The hidden cost of a Christmas best seller

One of the biggest problems I have found with print on demand is the fact that because the ISBN is registered to the publisher or POD provider, in my case Authors OnLine Ltd, rather than you as the author, as in traditional lithographic short print run self publishing, it means that you have no way of accessing your own sales data. As it stands, the best I can hope for is to try and keep tabs on how many books Gardners are ordering, and then go to their home page, type in my ISBN and see how many copies they have in stock. This is far from reliable though, since for one thing the system is not necessarily updated on a regular basis, and for another, it does not tell me where the books are going when they are shipped out. Many book shops have told me that they will order copies but without any means of accessing this data, I have absolutely no idea whether they have done this or not.

It has become apparent though from the number of shops that have told me they will be ordering, the total numbers that friendly book sellers have told me have sold through the tills, and the total numbers in circulation across Waterstones stores that the figures do not add up. There out to be more books in circulation than there are. The reason for this can only be one of two possibilities - either some stores who told me they would order have not done so, or for some reason they are failing to replenish their stock when the books do sell. It seems to me that it is far more likely to be the latter, and I am not sure what I can do about this.

I know for a fact that there are at least 2 local branches of Waterstones where this has happened - and the reason I know this is because I have been to the shops in question and spoken to book sellers, who have told me that they have indeed sold copies of my book, and yet further copies have not been ordered. I am at a loss as to know why this is, since I was given to understand that once stocks had been exhausted in a particular branch, another copy was automatically re-ordered. I suspect that like the system in Borders, what actually happens is that a list of books that have been sold and gone out of stock is generated on a weekly basis, and the department or store manager makes a decision as to whether they should re-order. For some reason, best known to them they have decided not to in my case.

I am at a loss to as why this should be when copies have in the past been sold in these stores, and sold quickly as well, in both cases within a matter of weeks of the books going on sale, but it does concern me, since it makes me wonder how prevalent this practise is, and how many other stores are doing this. It pees me off big time, since they are not giving the book or myself as the author a fair chance, and at this time of year especially I need to maximise every single opportunity I can get. It is not as if they do not make money on this book, in fact they make very good money at £6 profit per book as opposed to my paltry £1.39. This is the other thing that pees me off, how certain stores like to bang on about how they do not order from wholesalers since they do not get a high enough margin, and they consider it too much of a risk. Exactly who is taking the risk here - me or them, and more to the point, who spent five years of their lives writing this thing for such little return!

The story from The Times (entitled The hidden cost of a Christmas best seller) about how Waterstones charge obscene amounts of money for front line promotion and display is once again doing the rounds, and it does make one feel, as a self published author very despondent indeed, as if one is battling against almost insurmountable odds. I know I am doing much better than almost every POD author that I know (and I know quite a lot of them now), but that is not the point - this book could and should be doing so much better, if only it were given a fair chance, and by failing to re-order it when it has sold, these 2 stores, and possibly others too are just not doing this.

It is waste of time trying to get through to them now on the phone to query this so close to Christmas, but I did send an email out to all stores who ordered in August and September as a precaution and urging them to re-order if they have not already done so. Whether it will or has done any good I will only be able to tell when I ask the next friendly book seller in the New Year. In the meantime though, I will add all those stores who are stocking me to the list for not only Christmas e-cards, but also a phone call in the New Year to check exactly what has been sold and ordered! Thank goodness for those unlimited calls phone packages that's all I can say !

131 book shops, 401 orders and counting ....

Six months ago when I published the second edition of my book and began to promote it in earnest, I would never have dreamt in a million years that I would be in the position that I am in now, and sometimes I still have to pinch myself to make sure that it really is happening and I will not wake up tomorrow (Bobby Ewing style) and realise it was all just a dream ...

Following the announcement in August that Gardners, the largest wholesaler in the UK had taken my book on as a stocked title (only a handful of other POD titles in the whole country are in this esteemed position), I have been ringing book stores up and down the country at the rate of around 10 - 12 a day. This has been an exhausting and time consuming task, that at various times has left me both exacerbated and elated. It is now though I am proud to say, stocked in 122 out of the 296 Waterstones stores in the UK (not including those in Ireland or university shops).

The last month has been absolutely manic - with the number of stockists doubling in the run up to Christmas. Gardners have I just heard, placed their 3rd order for another 50 copies in the space of one month, and the back orders are piling up, as they no doubt are for other books as well. As Christmas though began to approach I set myself a target to achieve orders for 400 books by Christmas and today I have exceeded it - thanks to Norwich Castle Street who have agreed today to order 2 copies.

The figure is probably in actual fact higher than 400 copies (the order from Norwich actually brought the total to 401) since this does not take into account repeat orders or orders from branches I have not been able to get through to on the phone (I emailed them all as well). I suspect the fact that Gardners have ordered another 50 copies means that there have been a fair number of repeat orders, so the total may be 430 or even higher than that. Whatever it is though I am delighted and looking forward to a big fat royalty cheque in 4 months time.

Following on from yesterday though when I wrote of my concerns regarding the length of time that the book has now been out of stock, I rang Waterstones (the old Ottakars branch in Norfolk Street) in Kings Lynn to see if the copy they ordered had arrived, and it seems that at long last it has. The fact that Gardners are still showing as being out of stock means that as I suspected, that the first batch of 50 books has indeed arrived, but the high volume of back orders meant that in shipping them out, they promptly went out of stock again. The 50 copies that were ordered just over a week ago should then arrive very soon, which will hopefully cover the rest of the backlog, and then the next 50 copies should arrive sometime between Christmas and New Year - Lightning Source, Richard tells me, are currently taking around 10 days to fulfil orders.

This is then a manic time for all, so much so, that it has become apparent that I will be wasting my time now in continuing to ring the stores. Most of them are not answering their phones anyway, so in fairness to them and having reached my objective, I am giving myself three weeks of well earned rest from all this ringing round. I shall come back to it then in the New Year with renewed vigour and ready to take on not just Borders, but the whole world. So, 131 book shops (122 Waterstones), 401 books and counting ....

It's raining book orders....

It has been chucking down with rain for most of the day (and half of last night as well), so the area around our village is starting to resemble a lake. The gullies which run along the top end of the main road into the village are in full flow. By the time I walked up the hill to work this morning from where I had parked the car, despite the fact that I was wearing a thick waterproof, my uniform was soaked. Thankfully it dried out within 10 minutes or so, but it made the men's eyes pop out and put a temporary smile on their faces at least.

Despite the rain though it turned out to be a reasonably busy day. I must remember to ring the bank in a minute and see how much my first pay check is for.

The good news though is that we have another new chap starting on Monday. This means that the staffing problems have been alleviated. My boss is taking him on for the moment as a Christmas temp, but as soon as becomes official that his predecessor is not coming back (company procedures say that you have to wait 3 weeks from the first date of absence - the first week was up yesterday), this new chap will become a permanent member of staff. I met him briefly when he came in this afternoon to confirm the details. He seems nice enough and I am sure will do a good job. It will be strange not to be the new person anymore, but I am sure I will get used to it!

Going back to the book business though, I have decided that tomorrow will definitely be the last day that I make calls to book stores, since Christmas is fast approaching and it is becoming just too busy for most of them to talk to me. Some of them I have called every day this week, and been told it is the managers day off, so I get the feeling that they just don't want to talk to me anyway. This is fine, as it just means that I shall bookmark them for a call in the New Year instead. I don't give up that easily !

Still the week has not been a total loss though, since I have managed to receive orders from several more Waterstones in Watford, Maidstone, both branches in Colchester (they share a Manager), Winchester Brooks, Windsor, Torquay and Salisbury High Street, and today I got Telford and Wrexham in North Wales. This is good since I need more in Wales, and the MBS Manager there sounded particularly keen. She ordered 5 copies where most stores order just 1 or 2 to begin with. She even indicated that she might read the book herself, which is always good.
I also had an interesting conversation with the Manager of Swindon, who although she is not willing to order copies this side of Christmas, has asked me to ring her in the New Year to arrange a book signing and/or talk. Apparently she knows people at the local radio station well and they often come down to interview authors live in the store when they host such events. Richard then will be pleased, as will Paul. Might give him a ring later on, and Richard tomorrow as well again, if Gardners are still out of stock.

This is really beginning to irritate me now - they have been out of stock for almost 2 weeks again, and this is the worst time of year for it to happen. I have book stores who ordered books on November 22nd who are still waiting for them, and if they don't hurry up then I risk losing valuable Christmas sales, increasing the chance that the books will be returned. This is the last thing that Richard and I want or need right now. I am not sure what the delay is - 50 copies were ordered nearly 2 weeks ago and another 50 just last week, but the orders are backing up, to the tune of 66 to 70 copies I estimate which must now be on back order, so as soon as the first lot do arrive they will be sent straight out again, meaning that they are immediately once again out of stock. I can see why some people do all the fulfilment themselves! Then again, if I had done that several things would have happened - firstly the house would be overrun by books, padded envelopes etc, secondly my shoes (not to mention arm muscle) would be very worn from constant trips to the Post Office and thirdly of course most shops only order through a wholesaler/distributor anyway. Fingers crossed that they arrive tomorrow then ....

Trouble in paradise?

Continuing on from the religious theme, the Bookseller website today carries another tale of woe regarding the troubled Christian book selling chain formerly known and owned by SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge). The chain was taken over by the SSG (St Stephen the Great), a more orthodox Christian charity last year, headed by Mark and Phil Brewer, and the stores subsequently renamed to reflect this change. The changes were apparently made in order to reflect what they term as 'traditional Christian values'. Exactly what this means is not made clear.

Whatever it does mean though, it is clear that the company's staff are far from happy, as an insider claimed in November of this year that since the Brewers had taken control of the chain, more than 100 staff had left. Carole Burrows who managed the Durham shop left at the end of October, and earlier that month 11 staff simultaneously walked from the Exeter store. The latest casualties are Newcastle and Truro, where both Managers are due to leave on Christmas Eve. 4 book sellers have simultaneously announced their own departure from the Truro store on the same date.

Mark Brewer acknowledges that the company has staffing problems, but says this is no more than what one would expect. He states in a typical head in sand stance, that it is important that the company's employees are supportive of the charity's aims and devoted to supporting its work, since this is not just a job, but a mission. He went on to say that the shops are like the talents the Lord spoke of in the parables, and to earn His favour as 'good and faithful servants' we must invest these talents for His glory.

It is clear that these two men just do not get it, as the fact that so many staff have resigned and that church attendance as a whole has fallen in the last decade signifies to me that these so called traditional Christian values just do not work, and are not seen as important in the lives of a) those who work for the company and b) those in mainstream society.

The former Manager of the Leicester branch had the right idea when he bought the store from the Brewers earlier this year, renaming it as Christian Resources - this is one that I shall certainly be contacting myself in the New Year to see if they may be interested in stocking my own book.

Leicester is after all a interfaith and multi cultural city (more Muslim in fact than anything else these days) and the range of books stocked needs to reflect that. Rather than stocking exclusively Christian items and books, the new store then stocks books from a variety of different faiths and belief systems, including Anglican, Methodist and Afro-Caribbean churches. It also sells books direct to churches on a sale or return basis so that they can sell them in church events and stalls etc, which certainly makes sense to me. It is nice to know that someone within the 'faith' movement has some (common sense that is).

On a personal note, I have not had the same amount of time to write this blog since I started back at work. It is only a part time job, but it has still meant a lot of adjustment, since it is more than two years since I had a permanent job like this. The money and the stimulation were desperately needed, but even so, it has not been easy rushing straight home and changing from corporate saleswoman back to book saleswoman in the five minutes it takes me to dump my bag and change out of my uniform.

The fact that the other new person, a full timer who started a week after I did, did one days work and has not turned up since has not helped matters, especially since the man that he was supposed to replace is due to leave at the end of the week. Fortunately he has agreed to stay on for a few more weeks on a part time basis to cover days off, or otherwise they would be really stuck, as all they would have had would be me, the Manager and his new deputy, together with 2 weekend staff. As it is I have to work all day on Monday so that the Manager can have a day off and his deputy will not be on his own in the shop all day.

They have tried everything they can do to get hold of this chap who has left, but to no avail. All they need is for him to simply tell them that he is not coming back, but he won't do that, and under company rules they have to give him three weeks absence before they can even begin advertising for someone else. I think this absolutely stinks myself, but that's the way it is.

I suppose having to possibly work full time over the next week or so will not affect my book promotion plans too much though, since it is getting to the point now where the shops are becoming too busy to call anyway, so I have to look at this philosophically and just think of the extra money, which I must admit will come in handy. I have managed to get the book now into well over 100 Waterstones and although I will continue to call until the end of this week, anyone that I cannot now get through to will have to bookmarked for a call in the New Year after Christmas. Until then, I shall just hold my breath and pray that the books are not all sent back in the New Year - one would hope that they would give them at least 6 months to try and sell, but in the book selling business shelf space is money and anything can happen.

God Delusion to be banned in Turkey?

I see from the Independent that Richard Dawkins' Turkish publisher Kuzey Publications is being hauled over the coals by religious fundamentalists. It seems that they are being threatened with legal action by prosecutors who claim that their publication of Dawkins' best selling work The God Delusion insults believers. I don't know they are so upset about myself, as the Turkish translation has apparently only sold 6000 copies since publication.

Erol Karaaslan, the founder Kuzey Publications could though face between six months and twelve months in jail if found guilty. Prosecutors are still debating over to press charges.

It is not the first time that Dawkins' has come against such problems in Turkey, since it seems that Islamic fundamentalists also tried to ban his earlier work The Selfish Gene.

I don't understand the furore personally or even why it was deemed necessary to publish in this territory in the first place - the book discusses Christianity more than other religions, and Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country. It also then puzzles me as to exactly who has been offended. Having read the book myself, I don't recall it even mentioning Islam.

Neither is Dawkins the first author to face controversy. The article states that Nobel prize winning novelist Orhan Pamuk and Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink were just two several dozens writers to be charged last year under a controversial law that makes it a crime to insult Turkishness, whatever that means. Pamuk was acquitted, but Dink – who was murdered earlier this year by a teenage ultra-nationalist - was found guilty.

What though does it mean to be Turkish, or for that matter, any other nationality? Does one have to be born in that country or have parents who were, or is it sufficient to have lived there for a certain number of years. If so, then how many? Is a child of Jamaican parents who emigrated to Britain in the 1950's any less British that I am - of course not, for in their hearts they still think of themselves as British, and that is what counts.

This also brings to mind an episode from my favourite science fiction series Babylon Five entitled Infection. It is I believe an episode from series two. It basically revolves around a machine on an uninhabited planet that seems hell bent on destroying everything in its path. When they ask what the machine actually wants it transpires that it was put in place to protect its former inhabitants, the Icarans from raiders by destroying anything that was not pure Icaran. The predictable result was of course the destruction of the entire race. Muslims and for that matter any other fundamentalist regime, should take note for if they do not pull up their own socks and start to behave in a more sensible manner by not being threatened by anything that does not agree with their own faith, they will ultimately share the same fate.

The word atheist is generally recognised in most societies as meaning one who does not believe in God. There is nothing wrong in this, as it is like anything else just one of many widely held beliefs. Being an atheist does not make one less moral or less of anything in fact, in fact when you look at the statistics the opposite is true. The more secular societies are nine times out of ten more tolerant and understanding of each other.

The word atheist has it seems only recently crept into the Turkish language, where it is regarded as a kind of insult. The Independent cites a survey of religious attitudes conducted in Turkey in 2006, which found that less than 2 percent of corespondents claimed not to believe in God. More recently polls showed that just 25 percent of Turks accept evolutionary theory.

On the one hand, while I am the first to espouse religious freedom, and in no way agree with the ridiculousness of this case, one has to ask why the book was published in this territory in the first place, when there seems to be such limited demand. Surely they must have known the controversy it would cause. The cynic or perhaps spiritual aspect of myself, wonders if this was the whole idea, since the only way to really shed light on these situations for them to be open to the light of public scrutiny so that they can be discussed by the world media and these regimes will realise and understand that their views are simply not those of a civilised society.

The treatment of women in Islamic countries has also been in the news in recent days. Firstly of course the ridiculous case in Sudan where a female teacher has been jailed for allowing the children in her case to name an innocent teddy bear as Mohamed. The British Government are I understand intervening to get her released, but in the meantime, some have called for a suspension of aid to that country. They are cutting off their noses then to spite their face.

The other case is that of a young recently married woman in Saudi Arabia, whose husband thankfully is standing by her. It seems that in Saudi Arabia with its extreme laws of sexual segregation, the only way that men and women can form any kind of relationship is for men to stand in the streets with their mobile phone numbers either on display as women walk past with their male chaperone's, or to literally throw them car windows. Somehow then prior to her marriage, this woman then formed a phone relationship with such a man.

After she was married he threatened to tell her husband unless she agreed to meet him, and so foolishly it seems she did. They were driving together when another car swung in front of them, hijacked their own car and drove them to an isolated place, where both her and her male companion were gang raped repeatedly by up to seven attackers. She tried to keep it from her husband and family, but the rapists (who had filmed the attack on their mobile phones) started to boast about what had happened and so the truth came out. Astonishingly the woman was sentenced to 90 lashes and then when she and fer family complained this was increased to 200 lashes and 6 months in jail. The rapists in the meantime were sentenced to between 2 and 11 years apiece.

The world can no longer sit back and allow this kind of thing to happen, we have to send a strong signal to these countries that this behaviour is not acceptable.

Genesis of Man now in 109 Waterstones !

When I first began to ring book shops in August, I did not really know what to expect. I hoped for success and to get stocked in as many as possible, but didn't have a particular figure in mind. As Christmas began to approach I set myself a goal though to have received orders to the value of 400 books by the end of the year. It looks as if I may achieve that a lot earlier than I thought, since as of today the figure is 386.

In fact I am proud to say that my book is now stocked in over 100 branches of Waterstones in total - not bad at all for a book that no one wanted to publish and which most agents and publishers said wouldn't not sell. What do they know! If you want anything doing, do it yourself, women have known this for years and they are not far wrong it seems.

More importantly perhaps though than the number of stockists is the number of sales. I do not have the exact figures, but suffice to say that the sales are coming in thick and fast with no signs of diminishing.

It has also though come to light that there may be a problem with supply, since yesterday morning Paul went into his local branch at Kings Lynn in Norfolk and it seems that they have not yet received the copies that they ordered over a week ago. Paul in return reported this to Richard, who did some digging around. It seems that they are not the only ones to be kept waiting, since I understand that Gardners have back orders for a considerable number of copies. I have had it has to be said, a phenomenal couple of weeks with book shops ordering left right and centre.

The 30 copies they ordered on November 6th sold out almost as soon as they arrived, and so last week an order was placed for another 50 copies. Then when Richard discovered just how many branches I am now in, he rang them up and asked why they were not ordering more given its popularity. They have then ordered another 50 copies as of yesterday, bringing the total for November to 130 copies ordered! Mind you, I will have to scale things down by the middle of December anyway, since for one thing the shops will be too busy to take my calls, and for another, any they do order at that late stage will not arrive in time for Christmas anyway. I suspect then that this may the last order I receive until Christmas now. We will see as always, but at least I know that any more orders that I do get can now be fulfilled quickly and easily.

Still can't believe it is in 109 Waterstones though !!

Getting stocked in book stores lesson no. 2

Continuing on from yesterday - how should one approach book shops when do you get round to ringing them and is it really worth the time and effort that entails? I mean, no one likes to receive unsolicited sales calls at the best of times do they? In this situation the calls are not exactly unsolicited, as when ones works in or manages a book store talking to authors who want you to stock their books goes with the territory, that is why Waterstones have people like independent author advisor Justin Hutchinson in the first place - to help and advise independent and self published authors and put them on the right track.

Actually I have found it to be THE most worthwhile piece of marketing I have ever undertaken. It does take a certain amount of courage to do this for sure, and you have to know your market and your product, but you have already done that right - or you wouldn't have self published in the first place would you? I sincerely hope you did your research anyway, as it not, I fear you will be in for one hell of a shock otherwise ....

The way that I did it then was to decide firstly on how many calls to make each day. You don't want to rush this and call everyone at once, as for one thing you rapidly tire of doing this, and for another if you say it enough times it does start to sound rehearsed. You want your pitch to sound as natural as possible if you are to be in with a chance.

I try then to make between 10 and 12 calls a day, and no more than that. You will need of course though some means of recording what has been said and who needs to be call next. The spreadsheet of Waterstones details that Justin sends you is read only so you will need to copy this into a format that can be edited. I don't have excel on my machine, so I use Works instead, which is a somewhat simpler version to use. I have added several columns entitled contact name, date and what was said, and then follow up columns with dates as well. Sometimes you may need to contact a store several times after all before you get a result.

In my case then I started with the local stores within say an hour of home and then started to work down the list country wide from A to Z. The whole process I estimate will take around 4-5 months to complete and will in all honesty be ongoing since you continually have to make follow up calls as well to build up a relationship with your stockists.

Who you need to speak to will depend on the size of the store you are calling, and unfortunately it is difficult for you to know this until they pick up the phone and tell you! The best approach then is simply to explain who are and ask who the right person to speak to is. I say it something like this 'good morning/afternoon, my name is June Austin and I am the author of a mind, body and spirit book entitled Genesis of Man, I was wondering who the right person would be to speak to about getting it stocked in your branch'.

The book seller will then do one of several things - put you through to the right person, tell you there are not in or ask you send them some information. Sometimes they will also try and tell you that you have to go through Head Office. If they do this, then politely explain to them that you have already spoken to their independent author advisor who said that you are free to contact any store that you choose direct.

When you do get to speak to someone make sure that you know exactly what you need to say and make sure you have the ISBN close by as well, as they are bound to want to know this so that they can look it up. If you are very lucky and say the right things then they may agree to order copies then and there, but they are more likely to request further information. Whether you choose to send this by fax, email or letter is up to you, but email is by far the cheapest of course. If you do send emails then make sure they are not overloaded with attachments as they will not get through the system. I send them a standard email with a copy of my information sheet and a link to the book trade page on my own website which contains reviews, sample chapter etc should they wish some more information.

Make a note then of who you spoke to and sent the information to and call them in a weeks time to make sure if was received and see what their interest was. I use my Works spreadsheet in conjunction with Works calendar to record this information. It is a useful tool since if it happens for example to be the persons day off when you call, then you simply make a note to call them on the next available day, which you will see when you open the calendar on that day.

One tip I will also pass on is that if you speak to a manager or book seller and they say that they will mention the book to the section manager of your genre (children's or whatever) see if you can get that persons name as well. Even if you can't, then when you call to follow up, do not ask for the store manager but the section manager direct. Store Managers are busy people and nine times out of ten when they tell you they are going to do something they don't. because they forget or get distracted. Talk then to the section manager direct, who makes the final decision to buy and save yourself a lot of time.

When I do get orders I also always send out a confirmation email thanking the store for their custom and providing a link to my website should they wish to use reviews etc for promotional purposes. Like I said earlier, these stores do gt busy, and sometimes they may tell you they are going to order copies and then forget, so sending these emails serves to remind them.

Here then ends lesson number two in how to get stocked in the chain stores.