When you are a famous children's author, your book will sell in the millions. You'll be known worldwide and your next book launch will attract a media frenzy. If that is the case, and we certainly hope it will be, why am I talking remainders?
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What is a remaindered book?
Remaindered books is a publishing industry term for books that are surplus to the publisher's needs. Look in discount department stores, surplus book warehouses and factory outlet complexes, and you will see mountains of remaindered books.
The books are stacked, arranged on tables and dumped in boxes. Marketing shows that this method of merchandising heightens the concept of a bargain. Coupled with low prices, this is a book buyer's delight.
Some publishers sell remaindered books by the kilo. This is "move em in, move em out" type of selling, and stock changes daily according to what the publishers have to clear. I have even seen discarded public library stock in a remainder factory outlet bookstore in Massachusetts. Anything goes.
Why is this great book in a remainder store?
Remaindered books do not always signal the success or otherwise of a book.
- Reasons for remaindering a successful book could include -
- a new edition has been printed, and is already being promoted
- room has to be made in the publisher's warehouse for incoming stock
- the hardback edition is being phased out for a paperback edition
- the original publisher no longer retains the rights to the book
Help! My book is being remaindered
Sometimes, if a book is no longer selling well, it may be remaindered. Another reason, may be that the marketing budget has been expended, and the publisher has neither the funds, nor the inclination to continue marketing the book. Royalties are not paid on remaindered books, so the author is usually given first option to purchase these books.
Market your book proactively
This is one of the reasons, why it is crucial for an author to be proactive with marketing from the outset. If you have to take over from the publisher, you already have a strong network of contacts, on which to build. You will have learned something about marketing from the professionals.
If you left it all to the publisher at the beginning, and now are on your own, it will be much tougher to move your books. Do you really want boxes of your "precious cargo" gathering dust in cartons under your house? The other alternative is to see them on the remainder tables.
