About Remainder Books

Quill & Quire Magazine
October 2007

About the Quill & Quire I read yesterday. It had a very interesting article in it about Remainder books. The Trouble with Bargain Books. Here are some new things I learnt.

Publishers do not make much money from remainder books.

Traditional Booksellers don't like remainder bookshops because they are competition - usually on price

Remainder stores sometimes stock international titles for which Canadian publishers hold the rights.

Sometimes Remainder stores sell books that have not been remaindered by the publishers at all. The suggestion is that those books may have been stolen, or were obtained by questionable means.

The Canadian Copyright Act states that Remainder shops can import foreign editions 60 days AFTER the foreign publishers have remaindered them, but ONLY if the rights to those titles are NOT owned by a Canadian publisher. The onus is therefore on the remainder store to find out which titles are unauthorised, but they dont always make the effort to do their research.

There were 2 major Remainder shops mentioned in this article. Fairmount Books in Markham, and BMV - which has 3 stores in Toronto.

Fairmount sells only in Bulk. On the home page of the website, it says this. We require a minimum order of $300.00..

BMV [Books, Magazines, Videos] sells to the General Public. They don't have a website - at least not one that I could find. BMV have been around for 10 years, so how come I never heard of them? They just opened a new flagship at 471 Bloor St W last year (2006). The other two stores are at 10 Edward Street (just north of the Eaton Centre), and 2289 Yonge St (1 block north of Eglinton).

For those of you who have read this blog from the beginning will see that I now buy my books from Bookcloseouts - based in St Catherines, Ontario. They have very fast and efficient service - my books always arrive within 7 days. I have noticed that occasionally I do receive British Editions rather than North American. I never thought anything of it. According to their website, BookCloseOuts.com is the online division of Book Depot, one of the largest "closeout/remainder" bookstores in North America. And BookDepot sells in bulk, whereas Bookcloseouts does not.

Anyway, yesterday I went to Bloor street specifically to visit the new BMV shop, and promptly spent $60. Its a located between subway stations, and took a fair walk to get there. I think I might just stick to Book Closeouts since they deliver to my door. I also think that owning a remainder bookstore might be a tad too much hassle.