Etiket

[threemonkeys]

Dymocks Queensgate now have a clearance store. You know the sort of thing - remaindered titles being sold at less than a third of original list price. Talking to the guy running it, a question arose.

What if you spot the work of somebody you know there? Do you mention it next time you are talking to them? I figure that the answer is no - no author like to be reminded that their work has been remaindered. Especially when we are talking about mass market editions here - not trade size editions that have been superseded by a newer release.

But what if the remaindered work is really popular. What if the staff can't keep the books stocked on the shelves because they are selling so fast - selling better than anything else in the shop by a huge margin. Is that now worth mentioning or does the shame of being remaindered outweigh the boost of being popular.

Yes it is somebody I know but no it isn't any of you. I bet none of you ever had your work remaindered.

Comments

[lobelet.livejournal.com]

Actually I have...

Dymocks had several copies of my book for sale. Most of them sold at full price, but they did sell the last two copies cheaply in their remainder sale. I was very happy that they sold at all!!

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing those in the sale. I'm glad they sold too - it's all about spreading the word.

[lobelet.livejournal.com]

I've also had the interesting experience of seeing my book for sale in a second hand book shop. This really does engender mixed feelings. First of all there is gratitude that the potential audience expands now that someone else has a chance to buy it, but there is also the niggling, nasty feeling that maybe the previous owner got rid of it because they didn't like it. Oh, no!!

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

You can see why I steered clear of secondhand shops in this context. Next thing you know we would be stirring up the "public libraries are theft" line of thought.

Although I remember something a few months back where there was a government proposal that artists (i.e. paint type artists) would receive a royalty from each successive sale of a work. If that was transferred to books then when your book was sold in the secondhand place, you would receive a payment.

[mundens.livejournal.com]

Um, I pulled several copies of that blue-covered collection that many local people contributed to, but whose title I momentarily forget (something about a time and a cafe?) from a remainder bin a few years back.

Did the same with that collection of ghost stories several locals were involved with too.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

For small press collections like those, it is a major feat just to get picked up by the bookstores. I suppose you could say that being in the remainder bins is a sign that they had been successful in that regard. Not much consolation is it.

[lobelet.livejournal.com]

"Tales From The Out Of Time Cafe" edited by Phillip Mann. Quite a good collection, as I recall. I don't know the name of the ghost story collection that you mention. There's a list of NZ anthologies that I know about at:

http://sffanz.sf.org.nz/lists/anthologies.shtml

Could you check to see if it's on that list? If it's not I'd be really grateful if you could find it in your collection and give me details so that I can update the list.

[darthsappho.livejournal.com]

It's not the ghost collection, but the list is missing "Millenium Nights", PGR Hamilton, Campus Press 1998.

[lobelet.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that. I've updated my list and I'll post it to the live site tonight when I get home from work.

Cheers.

[mundens.livejournal.com]

Teh Evil One ! :)

[mundens.livejournal.com]

Sorry, it seems what I remembered as a "ghost story" collection (possibly because of the cover) is actually Antipodean Tales, which you already have!

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

There's a remainder bookstore in Sydney which has a whole wall of spec fic and I routinely see the books of people I know there. OK, so I do know a lot of writers... but all the same, its a bit of a worry.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Being the epitome of tact that you are, I presume you never gleefully point this out to those writers.

Well hardy ever anyway and only when none of your books are there. ;-)

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

True, I have not mentioned the fact to my author friends. But there was this one time where a collection of one writers work were selling for something like $2 a book. I bought the entire stock and gave them to him as a gift, which he greatly appreciated as the book was officially out of print.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I have wondered about that in the past - most authors I know like to have a few copies of their work available in case of a sudden need for an auction item at a con. Remaindered stock could be a source.

Of course then there are the authors who buy up all the copies of their own work when it goes out of print and sell it mailorder, using their garages as warehouses.

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

If it were my book, I think I'd rather buy up cheap leftover stock than let them all go in the bin.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Apart from avoiding the discomfort, there can be quite a bit of money in that strategy if you have a dedicated following. I remember Harlan Ellison once saying that a big chunk of his book income came from selling his out of print titles like that.

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

yeah, if you're a well respected author, a bunch of classy looking hardcopies wouldn't go astray I reckon.

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

Agreed, as long as it was cheap. One publisher of mine sold me a carton of my remaindered hardcovers at about $2US each - but sent the cartons by express courier, adding about $7US to the price per copy. And sent me the bill. The courier, of course, sent them to Bayswater in Victoria, where they remained for several weeks. (My editor, bless him, managed to get the publisher to pay part of the bill.)

That said, if anyone in Oz sees good condition copies of either The Art of Arrow Cutting (particularly the hardcover) or Foreign Bodies for less than about $15 each, please buy them: I'll repay you (plus postage, if necessary) ASAP. I'll donate them to libraries: I'm only a few copies short of qualifying for Public Lending Right on them, so they'll more than pay for themselves!

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

if anyone in Oz sees good condition copies of either The Art of Arrow Cutting (particularly the hardcover) or Foreign Bodies...

You are assuming of course that people already have them. If they don't I'm going to recommend that they buy them, read them and display them in pride of place on their own bookshelves.

Having said that, I guess you would prefer that they got them directly from you.

[russellk.livejournal.com]

I've had one of my books remaindered, the third of a series. Didn't bother me - maybe it ought to have - but I figured if the purchasers liked it, they had two other books to buy. At full price.

I've seen very successful books remaindered, and it often reflects an overestimation of short-term stock requirements, not the success or otherwise of a book.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I've seen one of your books remaindered too. From memory though it was in the large format edition. I pretty much expect even the most popular of those to get remaindered as they are effectively redundant once the smaller format is available and the only way to shift them is to drop the price.