Up until a year ago, I was pretty much ordering books that I intended to keep in stock forever. That is, perennial sellers that had proven themselves. Classics. Cult books.
About one year ago exactly--coming out of the closure--I started ordering new bestsellers; which come as hardcovers.
Usually, it takes about a year before the trade paperback version of a bestselling title comes out. So I am only now reaching the point where the paperbacks are coming in while I still have the hardcovers out for sale.
So the challenge for me is not only to decide which new bestsellers to carry--which, outside the obvious torrid sellers, are a matter of instinct--but also to figure out how often to reorder those new books. What I'd really like to avoid is having the hardback copy of a book still in stock when the trade paperback shows up.
But I don't want to pull the plug on reordering new bestsellers too soon, but I also don't want to have any leftover.
I'm not too worried about it. It's a matter of finessing it. I mean, if nothing else I have a "First Edition" of a bestseller. Also, I can often handsell the hardcover to someone by offering 25% off, or somewhere close to what a paperback would cost them anyway.
The other solution is to send those unsold hardcovers back. I haven't done that yet, but it certainly would solve the problem. I guess I have to figure out how to do that.
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