audiobooks, and Kindle books, to choose from.

It’s easy to start dropshipping books on Amazon. Still, it’s also easy to find reliable dropshipping book suppliers to help with book sourcing and fulfillment on a third-party ecommerce platform like Shopify.

You can easily populate your online book store with unique titles, you can choose from the top suppliers, the best authors, and hot-selling authors’ niches.

Book dropshippers can leverage Amazon’s extensive book catalog, enjoy Prime shipping, and benefit from fast shipping logistics.

8. CJ Dropshipping

CJ Dropshipping is a must-have in this list of dropshipping books and suppliers. It offers a wide variety of products and books to choose from, and the CJ Cjdropshipping platform is very flexible in terms of product sourcing and fulfillment options for merchants and suppliers.

They have hundreds of books to choose from, allowing you to browse through thousands of books in various niches. With their global warehouse, shipping is faster, and inventory management is easy.

9. Inventory Source

Inventory Source makes it to the list of Free dropshipping books suppliers, distributors, and wholesalers.  

If you want to work with a dropshipping books supplier with automated inventory syncing and order routing, then Inventory Source would be an ideal platform.

It integrates easily with major platforms like Shopify and WordPress, making it easy to start a book dropshipping business in 2025.

They offer competitive pricing, depending on the dropshipping suppliers you connect with and the fulfillment method.

10. eBay

Ebay marketplace not only has the Best dropshipping books suppliers but also gives dropshippers access to thousands of book authors and resellers worldwide.

You can choose your niche or select a book category to sell without upfront inventory costs. You can also connect your eBay account with Shopify or any other platform you use for dropshipping books.

Ebay is the best platform for finding reliable dropshipping book suppliers for your ecommerce business. They offer high-quality books and fast shipping.

If you are looking for Dropshipping book suppliers in the USA or from anywhere in the world, eBay serves the purpose; it’s suitable for testing book niches before you start scaling.

11. Walmart

Walmart Marketplace enables retailers to list their products on the platform, which features a vast catalog of books.

Finding a trusted book supplier with fast U.S. shipping is easy and convenient, especially if your store is targeting the marketplace.

Resellers typically list most products on eBay, which can result in tighter margins due to high competition.

12. Banggood

Banggood offers a variety of products with a wide range of global shipping options, and books form a part of its catalog.

They focus mainly on gadgets and electronics, but it still serves as a good add-on book dropshipping supplier. They don’t have fast shipping compared to Amazon or other US-based suppliers.

13. Doba

Doba connects merchants with thousands of suppliers, including book suppliers and distributors. It acts as a middleman platform.

It boasts of centralized product sourcing, inventory management, and order fulfillment.

They charge higher prices due to platform service fees, but it’s one of the best dropshipping book suppliers with effective supplier management.

14. SaleHoo

SaleHoo is a popular wholesale marketplace and a comprehensive supplier directory, offering a catalog of books for resale.

It’s designed to connect book dropshippers with trusted and reliable authors and distributors worldwide.

It ensures the suppliers are verified, offer competitive pricing, and also provides training resources to their suppliers.

The Salehoo marketplace is a perfect platform for dropshipping beginners who want to secure a source of books without worrying about delays or scams.

15. Temu

Temu is one of the fastest-growing e-commerce platforms, offering a variety of affordable products, including a vast catalog of books.

Its ultra-competitive pricing model makes it a suitable platform for book dropshipping. You can find unique books on Temu to dropship, featuring a variety of authors and resellers.

Temu shipping isn’t as fast as Amazon or eBay; shipping typically takes longer.

If you plan to dropship books from Temu to Shopify or other e-commerce platforms, focus on low-cost options or target categories that encourage impulse purchases.

Tips for dropshipping books

To succeed in starting and running a successful book dropshipping business, you need access to a reliable book supplier.  

Your repeat customer rates depend on how quickly the book is shipped to your customers, packaging, and quality; therefore, choosing the right suppliers is one step you don’t want to miss.

Before you start dropshipping books, consider these key points to ensure you get the business right.

Read reviews.

Review the feedback and reviews from book suppliers and previous customers or business partners.  Ensure that you focus on highly rated book suppliers, noting what customers say about the book quality, shipping time, and their customer support.

Gather important book details.

Before adding a book to your store, ensure you understand all the information about the book, including details from the respective book supplier.

Know about the book’s weight, number of pages, the material used, the colors available, or any other variant information.

If you have a favorite genre, why not stick to that? Knowing your target audience so well will enable you to create the most effective marketing messages.

Sell the right book product.

As it is essential to know the book details before selling it, it’s also good to note that you link to the right products and supplier. Do your research on the specific book, checking the available versions, language, and other distinguishing features, so that you don’t sell a knock-off version of the book.

Lastly, have a unique selling point, study your competitors, come up with better ad copies, product pages, and a more customer-focused website, as well as engaging content. As of the writing of this blog post, there are over 7000 booksellers in the US alone.

If you need to stand out, you must sell your product in a way that is different and unique, including your pricing structures and your brand story.

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