There’s an online store I use a bit called “Basement Books” who specialise in remaindered books.
From their website: “We sell remaindered books. Often when a new title is going to be released, the publishers can only guess at how many of that title they are going to sell. A lot of the time they guess wrong and print too many. They send the books out to regular bookstores and department stores and they sit on the shelf waiting to be purchased. Eventually the popularity of that title will wane and those books will just be taking up valuable room. The retailer would obviously prefer to fill the shelf space with newer titles that they hope will sell better. After a certain amount of time the bookseller is able to pack up the remaining copies and send them back to the publishers for a refund. The publishers suddenly find themselves with a lot of books that the regular booksellers no longer want to stock, and they are left with two options – either destroy the books or resell them at a discounted price. In most cases the publishers would rather resell them to bookstores like us! When this happens the books are classified as ‘remaindered’.”.
There’s a delicious touch of irony in the oversupply of a book entitled “Fell’s Guide to Writing Bestsellers“. Based on it not selling enough to leave the store with consumers, and it’s had to be remaindered, I don’t think I’ll trust the advice within it. Today’s SPOTD award goes to the person who estimated whether a book about writing bestsellers would itself qualify.
Fell's Guide to Writing Bestsellers
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