Archaic Procedures: Book Returns

Archaic-Procedures.

As a publisher of an aviation magazine in the 90’s I learned about a criminal way of “ print distribution”: A pilot friend showed me one of our magazines that he bought at an airport store in Amsterdam / Netherlands.  I was a bit surprised as our distributor had Amsterdam not on the list of retailers.  One could opt for having unsold magazines returned (at an outrageous hundreds of dollars) or to have them send to the garbage (free).  I was curious how our magazines could end up in a different country, sold by a retailer that was not on my list of paying customers.  It took me months of investigation, but I finally found out that there are gangs who have connections to warehouse employees who do not “dispose” these unsold magazines – but sell them to other “distributors” and then those sell them to retailers… Maybe this happens only in the magazine business, but who knows what happens with book returns?

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Book Returns are an Ancient Distribution Method
Somewhere once upon a time, the notion that a book could or should be returnable might have been a great idea to stand out against the publishing competition.  One of publishers came up with this idea — and eventually it became industry standard.  The book publishing world has changed, but the old model is still the same stagnant one that gives massive cuts to bookstore retailers and allows them to return whatever they can’t sell – an archaic practice of book distribution.  Bookstores rarely host signings by self-published authors — maybe if the author is local and offers books in consignment.  “Why not?” I asked a bookseller. “We can’t return them was his answer.“

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Solution for Authors
He showed me examples on his computer of self-published authors who use Lightning Source and offer both “Regular discount” (i.e 40%) and return-ability. He orders these books through Ingram/ LightningSource , just like books from traditionally published authors. So it’s possible with Lightning Source, at least.  The easier authors make it for independent booksellers and the big book chains, the more likely they will be treated like mainstream authors – if their books are well edited and have an attractive cover.  Authors certainly don’t make as much as through an e-book on Amazon – but for sure more than they would get as royalties from trade publishers.
Bestseller Author Stephanie Chandler wrote a great article how to sell to bookstores and also offers a free Consignment Agreement form for you to download and modify if you want to make an arrangement with a bookstore to carry your books as a consignment.  Her statement: “It certainly can’t hurt to place your books at a few stores, but it probably won’t lead to fame and fortune!”

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Booksellers Don’t Stock POD
Most booksellers will generally not stock POD books because they can’t return the book if it doesn’t sell and the percentage they get is lower.  Printing one book at a time is more expensive per book (usually twice as expensive) than publishing a few thousand.
Many self-published authors can’t get their books into the large chains, due to this non-returnability.  Book retailer chains only order blockbuster titles they know they can sell. Books-a-Million, one of the book store chains, for example states it does not allow POD books into it’s stores at all.

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Being a returns-based business is bad from every angle, and also very bad for the environment.  There is more printed than it will be sold. While books sit in warehouses not moving, inventory must be available to fulfill actual orders that are moving. This forces publishers to overprint.  Concerned publishers, authors, and readers can and should band together over this issue.  Small bookstores might be upset by this shift, but their returns are already (generally) relatively low, and they can do their part and order accordingly too.

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Stating for an author or publisher to not accept returns, or marking your self-published book as “non-returnable” is the kiss of death for your book, and no bookstore will touch your book.  It is frustrating to see the volume of books coming back from accounts that never needed to have ordered so many books in the first place.  Book publishing is changing, and authors and new publishers need to continue to fight against book returns.  We need to stop putting up with this.  And if it would be just helpful for the environment!

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Read More:
http://www.ingramcontent.com/pages/authors-and-self-publishers.aspx
http://www.fonerbooks.com/distribu.htm
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=9148
http://kriswrites.com/2013/05/15/the-business-rusch-shifting-sands/
http://authoritypublishing.com/book-marketing/how-authors-can-sell-to-bookstores-free-bookstore-consignment-agreement-for-authors/

 

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