More Idiotic Managers - grrrr !!

It is unusual for me to post more than once a day on this blog site, but I just have to get this off my chest so here goes ! While the highs far outweigh the lows and I still stand by what I wrote this morning with regard to the advantages and disadvantages of POD, I am fed up with idiotic book store managers who do not understand how it works and just fob you off with a load of old rubbish - if they are not interested in my book and don't want to talk to authors direct then why the hell don't they a) go and get another job where they don't have to do that or b) develop an ultra thick skin and just learn to tell the aforementioned authors the truth ...

What they do instead is make up all kinds of stupid and unsubstantiated reasons as to why they will not order and string you along with words such as 'I will look it up on the Internet to find out more', 'or it sounds interesting, but I will pass it through to the relevant section manager so that they can decide'. Either way they are abdicating responsibility.

Hello - YOU are the manager, you can make a decision for yourself, and you are allowed to say no. I won't cry and curl up into a little ball and die just because of one rejection. I will though develop a violent headache from talking to idiots like you who won't say what they mean, and I will also run a huge phone bill in the process.

I don't understand why I get such variations in attitude though - almost 60 stores have ordered copies now, and they are starting to sell - this I know for a fact as the stores themselves have told me this. The book is also getting press coverage and some excellent reviews. The mere fact that it is a POD book available on sale or return should I think speak volumes by itself, as although there are others available on such terms, it is still very unusual, despite what certain others on websites who shall remain nameless try and tell you. This is what I mean when I say that self published authors have to work ten times harder - we have no one to help us other than ourselves and that means bloody hard work.

I made a list the other day of all the roles that I have to fulfil myself and stopped when I got to about 1o of them. These include editor, proof reader, indexer, website designer, telemarketer, accountant, publicist, advertising copywriter, secretary, agent, researcher and general dogsbody! I seem to spend much more of my time in the last role than any of the others put together.

Still, it is worth it all though when you do get the successes. It is just that writing is such a solitary occupation, and we do not tend to network that much among ourselves. Sure there are the discussion sites where you can let off steam, but they are mostly American based. It is not quite the same as going out for a cup of tea with friends, where you talk to each other face to face, swap ideas, bang heads and in the process have a good laugh. Perhaps I will advertise in the newsletter I edit for other authors around the area to contact me and form such a group. We could really help each other and have some great laughs along the way.

This time though is was yet another branch of Waterstones that was acting like an idiot. I won't name and shame the store involved (it was somewhere in Kent), as there is not a lot of point. Suffice to say that he too shall be receiving a call from the independent author advisor in due course to put him straight on certain things.

The gist of the conversation was though that he would not be ordering, as it was too difficult to send the books back. Nice, as straight away he was assuming that they wouldn't sell - yee of little faith. We don't have an agreement with Authors OnLine" I was told. You don't need one" I replied "the books are available as a stocked item from Gardners, you order through them in the usual way". "It is too difficult to send them back" he then said "and there is too much paperwork". I went on to say that I was very surprised to hear him say that, since the 300 odd other stores I have spoken to did not say that at all, but quite the opposite in fact!

I think this one though is a lost cause to be honest, as well, he wasn't a very honest man, but was basically just looking for an excuse to say no without actually saying no. Oh well, his stuff I suppose, and for him as always to deal with. Will make some more calls tomorrow then - including one to Justin at the Waterstones Head Office!

In the meantime, thank goodness for Coran's new drum - they really are an excellent way to work out your frustrations (along with rubber baseball bats and settees!).

Print on Demand - pros and cons

Following some interesting comments made by various members of the Writers News forum I have decided to make a list of pros and cons with regard to POD which will be added to my article Print on Demand - Is Vanity Fair?

Admittedly as a POD author I may be slightly biased in favour of it, but when I look at this list, there are definately more pros than cons. Read it though and judge for yourselves.

Negatives

POD stigma – this applies more to the US though than the UK, where things are rapidly changing.
Author has to cover costs.
Low discounts and lack of sale or return mean that book stores are less likely to stock.
No sales representation – author has to work hard at marketing their own books.
Relatively high print costs giving less scope for negotiation with discounts etc.
Time consuming.
POD cannot accommodate the sending of review copies six months ahead of publication – unless you delay your launch and use initial copies for these purposes.
The POD author cannot get access to their sales data – since they are not the publisher.
Huge learning curve and not for the faint hearted.
No guarantees that the book will sell.

Positives

Excellent way to test the market and prove those agents/publishers wrong who rejected your work.
No agent/publisher in their right mind would reject a successfully self published book - such an author is then able to negotiate better terms.
Minimise the risk by printing copies in short runs or as they are ordered.
Books are never out of print – provided you pay your annual fee.
POD books have a greater window of opportunity in which to be sold – commercially published books have at the most 6 months to a year.
Easy and inexpensive to change cover and/or text.
No books to store. Author does not have to deal with orders/fulfilment themselves since these are filtered through the wholesaler.
Speed of delivery – average commercially published takes 18 months to see print, with POD this is shortened to 3 months.
Higher royalties.
Greater creative control.
Eco friendly.
The author knows that any successes are entirely due tot their own efforts.
Wonderful way to make friends and influence people.
Learn lots of new transferable skills.

Watch and learn

I am really missing my beloved Lundy at the moment, and regretting that there do not appear to be any vacancies now until the New Year. Actually that is not strictly true, as I believe there is a week free towards the end of November, but it is the week that I need to leave free for putting the December/January edition of the village newsletter together. Such is life.

I just seem to be a bit ungrounded of late - too much computer work, as always. When Coran and I moved here just before Christmas, we thought we would be spending a lot more time outdoors walking around the locality, but both of our work seems to have taken off, plus my fear of dogs also plays a part. That is in fact the only thing that I do not enjoy about being up here - that and the dark winter nights, and that I will get used to again anyway once the clocks change.

October though looks like a busy month for me, I don't have a weekend free in fact until the 2nd week of November now. My astrology course is taking up 2 weekends - on the 6th (just gone) and 27th, then on 13th (this weekend) I have a trip to St Neots in Cambridgeshire for the Authors OnLine 10th anniversary do. I am thoroughly looking forward to this as it a chance to finally get to meet everyone and sneak a peek at Paul's famous little black book, which contains all his contacts. I hope I can manage to persuade him to give me the direct line to the buyers at Borders, since I keep getting is the answerphone and they never return my calls. I know they are busy people, but so am I, and if they would just talk to me, it would actually save both of us a hell of a lot of time.

On 20th October I have the long awaited book signing in Waterstones in Staines, and then Coran and I are off to Glastonbury for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of November. I had been intending to book a ticket for this years Questing Conference, but have probably left it a little late by now. The stalls are a lot cheaper this year, outside of London, but still a little out of my price league after last years disaster.

I think then what I shall do is try and tout the book around the areas book shops and possibly even try and organise a stint on Glastonbury Radio. I have emailed them this afternoon in fact to see what information they would need, since they feature authors on a lot of their shows, and have a regular book review slot each Thursday afternoon. It may be possible to do the show over the phone at home, without having to go to the studio at all. It would certainly be one way of persuading the town's book shops to stock my book - not to mention Waterstones in nearby Wells. Have not got round to ringing them yet.

In fact, I have not felt up to ringing any book shops at all today, which puts me slightly behind my schedule. There is always tomorrow though, and besides, Gardners are out of stock so have nothing to send out anyway.

Last week I had quite a few branches actually tell me that they preferred not to order through Gardners anyway, which I was a little puzzled by. Scarborough and Southampton Above Bar were two culprits, although they did eventually order a copy apiece. I got the feeling though that they would have ordered more had there been alternatives. Swansea on Friday though were very anti Gardners and insisted that it is not company policy to use them at all. This is not at all what the Gardners website says. When I pointed out to them that I have rung almost 300 stores now and they are the first ones to tell me, they said that those other stores were obviously not aware of company policy. I don't think so!

I then telephoned Justin Hutchinson, the independent author advisor at their Head Office, but I was told that he had gone home. Undeterred I emailed him instead and 5 minutes later had a reply to say that Swansea were wrong and I was right. He stated that 'Waterstones discourage stores from using Gardner's as a wholesaler but not as a supplier. As Gardner's are linked to you as a supplier this is where stock should be ordered from if a store wishes to do so. If you can let me know which stores have said this I'll get in touch with them." Hooray, what a gentleman ! Borders should watch and learn ....

Living your dream

I had to laugh just now when I checked my emails and found an update from Karen Bishops site, What's up on Planet Earth?

Karen says, towards the end of her article:

"If you have a new and exciting creation ready which is truly in alignment with your passion and who you are, and it is not seemingly going anywhere, there are some good reasons why. Firstly, it is not time yet. The planet is not ready in the falling away state it is currently in. Secondly, your creation must be in alignment with the new and higher ways. We will be blocked from releasing new creations if they are still in alignment with the old ways and structures for a few reasons. If we released them now, they would go down with what is falling. If you are being blocked for this reason, you are simply being protected, and need to tweak your creation so that is matches the new energies. In addition, it is difficult to be in the flow of anything, if we are not in alignment with the new energies. As mentioned above, being in alignment with the new energies greatly assists in making for an easy flow in our lives, which translates to effortless being. So then, some creations may be blocked as their arena is not yet ready. Things are still being re-structured (or falling away enough to make room for the new). And others may be holding old energies. So all in all, no matter what your creation, it is not time yet for any of us!"

This brought to mind what happened with my book last and earlier this year, that it did not seem to be doing as well as I hoped. I was doing talks to groups of anything up 30 people and not one person would buy a copy. I did a talk in Borders, Kingston and three people showed up. I had friends who run groups recommending the book to their students, yet they didn't go out and buy copies .... I could go on. I later of course discovered that the book had had a spell put on it, yet everything does happen for a reason and there was it seems a method in this madness.

Coran has long been saying to me that he thinks the reason for all this was because the book was not ready to be widely read and also, that I as an author, was not ready to be seen and heard. Now that we are in our new home, residing in energies that more closely match our own new vibration (and Karen also talks about this), we are more comfortable with a lot of things, including showing our true selves.

The book then was tweaked accoringly, just as Karen says, after we moved up here, by changing the cover and making changes to the text as well. This was absolutely the right thing to do, and the right time and place to do it in as well, since that same week that the new version was released I had not one but two wonderful reviews from both The Self Publishing and Nexus mgazines, and also the invitation from Phil Harris to appear on his radio show.

Since then, both the book and I have done from strength to strength. I seem to have really got my act together these past few months and everyone is commenting on how I have changed, The book is available in several libraries throughtout England (I have this week contacted the Scottish ones as well), and 56 book shops (that I am aware of- there may be more) throughout the UK. I have also discovered that I am quite adept at writing press releases and dealing with the media. People up here continually congratulate me on the changes I am making to the village newsletter, and I have even started a part time course in journalism. You could say then I have got the life I was always meant to have !

More books are on their way

With my book signing at Waterstones in Staines fast approaching, in 2 weeks time, I have had this awful feeling for a while now that something would go dreadfully wrong and the books would not arrive in time. When I spoke to Rebecca, who is organising the event on Wednesday, she assured me that everything was fine, that the flyers had been printed, the local papers contacted (she even gave me the reporters name) and she would be ordering the books today.

I logged on to Gardners website though yesterday though to find zero copies in stock. Normally I would be rejoicing at this, since it means that I have sold lots of copies and all those stores who told me they would order have done so ! This time though I got an awful sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and the mind went into overdrive with all sorts of scenarios ...

What if the books do not arrive in time and I turn up to find there aren't any ....
Should I bring some with me as fall back and if so, how many. If I do that it means I have to keep them in reserve and will not be able to send out any review copies for two weeks ... What percentage discount should I offer them ... Will they be able to buy direct from me .... Will I have to wait ages to get paid ....

Should I carry on ringing other book stores, as there may not be enough books to cover the ones that they want and Staines as well ....

Sometimes I just wish that my mind would shut up and keep quiet !

I rang Gaynor this morning though, who deals with book orders for Authors OnLine and knows what orders have been received and what haven't. She hadn't seen an order at all from Gardners for 2 weeks. 'Give me 5 minutes though' she said 'and I will ring Richard and see what he knows'.

Five minutes later the phone rang. 'You must have been psychic' she said 'I have just had an order come in for another 50 copies. It's a good job you rang when you did, or I may not have seen it until 4 o'clock and it wouldn't have got actioned until after the weekend'.

Phew - thank goodness for that !

Print on Demand - Is Vanity Fair?

For the past few days I have been busy writing an article on print on demand to go on one of the new sections of my website - The Write Stuff.

I have observed during my travels on the well trodden path that a lot of people both within and without the book trade seem to think that POD is vanity press. I find this most irritating and also very misleading to the general public. Mind you, there is a certain school of thought within the industry (thankfully shrinking fast) that resolutely refuses to believe that anything that is or has been self published is of any use to anyone outside the smallest room in the house. Mention highly successful spiritual but initially self published titles such as The Power of Now, The Celestine Prophecy and Conversations with God and their eyes just glaze over!

Oh well, you can never win some people, and I really should stop worrying about them anyway - the only ones that I should concern myself with are those lovely and slightly more forward thinking people who see past the rubbish that is frequently touted around re such books, and use their own eyes and brains and think for themselves. As I say at the end of my introduction - there are 2 types of people - shepherds and sheep. Which one then are you?

The aforementioned article anyway has now been added to my website and is entitled Print on Demand - Is Vanity Fair ? In this article I discuss in detail, both good and bad things about print on demand (problems with supply for example and the inability to send out advance review copies six months of time).

The best selling point actually I think though is the eco-friendliess, and this is something that in my humble opinion, POD printers and providers should make a lot more of. According to the October edition of Writing magazine, a recent poll showed that the majority of British book buyers would be more than happy to pay a little extra for what they considered to be an eco- friendly book, and the industry are considering setting up a kite mark scheme. POD books then it goes without saying would automatically qualify. After all, why fell an entire forest and pollute our waterways with ink and dyes to print books which later end up being pulped. Why not just print them to order in small batches as POD does? Sure a lot of these pulped books are recycled and some books may even be printed on recycled paper, but think for a moment about the chemicals that are needed to strip the ink from the paper and the water, electricity (from non renewable sources) that is needed for the recycling process. Surely it is better not to have printed these books in the first place !

I am looking forward to the Authors OnLine 10th anniversary celebration in St Neots on 13th October when one of the guests will be a representative from Lightning Source. I wonder what they will have to say on such matters ?

Having done some website updates then over the past few days, and rang a few more book shops, I have totted up the number of shops where my book is now stocked. I am proud to say that it has reached the magical number of 55. Here then is a full list of those who have told me they have ordered to date:

Borders - Brighton, Kingston-upon-Thames, Newbury, Uxbridge, Wimbledon, Whiteley's (Bayswater)

Waterstones - Aberystwyth, Andover, Aviemore, Barnstaple, Barnet, Basildon, Belfast, Blackpool, Bluewater, Bournemouth, Braehead, Brentwood, Brighton, Chesham, Covent Garden, Coventry (Lower Precinct), Derby, Dorchester, Dorking, East Grinstead, Epsom (High Street), Exeter (Roman Gate), Folkestone (Sandgate Road), Godalming, Horsham, Ilford, Inverness (Eastgate), Kensington, Kingston-upon-Thames (Bentalls Centre), Leadenhall (London), Liverpool, Llandudno, Lowestoft, Manchester (Trafford Centre) Market Harborough, Oban, Piccadilly Circus (London), Putney, Reading (Oracle), Redhill, Romford, St Neots, Scarbrough, Southampton (Above Bar), Southampton (West Quay), Slough, Staines, Stirling.

Independents - Chalice Well Bookshop, Glastonbury

That then I think is a cause to celebrate !

Espresso Machine gives POD authors a break

Print on demand (POD) certainly seems to be making waves and inroads at the moment throughout the industry with talk of Espresso machines and even Random House embracing the technology. A quick look at their website first thing this morning revealed that they have 'introduced' a 'new' technology called print on demand, which enables them to promote what they refer to as 'lost classics' without the need to keep physical copies in stock. Their website goes on to say that 'Digital printing technology now means that we are able to print and deliver books within a week of a customer placing an order. Until now, if you were interested in these out of print titles, you would need to hunt them down in secondhand bookshops. But now you can have a brand new paperback printed when you want it'. Titles available include the works of Barbara Thiering and Robert Gurman, so I suppose it can't all be bad.

Large companies like this nevertheless do seem to have a somewhat selective memory, as when it comes to POD authors such as myself and others that I know submitting their work for consideration we are told that this is not a valid form of publishing, yet it seems okay for them to do it. Don't do as I do, do as I say. Oh well, such is life.

Maybe the tide though is finally turning and we will begin to see a change of heart with regard to this technology. It certainly seems to be being talked about all over the publishing press at the moment. Michael Hyatt, president and chief executive officer of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the largest Christian publishing company in the world and the sixth largest trade book publishing company in the US was talking about it just recently on his blog site, which is linked to The Bookseller. I made a few comments of my own, which you will see if you click the link.

It seems that Lightning Source, the major POD printer, who are of course based in Nashville with UK operations in Milton Keynes, have been rolling out what are referred to as Espresso machines, the first of which is sited in New York's Grand Central Library, with others across the US in various Barnes and Nobles stores. This is nothing to do with coffee, as they are actually giant printing machines. Allow me to explain.

At the moment, when you go into a book store or library and the book you find is not on the shelves, you have two options - you can either order a copy or go elsewhere. Now though, with these gigantic and no doubt noisy machines, you will be able to go into the library or book store and have one printed for you in an hour or so while you sit and have a coffee (or tea if you are English of course). What a revelation then this will be, and the even better news is that it it set to come over here !

Michael Legat talks about it as well in the October edition of Writing Magazine, where he also mentions the Simon and Schuster debacle. They tried to insert a clause into their new contracts stating that they retained rights to all books published with them indefinitely, since with the advent of POD technology, books are never out of print. Of course, the Writers Guild of America kicked up a stink and quite rightly so, after all, who wants to be saddled to a publisher who does sod all to help promote your work and takes all the money. By taking the work to a bonafide POD provider, such as Authors OnLine here in the UK (they also distribute in the US!) the author can earn considerably more without that much more effort. After all, Simon and Schuster are hardly likely to put money into promoting a backlist book that sells only a couple of hundred copies a year - they concentrate most of their efforts on the new titles and high sellers, and who can blame them, it is after all a business.

Eventually Michael says, they had to admit defeat and scrap these clauses and quite rightly so. Still, I don't expect they will be the only ones to try this, and it is another indicator of how much more acceptable this technology is becoming, if the large publishers are now embracing it. I think they have finally realised, as I did, that if you can't beat 'em you have to join 'em, and whether they like or or not, POD is here to stay.

Personally I feel that it is where the future of publishing lies, fairly and squarely, and Random House and the Espresso machine just prove to confirm that. Eventually Lightning Source plan to put one in every book store in the US and I can only imagine the impact that will have. Book stores will only have to stock best sellers and it will make it much easier to authors to get into print, because it will automatically lessen the risk. I said to Gaynor Johnson some time ago, who deals with book orders for Authors OnLine Ltd, that I envisioned a time maybe 10, 15 years from now when book stores would have just a few shelves for maybe top 50 paperbacks etc, and the rest would be taken up by these huge machines, with computer terminals where customers used sites such as google books in order to carry out searches for books that they fancied. It seems that I may not have been far wrong.

In the short term though is it such a good thing ? It will take time for the industry to adapt, as everything works as a snails pace and they are notoriously resistant to change. That has been one of my biggest bug bears in fact, the fact that everything in publishing works so much more slowly than POD. That will be a thing of the past though, they will have to learn to respond a lot quicker. POD authors will then for the first time be competing on a even keel and the stigma will be well and truly removed. I just hope that in the process, the POD pioneers do not end up being driven out of business, as it is inevitable that the big boys will try and take over and claim this technology as their own. It is usually what happens. In fairness though, the POD arms of Random House and Barnes and Noble - Xlibris and i-universe, have been in business for a while - thank goodness only in the States, but eventually I am sure, over here as well.

One thing's for certain - sale or return will be a thing of the past, as this technology will not be able to accommodate it on such a high scale. Besides which, if the customer is printing books in store then what would be the point. What a shame then - the author will be paid more than the book shop - I will cry in a minute !