Publishers that use print on demand (POD), meanwhile, see lower financial impacts from book returns. Ingram’s POD services, IngramSpark and Lightning Source, for instance, allow publishers to opt for returned books to either be shipped back to the publisher—incurring shipping and handling fees—or be destroyed, in which case the publisher’s “account will be charged the current wholesale cost of each copy returned, but no shipping and handling fees will apply,” according to IngramSpark.com. (“Wholesale” here means the price that retailers pay, after their 40 to 55 percent discount, as previously mentioned.)
Another detrimental aspect of the book industry’s returns arrangement is its enormous environmental impact because of the number of unnecessary copies that are printed and the back-and-forth transport of stock. “We often have to destroy significant numbers of books—‘recycling’ by our distributor Ingram—to avoid warehousing fees,” says Erika Goldman, editor of Bellevue Literary Press. “Sometimes we destroy stock and have to go back to press because of later demand for a title. The whole process is wasteful and expensive.”
While there’s no way to prevent book returns, authors can work to minimize them. Strong event promotion is essential. In partnership with the hosting bookstores and other venues, your publisher, and whatever publicity support you may have, make sure you are targeting local media outlets with professional press releases about your book and upcoming events—and that those events are listed with local arts calendars. Try to set up appearances with podcasts or local radio shows in advance of events and personally invite anyone you know in the area to attend. Regularly promote your events on social media, in your newsletter and/or blog, and on your website. All these strategies, especially in combination, can help attract a larger crowd and increase the likelihood of book sales.
Another strategy worth trying is to express a preference for consignment to bookstores where you schedule readings. Consignment is a direct arrangement between the bookstore and the author, in which the author provides copies of their book with no up-front payment from the bookstore; the author is then paid a percentage of sales (usually 60 percent). Any copies that don’t sell are returned to the author, sometimes immediately after the event, or sometimes later (especially if the author is local to the bookstore). This way the bookstore isn’t gambling on paying for copies of a book and then returning them to the distributor for a credit or refund if they don’t sell, and you don’t have to worry about returns from that bookstore negatively impacting your royalties. Working on a consignment basis might require you to purchase more author copies of your book than you would otherwise, but it can be a worthwhile investment. As a publisher I can attest that this arrangement is appealing from the press’s side as well: Instead of selling copies to a bookstore at a 40 percent discount with the risk that they might be returned, the press can sell copies directly to the author at a similar discount (usually 40 to 50 percent, depending on the publisher) with no risk of returns. {read}