Immortal on Amazon.com

I might make this more complicated than it needs to be

Here is the short version of the larger point of this blog entry:

  • Immortal is listed on Amazon, and you can add it to your wish list right now by clicking here.

But wait, don’t click that yet.  I have more to tell you about.

Actually, I take that back; go ahead and click on it.  I’ll wait.

Now that you’re back

If you scan the Amazon page carefully, you’ll notice the following sentences:

Currently unavailable.
We don’t know when or if this item will be back in stock.

Here is where I make things complicated, even if I probably don’t need to.

Important information

  1. The book is still coming out on 10/1/10; that hasn’t changed
  2. The page will continue to say “unavailable” until Amazon has received, in their warehouse, copies of Immortal, and there is nothing you or I or whatever deity we petition can do about it
  3. Likewise, the publication date, which has consistently been listed as 1/1/10 instead of 10/1/10 on the Amazon site, will likely not change until after there are copies in their warehouse
  4. The current unavailability of the book also means you cannot add it to your shopping list, something that will not (I believe) change until the book is for sale

Cover by Charles Davis

What it will look like

I would now like to direct your attention to the first book published by Hamel Integrity Publishing: Cast the First Stone by Shawn Rohrbach.

Barring a change in the next few weeks, this is much how the interface will look when Immortal becomes available.

As I will explain below, the book is being sold through Amazon.com, and not by Amazon.com.  That’s why you have that line there that reads “Available from These Sellers”.

And there’s this: “1 new from $12.95”.  Unless Shawn has had a VERY good week there are roughly 750 copies of his book sitting in the Amazon warehouse right now, but regardless of the stock it’s never going to list more than that one available copy.

This deeply misleading line does not actually prevent you from ordering more than one book at a time, and as far as I can tell is only there to annoy everyone.

So why is it set up this way?

Right now, Hamel Integrity Publishing is going to be using the “Amazon Fulfillment” program to sell the first run of books.  Books purchased this way are being bought directly from the publisher, but shipped by Amazon.  (A consignment plan, essentially.)  For you, the buyer, there is virtually no difference.  You order it through Amazon, and Amazon ships it, and you get it in a few days.

But the difference between costs for the publisher (and by extension me) are huge.  A direct deal– whereby Amazon buys copies of the book from the publisher and then sells them– would translate into handing over to Amazon more than half of the unit cost.

Where you come in

Simply ignoring the slightly different interface and ordering copies when they become available will help a lot.  I’m not just saying that because I want you to buy Immortal– which of course I do– but because sales figures (and blurbs and good reviews) open other doors.  In the future there will be a distribution deal, one that will make it possible to buy copies directly from Amazon, other online retailers, and live bookstores.

Until then, ignore the fact that the book looks a little different, and on 10/1, order your copy.

Trust me, it’s worth it.

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  1. […] publisher’s initial plan was to use their “fulfillment” plan which resulted in this spectacular blog entry in which I attempted to convince my readers to wish-list the book due to the impossibility of […]

  2. […] initial plan was to use Amazon’s “fulfillment” plan which resulted in this spectacular blog entry in which I attempted to convince my readers to wish-list the book due to the impossibility of […]

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