I’m so incredibly frustrated with how my paperback book distribution for my launch week turned out. 😵💫😡😒📚
On Amazon, my book shows as “Temporarily out of stock,” and it has completely disappeared from Ingram and Bookshop.org (more about that in a sec).
The Amazon one makes a little more sense. Bookbaby told me that they send out their “preorder” sales to them later than they should, so they have to print quickly and get the books to the warehouse, and it’s always a rush.
On Barnes & Noble’s website, it’s not even available! It just says UNAVAILABLE! Except for the ebook, you can get that for your Nook.
The one that’s really upsetting me is Ingram & Bookshop.org. I reached out to a bunch of bookstores & libraries, saying that my book was available for wholesale through those outlets because that’s where they primarily order from. My books were available through there for weeks. I got excited and posted about it. I double checked a couple of days ago, and my books were gone! It’s going to be so much harder for me to market my books. I did everything correctly, and everything is still wrong.
Now Bookbaby is telling me that, starting January 1st, they won’t use Ingram or Bookshop.org due to various frustrations and other reasons. They said they’d reach out with more info soon. It’s crazy they did this with no warning. If I weren’t launching my book this week and being super anal about checking every detail, I wouldn’t even have known!
I am SUPER deflated and disappointed. Being an indie author is hard enough, and then things like this happen! I’m hoping Bookbaby connects with me and can provide support and guidance, because I may have to start over with someone else if needed. If I have to do that, it’s going to be hard.
ON A MORE POSITIVE NOTE: I received a great booklife review today! Click to go to the site, but I’m also pasting below!
This vivid sci-fi opener to Cleary’s Black Stone Cycle series unites a newly orphaned teenager—who possesses mysterious telepathic gifts—with an eclectic group in a fight to outwit corruption and totalitarian corporations. Sixteen-year-old Ash Bennet has been living a nomadic lifestyle with her parents for a long time. But when the family lands their high-tech ship—designed by Ash’s father—on a moon of Phobos (so named for the ancient Greek personification of fear), Ash’s parents are murdered and her world descends into grief, chaos, and questions about her heritage. She quickly bands together with a trio of misfits to survive: Isaac and Isabel, twins and “Pathers” with telepathic and empathic abilities, and Edan, the attractive son of space pirates, who’s intent on disowning his family’s ruthless legacy and achieving redemption.
Cleary’s engaging narrative draws on its own quirky language and social order to land immersive worldbuilding, where connections are forged through advanced tech, nature is a thing of the past, and humanity is now guarded by fierce pather soldiers, known as Mind Squad Agents. Ash and company must fight to escape Phobos for various reasons, but chief among them is infiltration by those agents, whose sole purpose appears to be seeking out Pathers like Isaac and Isabel and kidnapping them. As the teens battle for survival, they also uncover a creeping darkness governing their galactic society.
All that action gets bogged down at times with dizzying inner monologues that punctuate the teens’ travel back and forth between Ash’s ship and their hideout, but the writing sets the stage for a larger saga, sweeping readers into a futuristic world with incredible detail and wonderfully diverse characters who portray queerness and neurodivergence in ways that feel neither forced nor superficial. Despite some pacing issues, The Dreamer is an explosive introduction to a series marked by complex social problems and interpersonal drama.
Takeaway: Immersive SF with diverse characters, addressing larger social themes.
Comparable Titles: Victoria Lee’s The Fever King, Veronica Roth’s Carve the Mark.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A
Thanks for listening to my TED TALK on book distribution. Wish me luck that these issues will be resolved!
xoxo, Linda
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