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!

Print on Demand comes to Borders

My lovely boss was in an even lovelier mood today, since he said I could go home an hour early at 4.30 instead of 5.30 (5.45 by the time we get all the customers out and the shop locked up). I would have gone to the gym had I had my gear with me, but I didn't, so I came home instead and thought I would use the time to do some online research into different things. Along the way I found an interesting news story re Borders.

It seems that they are piloting a print on demand scheme in their Oxford Street store starting in February 2008, in yet another sign of how the publishing world is at last beginning to embrace this technology and see its benefits.

Customers will have access to a database of around 1500 items of software (not books) like games, music and video. They are hoping to introduce the ability to actually download films to DVDs as well as spoken word CDs over the next few months.

The items available will be listed in either an e-catalogue or a printed one available in store. They just take the empty case over to the cashier who then places into a console, so the software is pressed into the disk while they wait, complete with inlay card and user manual. The entire process is designed to take a matter of minutes.

The company behind this service, Tribeka, has agreements with more than 225 providers including the BBC, Dorling Kindersley, Lego, McAfee, Sage, and Britannica. The advantage to the retailer is of course that they will not have to physically hold stock, (or for that matter count it) thus reducing overheads.

Borders are also looking at ways to sell audio books in a similar manner. Where's my voice recorder ? !

Poison Pen Letters

After I got home from work last night, I found Coran had placed 2 letters of my keyboard which arrived in the post. When I opened them, one was a crossword entry for the village newsletter, and the other a letter which I shall print below (omitting the senders name):

Dear Editor

Before the next edition goes to press, we would like to object to your misuse of the editorial page at the beginning of the December 2007-January 2008 issue. Has it never occurred to you that most people in the village do not really care how dramatically your life has changed or how many copies of your stupid book you have sold?

The editorial column should be about what it says on the cover - village news and not you. Sincerely (she then lists her own name and those of 6 others).

This is the second time this person has written to me, both times I hasten to add, anonymously. The first time she was telling me how awful she thought my book was after she had read the free copy that I can only surmise she won at last summer's village fair! She also criticised the quality of the pictures that are reproduced in the newsletter - as if I have any control over this!

This though really takes the biscuit. I see nothing wrong with what I wrote on the editorial page in question, where I was commenting on the fact that I have lived here for a year now and how much things have changed for both of us during that time. She is wrong when she says that the editorial page is for village news, as most magazines I buy have much more personal comments that this on the editorial page. The editorial page is just that - a space for the editor to make his or her own comments on what has been going on for them since the last issue.

Knowing that the former secretary for the neighbourhood council knows so many people up here, and given the fact that this lady (if that is the right phrase to use) was not courteous enough to provide me with contact details, so that I can discuss this with her in person, I discussed it with her (the former secretary that is), and she didn't have a clue who any of these people are either. However, she does know who might so said that today she would make enquiries. In the meantime, she also suggested that I print the letter in the February edition, to make these people look even more silly than they already are, naming and shaming them as it were. Having talked this over with my predecessor, he agrees.

They will all be in for one hell of a shock then when they get their February edition and see their names in print! If they think I am going to just roll over and take this then they will have to think again. After all, my predecessor was advertising for almost a year for a new editor before I contacted him, and at the time I didn't even live here, so if they think they can do a better job than I am then they should have applied when they had the chance.

The plot though thickens, as having now spoken to the former secretary of the local neighbourhood council, she has checked with the District Counsellor and informs me that none of the names on this letter are registered on the electoral roll - I can only surmise then that they are fictitious. Only a coward and bully behaves like this - as they know that they are in the wrong and if challenged their arguments would not hold sway.

It has though really upset me, since I happen to think that I am going a bloody good job, especially when ones considers that I also work part time (full time for the last month) and run my own business. Like I said, my predecessor was advertising for a replacement for almost a year before a friend got in touch and told me about it. At the time I was not even living here, as we had only just had our offer accepted on the property we are now living in, and since I did take over the editors reins this is the first such letter I have received - most people in fact are full of praise for the changes I have made, and say how much better the magazine now is!

If she doesn't like it then, she should have applied for the job when she had the chance - not that she would be any good at it anyway, since her letter is littered with basic proof reading errors.

Having slept on it though since yesterday and been mulling this over all day, I am still undecided as to what to do for the best and so I asked my pendulum. It confirmed that that I should indeed print the letter, and I should also reply - in the nicest possible way (this will be difficult). As tempting as it is though to let rip and say what I really think, it would not be professional of me to do so. This way though, she will know that her letter has been received and the comments noted. I will also publish any letters of support that I get in response to this in future editions which will wipe the smile right off her stupid cowardly face.

On another professional note though, my boss has agreed to let me work four days a week starting next week. He offered me the chance to work full time, which ordinarily I would have taken, but having come this far with the book he understands that I cannot just throw in the towel, but have to continue working hard at promoting the book as much as I can. It will be difficult being back at work, and I will feel torn in two, but the sad reality is that I can earn more from selling their stuff than I can from selling books.

We have already earned £200 in bonuses this month as the store that had the greatest trading margin in the week preceding Christmas, and the store that sold the most clearance lines last week. This week the bonus is also based on clearance lines, and we are on target to win it for the second week in a row, which will not be bad with a team of three full timers (I count myself in this category unofficially) and two weekend staff. I would have to sell 72 books in order to earn £100 in royalties, which is the equivalent of a whole months work. I wish it were different, but this is the world we are living in, and I have to pay the bills and keep a roof over my head.

David R Wright writes in the February edition of Writers News that the Society of Authors are currently debating moves towards an minimum hourly rate for non fiction writers who submit articles for publications and also write books. By this he means that the advance of one off fee paid to such writers for publication of their work should be the amount of hours it took to write, edit and research multiplied by the current minimum hourly wage (£5.50 an hour). If I were to be paid this in the form of an advance for my book I would have received an advance of around £8000! Chance would be a fine thing! I can't see this catching on fast, although it would be nice if it did. It would prove very difficult to enforce, since writers would need to meticulously record every minute they spent writing, which most would be loathe to do - we have enough to do keeping the Inland Revenue happy as it is!