Selling ebooks on eBay is a great way to make a living working from home. Many sellers purchase ebooks from other sources, and then resale them as many times as they'd like on eBay. But when purchasing ebooks for resale purposes, the most important thing to look for is whether or not you are purchasing the resale rights along with the ebook. Without resale rights, you can't make a profit reselling the ebook.



Ebooks, as well as other forms of digital media, are often sold with a certain level of rights attached. Some ebooks are sold with personal rights only, which means once purchased, the ebook can only be used by the buyer for personal reasons. These ebooks cannot be resold anywhere for a profit, but can usually be redistributed without modification. Resale rights, on the other hand, give the buyer certain rights with regard to selling the ebook in other places.

There are four basic types of resale rights that can come with the purchase of an ebook: normal resale rights, master resale rights, private label rights, and branding rights. Each type offers the ebook purchaser a certain level of rights for how they sell the ebook after purchase:

Normal Resale Rights

Normal resale rights are the resale rights that traditionally come packaged with ebooks. With normal resale rights, you are allowed to sell the ebook as-is an unlimited number of times. You are not allowed to alter the content of the ebook, or claim the work as your own. Some additional limitations may also be applied, such as where you can sell the ebook, and the minimum and maximum price you can offer it for.

Master Resale Rights

Master resale rights are like normal resale rights, but they go one step further. With master resale rights, you can sell the ebook and normal resale rights to your buyers. That means that in addition to you being allowed to sell the ebook as-is, your customers can sell the ebook as-is to other buyers. Your customers are still bound to the same limitations that you are, however, if the original author has chosen to restrict certain uses.

Private Label Rights

Private label rights offer you the most freedom of all with your ebook purchase. Not only can you resale the ebook, you have the right to change, remove, or add to the ebook's contents. You can also claim the ebook as your own original work, and replace the original author's name with your own. Most ebooks do not come with private label rights; instead, these are the rights that are generally applied to authors commissioned to write ebooks for clients who will then resale the ebook to others. Whether or not you choose to offer your buyers resale rights is entirely up to you.

Branding Rights

Branding rights offer you the same normal resale rights that come with most ebooks, but you may also replace the author's name as well. In a way, you can claim the work as your own to your buyers, but you may not change, remove, or add any other content to the ebook. This is a good option for sellers who do not want their buyers to know they didn't pen the ebook themselves, but can't afford to commission an author to write an ebook for them.