Many (un)Happy Returns
Talk to any group of authors for long enough, and you'll start to discuss the sad topic of returns. Short story: Bookstores, ever since the Great Depression, have purchased their stock on consignment. If stores don't sell books to buyers, stores can return the books (or, due to the high cost of postage and perceived lack of resale market, the cover of mass-market paperback books) to publishers for full credit. Authors, awaiting their payout on royalties, take a hit because publishers hold a "reserve against returns", a pool of money so that they can pay out stores for all returned books. While authors usually eventually get paid all that they are owed, the payout is slow, resulting in cash flow disasters for authors.
On another list I frequent, the topic of returns was churning, with the new-to-me angle that comic books do *not* operate under this model. (That seems odd to me, because magazines do operate under the return model, but what do I know?) Apparently, many comics authors argue that their profits would be higher if the returns model were in place, because more stores would take risks on more comics, increasing overall sell-through.
That discussion led to another - are there any other major segments of the consumer trade that function on consignment? I'd always heard "no" - book publishing is unique. But now, I'm hearing "yes" - that perfume is sold in the same way (if perfume doesn't sell in the department store, the liquid is dumped and the boxes are returned for credit.)
Can anyone confirm that perfume is sold on consignment? And can anyone add any other industries that function on this model?
Mindy, pondering the publishing mire
On another list I frequent, the topic of returns was churning, with the new-to-me angle that comic books do *not* operate under this model. (That seems odd to me, because magazines do operate under the return model, but what do I know?) Apparently, many comics authors argue that their profits would be higher if the returns model were in place, because more stores would take risks on more comics, increasing overall sell-through.
That discussion led to another - are there any other major segments of the consumer trade that function on consignment? I'd always heard "no" - book publishing is unique. But now, I'm hearing "yes" - that perfume is sold in the same way (if perfume doesn't sell in the department store, the liquid is dumped and the boxes are returned for credit.)
Can anyone confirm that perfume is sold on consignment? And can anyone add any other industries that function on this model?
Mindy, pondering the publishing mire
(Anonymous)
I think what killed the comics collectible market, aside from ebay, was the greedy comics publishers themselves, who put out special "collectible" issues, multiple covers, and generally over saturating the market with copies.
Forget all that, I think the comics industry in the above example is not talking about comic book stores, since they sell to a specific market and would generally hold onto their stock regardless of the return policy (similar to a specialty or genre bookstore) but instead are talking about chain bookstores and supermarkets, where a book might reach a new, accidental market and convert them into a regular reader.
I have a big problem with the waste of returns and the lack of proper recycling.
Did you know that most NY pubs consider a 50% sell-though a GREAT SUCCESS??? Meaning that if half the books they printed sell, they're really happy.
So what happens to the rest of the books? Remaindered or just destroyed.
But it's not the booksellers who lose out, because they got to send everything back for CREDIT. They NEVER lose money. Never. They may have dwindling sales, because frankly online book sales, ebooks and the fact that people just don't read as much, but they don't lose money on stock ever.
It's really time to revamp the business. It has to start with publishers, because the booksellers won't change, they've got no reason to.
Actually, while that was true historically (up until the 1980's), it's not the case now -- smaller print runs and higher sell-throughs have been the norm (and the measure of success) for at least a decade in mass market/genre publishing.
Returns kill the industry, although I know it's what booksellers 'take a chance' on stocking a book. It's a vicious cycle that needs to be broken :)
I remember being a kid and reading my books cover to cover. There was always the copyright notice and then "If you have purchased this book without a cover, then it is a stripped book and that was illegal blah blah blah." I never had any idea what a stripped book was and just assumed that they were talking about photocopies of the books.
Now, however, I understand.
That might be wasteful with books, but electronics retail is worse. If something sits on the shelf too long and the vendor won't take it back (and usually it won't), we either sell at a loss or "destroy in field" to get it off the shelves and make room for more product. I can imagine finding a fairly easy way to recycle books (still a horrible waste) but broken plastic bins and glass and metal all in one pile.... not so sure.
Every time we get a cart of destroys to deal with, it reminds me of the oranges being limed and buried in Grapes of Wrath.
(Anonymous)
Adrianne - who knows nothing of selling on consignment
(Anonymous)
Adrianne
(I don't know how to fix the problem - I suspect that it's somewhere in the template code, setting type sizes, rather than leaving them open for users' browsers to use the browsers' defaults. So far, I have been unable to tweak LJ templates with my own style sheets.)
Sorry!
(Anonymous)
No need to apologize. I get into these corners myself.
Adrianne