Return Policy Blues - Part two.

Using Print on Demand isn't necessarily bad but here's a little more insight on just what they can offer you.

With the return policy mentioned in my previous post in place, things for small publishers will most likely never get better anytime soon.

POD's do what they can but much is actually out of their hands. For instance, with my POD you don't actually get the choice to see the book that's returned from the distributor/bookstore. When they get returns back they destroy them. I'm not sure why this happens but my guess is, and it is a simply a guess, that the stores sending the books back actually only return the cover and not the book itself as this is all the major distributors require.

If this isn't the case why is a sellable item automatically destroyed? How does that benefit the seller of goods. I was told, when I did ask, that if I wanted another copy to sell that they (my POD distributor) would offer me a freshly printed one for $2.00 with no additional charges to reprint.

*Sue stares blankly for a moment*

You mean if a bookstore orders/buys my book from one of the official distributors such as Ingram or Baker & Taylor or whoever, via my POD of choice, said bookstore can return it for a full refund and they don't even have to return the actual book? And if they do return the actual book and it's in good shape it's still destroyed automatically leaving me with nothing to sell!!

That's a fact Jack!

And how does my POD address this quite disturbing problem? They'll sell me a newly printed copy of my book for $2.00 and not charge me the printing cost.

I'm sorry but "thank-you" and "that's a great deal" are not the first things that pop into my mind. Give me my book back in the shape it went out in or yes, reprint my book and return it to me for free and then charge the distributor who didn't return it in sellable shape.

WOW!

Let's evaluate this scenario:

Your books sells at a 55% discount for $5.83. It costs you $4.33 to print it. You make $1.50 profit. The book comes back, which it will do as the return policy between distributors and bookstores is so lenient it actually promotes returns, and your profit is gone. Not only that but you have nothing to resell because your book is automatically destroyed meaning you don't have a choice in the matter. Not only did you just lose your profit, you ate it. Somehow being offered a reprint for $2.00 and no reprint charge doesn't do much for me but add salt to a wound. Sure I now have something to sell and it's new but I had to pay for it. If I choose this option I'm now in the whole for $3.50.

And yes, certain POD's act differently to deal with this problem. For instance Amazon's Create Space isn't interested in getting you distribution through the major distributors, only through Amazon because they want to take over the world. Therefore you don't have to deal with the major distributors faulty return policy that only works for large publishers. But neither will you be able to go into a bookstore and set up a signing because you don't have distribution through the major distributors. They only allow authors in who have books through the major distributors.

Sorry. I'd like to be able to go in and do signings here and there so that's why I opted to use a POD that could make my books available through these distributors. My only protection against this outrageous return policy however is to make my books non-returnable. When I get more than one book through my POD I may make my work returnable but even at that bookstores don't generally allow POD authors in despite the books showing up in the system. There's no real benefit except that you can sell your books for a pretty good discount direct. ;)

Just more information on the POD route for those authors interested.