What happens to books/items that are damaged in transit?

I try to wrap my hardcovers in clear plastic and tape only the recipient's address on the clear plastic, then I overwrap with brown paper or white opaque plastic and add the mailing label with my return address. I always bring the packages to the post office counter for weight and postage and to be accepted into their system.

My hope is that if the outer wrapper is damaged and the destination address becomes missing or unreadable, the book will be forwarded with my inner address slip affixed to the correct destination post office probably with postage due? From then on there is the possibility both PBS sender/receiver can work out the RWAP situation.

Am I being naive thinking the item would be forwarded rather than placed in a dead-end damaged bin?

Bump--retitled and rewrote an empty post from January

Yes, Lynn that should get the package to its intended destination.  PO will put one of those stickers on it saying package was damaged in transit. I have never received one where I owed postage -- they assume proper postage was paid before package was damaged I think.
   I wrap just like you do with the little slip with the mailing address on it inside the clear plastic with the book-- started that about 4 years ago after getting some damaged packages. 

Thank you for the reassurance, Jeanne.