>  What sells quickly is always a concern, but it's a bigger
 > one for the
 >  bookstore than the publisher.  Any retailer has to generate
 > the maximum
 >  amount of sales/sq foot possible, and stuff that doesn't
 > move gets
 >  returned.
 
I think you are missing something here.  Publishers need stuff to sell 
quickly just as much as bookstores do -- they can't afford to have their 
warehouse space or capital tied up any more than we do. In particular, I'd 
say they would want stuff to sell quickly and to sell *through* (i.e. not get 
returned to them by stores, especially the hardcovers).
 
And here's another new wrinkle that has cropped up -- a couple of the major 
used bookstores in town don't take mystery hardcovers in trade anymore.  
Zilch.  Nada.  So if the book is out of print, and you want the hardcover, 
you shop somewhere else or do without.
 
Why they don't take them, I don't know.  Do mystery fans buy fewer used 
hardcovers than other used book buyers?
 
 
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