The books have come back

The question mark over what has happened to those missing books seems at last to have been solved, as yesterday I had a very nasty surprise visit from DHL. To say that I am disappointed and thoroughly hacked off is an under statement - not nearly as much I suspect as Richard, since it turns out that the return was not even authorised. He has no idea then how or why this has happened. I wish to God now that I had refused to accept the delivery, but I could not get him on the phone, and so had to make a snap decision, based on the little information that I had. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

As readers of this blog though will know, I had a really good Christmas, when book stores were ordering left right and centre - so they told me! It seems now that a lot of them didn't and so everyone overestimated the demand. This is seems, is the result then of my six months of hard work and slog and quite frankly, it is NOT why I spent 5, in fact 7 years and my parents life savings doing this.

This has been dragging on since the middle of January now, as Gardners originally threatened halfway through that month, to send 120 books back. I was in anger mode though, and having none of it, and so spent the whole weekend on the phone ringing book shops. By the end of January I had managed to get the number in stock down to a level less than they were wanting to send back. Richard then rang his contact at Gardners, who confirmed that they would not now be sending them back, and so he did not sign the paperwork.

What with 2 weeks off work in February and a change in hours which meant that I only had one day in the week, plus an hour or so on Saturday mornings if I could get up in time (no lie ins for me at the weekends then) in which to make calls, I did not manage to get that many orders at all during February. It was also partly I admit, because I was just so tired of the whole thing and the continual uphill struggle that I had already begun to lose heart and just did not want to do it anymore. I suppose in a way then I have only myself to blame - not that that makes me feel any better.

Last week when I went to the Gardners website I noticed the number in stock had dropped from 112 to 41, and so fearing the worst, I telephoned Richard to see what he knew. He assured me that the books must have been sold, as he had definitely NOT, officially at least, authorised any returns, and he had also received personal reassurance from his account manager that they would not be returning them. We both imagined that at long last I had a large order from a chain store.

Imagine my shock and surprise then yesterday to answer the door to a DHL driver bearing 2 boxes of books. To say that we are both angry and totally disillusioned is putting it mildly. It makes me wonder what I did this whole thing for and whether it is seriously worth the effort, when all you seem to get is problems, and all you end up doing is being out of pocket and making money for other people. When a book shop who orders through this wholesaler, as most do, sells one of my books, they earn £6 a copy, the wholesaler, who demands a 57.5 percent discount, and sale and return (at any time within one year of the books being sold to them) earns £2.65, and all I get is £1.39, and they wonder why I had to go back to work and why I can only ring book stores one day a week! They are seriously taking the piss and it makes me so angry.

This time though there is absolutely nothing I can do except grit my teeth and get on with it. The worst thing is that as soon as wholesaler needs more stock, which will probably be quite soon, I will have to pay to send the things back again! Life just isn't fair when those who work the hardest (I estimate that between this and my other job I work at least 70 hours a week) seem to get the littlest reward. How can it be right that those who sell the books earn more than those who write them?

I don't think that anyone who has not been in this position can truly understand the sense of frustration, or the desolation I felt when I saw those boxes, to feel that I had let everyone down - including myself. Certain people took enormous personal risk to help me get this book out there, and because of this have ended up as frustrated and out of pocket as I will be. There is though absolutely nothing I can do, except grit my teeth, roll my sleeves and get on with business as usual. So, does anyone want to buy a book ? !

The mystery deepens

The mystery deepens regarding where these 'missing' 70 books have gone to - the figure is actually 69 rather than 70. Coran and I went into town for some shopping today, and as we were passing I went into their High Street branch to offer to sign the copies they had in stock. I asked the book seller that I spoke to if there was any way of checking the system to see if the books in question had gone to Waterstones, and he said there was no indication of an order that size, so the plot thickens.

Coran thinks I should just be happy that this has happened and not worry about where they have gone, but I am curious and can't help but be dying to know! I think most people in my position would feel the same, especially after the emotional roller coaster of the last few weeks. If it has indeed become core stock then apart from anything else, I want to write some press releases and announce this, not just on my own website and preferably Richard's, but on every writing and PR website and magazine that is willing to write about me - and I suspect there would be a few of them. After all, it is not every day that a print on demand book is taken on those terms.

With steady sales now beginning to mount up over the last few months (not sure about January, but 3o in December and 23 in the last 30 days), it is getting to the point where the book will be beginning to be noticed by the buying team at Waterstones anyway, and if I can keep this up (and I see no reason why I shouldn't), then it is really only a matter of time before it does make one of the lower tiers of core stock anyway.

I have just spoken though to Paul Rix, who does publicity on behalf of some of Richard's authors, and he seems to think that they may in fact have gone to Borders, since it seems that he spoke to them again about my book just recently. Looking at those figures again and bearing in mind the number of stores that they have, it may be feasible that a couple have been sent out to each of them as core stock I suppose. Paul has promised to do some digging around on Monday anyway, and said he will give me a call on Monday after I am home from work. I await the results with baited breath and fingers crossed.

In the meantime, a report on The Bookseller website states that there are record numbers of independent book sellers and small publishers starting up in business - up 6 percent in the last three years. Membership of the Independent Publishers Guild is at an all time high, with 515 members up from 400 three years ago.

The number of small publishers registering with Nielsen, who allocate ISBN's has also gone up considerably on 2006. 2900 members applied for publisher ISBN prefixes in 2007, compared to 2800 in 2006 and 2740 in 2005. The majority of these the article states are one man bands, purchasing the minimum batch of 10 ISBN's but registering just one book - this leads me to conclude that the majority of these are in fact self publishers.

Simon Petherick, publisher at Beautiful Books, said he had seen a levelling of the playing field since he started his company in 2006. "The most difficult thing for independents is to get your books front-of-store along with the bigger players. But if you have a marketing plan, make an effort and are prepared to play by [retailers'] rules, they are receptive to you. It's a good time to be an independent." I think I would concur with that.

Tom Chalmers, m.d. at Legend Press also makes the point that customers are increasingly looking to the independents for something different, and that because of their smaller size, they can work that much more quickly thereby responding to trends, and taking chances that the larger conglomerates just cannot do. There has never then been a better time to become an independent publisher or book seller.

Now it seems the books have been sold ...

With all sorts of scenarios running through my head, and yet more tears, after I had calmed down I checked my emails and found a reply from Richard which reads as follows, together with my original message to him that I sent last night:

"If they have I will be just a tad annoyed - I have never signed their release form, they never phoned me back and as far as remember they don't have your address! And we have not had any notification of such, or any discussion on what the reduced return might be! So officially they have sold them as far as I'm concerned! Hopefully...??

Richard

----- Original Message -----
From: theeditor@juneaustin.co.uk
To: Richard Fitt
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 10:29 PM
Subject: re Gardners returning books
Have not been able to do much ringing these past few weeks as I had a weeks holiday earlier this month, but the numbers in stock seem to continue dropping anyway. It was 112 when I got back last weekend, but I noticed tonight that it has dropped somewhat worryingly to 41. I doubt whether book stores have ordered that many in the last week, so have Gardners finally sent some back to me I wonder? Have they been in touch at all to confirm this with you and can I expect a parcel in the next day or so? I sincerely hope not, as I have enough to worry about at the moment without this - you and me both I expect though!

I have tomorrow off so will try and give you a call.

Regards
June"

Having spoken to him has though put my mind at rest, as it seems highly likely that the books have actually been sold. Richard explained to me that Gardners have certain policies that they have to adhere to when sending books back - first they need to obtain authorisation from the publisher in question. A request is usually sent by email, and followed up by a form that is sent in the post for the publisher to sign. Richard though never signed this form and sent it back, and so officially the return has not been authorised - only 'in principal' which is of course not the same thing.

He did offer to ring his contact at Gardners, to find out what has happened, but thinks in the circumstances that it is best to let sleeping dogs lie, and although a part of me would very much like to know what has happened to these 70 odd books, I think he is right, that getting in touch might be tempting fate and cause ripples that would be ill advised.

There are several things that may have happened here - Waterstones may have finally decided to take the book as core stock and have sent it out so various stores, none of which are yet showing on their website. Borders may have done the same, or maybe I just got very lucky. Whatever it is though it seems more likely than not that these books have been sold, and until I hear otherwise I can only assume that this is the case.

It may be worth be getting in touch with Justin Hutchinson I suppose, the Waterstones independent author advisor to see if he knows anything, but in a way it is quite exciting not to know - it would be nice though to write some grand press releases detailing the exciting news!

I am not then about to give up quite yet, but have somehow or other managed to find some more fight. For the moment though I have the village newsletter to complete, an exercise bike to go and take things out on, and then this afternoon, some book shops to ring. I wish I knew what to make of all of this, and could understand more about the dynamics at play here, but I guess if I knew how the universe worked, I would be ascended, and I am a long way from achieving that, so I can but hope and pray for the best.

I have nothing left to give and am on the brink of giving up

Having got back from a week on beautiful Lundy almost a week ago (one week today in fact), it seems that all hell has broken loose since. If there really is no rest for wicked, then goodness knows what I have done. Coran and I often joke that we deserve each other, but I really do not think that anyone deserves the things that seem to be happening to me right now.

When I got back home last weekend, there was an energy alert from Karen Bishop waiting for me which explained a few things. Karen runs an excellent website called What's up on Planet Earth, which you can subscribe to, and which gives channelled messages about the energy changes that are taking place within mankind and the planet as we move towards 2012.

I had to laugh when I read the first two paragraphs which read:

"Where in the heck is all that abundance, those big waves of light, joy, peace, and everything else that is supposed to have arrived in 2008, the year of New Beginnings? Are you perhaps wondering… “New beginnings…hah! What has happened now? Are things ever going to change? When is my ship going to come in? I’m sorry I ever dared to hope that the tide would ever turn! Every time I get my hopes up, they seem to get dashed by yet more unpleasantness and disappointments!”

“I absolutely have no more left to give. My gas tank is empty, my battery is dead, and I am overdone waiting to receive. I can no longer serve, care, or even wade through masses of red tape, processes, or hoops to jump through in order to get anywhere! I need help! I can’t do this on my own anymore! I am wiped out, burnt out and exhausted, and now I am even getting cynical, angry, frustrated, impatient, edgy, grumpy, and even a bit depressed…even to the point where I have become darn right apathetic. I cannot go on like this for one more day! I have been stretched to the limit, and there is nothing more left that can stretch…this is just too much, especially after all I endured in 2007. I want to go home now…”

Boy do I know how this feels! It describes the year I have had (and the depressing bit is that we are only two months in) to a tee. Karen goes on to say that thankfully I am not alone, and loads of other light workers feel exactly the same. The energies keep building up and building up, like a pressure cooker, which results in lots of anger and frustration that things are not going the way that we feel they should be - life just seems too much of a struggle all the time. This is because the clearing that is needed is not yet complete (how much more can there be!), BUT the good news is that it will not be long, and our time will most definitely come by the end of the year!

For this to happen, we need to absolutely crystal clear about what it is we really and truly want - from the deepest parts of our souls and from our heart of hearts, because we will most assuredly receive it! This is not necessarily though what we “think” is possible, but what it is that we really and truly want… or to use new age jargon perhaps, what is most in alignment with our true and authentic selves. Well it doesn't take a genius for me to know what I truly and deeply want from my life - to make a full time living as a writer and be financially independent enough not to have to work for others for the rest of my life. Also though to have the means to continue going to Lundy two to three times a year, to be healthy and strong, debt free, to have Coran by my side, and to have enough to live on when I finally am old enough to retire - not a lot to ask for then!

Until then though I can wait and hope, and try and have positive thoughts.

It is though incredible difficult when I find myself in the situation that I am in. I very much enjoy my work, but there is still this continual conflict and worry at the back of my mind that I need to be out there selling books and spending time investing in my writing business and future. It is just not humanly possible to do this when the odds are stacked so heavily against you, and I am heartily fed up of continually pumping time and money into this project, when all that seems to happen is that I end up making yet more money for other people. I still do not think that it is right or ethical that the wholesaler who stocks my books and sends them out to book stores etc when they order them, makes almost twice per copy than what I do. It breaks my heart to think of this, and after what I discovered last night I really am at the very brink of giving up this whole thing.

When I got back from Lundy on Saturday, Gardners had 112 books in stock. I have not had the time to look all week as I have busy putting together the March edition of village newsletter, but when I went to their site last night, and typed in my ISBN, the figure had gone down from 112 to 41. As far as I am aware, no one has ordered in bulk during the past few days (I am sure that I would know about it were this the case), so it seems that the worst has finally happened, and they have sent some back.

I am absolutely fuming and destroyed by this decision, as I had been led to believe that I had won a reprieve and the books (not to mention my credit card) had been saved, quite apart from the fact that they were supposed to notify Richard if and when they did this, so that we could make sure that someone was in to receive these books. Well I am damned if I am going to take a day off work in order to wait in to pay for their mistake. It just makes me so angry to feel effectively used in this way, in the most horrible way I can imagine right now. Last night I felt like I had sunk into the deepest pit of despair. When the implications of this hit, I think I fell asleep crying and have been tossing and turning all night trying to figure a way out of this mess. This time though there isn't one - all the phone calls to book shops in the world will not save me, for it has already happened and I just have to accept the situation and deal with this.

Right now though I feel as if I can fight no more - as I simply have nothing left to give. I suppose I will give Richard a call after 9am though to see what he can find out.

Has my work born fruit?

With regard to Gardners though it seems that I may have won a reprieve, following all the hard work that I have put in these past few months to shift more of those books. I sent a copy of the link for that ridiculous article re Cheeta the chimp to Richard with a note, wondering what was going on, as I had heard no more about the books that were supposedly being sent back.

When I got in from work tonight though there was a reply that said the following:

"Have tried to speak to my contact this am - he's on holiday, back Monday!! His deputy looked at the figures, "Oh yes we've sold 39 this month, I think we will probably cancel the returns as it looks like we will shift those pretty quickly, but I'll get your contact to speak to you next week. We certainly won't be send 120 back!"

Panic (at least temporarily) abated - result!! Your hard work paid off!!

Richard"

We can it seems then breath a huge sigh of relief and get back to work! As it stands tonight the number in stock has dropped again to 121 - so at least one more then has gone through the tills this week, as single orders like this are always from a store replenishing the one copy that they have sold! Long may this continue.

Has my work born fruit?

It seems that all my running around over the weekend in order to drum up book orders may have paid dividends, since there has been no word from Gardners all week as to when I can expect delivery of my books. When I got home from work on Friday night they had 159 copies in stock, and as of tonight the number has dropped to 135. This means that should they still insist on shipping back the 120 copies as planned, it will leave them with just 15 copies in stock. This is the number at which they would normally be re-ordering, so I would not be a bit surprised to find that the shipment had been delayed while they figure out whether or not this is really such a good idea! I can but wait and see.

It has though all things considered, been one very strange week. It has very quiet at work following the Christmas rush, not that I am complaining too much. While it is nice to have the time to catch one's breath, the only bonus we are likely to earn this week is for the store that was the quietest. It is the same though across the board, with even superstores being quiet. In terms of money through the tills, some of them are doing far worse that we are. Our staffing problems do not help, although we have yet another new full timer starting on Monday. He has no retail experience, but that need not be a bad thing, as he will come into the job without preconceptions. Let's hope it will be a case then of third time lucky, and he lasts more than three days. He is a little older, so should in theory at least be more reliable.

Looking at The Bookseller website today though, it seems that the HMV group, who of course own Waterstones, are one of the few retailers to have had a good Christmas at all. It must be due to all those copies of my book that have been flying off the shelves! Like for like sales in the five weeks prior to January 5th were apparently up by 4 percent with an actual growth rate of 0.5 percent. Not bad at all considering.

The same news page details a story about a new Apprentice style TV show for crime writers, whereby six celebrities are mentored by crime writer Minette Walters. The series, which will be broadcast as a series of five 45 minute episodes will pit six celebrities, named as Brendan Cole, Sherrie Hewson, Angela Griffin, Kelvin MacKenzie, Matt Allwright and Diarmuid Gavin against each other.

Walters will set them a series of challenges designed to inspire daily writing tasks. These will include dog tracking, resisting a violent attack, an autopsy (rather them than me), crime scene investigation, interrogation techniques and rapid pursuit of a suspect. Walters will then judge the celebrities' writing efforts and eliminate one candidate per day.

The winner will predictably turn their plot and central characters into a novel, to be published with Pan as a Quick Read on WBD 2009, in conjunction with the BBC's adult literacy campaign RaW. This together with the fact that the proceeds will go to Children in Need, is about the only saving grace that this idea has.

While I would support any endeavour that helps raise funds for charity, especially for children and the literacy campaign, why did they have to choose celebrities as the contestants? There are thousands of talented writers out there who are begging for a chance like this and will never get that lucky break, because unlike these so-called celebrities, they are just not well known enough and their writing is deemed to be insufficiently commercial. High sales is not though necessarily indicative of great literary merit. This can be attested to when you look at the film and art work in general, as well as publishing. The best films are very often those made by the low budget production companies, yet because these do not take the big money and have low marketing budgets, like print on demand and other self published books, they disappear without a trace.

It seems to me then that the only crime that is being committed here is the fact that they have chosen celebrities for this role. Mind you, having said this, I cannot realistically imagine that a struggling would be writer would be happy to hand over the entire proceeds of their book to charity, no matter how worthy the cause, not unless it was the struggling writers benevolent fund anyway ....

Damage Limitation

Now that I know the books are definitely coming back, it is beginning to hit me just what this means and how much work I am going to have to put in on my days off to turn this thing around. Ringing chain stores and getting them to order via the wholesaler and negotiating discount with independents are two totally different kettles of fish, and am I really prepared and ready to be doing this? It seems that I have not been given a choice. I wonder sometimes then whether I did the right thing in going down the POD route after all, and whether I should have just gone for short print run.

It seems that I will be forced to do all that a short print run publisher does anyway - negotiating terms, invoicing and sending the books out, so perhaps I should have just done this in the beginning. I know though that this was not an option, as there is a world of difference between storing 120 books and 3000 of the things! I just hope that I am up to the challenge of this, as the reality of actually doing it is not the same as just talking about it. I suspect it will be an even bigger learning curve that the one I have already been through.

I was hoping to exercise some damage control with my efforts this morning and over the weekend, but sadly it seems that Gardners are determined to send back the full 120 regardless of the orders now beginning to come back in. The number in stock has dropped over the weekend from 159 to 155, and today will drop even more, since this morning I have secured orders from another 5 shops - Waterstones in Weston super Mare, Warrington and Tunbridge Wells, as well as Borders in Wimbledon and Same Day Books in Worthing.

It seems that this is actually the second order from Same Day Books, since having spoken to their Buyer, they actually ordered 5 late last year, 3 of which have sold. He has though agreed t0 order 3 more, which he was processing as I spoke to him, and so next time I go to Gardners website I expect the number in stock will have dropped accordingly.

The good news is though that Gardners are not going to charge me for freight, I am not sure why, since this does seem unusual, but I am not going to argue with that and neither is Richard. They will send them back as soon as he gives them my address, which is probably round about now, so I await their arrival later this week. I bet you anything you like though that by the end of the month I am sending some back again!

Good can come from bad

I am still trying to be positive about what has happened, and am pleased to report that I woke up this morning minus the sick feeling in my stomach that accompanied yesterday. It is strange how nervous I seemed to be at the prospect of ringing book stores again after a month long hiatus, but it is like riding a bike really - you just get straight back on again. Securing orders from the first two stores that I got through to certainly helped.

Today was not as successful however - largely because book stores open that much later and there are always other things that need doing - like my weekly trip to the gym. I did manage to get through to Waterstones in Truro, and was promised a call back. It did not materialise but undeterred, I shall try again tomorrow. I do not give up that easily.

I have been doing the sums today though and have tentatively worked out what I can and cannot afford to offer in terms of discount. I won't publish the full details here, as it is subject to confirmation of shipping costs, which still have to be taken into account, but it looks very much as if I will be able to equal what Gardners offer (40 percent discount), or maybe even more as a sweetener for firm sale. Some stores would at least be willing to discuss this I feel, especially given that I am now beginning to chalk up quite a healthy sales history - for a book of this nature that lacks professional sales representation anyway.

I will not start to do deals like this until the books are actually back in my possession, but for the moment at least, I have compiled a list of over 30 stores that I plan to ring tomorrow. Most of these are Waterstones that I did not manage to get through to prior to Christmas (some of whom I wrote to a month ago or more), but also some independents, and at least two branches of Same Day Books. I also plan to ring the national newspapers that I sent review copies to at the end of October and have not got round to ringing back, to see what if any progress they are making and whether or not they are likely to be printing reviews. I shall keep a sharp eye on my inbox to see if I receive an email back from the Manager of Staines.

Sometime in between all of this I need to post some letters to three branches that I spoke to yesterday and also enter The Self Publishing Awards competition hosted by the David St John Thomas Charitable Trust. There are substantial prizes up for grabs and I should stand a very good chance in the non fiction category. The entry fee is only £5 per category and they need 2 copies of your book - I have them in stock so can afford to do this, knowing that I will soon have box loads of them to sell! I won't have to order any more for a while then!

I was pleasantly surprised by the Manager of my local Waterstones I have to say, as I found that contrary to my impression, she is actually very nice and approachable. I wandered in there yesterday lunchtime to see if I could persuade her to order some more. Sadly I did not succeed, since she still has stock, but she did agree (and I saw her do this) to place the copy she does have on a Waterstones recommends stand by the front door with a hand written review. I said that she could use one of the ones which is printed inside the book, or otherwise look on amazon.co.uk. That way the book that she does have has a better chance of selling much more quickly, and once it does, then she is more than willing to re-order now she knows who I am.

I also had the idea to try and get the local newspaper involved by letting them write a piece about me perhaps and run a competition where the first person to write in wins a free copy and everyone else gets to order from me at discount. Hopefully they will be interested in this when I explain. I can walk up there perhaps one lunchtime as they are only a 5 minute walk from where I work.

At the moment then I have all these ideas floating around in my head and can see that in some ways this is helping me to approach marketing in a new and exciting way - interesting how what seems an awful situation can be turned round with the right attitude, to ones advantage.

When the going gets tough the tough get going

Having thought about the Gardners debacle overnight, I am determined to see this not as a problem, but rather, as a challenge to be overcome. They say that when the going gets tough the tough get going, and I have always been tougher than most, so I plan to get going as of today and turn this thing around to my advantage, so that I triumph over this stupid and biased system that puts both authors and publishers firmly at the bottom of the pecking order.

Normally I have to buy my own books at print cost plus 25 percent, meaning that there is no scope for offering much discount at all to independents. I have not then bothered to contact many of them, since they are not likely to buy from me on such terms. Perhaps now though they will. It will also make the cost of sending review copies a lot lighter. I may also be able to cut the cost that I sell them at from my own website and even undercut Amazon's price.

The timing is not brilliant (is it ever), and it will mean an awful lot of hard work (since when has that changed) over the next few months to pull this off, but i am confident that if anyone can do it then I can. There are ways and means and if I have to I will ring shops in my lunch hour and during late night trading and at weekends. I spent an hour ringing round this morning in fact and managed to get orders from another three Waterstones in Yeovil, Worthing and Worcester Shambles.

I also spoke to Waterstones in Staines, where I did a book signing in October. I was hoping their Manager may be able to give me some information on how well the book is doing, and I was delighted to told that they have sold 5 copies there, and 66 company wide. Last time I asked at the end of November, the figure was 36, so this means that I have sold 30 books through their shops in December alone - one for every day of that month.

I remembered Simon Key's (Big Green Bookshop) comments regarding core stock that he left on this blog site some time ago and this got me to thinking. So I emailed Staines back after I had finished ringing round and have asked her if she would be prepared to recommend the book to the core stock team at Waterstones Head Office. It will then be stocked by default in a certain proportion of all their stores (i.e it will be automatically replenished).

I know I will not change Gardners mind, and I am in no position to negotiate anyway, since the account is held in Richard's name and not mine, but this may help to reduce the number of copies I have to take back and is certain to make them think at the very least. The most annoying thing is though that once the orders do start to come back in, Gardners will pretty quickly once again go out of stock, and I will then have to send the same books back to them - at my expense! This is the thing that stings most of all - mind you, I do take some small satisfaction is knowing that they will also lose the £2.64 per copy that they would have got had they decided to keep my books.

Having now spoken to Richard, he has said that when Gardners do re-order, which they will do much sooner than later, rather than getting more stock from Lightning Source, he will simply copy the order over to me. Richard is going to get back to me on Monday then with some idea as to cost of shipping the books back to me. I will then be in a better position to decide whether to drive down to Eastbourne myself and pick them up or just get Gardners to ship them back. I suspect it may be cheaper to go to Eastbourne myself, and it may also be quite interesting, as I will have the opportunity to have a look around their warehouse and sign the remaining copies that they will keep as stock.

I have no idea though why this has happened - and Richard is as perplexed as I am. He has been dealing with Gardners for over 10 years and assures me that this is the first time that they have done anything like this. I can only surmise that like everyone else too, they have their own problems are are just cutting back on what they believe to be dead stock. This time though they have made the wrong decision, as my books are not dead, but only just beginning.

Gardners are sending back 120 books

When I got in from work an hour and half ago, I checked my emails, as I usually do and was dismayed to find the following message from Richard, the boss at Authors OnLine Ltd.

"Happy New Year - However, sorry to spoil the party but our pushing Gardners to keep ordering stock has come home to roost. It would appear that many of your Waterstones stores never in fact ordered, despite what they told you.

Gardners have done a post Christmas stock take and have 159 copies left in stock and are clearing down. They are therefore cutting back to a stock level which means that they are returning 120 copies. They will continue to order and hold stock from the reduced level. As they have just told me, unfortunately they are not a warehouse. and I'm afraid nor are we.

The options therefore are:
1) We get Gardners to pulp them at no cost to us. But we will of course be deducing all expenses for printing and shipping from any profits before calculating any royalties.
2) They return them direct to you, and you pay us the print cost + say 10% - there is a cost for shipping as well (unless you want to collect them from Eastbourne) and then you can re-supply out of that stock as they need them. You benefit in that you get a better deal when they are sold or you can sell them direct to outlets and individuals yourself making a higher than normal margin.

Sorry but that's the way sale or return works and why we try to avoid it like the plague.

Need a rely in the next 24 hours or option number one will automatically apply.

Kind regards

Richard"

To say that was not pleased by this was an understatement of the grandest proportions. Having worked out the sums, to buy them back at print cost plus 10 percent is going to cost me £535 and that doesn't include the cost of shipping or petrol either, not to mention my time. I am loathe to allow them to be pulped, since they will have to paid for regardless, and that is not why I chose print on demand. On the other hand as Richard says, I may be able to supply some independents direct, as by buying the books at effectively print cost it will give much more leeway to offer them a greater discount. I know at least 2 shops that will definitely take some, and hopefully others on the list that my friend who runs that spiritual magazine will also oblige.

It is just that now I am back at work, working four days a week, I do not have the time to physically go to Eastbourne and get the things and then send them out to book stores, drawing up supply terms and conditions and send them out via the Post Office. The most annoying thing is that once I do get ringing again, which will hopefully be next week, I will start to get some more sales, and within another couple of weeks I will be forced to pay all over again to send them back to Gardners! How much this is likely to cost is anyone's guess - I don't have an account with a courier firm and I wouldn't have the first idea about opening one either or what the cost is likely to be of sending such things. Gardners would be ordering in bulk after all, at the rate of 30 maybe 50 books maximum, and that would be far too costly to send via the mail.

I don't see though that I have much choice than to buy them back and do it this way as I am really not prepared to let them be pulped. I am not going to pay for something after all that is going to be thrown away, it just does not make sense.

Richard tells me though that I am not the only one of his authors that they are doing this to - Gardners have stock of another of his books that has been gathering dust for a year now, after the author said he was going to do a big marketing campaign and then didn't.

I don't know what I have to do though in order to get this book really off the ground - it just seems that I am continually taking one step forwards and three back. Cygnus Books do not seem interested as they have not got back to me, none of the newspapers I have sent copies to seem interested in reviewing it either - I just wish I knew what was going on.

As it stands I am going to have to shell out all this money for someone else's mistake - I know they ordered more because Richard asked them to, but they ordered far too many, and not that long ago either. It is all because for the past month I have not been able to make calls to any stores a) because of Christmas and b) because of my new job. I just really despair sometimes about this industry is run, it just seems utter madness and so biased against everyone except wholesalers and chain stores. This is not what I published my book for to be treated in this way in such a cavalier fashion as if I just don't exist. After all, if people like me didn't write the books then these wholesalers and the like wouldn't have a business in the first place! Pity there isn't a Writers Guild in this country for self published authors, so we could go on strike and see how they like it here!