When heading into a bookstore, it can sometimes frustrate customers when they hope to find a book they want, only to be told it isn’t there. Yet they’ll turn around and see dozens of other books, some of which have multiple copies. Why are there so many of one title, yet none of what they want? This can become even more confusing when the title they want is by an author who is popular and already has multiple works. So what exactly is going on with the number of books a store has in stock?
A lot of a bookstore’s stock has to do with popularity. The more popular a book or series is, the more copies will be on the shelves. I often tell folks looking for something new, “See how many we have? That basically means it’s super popular right now.” During the height of the Maze Runner craze, our store’s system was programmed to have a minimum of 15 copies on hand at any given time. When that number fell below 15, it auto-ordered additional copies to get the number back up to the required amount. Smaller bookstores will have a different system, but typically you can expect to see more copies of something that is in high demand. It simply makes sense. If the bookstore doesn’t have product, it can’t make money. If everyone is asking for the same thing, the store will order a great deal more of it to keep up with the demand.
Eventually, though, this demand will fall off. It can occasionally be frustrating if the numbers in the system don’t change and the number of people buying the book has fallen dramatically. For example, the 15 copies we kept for The Maze Runner? We no longer needed that many and the book was now taking up valuable space for other books. A lower number would have been preferable by that time, such as 4 or 5. Smaller bookstores have it a little easier; if they aren’t held to a specific number, they can return what they don’t need in order to make space for titles that they need instead.
For a lot of popular authors with an extensive backlist such as Nora Roberts, we keep at least one copy on hand. Others, such as Robert Jordan, may have a finite number of books, but their continuing popularity means they stay on the shelves. But it can seem strange to some people as to why a popular author’s book isn’t available. Again, it comes down to demand. Let’s take a look at Sherrilyn Kenyon. Many of her books are available at any given moment right then and there at the store. She has a terrific amount of titles to choose from, but there may still be several that cannot be found immediately on the shelf. Born of Night was first published in 1996. Even though it has since had a few fresh releases (the more recent being 2009), it isn’t something carried at every store at all times. This can easily be due to how old the novel is—having been released in 1996 many people who read her work already have a copy. In fact, most people coming to the store looking for Sherrilyn Kenyon are hunting for her next book rather than the backlist. And those are the titles that will come in with multiple copies.
That isn’t to say just because a book isn’t on the shelf is because it’s too old and now you’re out of luck. Many times the book can be ordered and you’ll have a fresh new copy in your hands relatively quickly.
So what about other times when you’re out seeking books and none of them are there at all? Don’t fret – it just means the bookstore hasn’t had the demand for them in order to justify keeping them on the shelf. As long as they’re still in publication, you can order them. This is true for a lot of smaller stores as well. I can recall a lot of various books that people will come looking for but we no longer carry simply because the hype for them has faded, such as Jonathan Maberry’s Rot & Ruin series or Darran Shan’s Cirque du Freak series. Do people still come looking for them? Yes—but few and far between. A lot of booksellers that have been in the business for a long time will remember the books you seek and will often automatically know without even needed to check whether they’re on the shelves or not.
Can it be frustrating when the book you want isn’t available then and there? Absolutely. But there are reasons why. Customers can be dumbfounded to discover they’ve come to the store only to find out they won’t be walking out with the title they hoped for. Surely they can’t be the only person looking for this book! In fact, the truth is that you may very well be the one person looking to buy that book at that moment in time. Remember, if a bookstore finds that they’re getting a lot of requests for a book, it doesn’t matter if it’s old or new; they’re going to try and get it back in stock for everyone. Old books, once out of print, have returned to print due to sheer demand (The Wonky Donkey is a perfect example). Others that may have only one copy on the shelf at any given moment will explode in number due to things such as TV and film adaptations (looking at you, Good Omens and Pet Sematary).
So call the store first in case you’re worried about being disappointed, and if the book you want isn’t there, see if it can be ordered. And if you think you may know something the bookseller doesn’t (i.e. all of social media is talking about a particular title), do tell. Sometimes it’s from the word of others that we booksellers are able to get ahead of the rest and get our shelves stocked up for the next round of customers.
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