Quote:
Originally Posted by desertgrandma
Perhaps if they didn't have quite so many copies of Dan Brown's, latest, they might have the budget......  |
Stocking lots of Dan Brown won't be a factor. Publishing has historically worked on a 100% returns policy, so any unsold books may be returned for credit. What this normally means is that hardcovers are shipped back, but paperbacks simply have the covers stripped off and returned, and the book itself is supposed to become landfill.
100% returns was widely understood to be a killer for publishers - it removed all risk for the retailer, who was ordinarily expected to understand their market and make good guesses about what would sell when they ordered - but while everyone knew it as a problem, no one wanted to be the first to change the terms offered to retailers.
We are finally starting to see experimentation here, with publishers offering higher discounts to retailers in exchange for not being able to return all unsold copies for credit.
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Dennis