Used Books

Used bookstores are everywhere and serve a vital function in society — they make books available at a reasonable price and are often the only source for out of print paperbacks. I have bought and do buy books from used bookstores, especially when the books are out of print and not available elsewhere.

Readers should be aware, however, that authors do not get paid for books sold in used bookstores. Our royalties are figured on sales by our publishers to bookstores, but used bookstores do not buy from the publishers. We get no credit for those sales because there is no accounting system for them.

Before you dismiss this as a rant by a greedy author, rightfully pointing out that if not for used bookstores many readers wouldn’t take a chance on an author they’ve never read before, bear with me for a moment. Because the publishers have no way to track used bookstore sales, they don’t have an accurate picture of the popularity of their authors. It could be that a book purchased from a used bookstore makes its way through 4-5 readers, and each of them decides they like this author. That’s great, but his publisher has no way of knowing that.

Readers, in the current retailing system, really are patrons of the arts. If you find an author you like, by all means, buy a copy of his current or next book from a new book retailer. By doing that you show the retailers and his publisher that they have a reason to continue to sell and publish his books respectively. It’s the only way you can let the publishers and retailers know you want to see more of this author’s work. (Cards and letters to the publisher would be nice, sure, but the accountants tend to consider only dollars and cents.)

And concerning the greed factor, please understand that most authors make between 6-10% of the cover price of the books. In the case of books written in a series owned by someone else, the percentage can be decidedly lower. In other words, a $5 book produces 30 cents in income for the author. At that rate the author loses money on the postage for replying to a fan letter! With the average SF/Fantasy novel selling fewer than 20,000 copies, we’re talking an income of $7,000 for what probably was a year’s worth of work. Kinda dismal, really.

Yes, patronize used bookstores for the books you can’t get elsewhere. If you find an author you like, support her by buying her books *NEW* and guarantee you’ll get more from them in the future.