Inquiring Minds: Used Books, Part the Third, What on Earth is this All About, Anyway?

[rolanni]

kaygo, if you're around, please keep me honest, here.

The short form is that there are some writers -- in the majority nice, reasonable, thoughtful people -- who sincerely believe that sales of used books are gutting their new-book sales. They are, quite reasonably, concerned for their incomes, and have determined that Something Must Be Done about used book sales. In support of this belief set, they offer various arguments and make a couple of suppositions.

The rest of the discussion is mercifully

Argument the First. It's all very well and good to buy an OOP author used, but! had that author achieved sufficient new book sales, she might not now be out of print.

Well...this is sorta unprovable. But it does have a nice panic-making ring to it.

Argument the Second. Buyer A will inevitably put Hardcover Novel, which she purchased for $25, on sale after she has read it. Buyer B will pick it up for $12, and will inevitably sell it after she has read it to Buyer C, who gets a real bargain at $6. Thus you achieve a continuous cycle of Hardcover Novel being bought, read, and sold, while the author has only received the royalties from one (1) new sale, and has only one (1) sale to show the book buyer at the local chain.

There is some value to Argument the Second. Back in the Dark Ages, when the first three Liaden books came out from Del Rey, they failed for "lack of numbers." However, as we later came to find out from emails and letters, lots and lots and lots of people had read them, lending them from friend to friend to friend. But. What has happened between Then and Now is the internet. Readers are now much more informed regarding the realities of bookstore numbers, and, in my experience, try to support favorite authors by purchasing new.

Argument the Third.The very existence of cheap hardcover books (as low as $0.01!) on Amazon.com, must mean that readers who are shopping for the mass market will be compelled to buy the cheap(er) hardcover edition.

Erm. If I'm looking for a paperback, which will fit in my purse, so I can take it with me and read it on the bus, I'm not gonna buy a hardcover, $0.01 or no. If my shelves are all spaced for paperbacks, I don't have any place to put a hardcover, no matter how cheap it is. And so on.

Argument the Fourth. There are Studies Proving that Used Book Sales are through the roof and that Money is Being Lost because of it.

Well...yes and no.

At least one of those studies was been made by academic publishers, who would really rather that college bookstores not make used textbooks available to students. Another of those studies also deals with the resale market in non-fiction books. They're not really about fiction resales.

Yet another of those studies does not, IMHO, take into account a reality of the marketplace.

Say, for instance I'm selling used books. I put my inventory in ABEbooks. There are various programs for booksellers using ABE. For instance, I can get my books listed on Amazon.com, and on a couple other internet bookstores. I've been in business for a pretty good amount of time and I have friends who also sell used books.

So, I sell a book, through my affiliation with ABEbooks, through its program with Amazon.com. ABEbooks reports its sales: 1 book. Amazon.com reports its sales: 1 book. I report my sales: 1 book. Yup; that's the same book, reported three times.

Also, those friends of mine in the business? Say I list Agent of Change in my ABEbooks inventory, because I usually have one or two. But I had a rush on the title and am temporarily out of stock. I email my buddy, Fran, and ask her if she has any copies of Agent.... She does! Cool, can she ship it to my customer? She does! Have we sold two books, or one?

There's also the vexed problem of remainders, which is a side issue, rather than a full argument all its own. Remainders are books that the publisher has let go into the resale stream at their cost or a little above, in order to get their money out of the stock. As I understand it, remaindering does produce an income stream for some publishers. Used booksellers do buy remaindered books, and offer them for sale. They are not evil for doing so, though one might wish to examine the publishers' motives a little more closely.

Argument the Fifth. Which seems to be particular to romance authors. Harlequin, I believe, has a bookclub, which delivers to its members new books in advance of release. So it is possible, and apparently does happen, that a book that isn't even released yet is being sold at half cover price at the neighborhood used bookstore.

I agree that this is a problem, but again -- the problem is with Harlequin's system, not with the used booksellers.

Supposition the First. Most readers don't know that authors receive no royalties on used book sales. Therefore, We the Authors must educate them.

I've never met a reader who didn't know that used book sales generate no royalties. The poll bears this out -- including one person who states that they sometimes buy used in order to deny the author royalties, which demonstrates a sophisticated, if odd, understanding of the system.

Supposition the Second. If publishers consistently marked remaindered books, sold them without covers, or in some other way made them into "hurts," the books would still be in the used book stream, but they would not be resold again and again (as in Argument the Second), because they would be less attractive.

Say what?

*deep breath*

So, that's what the poll was all about, and I'm grateful to all who took the time to add to my information on the topic.

And if you've actually read all this, you're a saint. :-)

Comments

[phil-boswell.livejournal.com]

So all of Jim Baen's hard work with Eric Flint setting up the "Baen Free Library" was a waste of time? Not if you take their word seriously.

So Jim Baen's idea of enclosing CD-ROMs containing whole series of books with first-round hardbacks was a bad idea? Not unless you think they're masochists, coming round for...what is it now, a tenth and eleventh round of beatings?

One wonders what sort of credentials these "experts" have who make these pronouncements which fly in the face of reality.

Oh yes, and one wonders which writers in particular are so worried about their sales that they are willing to kick their thus-far-loyal readers in the teeth...