So I was supposed to do a booksigning and reading—two picturebooks from two different publishing houses (neither one from Roundtable)—and I thought I had all my ducks in a row. Since the books weren’t returnable, the bookstore that was the venue for the event said I would have to pre-purchase and bring the books in myself, a condition they had stipulated for my previous signing there, and therefore one that didn’t take me by surprise. I ordered the requisite number of each of the two books from their respective publishers and sent out notices to my “local list” (friends, associates, clients, and others I know who live in my area), alerting them to the signing and saying I hoped they’d show up.
Both publishers use POD (print on demand) technology and don’t keep inventory of their books on hand. Both had to order from their respective printers. In due time, the shipment of books from the printer for one publisher arrived. But not the other. I made a polite inquiry of the publisher of the missing books, and he called the printer. They kept him on hold on the phone for-freakin’-ever but finally sent him a copy of an invoice that purported to show the books had shipped over a week earlier—via “ECON.”
“I paid for priority shipping!” said the disgruntled publisher.
So, where were the books? When several more days had elapsed with no books arriving, I called the publisher again and he called the printer again. They claimed bad weather on the East Coast was delaying shipments, but it was on the way and surely I’d get it any day.
Surely I didn’t.
Meanwhile I sent out another notice to remind my local list of the event.
It was nail-biting time right down to the wire. The morning of the reading, I still didn’t have the books. I gathered up my own two copies of the missing book, the copies of the other book that had been shipped to me timely, and my own two copies of that book, to try to supplement the missing books, and headed off to the reading.
Hardly any of the people on my local list showed up—not even the friend who, at the previous signing, had made a point of stressing that I must be sure to let him know when the next signing was. In addition to those who did show, however, there were two families I didn’t know. (Remember, these were picturebooks for kids I was reading.) I had put notices on CraigsList and Facebook, and I guess one or the other bore fruit.
I didn’t know whether to be upset at the smaller-than-expected turnout or be grateful that there would be less demand for books I didn’t have.
The book-reading and -signing went off without a hitch. Everybody bought books, and I had more or less the right number of books for the number of people who were there.
The publisher of the missing books refunded the money I’d spent to get copies and told me that when they did show up I was to keep them at his expense.
So the event was reasonably successful, and I walked away with a bit of money in my pocket.
But thus far the missing books still haven’t shown up.
The publisher is changing printers. From here out, the printing division of Roundtable will print his books.