ABSTRACT
An independent wholesaler (ID) returns unsold paperbacks by ripping off the covers and sending them back to the publisher for credit. Some IDs rip off the covers manually. Others, who can afford it, use an automatic stripping machine, which typically is available to an ID on a lease basis. IDs account for well over half of the mass market paperbacks shipped to all channels. They also account for a big percentage of the returns. A 1973 Association of American Publishers survey of nine mass market publishers found that IDs received $202.3 million of the $320.2 million worth of books shipped to all channels, and IDs accounted for $89.9 million of the $112.9 million worth of books returned for credit. Some publishers, surveying the waste in the ID system, have predicted a rapid end to the system, with all business going either directly to retailers or directly to jobbers.
