Behind-the-Scenes Math of Self-Publishing & Returns

I've read a lot of discourse lately about people returning books after they've read them, or after they'd read some portion and didn't like it, or without reading them at all, just changing their mind.

One common sentiment keeps creeping into these conversations that made me realize a lot of people don't know the 'math' behind books: the idea that Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or any given bookseller can certainly afford to eat the cost of a few returns.

That's super not how this works, so if you're curious, this is what sales and returns actually look like on the backside.

My paperback sells to readers for $18.99. If you preordered it from Barnes & Noble, I'd receive $1.73 after printing & distribution costs and the retailers' cut. Yay!

But let's say it shipped to somebody who'd drunkenly hit a preorder button and did not, in fact, want to ready a slow-burn, queer, polyam romantasy, so they shipped it right back for a return.

Barnes & Noble sends it back to IngramSpark, my printer, and IS refunds them what they paid: $10.44. Then Ingram takes that entire amount from me. So, instead of being +$1.73 I'd be -$10.44. Six other people have to buy my book to get me out of the hole the return dug.

You might think the book could just be resold elsewhere to make the money back. Unfortunately, IngramSpark will not resell that book. They'll either destroy it for free or ship it to me for a cost of $3.00 per book, and I can attempt to sell it myself directly.

As of now, thank goodness, I haven't had to deal with this problem, but you can see why returns have authors gritting their teeth and pulling their hair. It's just the way indie publishing works!