Returns and Ingrams…

This is a Great Topic and Question…

Basically, when loading books to Ingrams paper and hardback, should you accept returns?

Allowing book returns started as a promotion to help bookstores in the depression in the 1930s. And after that, no one publisher had the guts to take the hit by ending the allowance of returns. This made the bookstore owner take no responsibility in the books they ordered. A horrid practice.

When I came into the business in the 1970s and up through the mid 1990s, this practice was so bad that you could stand in the mall and look into a B’Dalton’s mall store and know that in six weeks every book in the store would be sold, returned, or trashed. It was called The Churn and if a book got under 50% return it was considered doing great.

The bestseller lists in those decades were based on books shipped, not sold. (And the bestseller lists in B&N and Waldon’s and other major chains were bought by the publishers. So were positions on end-caps, still are.)

Thankfully, those stupid days are all gone unless you sell a book to a traditional publisher, which no one here is that stupid these days.

But should you set your discount price on Ingram to 55% and accept returns?

Two different questions.

I believe that your paper and hardback books should be set at 55% discount with you making $3 to $5 bucks per book at that rate.

Reason: Simple… That becomes your standard price. So you make more money in other places and also you have a lot of room to discount your books on your Shopify Store. But mostly it becomes your standard price for paper and hardback books. Being consistent is always a good plan on pricing.

If you do not take returns, your books are still attractive to stores to buy for a single customer and if the store takes a few extra, they have enough room they can discount the books out if they don’t sell.

So my opinion, always set your paper and hardback prices to make a few bucks at the 55% discount. This also allows your books to be stocked in warehouses if a book starts gaining traction in sales.

Should you take returns?

Yes, no, maybe… If you take returns, you are hoping to get your books stocked in warehouses and for bookstores to take them. That simple.

But take full copy returns. Never anything else. And yes, I know you will be charged for the shipping back to you, but then you will have the books to do a thousand other things with.

One thing to keep in mind. You will get paid for every book that goes into a warehouse or a bookstore. But if there are returns, they do tend to bunch together.

How the Math on Returns Work…

Rounding to make the math pretty simple. $20 retail price paper book, $5 to produce, 55% discount, you get $4 for each sale of the $20 retail book.

Return costs you about $10 plus $4 shipping to get the book back to you. About $14 per book returned full copy.

So you spent $10 or so to get that book after what you made on the original sale. The cost of production of that book was $5 and $4 shipping if you had gotten the book directly. So there is very little difference in the cost of a book sitting on your shelf that came to you by return or if you directly ordered it.

Again, rounding all numbers. So you can sign the book and sell it on your Shopify store for $30 plus shipping.

So at WMG we set our prices at the 55% discount and make sure we make from $3 to $5 at that price. We take full copy returns only in undamaged condition.

That is our opinion here and our books do get out into stores and stocked in warehouses at times.

And for heaven’s sake, make sure you are doing Ingrams electronic as well. Will cost you another ISBN but after the collapse of Baker and Taylor, Ingrams is becoming a major library distributor in electronic. Just saying.