First Officer's Log No 10: And What Remains...

Editor: "But it's the Next Big Thing."
Publisher: "I've got a whole warehouse full of Next Big Things, all waiting to be pulped."
- 'The Ghost Writer' (2010)


My roommate, a film buff, had recently shared 'The Ghost Writer' with me, based upon Robert Harris' novel, 'The Ghost', about a ghost writer hired to write the memoir of a British prime minister, clearly based upon Tony Blair. The novel and film both deal with the stresses of being a ghost writer, but, this being a political thriller, of course, nothing is ever as simple as it seems. That said, it's a fantastic film, with top notch performances, and very slick writing. It also features some very amusing and agonizingly truthful opinions about the book trade.

The above quotation is from early on in the film when The Ghost (he is never given a proper name) is introduced to his American publisher, his British editor, a lawyer and an agent. The Ghost makes it clear that he doesn't think he should write the book as he doesn't read political memoirs, and, he then points out, no one does. I cringed at that comment; at my roommate's inquiring glance, I said, "I don't think that's an inaccurate statement."

Then comes the true zinger, in the form of the above quote. I winced again, and when we were wandering about the corporate bookstore a few days later, and into the (it seems to me) obligatory bargain section, I must have looked like I had a foul taste in my mouth.

"Next Big Things?" my roommate asked, grinning.

"Next Big Things," I said.

"All waiting to be pulped," we chorused, and had a good laugh.

The sad thing is that the idea of warehouses full of Next Big Things waiting to be pulped isn't really funny. When you walk into the bargain section of a bookstore and see the books, all stacked, with stickers that slash their cover prices up and over 80%, all you see is a great deal, a fantastic bargain. That's what they want you to see. A $30 hardcover book down to $6? A beautiful over sized photography book of a national park slashed from $60 to $10? That's amazing! An Asian-inspired cookbook with authentic recipes and fantastic full color photographs, no cover price, but it's only $8. That is a great deal.

Then you think about it, and realize that there are thousands of these books, books that never sold in new condition, books that a publisher printed too many copies of. These are the books that sit in warehouses, stacked upon one another, on pallets, until someone walks to them with a black permanent marker in hand and marks a vertical line on the bottom of the page block edge for each and every book, therefore marking it as a remainder. These are the books that end up in bargain bins and tables.

The truth of the matter is that once you've spent at least a year working in a corporate book store, you start to notice patterns and trends with bargain books. That big fictional thriller that came out last December? Yep, by June, it's in the bargain bin. Trade paperback history books about current events? Binned. Political memoirs? Marked and binned.

Mass market paperbacks are appropriately named, as they're printed massively, on the cheap, and if they don't sell, the covers are torn off, and the body of the book is destroyed. The covers are sent to publishers, who credit book stores that don't sell them. The first time I ever had to mark a box of destroyed paperbacks a part of me felt guilty. This was perfectly good paper, and it was going to end up in a landfill, somewhere, because of copyright issues and publisher's rules. No bargain bins for these books.

So I suppose the point is that the Next Big Thing isn't always such. There are books that publisher's promote and push and market and they don't sell nearly as well as perceived. Instead, they end up in warehouses, stacked to the ceilings, waiting to be remaindered. Whatever doesn't remain gets pulped.

So the next time you find yourself wanting that new hard cover book, you have two options. You can wait a year, and it might just show up on our shelves here at the shop. Or, you can go check out your local bargain bin. It might be there, too, at 80% of cover.

Until next week, fellow bibliophiles.