The hilarious poem "The Book of my Enemy Has Been Remaindered" from Clive James' collection Opal Sunset: Selected Poems, 1958-2008 has an author relishing the fact that his rival's book has been remaindered. An article in the Guardian puts a more positive spin on getting remaindered. One of the positive ways to look at this as an author is that more readers may discover your books. People do shop in bargain bookstores and bargain book sectiosn. It is a great way to get a nice hardcover at a reduced price. The idea is that if a reader finds your remaindered book and they like it then they might look for more books you have written.
But remaindering - when publishers sell books at massively reduced prices to bargain shops who then offer them at knockdown discounts - happens to most authors at one point or another, whether they are the duds of James's poem or not. (Stephen King even has a rock band called the Rock Bottom Remainders. Publishers predict sales as closely as they can, but they're never going to get their print runs exactly right and often end up over-printing. They'll then be unlikely to want copies of a book with dwindling sales to take up valuable warehouse space, so will sell the books on cheaply to the discount stores.
And although the author will receive minimal - if any - royalties on these sales, it's not all bad. A good presence in the bargain bookshops will mean exposure to the sorts of readers who might not frequent Waterstone's; writer Mark Leslie says on his blog that he has discovered many new authors through the joys of remainders and bargain books. "I'm not always willing to take a chance on a writer I'm unfamiliar with for $30, but I'll usually be more tempted to try them out for under $10. And I have often gone back and bought other books by authors I've discovered through bargain books and also recommended books by these authors for others to enjoy - so, hopefully, I've helped increase different author's royalty payments despite their having been remaindered."
The Guardianarticle also links to author John Scalzi's blog post from April, 2008 about remaindered books. Scalzi says he is going to sign any copies of his novel The Android's Dream he finds at bargain bookstores. Scalzi writes, "As for me, every time I see a remaindered copy of TAD, I'm going to sign it and put it back on the table. That'll be a surprise for someone."
