Wow! That's impressive!

A couple of days ago I saw a multitude of copies of Forever Richard through my now defunct second publisher, (books that I no longer make any money off of and neither does the publisher) for sale on Ebay by numerous book sellers. And quite a few books at that. 

Nothing like seeing hordes of books out there that you make no proceeds from when you're attempting to market the "new" edition. All of these books were coming from the UK too which was odd to me. Upon investigating I learned that Gazelle Books, Bookmaster's UK distributor had a number of copies left from the big sell-off that Bookmasters initiated when my publisher was utilizing their services and had held on to the books past the ten month grace period when they could "return them for free" (but of course my publisher would be hit with new charges.)

Upon learning this Gazelle Books actually contacted me and said that they were sorry and they would deal with these books the same way the dealt with the inventory of the same book in February. I assume this meant they'd destroy them since they couldn't send them back to Atlas without losing money. Needless to say, they are folks of their word. The sellers for this particular edition of Forever Richard, from my defunct second publisher, has been pared down to two from about ten. Wow!

Do know that if you plan on purchasing Forever Richard, the new edition has some changes that the old one doesn't have. So not only do I not make anything from your purchasing it, you most likely just spent more money than you would for the new edition which has new material. 

My current publisher Black Bed Sheet Books has some fantastic prices and the BEST prices on all my stories. 

Just in time for Christmas!!!!

Atlas Books - Aw, that's okay. You can be rude to me.

Just a quick word to say that BookMasters in fact does not have any more stock of Forever Richard, ISBN  1934284033, in stock. And the copies that are for sale now are leftovers from when BookMasters "oversold" copies of that book for a "commission." Of course, this move would normally be a good move for a publisher except for that dratted "return policy" set up by the few established publishers back in the depression which negates any possible benefits. Because of that policy, booksellers don't have to pay a dime to return books. 

But somebody has to pay.

Guess who? 

That's right. The publisher. And BookMaster's charges handling fees and other fees on top of that.

So my second small publisher folded because they had to pay straight away for the books that came back (even though the number that came back was less than the ones still out there) before they received money for the books that "might" sell. Booksellers don't have to pay for books for 90 days and most send the books back if they still have them before that time is up.

With that being said, I learned that the copies of my out-of-print book (ISBN 1934284033) Forever Richard that I found for sale on EBAY by various booksellers were actually provided (ultimately) by Gazelle Books who purchase books from BookMaster's Atlas Books. Atlas Books sends out a notice when an account is closed to let their buyers know that they have 10 months to return books before Atlas will no longer accept returns. Apparently the books Gazelle had were left from that "oversell" by BookMasters. 

My second publisher was too small to deal with this financial punch in the gut and certainly didn't see it coming. Who would expect a distributor to rush out and oversell something for a commission knowing that the publisher was going to have to pay for returns and fees on top of that. And it doesn't even take that many returns to put a small publisher under the ground. Good grief.

At any rate, thank-you Gazelle Books for being sooooo on top of things and professional. As for BookMasters . . . let's just say that things haven't improved. They are just as mean and rude as they've always been which is one main reason why I've made my books short-run and non-returnable. If I "never" have to deal with Book Masters again--that will be TOO soon!

And don't forget, you get the best price for any of my books at Black Bed Sheet Books because they can offer the biggest discount. DUH! And I for sure see the money coming to me. ;)

Books-A-Million-2nd largest Chain Bookstore?

Wow! Really? Books-A-Million, according to a tiring blog concerning B&N and Amazon fighting over exclusivity rights (more or less) let this little statistic out of the bag. And OH MY what an eye-opener as far as the publishing industry and the fate of Brick and Mortar stores goes.

Books-A-Million is the second largest chain bookstore and they don't sell anything but "returned from the bookstore" books? Meaning that if you're a smart publisher and you make your books non-returnable according to that "industry" standard return policy designed by large publishers for large publishers back in the depression, you can't get your books into a BAM.

Go google it people. It's easy to find. Each and every one of BAM's distributors (three at last count) only sell those books that are sent in mass to other Chain Bookstores so that the large publisher who sent them can make the NYT best sellers list. Then over 75% of them (that's actually my statistic) are "SOLD" to second hand distributors. A smaller publisher will only go under if they play that "industry" standard return policy game because small publishers who have to deal with distributors such as Ingram's Lightning Source or Bookmasters don't even get the option to get their "returned from the bookstore" books back (nor any of the money if those books are sold to "returned from the bookstore" dealers.) Small publishers are told those books are destroyed in most instances. And still they have to give the money back to the book store that returned it, should that bookstore ever purchase a few copies in the first place. I know, right?

BookMaster's is actually supposed to put the "returned" book back into the publisher's inventory but clearly doesn't since at least 20 copies of Forever Richard showed up in my Local BAM!!! This means BookMasters made a little "something, something" on the side, leaving both my publisher at the time and myself scratching our head. How nice!

But there ya go folks!!! The second largest chain bookstore in the Nation is a used bookstore and can't even carry books by the "smart" publishers because "smart" publishers make their books non-returnable to keep from going under.

And for the record, I've tried to get BAM to order my books but they can't because BAM's "returned from the bookstore" distributors don't have any . . . obviously.

A fantastic blog reply from Goodread!

First off the comment was left by a fantastic author Werner Lind who wrote Lifeblood, a book I thourghly enjoyed.

Werner said in regards to my blog on the "industry standard" return policy blues:

WHOA! That's an eye-opener! I'd always surmised that "returned" books were called that because they were at least actually returned to the publisher for re-sale. But leave it to Big Business to create ever more Orwellian distortions of language. The "industry standard" return policy is beginning to stink even more pungently!

Here's my response:

I can't believe how many times I've posted about this problem and still folks act surprised. LOL That "industry" standard return policy allowed for bookstores to NEVER return books to the publisher. There was a "great" uproar about this when bookstores started trashing the books behind their bookstores as opposed to having to store "unsold" copies. All the bookstores were required to do according to that "industry standard" return policy was to return the book cover!!! That's why you see this printed in books sometimes: Do not buy this book if the cover has been removed. LOL Yeah, right!

Distributors such as Lightning Source don't work a "new" deal for small publishers either. They don't even offer for the small publisher to get the "returned from the bookstore" book back. They print you a "new" copy and charge you $2.00 for shipping which in reality is just to cover the cost of reprinting the book. So if you made 1.25 off a book you sold to B&N, you eat seventy-five cents when it's returned. AND you never see the returned-from-the-bookstore book again.

Bookmasters, a much larger distributor, says they return "return from the bookstore" books to the publishers inventory but I can tell you that they don't do this in every instance. If they did then nearly 50 copies of my now out of print Forever Richard wouldn't have ended up at Books-A-Million, a store that only shelves "returned from the bookstore" books. My publisher didn't sell the books to BAM.

Bookmasters also sent me "returned from the bookstore" books when I ordered author copies of Forever Richard. How do I know? They were signed by me and had a B&N sticker on the dang cover that said, "Signed By Author." They said I could keep them and they'd send me "new" copies. Then they asked if I'd send them back so they could show their folks what to look for next time. I said, "no thanks." I'll keep them and I'll spread the word that Bookmasters doesn't operate according to their contract. Yes it's real fun out there. UGH!

Amazon Rarely Accurate.

Amazon rarely accurate when it comes to book information that is and for a self-pubbed or Small Press author this is never a good thing. For instance, they show 5 copies of Forever Richard, (the rights of which have been reverted back to me) as being being for sale buy Amazon as new. Originally when I saw this, and knew for a fact that BookMasters had sent ALL books that remained back to my wonderful publisher who couldn't survive BookMasters, I decided these were books Amazon may have acquired previously but hadn't sold yet. But then they sold four of six which leave 2 remaining but now shows five available again.

This isn't possible and begs me, the author, to wonder where are they getting these books. The books Amazon's sell (not the one's second hand sellers sell) come straight from the distributor. The distributor in this case, Bookmasters) shouldn't have any more books. They returned them all to the publisher. So why does Amazon show that there are "more on the way." The book is out of print. There are no more new ones to get.

Do know that I have a few copies left myself but once they're gone they're gone until Black Bed Sheet Books puts out the new edition that I plan on letting them have the rights too.

Just don't want y'all putting too much stock in the information Amazon provides. ;)

As for Never Ceese the hard copy, those rights have reverted back to me as well yet they show they can get it from Baker & Taylor. Baker & Taylor has the letter that shows the rights reverted back to me so Amazon shouldn't be able to get ANY copies. That edition of the book should show as out of print. Good grief!

Here we go again.

As you should know, there are a horde of hardbacks out there of Never Ceese due to my first small publisher liquidating all of their stock, that I receive no money off of. I straight away republished my paperback version to attempt to keep some money coming in to me, the author. There is some very GRAND news coming down the pike on getting Never Ceese out there even more so keep watching this site for more details!!!

But by "here we go again" I mean that there will be copies of Forever Richard out there now that I get no money for. My second publisher, for the sake of trying to survive, severed their relationship with BookMasters for reasons that point back to the return policy shared between major wholesalers and bookstores. Tons of "hurt" copies of Forever Richard, over nine hundred dollars worth, are out there supposedly waiting to be destroyed which, by the way, my second publisher will have to pay for despite not knowing for certain the books she's paying to have destroyed actually exist or whether they'll actually be destroyed.

There is a way to verify that BookMasters isn't treating "hurt" books the way they say they do or I wouldn't have received "hurt" books as new when I ordered some author copies. The other proof is that over thirty, that I know of, "hurt" books were bought by my local Books-A-Million. According to my findings, BAM's wholesaler only sells "hurt" books.

So now that my publisher has severed ties with BookMasters and has given me the rights to Forever Richard back, any books you see on-line or otherwise of Forever Richard are technically "stolen" books and, that's right, neither I nor my publisher see any of the money from the sale of them. Not only that, my publisher actually lost a large amount of money paying fees associated with these books, over-sold by BookMaster employees for a commission.

However, there is also a deal being conspired of at this moment to get Forever Richard back out there. Cyn No more too.

So yeah, that's the deal.

Oh, the drama!

Independent Distributors

Morsel for today about distributors or wholesalers depending on what the particular company wants to call themselves.

From a site that boast a list of Independent distributors:

Note: No distributor listed below is likely to take on distribution of a single POD (printed-on-demand) book. POD does not lend itself to distribution via distributors, except in the case of backlist books that are being kept in print only via POD. Frontlist books, which are the books that most benefit from distribution by a distributor, need to be produced in sufficient quantity to merit the sales efforts of one of these distributors.

And what are Frontlist books. Here's the clearest definition I could find:

"There are two publishing seasons each year: Spring (January to June) and Fall (July to December). Publishers who issue catalogs used to do so twice a year to match the publishing seasons. The new titles were listed in front of the catalog--hence the name. Older books were listed in the rear of the catalog--hence the name "backlist." . . . This can vary from house to house, but it usually refers to a title that is less than one year old. "Backlist," therefore means a book that has been in print for at least one year."

No distributor listed below [at this link] is likely to take on distribution of a single POD (printed-on-demand) book? Really? And yet distributors such as BookMasters are listed and they pretty much distribute POD books--POD books they themselves print. I suppose the wording "is likely" gives the right for POD distributors such as BookMasters to be listed. And so small publishers flock to BookMasters because they can afford this [so they think until they reap the benefits of fee after fee after fee that ultimately sink any small and POD publisher before they even get out of the gate.

Atlas books of which Book Masters is a division, does have an arm for large publishers. It's BDS another division of Atlas Books Yet if you qualify for distribution through BDS you probably won't have any trouble getting "hooked up" with either Ingram or Baker & Taylor for distribution. So why waste your time and money getting "hooked up" with a smaller wholesaler who most likely charges the same and can only offer less benefits as Ingram or Baker & Taylor who are the top two wholesalers that bookstores buy from. And no, I'm not advocating "hooking up" with Ingram or Baker & Taylor as they are the two wholesalers who are facilitating the bookstores ludicrous return policy that kills all POD and small presses that seek distribution.

I suppose I'm just saying to call a duck a duck. It is not relevant to refer to a distributor simply as distributor any more than it is relevant to call a title "Christian" when it is written for a very specific denominational market.

Speaking of Christian, STL is also on the list of distributors. Yes, they are a distributor but the bookstores they primarily shop their customers book to are "Christian" bookstores which actually only provide books for the conservative evangelical fundamentalist Christian. And most of those stores only take books that are CBA approved and already [and automatically] have distribution through Ingram's denominationally exclusive Spring Arbor or rather, as Ingram puts it, their fundamentalists arm. If you want your book in "Christian" bookstore then you need to bite the bullet and sign up with CBA. Ingram provides this denominational branch their OWN distribution. No need to waste your money on distributors who claim to serve the "Christian" market. Rest assured they will take your money.

Okay, that's enough for now. ;)

Off to work on Electric Angel!!

Jackson MS Books-A-Million signing.

Never mind. LOL

I don't have the funds to promote a booksigning and sure don't see the point when the bookstore no longer has me in their system so they can order more if they do sell out. Just do me a favor and go buy the nine that are at the Jackson Books-A-Million before they can be sent back to my publisher who will then lose money hand over fist because they have to pay for books that are returned.

Do know that as far as Books-A-Million goes, for whatever reason, Forever Richard no longer shows up in their system at all on-line or otherwise. Sad. Very sad.

Also if you do buy one of the nine copies and don't have Never Ceese or haven't read it, please contact me at sdent1@bellsouth.net and I'll be glad to get you a copy. The Bookshelf in Ridgeland has copies and can call me to bring them up there if they run out.

Good folks there! ;)