independent publishers guild

In this way some of the money spent on the print run can be recouped. ‘Remainder merchants’ buy these titles from a publisher and then resell them to retailers. The general public can therefore sometimes buy excellent books very cheaply simply because the publisher printed too many copies.

Some retailers specialise in selling remainders, but there are a very large number of conventional bookshops that have a small area or table set aside for remainder titles. Some booksellers refer to these books as 'promotional' books, rather than remainders. Many booksellers find that selling a few promotional titles increases traffic into the shop, and therefore improves sales of full-price titles.

Remaindering usually takes place when the publisher realises his mistake in printing over-optimistically and sells off excess stock very cheaply. Also remaindering can be used when a business needs a short-term cash flow boost. Whilst this is not necessarily a good solution in terms of the health of the publishers list, it is one quick way of releasing capital in an emergency. In order to protect the book's original price in the domestic market a publisher will sometimes only sell remainders to overseas dealers, hoping that the books will not be resold back to UK retailers.