Things are slowly getting back on track with the book sales at Amazon. The book shows as “In Stock” once again on Amazon.com
However, I think there must have been quite a few sales waiting to be despatched from both the US Amazon warehouse and the UK one, as Amazon.com now shows “Only 5 copies left – order soon (more on the way)”. The UK site displays a similar message, but with only two copies remaining!
While this is a little frustrating, I guess it is also encouraging too. I haven’t really made any concerted effort at marketing yet, as I would like availabilty not to be an issue when I do begin in ernest. I have a mailing list of over 4,000 people to contact, as well as about 100 press contacts, all gathered over the past couple of years.
I am going to chase up with Amazon again today, as I am a little confused about why availability is even an issue. With the book being supplied by one of the world’s largest Print On Demand suppliers, this shouldn’t really be an issue. LightningSource have print facilities in both the US and UK, and can print and despatch a book as soon as it is ordered. LS provide order fulfillment for online suppliers. This means that an online book store can offer a LS book, showing it as “In Stock”, even if they don’t hold any copies. When a customer places an order, the store simply forwards that order on to LS, who print the book and send it directly to the customer.
At the moment Amazon don’t seem to want to use this facility, preferring to hold a stock of books themselves. When these run out the book gets marked as potentially taking much longer to deliver. At times this would mean that I can order single copies of the book direct from the printer, as could any other online retailer, and despatch them direct to the customer quicker than Amazon can.
The whole point of going the Print On Demand route was to avoid having to handle stock. Come on Amazon – let’s try to keep up please! It’s going to get busier than this when I talk my way on to Oprah’s couch!!
