"Industry Standard" Return Policy Blues.

Have you ever wondered why large chain bookstores have sooooo many books by large published authors and not so many from any other publisher?

There's a very simple answer.

In the beginning there was no such thing as a small publisher. It took a LOT of money to produce a book and to produce just one didn't make sense. Therefore, (yes, in the beginning) large publishers printed out TONS of books and counted on bookstores to help them stock the excess inventory. The "industry standard" return policy put in place during the depression, first by Simon & Schuster and then the other publishers to keep bookstores from going under, had bookstores purchasing those books and then not charging to have them sent back. In fact, large publishers didn't care if they ever saw the book again.

Jump into the present now. It's no longer necessary to print TONS of books at a time to save on printing cost. The "Industry Standard" Return Policy for SURE doesn't work anymore, not even for the "big dog" publishers who created it. It does still work to get ALL of their authors on the New York Times best sellers list though as this is determined by book sales to "bookstores." But not even large publishers can afford to print that many books at a time and survive which is why large chain bookstores are going under (I suppose I should add, "in my opinion.")

Since printing on demand is now feasible and certainly the way to go, it would certainly make sense to "invent" a new "Industry Standard" Return Policy and put it in place. Until that happens large bookstores will only ever be havens for books put out by large publishers--until they go under the same way Borders did (again, in my opinion.)

Barnes & Nobles is one large chain bookstore I know of that no longer purchases ANY books from any publisher that doesn't sign on to that antiquated "Industry Standard" return policy. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the very publishers that created that "return" policy during the depression to save bookstores seem quite content to throw the same bookstores under the train now.

I think now is the time for Independent bookstores to rise to the occasion. There needs to be a return policy between publisher and bookstores that works better than "on consignment." Perhaps just changing the "Industry Standard" Return Policy up a bit would be best. The biggest problem I can see with the return policy as it stands is that it's anybody's guess where the "returned from the bookstore" books go. Small publishers rarely if ever see their returned books again. My guess is that since bookstores aren't required to send books back to the publisher they shuffle them of to wholesalers who dabble in "returned from the bookstore" books otherwise where would Books-A-Million be getting all of their stock since they only purchase from wholesalers who sell such books.