If you're just tuning in, you may have missed the part where I pointed out that book publishing is a 100% returnable industry, meaning that any stock a retailer takes on can be returned to the vendor (i.e. publisher) for full credit if they're unable to move it. If Joe's National Book Chain takes ten thousand copies of Sue Celebrity's new hardcover diet book, Lose Weight By Perhaps Eating Less And Going to the Gym Once in Awhile, but only manages to sell two thousand (far-fetched, I know, given the title), guess what? Eight thousand copies are going back to the publisher. Not all at once, mind you, but if the book came out in time for the holiday season, a sizable portion of the overstock will go back to the house in January, with the rest following by the time the paperback comes out eight months to a year later.
If the fiscal fourth quarter is the champagne and caviar of the publishing industry, the fiscal first quarter is the hangover and stale fish egg taste in its mouth. January and February usually see heavy returns and lower consumer spending (President's Day is not the new Christmas), and with the holiday rush over and the beach read wave not yet begun, the industry feels the weight of each and every one of those returns. As I've mentioned before, publishers hate to keep returned stock around, and so most of what gets sent back either gets remaindered or destroyed.
The bad news: your book(s) (if you have any out there) will probably suffer this fate sooner or later (sooner if your book hit the shelves this past fall). The good news: unless you're kind of a big deal, most accounts probably didn't order a huge number of copies of your book, so there aren't that many to return! (It's books by big, fancy authors like Patricia Cornwell, Dan Brown, James Patterson, &c who will constitute the bulk of returned stock). So take heart, gentle readers: if your book gets eaten by the Great Cantankerous Pulping Machine™, it's going to be keeping good (or, at least, commercially successful) company in its stomach.
Maybe the Great Cantankerous Pulping Machine™ should eat less. And perhaps go the gym once in a while.
ReplyDeleteCan I use this opportunity to mention that if you think you can't afford new books, you're wrong. Now is the time to buy. I am poorer than I care to admit on a public forum, and I just a brand new hardcover. Did I mention it's brand new (just released in October '09)? And a HARDCOVER? Yeah. I got a $25 book for $3. That's ri-doggone-diculous. And through the magic of drastic price slashing coupled with coupons and accumulated Borders Bucks, I also bought my son a STACK of new books (some of them included stickers, and those things aren't cheap) for FIVE BUCKS.
ReplyDeleteBuying books at a discount is better than having them sent back, correct?
Oh, ouch. Striving for a career in the publishing industry is never easy, is it?
ReplyDeleteLydia - I agree. Anything w/ stickers is like magic in a book for my kids!
ReplyDeleteFive years from now this won't be an issue because most everything will be published electronically.
ReplyDeleteMy old company talked all their accounts into holding book returns until January so the end of the year numbers looked better. This meant every year the first quarter looked horrible, a sea of red ink, and we all panicked starting about 100 gazillion percent below quota. It took until June or so to dig out of the hole and then began the process of talking people into over ordering stock to pretty up the numbers for the end of the year when they would ship back all the surplus again. Does mainstream publishing do this, too? I mean, the returns are going to happen but every year it was the same thing. We spent stupid amounts of money shipping books we knew were coming right back in January.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that comment Lydia. I spent a good chunk of my kids' Christmas money at a scholastic warehouse sale (buying books for them, mostly) and it was SOOO much fun. But then I started wondering if this sort of behavior hurt the book world, and authors in particular. Much better to think about the pulper being the alternative. I saved those books from certain death! I'm a hero!
ReplyDeleteHelp publishing in January -- give book tokens for Chrsitmas!
ReplyDeleteSo, to sound really stupid, can this return policy ever be changed? Or more...do you think it might be changed? I mean, if you buy an ebook, you can't return it (I'm guessing). I always figured book stores didn't allow returns since you could obviously read the book and then return it. Doesn't seem right. Books should be kinda like food. Perishable, and therefore nonreturnable.
ReplyDeleteI suppose they'd order less to begin with though...
I really hate stale fish egg taste, which is why I don't eat caviar. That, and it costs money that would be better spent on . . . books!
ReplyDeleteOk, um, a dumb question? I kinda always thought remaindered meant destroyed. Prithee, what is the difference? Thanks!
I went to Barnes and Noble the other day and it was packed, with people lined up at the register. That was good! I asked for a certain book that was not on the shelf and the clerk told me one should be in in a few days.
ReplyDeleteI said, "One?" and she informed me they only got one at a time. I left and found it in a second hand book store.
What chance does an author have with that kind of salesmanship?
Returns will be history in a few years, just like Scott said above. E-books will be what fiction is published as. And that's a good thing. The publishing industry needs e-books, the consumers need e-books, the environment needs e-books. Printers don't, truckers don't, and warehouses don't, but the rest of the world does.
ReplyDeleteI've made a New Year's resolution that I will only read fiction on Kindle from now on.
Does anyone know why it is this way? With most other products, aren't the retailers the ones responsible for getting rid of stock that won't sell? I mean, that's what clearance sales are for.
ReplyDeleteActually, e-books *can* be returned. I've lost royalties from a few copies of one of my books that Kindle buyers returned--and the worst thing is, I have no idea why. Is there something I should fix about the book, or did the Kindle reader just not like it? However, the current industry model by which all bookstores are basically consignment shops is not sustainable--it was first implemented during the Depression as a desperation tactic--and it's going to end eventually, just because it has to.
ReplyDeleteVyrdolak, I love your website. I am going to be perusing it for days. Of course I'm all about anything gothic. I would love to be a vampire. eeee, buuuutttt, I just don't like touching people all that much--I'd starve just out of disgust.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, you mentioned you're book and asked if they returned for the sake of the book or some other reason. But what's your book? I got a a Kindle.
Hi Vacuum Queen,
ReplyDeleteUntil e-books take over as the predominant (or at least, a significant) format, I don't think the returns aspect of the business will change. It's been as-is for eight decades now.
Hi Susan,
When a book is remaindered, it's sold off to specialized markets at extraordinarily reduced cost. When a book is pulped, it's destroyed.
Hi Adam,
Leftover Depression-era marketing tactics. That, and since it's tremendously difficult to figure out ahead of time what's going to be a bestseller and what won't, publishers adhere to a "throw it all out there and see what sticks" mentality. In order to get retailers to play ball, they've generally allowed them to return unsold stock.
E-books are the future of literature like Velveeta is the future of cheese. Reading on a laptop or ipod with electronic glare in your face and scroll-down motion sickness giving you a migraine will never replace the beautiful feeling of 400 linen-encapsulated, crisp, inky-smelling pages in your hands. I can't believe any literature lover would let it happen. The book is as much a part of the story as the words.
ReplyDeleteOne should not judge the e-book reader experience by one's experience reading from a laptop or ipod.
ReplyDeleteMy partner bought me a Sony Reader for Christmas because vision problems have made the books I've always loved unreadable. Much to my surprise, I love my Reader too. In its cute little cover complete with light, it has the feel of a real book. The print quality is so book-like that it took me a few days to remeber to push the buttons at the bottom rather than trying to flip the top right corner of the "page" to get to the next one.
Unlike with the Kindle or Nook, I can quickly download Word doc's and pdf's from my computer onto my Reader. This spares me all the scrolling involved in trying to read larger print from my computer because everything is immediately resized and reformatted to look just like a printed page. And did I mention--no glare. It is not backlit like a computer screen, hence the need for a booklight to read in the dark.
Even huge book lovers like me might actually want to try an e-reader before they condemn them. The possibility of having hundreds of books on tap with the weight and size of one paperback means that you will never find yourself away from home, having finished reading the only book in your bag. That alone should be enough to recommend them to all reading lovers, at least while traveling.