Book returns. A big step.

Yet another phase in the evolution of books in Pegasus. We're finally going to bite on "returns."

The publishers and distributors allow a certain percentage of books to be returned for credit, but up to now, I've been ordering non-returnable. I have favorable terms with non-return, and I've been well trained by comics to order only what I can sell, but one of my suppliers has offered me pretty decent terms with returnability, so I'm finally going ahead.

This doesn't really affect the backlist books in my store. I order those to keep anyway, but it will affect how I treat new titles, especially so-called bestsellers.

I've been careful with new titles from the beginning. For one thing, I can fill my store with proven standards. For the first few years I was doing new books, I didn't order any hardcover bestsellers. I basically didn't have faith that I could sell them in numbers enough to warrant the risk.

When I redesigned the layout of the store during Covid, I decide to take the plunge. But even then, I was pretty careful. Probably a little too careful. Take a book like "Lessons in Chemistry." I was probably ordering one or two of that title at a time, and I distinctly remember several occasions when I didn't have it in stock when a customer wanted it.

I looked up how many I'd sold direct from the publisher (and I'd probably sold another third on top of that from another wholesaler) and the numbers of books I sold was, to me, pretty impressive. I should never have run out. Same could be said of a another couple dozen titles over the years that have had legs.

So I've thought for some time that I needed to up my game. If I can order larger quantities upfront, then I'll have enough in stock while I'm waiting for reorders to arrive.

Of course, doing this goes against two of my precepts.

1.) Keep it simple, stupid. 

This won't be simple. I'll have to keep track of which supplier sent me the titles, and how long I've had them, and so on. A Point of Sale would make it easier, once I got past the complexity of learning the system. Up to know, I've been able to keep track the old fashioned way: paper, pencil, and a calculator. Heh. 

2.) Don't be a duplicate of other stores. 

As I've mentioned, we specialize in backlist. If I find a book or an author I like, I keep it in stock. Not just one or two Kurt Vonnegut books or Cormac McCarthy books, but every book they ever wrote. 

It believe it's made my store stand out as different. Not just the same bestsellers as everyone else. What I have somewhat disdainfully called the "American Booksellers Association" model.

So ordering more bestsellers means I need to create some space. I looked around the store, which is packed to the tippy-top, and tried to figure it out.

If I remove a few free-standing fixtures, I make a little room. But...and this ALWAYS happens!--if I move a block of bookshelves 5 inches, I make room for two new outward facing shelves, and if it move another block of bookshelves 1 inch (yes, 1 inch. It's ALWAYS 1 inch!) I can fit in yet another bookshelf.

This necessitates that I remove all the books from each bookshelf and move it over an inch, and then refill the bookshelf. Arrgghh. 

But once I've done it, I'll have once again found a way to display more books, so even if the returnability program is a flop, I've still improved the store.