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Originally Posted by SensualPoet
Remaindered books don't put a nickel of royalty into the author's pocket ... but the consumer gets the book anyway. There's much greater benefit to keeping the title always in stock -- for the length of time the contract runs. It's up to the author, agent and publisher to come to terms which create win-win.
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And those contracts are changing because of ebooks and print on demand.
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For author's with a backlist, keeping those in print at virtually no cost enahnces the profits of everyone -- and benefits the consumer who, having read the latest title, can now buy one or more of the older ones. As you point out, this concept doesn't even apply to certain points of the distribution chain.
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One of the major changes in publishing happened back in 1979, when a tax ruling in an unrelated industry affected publishing. A lot of stuff went out of print very suddenly. (See
http://www.sfwa.org/bulletin/articles/thor.htm for details.) It's one of the reasons why paper editions aren't kept in print they way they once were. eBooks and POD have changed that landscape, but the industry is still catching up.
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Right at the moment, not a single Perry Mason novel is in e-print and almost all are out of print in paper as well. Yet Perry Mason is one of the most recognised characters in 20th century English fiction. That's just silliness and ebooks would correct it with profits generated on every single copy sold -- and no waste.
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Tell that to whoever holds the rights. It's a little mystifying to me, too. (I read mysteries, but while I was never a Perry Mason fan, I understand the popularity of the character.)
If I had to guess, I'd bet whoever controls the rights has a higher idea of what the series is worth than publishers are willing to pay.
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I fail to see how this can be considered "creating a new problem".
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It's a problem addressable by changes in contract language, which is occurring. But the changes had to occur to address the issue.
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Dennis