Ah, but the mroe copies you make, the mroe you sell, even if you don't seel them all.
suppose, as a very very simplistic model, there are three bookstores in the world, each of which has offered to stock 1 copy of the book. and suppose that there's a 1/3 chance at each store that the book will sell before they decide to "return" it.
so you print 3 copies, send one to each store, and sell 1 of them. ideally, you make enough to money to cover the cost of all 3 off the one sale.
sure, ti looks wasteful. but if you only printed 1 copy, you'd only be able to have 1 store stock it, and then you might well sell one at all.
Re: breaking down some line items
suppose, as a very very simplistic model, there are three bookstores in the world, each of which has offered to stock 1 copy of the book. and suppose that there's a 1/3 chance at each store that the book will sell before they decide to "return" it.
so you print 3 copies, send one to each store, and sell 1 of them. ideally, you make enough to money to cover the cost of all 3 off the one sale.
sure, ti looks wasteful. but if you only printed 1 copy, you'd only be able to have 1 store stock it, and then you might well sell one at all.