A Book is Born

(6:10 am PT) ring... My thought: could be east coast media, I should answer.

Me: "Good Morning, Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing. How could I help you?"

Woman: "Hello, could I speak to whoever is in charge of your book distribution and order fulfillment?"

Me: "You're speaking to her."

Woman: "I see you are currently a client of Perseus Books and I have heard overwhelmingly that their service has dropped dramatically, and I want to tell you how we, XXXX company in NJ, could offer you better customer service."

Me: "Perseus is a well-run machine, it's not them who is the problem, it is the book industry as a whole. As a matter of fact - the better you do your job, the worse it is. The more books you push out to bookstores, the more returns will come back. Your sales aren't to the end buyer, so you're not helping, at all."

Woman: "Oh no, we have a sales team and we sell, sell, sell, blah, blah ,blah...."

Me (interrupting): "BUT you're not selling to the customer. Answer me this, who do you sell to?"

Woman: "We sell to bookstores nationwide, we can get your books into bookstores, isn't that what you want?"

Me: "No, why would we when it will just cost us money when they are returned?"

Woman (utterly flustered): "Well, yes, if someone at Barnes & Noble spills coffee on it maybe...."

Me (interrupting): "WHAT? You're kidding, right? You have a job cold calling publishers trying to steal them from the largest distributor in the US, and YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND RETURNS?" (okay, maybe I raised my voice)

Woman (upset now): "I was just calling you to offer you better customer service than Perseus, that's all! I have heard overwhelmingly that their service has dropped drastically..."

Me: "Best of luck, we're transitioning to demand-driven distribution so we don't have a need for a warehouse space to shelve thousands of unsold books, or a team of sales reps to increase our rate of returns."

Woman: Click.

* * * * * * * * * * * *
This call was taken this morning, as I looked at the sales reports from Perseus to see, yet again, more returns, fees and shipping this month than sales 3 months ago. Don't get me wrong – we "sold" hundreds and hundreds of books! But, a few hundred were also returned from the new book pushes 4-6 months ago, negating the sales we made.

Quite honestly I'm nauseated thinking about our next book, MY book – "A Book is Born", going through the whole distribution process in a few months. I am printing a limited edition with book jackets containing a $1000 certificate – not redeemable for cash, but for our publishing packages – to try and give them a little more shelf-life (you can't flip through a book on Amazon to see if it has a certificate in it!)

~ Nancy