Today at work I was working on returns… Collecting all the unwanted books that have been sitting around the store for more than six months. Made me sad that a few of my favorite authors had made the list this time around. It was the first time I’d had to pick books that I’d actually read before. So imagine the epic blahness when I realized these books were marked as ‘SC’, strip cover. The books are now waiting in my store back room to have their covers ripped off. Those will be sent back to the publisher, pretty much as proof of the books demise, and the actual books get thrown out.
Seems like such a waste to me. If you’re going to destroy the books anyways, why not donate them to a worthy cause. Okay, probably because there would eventually be so many cheap books out there that I dunno, some sort of doom would happen, I’m sure. But still, every once in awhile I’m sure a library or school would love to get some of the books that are just going to waste. Even if it’s just the kids books. Save the books, people! Save them!!!
This would be such a hard part of the job. All that hard work, all those tears of frustration, all that hope and pride…just to get the cover ripped off an tossed. I agree, such a waste.
Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse
That’s it exactly… knowing how much effort the authors put in to crafting these stories just to have the books tossed away.
There are plenty of underfunded communities out there that would kill to get some decent books. I even had a lady contact me through GoodReads asking if I could donate any copies of my novel for their shelves. It’s a shame they just destroy them.
I know! It’s really frustrating. I keep meaning to look into the reasoning behind it, just out of curiosity.