For the past few years, I’d been buying books via my sister who worked in a bookstore. Her staff discount meant I never looked anywhere else for books. Now that she’s moved on to a full-time adult job and left the bookstore behind, I’m keeping an open mind to other purchasing options. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the words ‘Book Outlet’ lurked. On a whim, I decided to search Book Outlet for a few of the books on my wishlist.
I had great success and bought a few more books than the three had I planned to buy. The books ranged in price from $1.86 to $9.17. I bought ten books for $58! They can be sorted into three groups:
- Middle grade speculative fiction I read + loved (incidentally, 3/4 of these were 2017 Cybils finalists…)
- The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz and Hatem Aly
- The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis
- Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh
- A Properly Unhaunted Place by William Alexander
- Middle grade speculative fiction I haven’t read yet, but think I will enjoy + was a great price
- The Witch’s Boy by Kelly Barnhill
- Prisoner of Ice and Snow by Ruth Lauren
- Goldeline by Jimmy Cajoleas
- Inklings-related
- The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Phillip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
- Tolkien Trivia by William C. Mackay
This single order will probably count for half the books I purchase this year. Admittedly, I am uncertain how purchasing bargain books affects authors/publishers. Am I hurting the industry if I keep purchasing from Book Outlet? I’m fuzzy on how it works behind the scenes. Can anybody fill me in?
Have you ever ordered from Book Outlet? Do you have a go to bookstore for bargain books?
Book outlet sells bargain books which are books that are seen to be imperfect and thus can not be sold in retail. These damages are often small and almost unnoticeable. Tears and dents are very rare.
So don’t worry, you are not hurting authors by purchasing bargain books as the books would not have been sold at all otherwise.