Assumptions and the Book Business

“Never assume the obvious is true.” -William Safire


At my age, it seems like I should know not to assume anything. Unfortunately, I have not been successful in breaking the habit. Coasting along on the high from the release of The Ride, I assumed that when one bookstore said my book could be ordered, that meant it was available everywhere. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

A friend informed me this week that she had tried to order my book from two different bookstores and they both told her it was not available. Those were not the words I expected to hear. My initial response was to panic.

I worked hard on writing the book. I waited patiently for the release. Okay, maybe not patiently, but I did wait a long time. Now I learn that it’s not available. I visualized having the shortest writing career in the history of humankind.

Immediately I contacted ArcheBooks and asked what in the world happened. Calmly, Robert Gelinas informed me it was no big deal; it was simply a time thing. I needed to give the book a four to six week leeway to be catalogued by the big distribution centers, including Ingram Books, Baker & Taylor, and Bertram’s. Apparently, they prefer to handle books from the big publishing houses first before getting around to others. Unfortunately, these big centers are where many booksellers order their books.

I tried to do internet research into how the distribution process works, but it seems to be a well-kept secret or I just didn’t know where to look. If any of you can explain how the system operates, I’d love to hear from you.

My apologies to those of you who went out and tried but were unable to buy The Ride, for giving you false information. However, I really appreciate you trying and I hope you won’t give up. It’s been almost a month now so it should be available everywhere soon. If you don’t want to wait for your local bookstore, you can buy it now from ArcheBooks, or Amazon.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, please read my interviews with Emma Larkins, and Yvonne Eve Walus. The two interviews are totally different so I hope you will visit both and feel free to leave comments.

Thanks for stopping by. See you next week.

Jane Kennedy Sutton
Author of The Ride
http://janesutton.com/
http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/

Tags: The Ride, Archebooks, Safire, Emma Larkins , Ingram, Yvonne Eve Walus, Baker & Taylor, Bertrams, distribution, Amazon