As one door opens, another one closes

I will be glad in many ways when this week is over, as it has been such a strange one in many ways, and although there have been many successes and things to celebrate, I end it on a not so good note.

I started the day well enough, and had a very productive morning in fact. The first thing I did was ring Southern Counties radio, which is my local BBC station, to ask how I would go about getting on to one of their shows as a guest. They explained that I would have to send them a copy of the book and gave me the relevant address, so that was good. I then decided to start contacting some local papers, and so made a start with the one in my nearest town. I spoke to a very nice man there who sounded interested and asked me to email him all the details, which I did. I then remembered Patsy at who last year mentioned my book launch, and so emailed her. Following that I emailed The Surrey Mirror. I will follow them all up after the Bank Holiday to make sure they were received and see what the interest is.

Brian then called round to collect the September newsletter, and after he had gone, I set to work ringing more branches of Waterstones, managing to get through the rest of the C's and most of the D's. I was lucky in that I managed to secure orders from four of them - Coventry, Dorchester, Derby and my own local branch as well. My local one is only a small shop, and they have proven extremely diffcult to crack, which given my local connections, I find somewhat puzzling. I do realise that they do not have a large Mind, Body and Spirit section, but my friend Ann Davies recently had her book launch there (Ann writes poetry, which is, if anything, even more difficult to market, especially for POD) and did very well. I managed to cajole the Assistant Manager into ordering one copy, by telling her that I had contacted the local paper and they looked likely to give the book some coverage. Now I have to hope that they follow through!

By then it was lunch time so I had a break and made a list of all the stores that I needed to follow up during the afternoon. It was a long list of almost a dozen of them. Most of them are what I call 'fence sitters', i.e. those who say that they are interested, and may order some copies, after conferring with the MBS Manager etc, but will not seem to commit themselves. This is most frustrating, and I would really much rather the just came out and said that they were not interested, since I could then concentrate on those that were instead of wasting theirs and my time. Oh well, such is life.

I suppose though it was a conversation with the Manager at Aylesbury that has led to my somewhat black and melancholy mood. She was very helpful and polite, so it was not her manner, it was more what she had to tell me about Waterstones buying policies. It seems that all the Store Managers had a memo today from Head Office, saying that a lot of the stores were to be rearranged in order to give more space to the genres that sold well, and less to those that don't. In a lot of the smaller stores then this means that the MBS section will be cut right back to minimal shelf space. It seems that Managers have also been told not to order any books unless they absolutely have to. This is not good news for me at all, especially at the moment, since the autumn seems to be the main book buying period for book stores.

It seems then that as soon as one door swings open, it comes back to hit me in the face. I was feeling so fed up and angry after being told this, that I went to the gym and took it out on the exercise bike to work off all my frustrations.

It is though a Bank Holiday weekend, so I am going to concentrate on getting my website finished, and then I am going to go out and buy the richest, fattiest cream cake I can find !

Did Oxford Street do me a favour in saying no ?

I have good news and bad news today. The bad news is that Borders in Oxford Street will not be stocking my book. The goods news though is that they have sent the copy that I sent them to their Buying Department near Charing Cross to look at, together with a copy of my press release. Paul is of course already talking to them anyway, so this might help clinch the deal. Oxford Street have in some ways then done me a favour in saying no.

The other good news is that I am mentioned in the weekly newsletter by Jerry Simmons (who runs the US based Nothing Binding Project). I emailed him just over a week ago with my news and he has put it in his newsletter. Not sure how many people get this, but quite a few, so it may result in some more US sales.

This morning as well I went to Waterstones in Redhill to sign those 5 copies that they ordered. They have a real nice and POD friendly manager, Kate if anyone else lives near here... She has though placed the 5 copies on a stand with Waterstones recommends written on it right by the front door. I am then feeling very happy. Back to the website then ....

Richard and Judy

Spoke to Richard earlier today at Authors OnLine and he told me that he had just had an email from Gardners. The book has only been a stocked title for just over a week, but they have already sold out of the 30 copies they initially ordered. They have increased the next order to 50 copies !

I rang a few more Waterstones today then and managed to secure orders from 3 more shops - Belfast, Chesham and Covent Garden - another flagship. Still no letter from Adam at Oxford Street though ...

When I rang Richard later on to give him the news, he told me that he had had a call from Paul asking him to write a press release to send to Richard and Judy. Richard though had brain fog and so asked me to write it. Have just sent him a copy ...

Redhill also received their copies today, so will be going there in the morning to sign them. Apparently one of the staff members commented that it looks like a really interesting book and has asked to review it. It will go on a little card in the local authors area - Waterstones recommends ....

Still Plugging Away ....

I have decided that since the book seems to be getting so much publicity of late, it is time to revamp my website, and so these past few days have been busy having a total redesign. It is not the first time I have done this, of course, but this time my partner Coran, who is himself a website designer has been able to help. A year ago he was only just starting this business and did not have that much experience (he has had to learn as he went along). I could have asked him to do the site for me, but being the control freak that I am, and also knowing that the more of my own energy is in there the better it will be, thought it was best that I did most of the work. The Genesis of Man and Genesis Files sections are then nearly complete, and I am the moment halfway through the Egyptian section. Some of the old files will go, and a lot of the pictures with them, and the site will have a brand new and much more professional feel, to go with the brand new and more professional me !

I emailed Michael Allen, aka Grumpy Old Bookman a few days ago, since he mentioned me on his blog a few months back, and I was delighted in that he gave me a wondeful write up over the weekend, which seems to have resulted in several more visits to the site. His blog was listed as one of the top writers blog sites in the Guardian newspaper in 2005, so quite a few industry insiders do visit from time to time.

Talking of industry insiders, I am pleased to report that Paul has also been very active today. He has contacted an online book store called Methuens, who from what I gather are based in Guildford, which is only up the road from me. He has also contacted Virgin Books, Publishing News (I actually emailed their news editor myself last week, and also posted a press release on their forum), the Daily Express book club and Richard and Judy. They are coming to the end o their current season, but that is not such a bad thing, since it means they will be looking for more books to publicise, and although they do mostly feature fiction, they have been known to plug non fiction books as well, so you never know. He also contacted Writers News again and filled them in on what has been happening, and it looks as if they will expand the feature that they had already been planning to run.

For my part I rung around 20 or so more Waterstones today - only secured one definate order from Brighton, but several more stores sound more than interesting and requested further information. I finally managed to get back through to Borders in Oxford Street as well, although Adam Hughes, the MBS Buyer was in a Buyers meeting ! Apparently he has written to me. I will be watching for the postman tomorrow then with bated breath. I wonder if he was presenting my book at the very same Buyers meeting that he was in when I rang .....

Book Signings and Book Musings

Had a fairly quiet, but nevertheless eventful day. Did some more ringing round this morning and secured an order from Brentwood in Essex - just 2 copies, but it is a start and better than nothing. Six more Waterstones though sound interested - Aylesbury, Boston (Lincolnshire), Bishops Stortford (near Stansted in Essex), Belfast, Bournemouth and Brighton. There are actually two shops in Bournemouth, and I spoke to both of them. The smaller was happy to talk to me on the phone, but the larger requested that I post them information, which I have done today. The manager I spoke to at Belfast sounded particularly interested, and I would be very surprised indeed if he does not end up ordering some. I also caught up with the some of the other stores that asked me to send them information last week. Borders in Brighton received the information and will be in touch, Newbury are having a meeting on 23rd re the theology group and will get in touch to confirm dates, Beckton (East London) I could not get hold of, and I have not so far been able to get hold of Adam at Oxford Street either. He is on late night today though (working until 11pm poor thing), so I will try again later on. I also heard from back Grumpy Old Bookman to say that he will give me a mention at some point next week - will keep on eye on site then and post the link on here as soon as it goes up. This morning I also had an email from my friend Michele Doucet in Canada. I occasionally write for her ezine, Gateway to the Soul. She is putting a new book section though on her site and wants to feature mine. She sent me a load of questions then to answer, which I replied to and sent back. Will also post the link here as soon as it goes live. She notified me in fact of a problem with the paypay link on my ordering page, which did not for some reason seem to work. I have now rectified it though, and it must be working since I received an order from one of the members of My Writers Circle, which I posted half an hour ago. Tracy, whom I got to know via Books and Tales, a POD comparison forum has also apparently tried to order one. I am not sure how though, since her email was a little garbled and dificult to understand ! I am sure though that all will be revealed. I almost forgot in fact to mention the most important thing of all - I am doing a book signing at Waterstones in Staines ! It has all been confirmed for October 20th from 11am to 12 noon. Only for an hour, but I am sure all will go very well. My friend Jillyanne runs a dancing school in Staines as it happens, and has promised to bring along a lot of her pupils, so I straight away emailed her. She is away on holiday at the moment, but will see it when she gets back. I hope she doesn't have classes at this time !

Time for a Firm Commitment

This morning I spoke to a very strange woman in Borders, Birmingham who even though you can now get my book on sale or return, still demanded a 60 percent discount. 60 percent to them equals 75 percent to the publisher, since the distributor will also want their cut ! So I told her I could not do business on those terms, since it would leave me with nothing. She then got very upset with me (obviously not used to having authors tell her what terms they are prepared to sell on and not the other way around) and told me that the book was listed on their database as local interest anyway, and they would therefore have to put it in that section, where it would not sell ! What a load of rubbish - other stores have been perfectly happy to buy copies and put them in the MBS section.

Got straight on to Paul anyway, who is speaking to their head office to try and get the book sent out to all their stores anyway, and he got them to change it to MBS. He also gave me the number for Waterstones Buying Department, where I spoke to a very nice man called Justin Hutchinson, who is apparently the small publisher coodinator. After checking that my book was in fact available for sale through them, he asked me to email him asking for a list of all their stores, which I did, and back it came within 5 minutes. What wonderful service !

Have done some more ringing round then today and managed to secure some more orders. So far then six Waterstones have definately placed orders - Godalming, Epsom, Redhill, Aviemore, Barnstaple and Kingston. I also have possible book signings at Guildford and Staines. Several Borders have also ordered copies -Whiteleys in London, Fleet Street in London, Wimbledon, Kingston and Lakeside. Newbury have put me on the list to do a talk at their theology group, and Brighton and Oxford Street are also considering the book. All in all then a very good days work.

On another note, Neil Denny, editor in chief of the Bookseller has an interesting piece on this blog today, discussing the pros and cons of firm sale versus sale or return. I posted my own somewhat watered down take on it, at the time riding high on my successes of the past week. Then I rang that strange woman in Birmingham though and changed my mind.

It seems to me that the publishing industry is all topsy turvy, it is to the best of my knowledge, the only industry where the buyer rather than the seller dictates terms. It is a non win situation for all round - especially for us self published authors who already face huge prejudice in some circles from those who resolutely refuse to label us as anything other than vanity press. If this were not bad enough, we then find that because our books are, for the most part not available on sale or return, we cannot eveb get through the door. Because only sales through tills count towards totting up the sales of each book, no matter how enterprising you are then in selling through other outlets your book will never get noticed, and never get the publicity that it deserves. All because of this 'closed shop attitude'.

I for one do not think that it is right or ethical than stores such as the aforementioned Borders demand they we supply to them on those terms, as what it basically then means is that they get all the money. They in fact end of making in some cases, twice as much profit as the author and publisher put together - an absurd situation, which by any stretch of the imagination cannot be right. This is why then I would applaud the end of this practise, since it would mean that slowly, but surely, the playing field would be levelled, leaving us to compete on much more equal terms. It seems to me that the real problem with the publishing industry is nothing to do with too many books, or even a lack of marketing expertise on behalf of the sellers - although these are issues that need to be addressed - no the real problem is too many middle men wanting their cut, and thus undermining the writers right to earn a proper living from doing what they love !

Don't get me wrong, I realise how fortunate I am to be able to offer my books on these terms, and it has opened many doors - but I should not have been forced to take this step in the first place, and neither should Richard. I look forward to the day then when this practise stops for good.

How green does your garden grow ?

I didn't get around to writing this yesterday, not because the day was particularly busy, in fact, far from it. It was pouring with rain and miserable for most of, and I hardly really did a thing, well, book wise anyway. Well, actually, when I stop about this that isn't really true. First thing in the morning I sent that same press release that I posted on here the other day to all those branches of Watertones, I also an email from the Twickenham branch to say they would be ordering copies, since they are not a large store. You win some, you lose some.

After that then I had a dental appointment and since the surgery is next to my gym, I killed two birds with one stone (do you ever wonder about the origin of such phrases?) and went to the gym afterwards. I did not really have the energy to do too much though, so pottered home after less than an hour to prepare a nice big salad.

Coran was expecting a telephone call from one of his clients in Switzerland, whose website he is designing, and he was also waiting for a new desk to be delivered, so that meant that I had to stay in and wait for the door bell to ring, since with him being on the phone, he was unable to answer it ! I took advantage of my enforced captivity to explore some of the free press release sites, and posted the one I wrote the other day. I chose two sites to begin with, one UK based and one US and I will see if it has any effect. If nothing else then it will push me further up google. As I was working, an email came through from Richard, enclosing a copy of his correspondence with Robin at Gardners - it is all now set up, and Robin has ordered an initial 30 books to keep as stock. This is quite a reasonable number I feel considering - I must in fact have already gathered orders at least equal to this, although some of these may be from libraries, who will of course order through Bertrams instead. Talking of libaries, I need to go through that list and resend to those who have not yet responded. I also need to take a free copy of those first editions that I still have to Epsom library as well.

I was looking at the Gardners website yesterday as a matter of fact, just surfing like you do, and discovered just how unusual it is for them to take print on demand books on this basis. I really am extremely lucky then and also extremely grateful. Basically though, the guidelines on their website are as follows:

All publishers must be registered with Nielsen Bookdata, have a valid ISBN and visible barcode. For stock titles, the publisher must have UK Representation and the stock must be available from a UK location. In addition to this, to qualify as a stock line, books must be available as printed, rather than on Print on Demand. If your title/s meet all of the above criteria then you are asked to send a sample copy to their address in Eastbourne, clearly leblling it as such. The publisher will then be contacted to confirm whether or not they will list their titles (and this decision can be reviewed on performance), or whether they will stock them. Where it is agreed to stock books, Gardners will then discuss commercial terms with the publisher. Almost without exception, books from new publisher relationships will be taken into stock on a consignment basis (i.e. we hold stock and pay monthly on sales achieved). Other commercial terms (e.g. discount levels) will also be agreed.

As a general rule of thumb: all books that are held as stock lines are sold to the retail customer on a sale or return basis, whereas listed/non-stock lines (what they call special orders) and books provided as Print on Demand are sold on a firm sale basis.

So, there you have it. Hopefully the above information may help a few other brave print on demand souls who may read this blog and be inspired to enquire about getting their own on those terms.