Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
To an extent.
But a bigger reason is that the returns system means bookstores stock books on consignment so they have very little to lose by overordering. As the recent catfight proved, publishers take weeks to fulfill an order and if a store runs out of stock on a book they will likely lose the sale. So they overorder and return the unsold books.
Publishers are then faced with the cost of transporting, sorting and either warehousing or pulping the return books or letting them be remaindered at a much lower price. Remaindered books save them the return costs.
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Publishers do not receive the returns. The cover is ripped off and the book disposed of. It's a HUGE waste, but long ago publishers decided it cost them more to have the books shipped back.
A few years back, B&N was moving about a block in NY. They "returned" all the stock they hadn't sold by ripping the covers off, doing the paperwork as returns and ordered all new stock for the new store. This saved them money because they didn't have to move the books. This was reported because the garbage bins in the back were full of books with no covers.
It's wasteful and stupid, but it is generally the way returns are handled and have been handled for a long time. "Remainders" are sold under a different agreement with publishers to avoid "pulping" as the cover ripoffs are called. The author gets no money from remainders.