Saturday, September 16, 2006
Many unhappy returns

I've always marvelled that anyone not brought up speaking English can make any sense of it. For instance, the noun 'return' has 19 separate meanings in the OED (the verb has a further 21) and many of these are further subdivided by nuance. One meaning is 'Pecuniary value resulting to one from the exercise of some trade or occupation' - in other words 'return' equals 'profit'. In the book trade 'return' has nothing to do with profit, it is all to do with loss. The distinguished writer and part-time publisher Susan Hill has agreed to guest a piece for this blog on that old adage ' Gone today here tomorrow' which plagues the book trade.

RETURNS

 

Probably I should be a better environmentalist. I recycle the bottles and don`t drive many miles a year. I use no air miles as I have no passport. We grow some fruit and vegetables. Otherwise, I tend to switch off when the talk contains too many words like environment, ecology, global and warming.

 

There is one thing which has been exercising me on several fronts lately – RETURNS, as in books and Sale or Return but the front which struck me especially today can be summed up by the word WASTE. Waste of fuel, waste of paper, waste of road miles, waste of resources, waste of time, waste of energy.

 

In no other retail business are there Returns except  for ‘returns of damaged goods.’  But in the book trade, everyone buys books on S or R. As a publisher, I preach to authors every time I take them on, that a sale is not a sale INTO a bookshop, it is only a sale when it goes OUT of the bookshop in the hands of a customer.  No one listens.

So let me tell you what has happened this week in this topsy-turvey, alice-in-wonderland world of publishing.

 

Earlier this year my company Long Barn Books, published a book. 2,000 copies were printed. The books came to me on a lorry on pallets. Waterstones did a scale-out from Head Office of some 1,400 copies. So parcels of books were packed into cartons and sealed with brow tape and labeled and send off to 160 odd stores around the country by courier. More van journeys.

The system of invoicing is quaint and involves a great waste of paper. I am obliged to put an invoice into each carton, and to send a copy of that invoice, a paper copy, to the Finance Department. They eventually pay me – though they do this via BACS, which at least saves some paper.

The books stay in the Waterstones stores for some 3 months. I then get a request to authorize Returns. I agree. This involves the sending of a single e-mail to which I reply. More efficiency.

 

During the ‘Returns Window’ cartons start to arrive back to me, on courier vans, with unsold copies of the book. The cartons contain requests for Credit. I have to pass these pieces of paper on to the Accounts Department. But a considerable number of the books are returned carelessly packed so that they come back to me bumped, cover-damaged or, worst of all, with 3 FOR 2 WATERSTONES stickers plastered over them. I refuse to give credit for these, which involves a bit of a battle and more paperwork.

 

I sent out some 1,400 copies and some 600 have come back. This is what I mean when I tell the author that they are not SOLD they have only been on offer.

This is waste enough. BUT there is worse. Out of approximately 40 branches which have returned books some fifteen have RE-ORDERED THE SAME TITLE, sometimes on the same day that the RETURNS were dispatched to me. They have Returned FIVE and re-ordered FOUR. So four books are sent back on their way via yet another van, traveling more miles, to the same shop. I have to process the paperwork for the returns and then raise new- paper – invoices for the new orders.

 

I was told there was no alternative though everyone realizes it is a nonsense, and a WASTE.

 

On environmental grounds alone, this is madness. Multiply those books to-ing and fro-ing by however many separate titles from however many publishers there are in the UK, at least twice a year – around the end of January (post-Christmas de-stocking) and around now (pre-Christmas de-stocking) and you see the waste involved.

I think the government should step in the outlaw this nonsensical and wasteful practice on environmental grounds alone.

 

And I never ever thought I would hear myself say anything like that.

 

#    |  Comments [13]  | 
9/16/2006 8:49:37 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
This is material for a good book. It gave rise to Julian River's wonderful letter in the Bookseller (a long time ago) describing lorries passing each other in the night travelling at great speed in opposite lanes of the motorway containing pallet loads of the same title.

I can give a plug for my friends at The Returns Company in Swindon - who can't stop booksellers behaving in a daft manner-- but can reduce the paperwork and the nonsense. Use them, if everybody did we would save a quarter of the heartache. They will do the laborious work for you.
Tim Coates
9/16/2006 9:19:19 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
When HMV took over Waterstone's it was expressly stated by their then MD in The Bookseller, that this was the way they would run their business, as indeed they do with their CD shops.

There is a wonderful novel about van driving and deliveries: The Scheme for Full Employment, by Magnus Mills.
Jonathan Main
9/16/2006 10:15:05 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
As one who hates "sale-or-return", this is probably the only thing which Richard Charkin, Susan Hill, and myself have in common.

I never return books : however, very few publishers are prepared to offer the slightest incentive for taking books "firm sale".

Now for a little light relief. This week I was due to receive (a few weeks late) a review copy of a new local book, published in Scotland and printed in China. On Wednesday I receive by courier 100 copies of a book intended for an Edinburgh bookshop from the Glasgow distributors : they have to be uplifted and returned to Glasgow, luvverly wasted fuel miles. On Thursday the review copy of the book arrives, posted in a Jiffy bag with no other protection -nicely bumped. Later that morning the couriers arrive with yet another parcel from the Glasgow distributors - refused this time. I don't have an account with either the publisher or distributor ; and can't think why I should ever want one, judging by this experience.

Further ironical point ; last year, the publisher mentioned above acquired a "rival" whose books were printed in Midsomer Norton - that's in Zummerset for thems who don't know . What a pity that the new local book was not typeset and printed here in Somerset, rather than China ; Bookcraft would at least have ensured a visually pleasing typeface.
Clive Keeble
9/16/2006 1:10:29 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Susan,
Nice point elegantly made.
It is incredible that a system of such little benefit to publishers persists! Indeed given the way it operates at present it is a wonder that it is actually of any benefit to booksellers.

I think Clive's point on firm sale is a valid one. I often think offering incentives for firm sale would be advantageous but which of the large chains would accept it now?

Eoin
Eoin Purcell
9/16/2006 1:36:52 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I would happily give better discounts for firm sale, even if it meant they ordered fewer copies. But I bet all the money in my purse today - and I went to the bank this morning - that no one will take me up on it except possibly a couple of small independents - it is never them who are the problem. It is the chains.
Mind you, amazon never return anything. They are very careful in what they order and they never send back. Not a lot of people know that.
susan Hill
9/16/2006 2:01:41 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
When I was briefly involved in the book trade supply initiative I proposed that a "returns credit" facility should only apply to titles in their first year, never to back list, and that all copies surplus to requirement should be destroyed at the retailer, never returned.

The facility should only be needed to cover speculative new title publishing- which is an important aspect of the trade. However, once a copy is in a place and is not needed, there is no point spending any more money on it. Copies are cheap- it is the origination of them that is expensive.

I would quite like to have another look at the supply chain intiative- if anyone would let me. There's a lot still to be done.

Tim
Tim Coates
9/16/2006 4:23:00 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
We only order books we think we will sell.

I would be happy to deal "firm sale" with any publisher but not if they insisted we paid for the books after 30 days as most do. Could we not pay for the books when we sold them? Link our computer systems to the publishers? Or something? When we sold a book the publisher could charge us for it!

Most of the problems with sale or return revolve around new books with no track record. We never buy lots of a new book until we know there is a demand for it and it is going to sell. (Unlike the chains who are always desperate not to miss out on the Next Big Thing)

The solution lies in the future - with decent print on demand facilites...That is where the waste will truly end.

Matthew Crockatt
9/16/2006 4:25:18 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I am very tough about returns only being allowed during a tight 'window' - the other day a cheeky branch manager wanted to return a copy of a book I published 2 years ago. Imagine what a condition that would have been in.
Large publishers don`t seem to worry about returs but they could kill a small one. It took me 2 years to recover from an over-ordered (and hence hastily reprinted) title of which 95% came back.
susan Hill
9/16/2006 5:06:24 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Tomorrow (and Monday) the main CIANA "Remainder and Promotional Book Fair" is held at the Business Design Centre in Islington. There isn't much talk of sale or return there ! Its the hotel of last resort for most titles with often only the "knackers yard" as the next port-of-call.

It should be a requirement for every potential bookseller that they attend this fair, if only as a bystander to make notes : see what they would have purchased and how the titles fared in the long run.

I'm not sure what the admission price is for those who haven't pre-booked, but I would consider this the finest way (and value) to learn something about an area of the trade of which so few know the real ropes : a great day-out in the jungle !
Clive Keeble
9/17/2006 11:52:51 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Matthew,

Isnt your position that if you have to accept the risk of firm sale, you want to put the financial burden completely on the publisher. That is what paying when you sell the book is effectively doing!

Instead of a risk of overprinting and getting huge returns the publisher instead risks never being paid (or being paid at time indetermined)! Seems like a bum deal to me!

I think your opinion on POD is right and may well address some of the second hand book sales that Richard has highlighted up bove!

Eoin
Eoin Purcell
9/17/2006 10:02:36 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Clive - I'm with you 100% on the "Remainder and Promotional Book Fair" advice. I can also recommend reading the "Publish, Perish" chapter in Andy Laties' "Rebel Bookseller" for a fabulous modern-day parable which should be subtitled 'How to Make Seventy Thousand Hardback Books disappear', or 'why everyone secretly loves the remainder man'.

As someone who has come into bookselling with absolutely zero experience in the book industry (and - to be clear - zero experience in retailing in general) the concept of returns has been something that has really taken me a while to get my head around. I felt the system was bizarre and only seemed to benefit the big chains.

(Susan Hill's comments about Amazon are quite a revelation - I kind of assumed they'd be playing the returns game as hard as Wottakers.)

Having read through the comments above, it seems *everyone* has problems with returns - so why the beepity-beep are they still in place?

Again - I turn to Mr Laties: "From each publisher's perspective return privileges are sadomasochistic bonds securing bookseller fidelity in the battle with other publishers for control of bookstore racks"

I guess the big publishers can take more punishment than the little guys. Let's hope that environmental protection can succeed in ensuring improved biodiversity for publishers as well as for flora and fauna...
Mark Thornton
9/18/2006 11:06:09 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I think this is the only time I will be agreeing with Clive Keeble too. I would have not only every bookseller but even more important, every publisher made to attend the remainder fair.. I`ve been and I make careful notes. I alspo regularly tour the Remainder bookshop in the nearest town to see what is being got rid of half a nano second after it has been published.... 2,000 copies of Jade Goody`s biography at 99p each anyone ?
SUSAN HILL
9/18/2006 4:38:53 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I'm sitting in Johannesburg right now, looking at a pile of requests to return from one of my major university booksellers. Half of them will never be returned; is suspect it is some kind of smoke and mirrors not having to include them in stock on hand, but rather as 'awaiting returns permission'.
But on the lighter side....I once went in personally to take back 20 copies of an economics text a famous bookshop said was not selling to the students. I carried it downstairs to the library supply dept of the same shop who had ordered without checking they had stock upstairs.
The price had gone up with the weakening Rand/£ rate!
(but I am a softie and ceremoniously tore up the credit and recharge, having made my point)
Cory Voigt