remainders

[pynchonoid]

Looks as if smart publishers may be over-printing as
part of a longer term sell cycle predicated on sales
of a certain number of "new" units with a new book
pricing/discount structure, followed by sales of the
remaining units at remainder prices --- remainders may
not necessarily represent a misjudgement in how many
copies of a book will sell, as the sale of remainders
from a large print-run probably cover the costs of all
the books anyway,  the new book profits are gravy.
Good for publishers and bookstores, but I doubt that
authors are getting a share of the publisher's sale of
remainder copies for distribution in this secondary
market, unless the author negotiates that specific
revenue stream into her book contract.


--- pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Remainders of the Day
> Chris Dreher has a long piece in the Sunday
> Washington
> Post Book 
> Review section that explains to readers how
> books˜now,
> nearly all 
> books˜get turned into remainders. Daedalus co-owner
> Helaine Harris 
> confirms, "There's been a real explosion in
> remainders
> in the past couple 
> years."
> 
> As he gets to towards the end, the boom in
> remainders
> has become a 
> significant component in the long-term erosion of
> the
> business for selling 
> new books. As Brad Jonas, co-founder of the Chicago
> International 
> Remainder and Overstock Book Exposition, puts it,
> "As
> the problems of 
> the new-book world become more acute, the bargain
> world puts pressure 
> on the process."
> 
> I‚d rather put it this way: Dumping remainders is a
> cheap fix for this 
> quarter‚s mistakes, at the expense of the long-term
> health of the overall 
> business. And rather than ease the pain of unsold
> returns, remaindering 
> practically everything on your list, only magnifies
> the impact of those 
> returns exponentially˜particularly as a growing
> business in "used" 
> books keeps the inventory pipeline flowing freely
> with
> cheap 
> remaindered copies.
> Post column
> 
>
<http://click.email-publisher.com/maabkYmaaZKD3a5kyATb/>
> 
> from: 
> Publishers Lunch
> Monday, August 11


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