Of course that's a problem the publishers have too. They are betting that one author will sell while another one, which is why (in general) they like a stable of the tried and true rather than investing in untested new people. We had this dandy idea at the library (I don't get the blame for this one). We were going to hold a nutrition class which was going to be taught by someone supposedly famous in her field. Our director, who is a nitwit about money, bought a large number of this author's books under the theory that we could sell them to attendees of the lecture (who would get an autographed copy) and then the library would keep the profits. I bet you're ahead of me where this is going. Three people showed up for the lecture. No one bought a book. The author would not buy back the books (no fool she). It was a disaster. We ended up distributing the book to our branches and giving them away (yes, for free) to our Friends to sell at their booksales. They sold the books for 50 cents each and gave the proceeds back to us in the form of a donation.