For as long as there have been bookstores and booksellers, the one word that authors, agents and publishers dread hearing most is... remainder.

For those not familiar with publishing argot, remaindering is when bookstore sales falter and books remain unsold and returned, so the publisher tries to cut his losses by offering the work at far below its original price – sometimes reducing it as much as 90-95%. Of course, selling way below cost means that everybody loses... except, of course, the lucky book buyer. Imagine picking up a work that originally carried a list price of, say, $49.95, for only $4.99.

Or 99 cents.

Or maybe even free!

Books become remaindered for a wide variety of reasons. Lousy or no reviews. Atrocious timing. Indifferent or ineffective publicity and promotion. Poor luck or bad karma. I recall a sad, cautionary tale, about a friend and former colleague of mine who once spent almost two years researching and writing a book about a notorious murderer and his trial of the decade. Only, she was aced out of a sure-fire bestseller slot when a far better known author’s book on the same subject was published two weeks earlier than hers. Not only was the planned paperback edition killed, the pending movie deal collapsed as another studio started production based upon the famous author’s work. Not surprisingly, her excellent work eventually ended up in the remainder bin.

Despite the authors’ and publishers’ collective misfortune and loss of revenue, I’ve always had a fondness for remaindered books. (That is, so long as none of my books ever end up in the remainder bin!) I’ve accumulated a large library of beautifully printed art and photography books, incredibly insightful biographies and histories, wonderful collections of poems and short stories, and well-written and thoroughly enjoyable novels on every subject from science fiction to crime thrillers. Of course, some of the remaindered books I’ve bought are out-and-out literary duds, but most proved their value in expanding my appreciation for words and ideas.

Since there are no returns in the eBook world (in traditional publishing, that’s the privilege booksellers have to return, within six months, and for full credit, any unsold works), then theoretically, there should be no remainders as well. Be that as it may, even eBook sales slow and even stop altogether, so Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other vendors end up with zero income from them. So, rather than achieve zero sales at $9.95 each, publishers would much rather move 100, 1,000 or maybe 100,000 copies (being eBooks, the number isn’t fixed) at a buck apiece.

In the past week, I’ve downloaded a bunch of remainder books, at prices from a buck apiece to free. Among the stuff stacked on my Kindle, iPad and Sony Reader are a political thriller – My King the President by Tom Lewis – a spy novel – Rules of Deception by Christopher Reich – a comic novella – Static of the Spheres by Eric Kraft – and a time travel novel – First Flight by Mary Robinette Kowal. I’ve even downloaded bestselling author Dan Brown’s Treason – for free, no less (not that I would ever pay a nickel for a Dan Brown novel). Whether or not it’s a remaindered work, or a loss leader that supposedly will excite your grey cells so much that you’ll plunk down actual money to read his other novels, I don’t know. But the price was right, and I won’t feel the slightest bit cheated or disappointed if I decide to abandon reading Treason in mid-sentence.

So far, almost all the remaindered eBooks I’ve seen are novels by first-timers and relatively unknowns. But it’s only a matter of time before those fabulous, award-winning, but poorly selling histories, biographies, political and social works, art books, cookbooks, and other works end up in the dollar-or-less eRemainder bin.