Your eyes scan the long table of books and suddenly... can it be? Surely not. But yes, it's that novel you've always meant to read. And a coffee-table book on Finnish pottery that's the perfect Christmas gift for your sister. There's even a thesaurus! You've struck gold at the remainder table.

But what separates a "whose idea was it to print 12,000 copies of this loser" from a great stop-customers-in-their-tracks remainder? Roger Pantano of Book Passage in Corte Madera, Calif., looks for titles that elicit an "I didn't know I wanted this book, but I do now" response from customers. And for "books I'd buy for myself. That's always a touchstone; would I want this book on my shelf? As for good fiction by bestselling authors, that's the Holy Grail."

Brian Delambre reveals the ideal mix for a remainder table at the Joseph-Beth stores (in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Pennsylvania): "20% are books that customers recognize immediately; the 'I can't believe I found John Adams!' factor. The other 80% are books we think customers would have found interesting if they'd ever seen them on store shelves." Marshall Smith of Key West Island Books believes it's "recognition, physical appeal, price and relevance to our customers' interests. Biographies always do well and good popular fiction if the price is right—you can't underestimate the power of pricing. But recently," relates Smith, "prices have gotten completely out of whack; I cringe when I have to put $8.98 on a novel."

Customers at the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt., have an affinity for fiction and novelty book remainders, says Liz Barnum. And "staff favorites like Ursula, Under [by Ingrid Hill] that sold well as new books are always exciting to find as remainders." Joe Mancino of Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, Calif., looks for books "with a good recent sales history that people are still buying new—when customers see them on the remainder table, they go nuts."

At Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis, the high-priced art, photography and cooking sections are regularly supplemented with remainder titles. "As a result," says Jay D. Peterson, "a good majority of our cookbook sales are from the remainder market." At CIROBE, Peterson is always in search of gift books for the holidays—"Last-minute shoppers are suckers for that foot-high stack of a half-price photography book!"

Old Books, New Lives

And just because a book never made it onto the national bestseller lists doesn't mean it can't find success in its new life as a remainder. The Kentucky Basketball Encyclopedia bounced back to sell 1,200 copies and become the all-time bestselling remainder for Joseph-Beth. The remainder star at Key West Island Books is Killing Mr. Watson, "one of the greatest novels of the 20th century," says Smith. "Peter Matthiessen is an author who works in remainder because customers know him but might not have bought him at full price because they think he's a bit highbrow."

According to long-time commission sales rep Richard Fisher, "Twenty years ago, a great remainder was a full-color coffee-table book. Today, it's a book that will not only offer value to customers but be consistent with what sells well in the rest of a store's inventory. Stores are, in a sense, buying frontlist books for less money."

Magers & Quinn's Peterson reports great success with books of local interest, particularly cookbooks by Lucia Watson and Lynne Rossetto Kasper. "But literary fiction is our bread and butter, and we've been fortunate to be able to buy stacks of titles by José Saramago, Jonathan Lethem, Louise Erdrich and Paul Auster." At Book Passage, it's "1,000 Places to See Before You Die and anything by David Sedaris," says Pantano. "We have to restock his books every day."

Chartwell Books' series of "chunky" books on subjects from muscle cars to lighthouses of North America are always top picks at Northshire. "And," says Barnum, "we were recently able to score copies of the British paperback edition of Philippa Gregory's new book, The Boleyn Inheritance, before the American edition was published—and did those sell quickly!" Remainder bestsellers at Bookshop Santa Cruz reflect the store's eclectic clientele and range from "the spirit to the flesh," says Mancino. "The Great Failure is a constant seller as is anything by the Dalai Lama. And we can't keep in stock The Guide to Getting It On! America's Coolest & Most Informative Book About Sex."

Bargain, Bargain, Who's Got the Bargain?

So what's the next great remainder chart-topper? Creating a remainder bestseller, believes Fisher, is no mystery. "If you have a knowledgeable buyer who chooses wisely and a staff that sells remainders in the same way they sell frontlist, a relatively small bookstore can sell substantial quantities of a title."

Which of today's titles are on buyers' remainder wish list? Einstein is Smith's pick. "It's recognizable, a popular subject without being 'pop,' and it's big, attractive and expensive." Eat, Pray, Love and Water for Elephants head the list for Pantano, and at Joseph-Beth, hopes run high for "store favorite" Water for Elephants as well as The Kite Runner and The Memory Keeper's Daughter. Mancino will be on the hunt for remainder stock of The Time Traveler's Wife and The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Barnum's hoping that Les Beletsky's Bird Songs might someday be available as a remainder. (The title was published by Chronicle last fall at $45.)

Peterson has his eye on "the thick, heavy political biographies and memoirs currently on the shelves. They may or may not be destined for the bargain section—I guess it just depends on which way the wind blows in the coming months. Not everything's as timeless as The Great Gatsby."