Bestselling author and my wonderful friend Robert Liparulo ponied up a worthy explanation to yesterday’s post, so for those of you who didn’t have the time to read it, here is his response:
Nicole, you're right. Unconditional returns happen at all levels of book retailing and publishing. As Dayle said, it's a way of getting books that the retailer is unsure about on the shelf. Unproven authors have a chance to be found by consumers under this policy.
However, it's painful to both publishers and authors. Publishers hold back royalties owed authors for a period of time so that future returns can be accounted for and factored into the "true" royalties owed (actual sell-through of the books). These amounts are often in the thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars.
Some stores (usually Christian retailers; rarely mainstream retailers) will not allow authors to sign their books because the stores fear that then they cannot return the unsold but signed books. But most publishers including Christian publishers WILL accept signed books back. I wish publishers would make their policy of accepting the return of signed books clear to retailers, since signatures help move books and may result in fewer returns.
The returns are very expensive for publishers. Shipping is one of the most expensive aspect of book publishing and distribution. And it reflects poorly on the author if a lot of his books come back unsold.
"Lay down" is the term used for the number of books sold into stores (usually prior to their release dates). "Sell through" is the term for this number less returns.
I don't think anyone except the retailer likes this policy, but I don't know how it can be fixed without harming the hundreds of unknown or up-and-coming authors whose careers rely on being in bookstores that would otherwise not take a chance on them. Interestingly, if booksellers carried only bestsellers, eventually there would be no bestsellers.
Perhaps what's needed is a program that allows retailers to drastically discount unsold books after a given time in hopes of pushing them out, instead of returning them. But then that'll open up a new can of worms.
(An exception to the return policy is when a retailer–often a specialty retailer like Scholastic or Wal-Mart–special orders a large quantity. In exchange for deeper discounts, they agree not to return the books.)
I hope you will refer to yesterday’s post and read the responses.
As per author Mike Dellosso’s suggestion, I took a trip to the Family Christian Bookstore in my area to inquire about this policy. Here’s what I learned. Spring Arbor buys their books from publishing reps. Spring Arbor in turn sends their selections to the retail stores. Twice a year Spring Arbor sends a list to the stores of the books which can be returned for refunds. The individual stores do not order (other than special orders from Spring Arbor’s catalogue) the selections or decide what is returned. So, demographics obviously are not a factor in stocking individual stores’ selections.
In visiting the Borders Bookstore I learned their books are decided upon and ordered by their corporate headquarters. Any refunds on books are also decided by their corporate people. I also “heard” that the beautiful store in this particular mall might not be there much longer. Rumors have been flying for a couple of years about Borders going under. I’d hate to see it.
Lord, you are our source for all good things. You are who we’re desperate for, who we truly need to lead us, who we ultimately desire to please. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Into the Fire 
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