[From Bill Powers (2002.03.29.0742 MST)]
Alice McElhone (2002.03.29.1424 EST) –
Bill Curry wrote to Bill P.
<<just went e-shopping for a dozen copies [of MSOB. BN will ship in 24 hours while the Amazon delivery was 4-5 weeks! Is this because Benchmark gets a raw deal by selling through Amazon?>>
Bill P. thought you all might be interested in this topic first raised by Bill Curry. (With his permission, I'll forward his letter to Amazon in my never-ending quest to make them play fair.)
Benchmark ships to Amazon the day we receive their orders, as we do to Barnes & Noble, Borders and others. Our books are packaged like glass and we've never had a return for damage in six years.
After two years in publishing, getting killed by the establishment's rules of the game, we decided to play our own way. Huge, often unscrupulous, distribution chains have choked out so many small presses that we knew we couldn't compete on their terms. So our on-line outlets now follow the same terms we give everyone: payment in advance and no returns. Sales may be slower, but we know our market and the sales stick. To get Amazon to change our availablity, we have to knuckle under to their coercive terms of an even greater discount and return privileges. (When we put our first book on-line, we used to get top availability on merit.)
As to linking to Amazon and others, we've considered it, but are pursuing a goal of increasing our own on-line sales with on-line credit card ordering. (Watch this space: www.benchpress.com/bookstore.htm).
Thanks to Bill Curry for calling attention to a subject dear to my heart. Who knows? maybe we'll change our minds when the second printing of MSOB goes to press.
Alice
Alice McElhone
Benchmark Publications Inc.
New Canaan, Connecticut 06840
203-966-6653 (v) 203-972-7129 (f)
···
Hi Bill,
I like to give MSOB to my curious friends, and just went e-shopping for
a dozen copies. BN will ship in 24 hours while the Amazon delivery was
4-5 weeks! Is this because Benchmark gets a raw deal by selling
through Amazon?
My sister is a well-published children’s lit author (currently with
Simon & Schuster) with 40 some titles in print . She positively curls
her toes when I mention the A word because she sees electronic marketing
as unraveling the world of smaller booksellers. Perhaps true but a bit
of a Luddite position methinks.
BTW, I guess you’re aware that Amazon (and probably BN) have an
Associates program that pays up to 15% commission on all sales generated
via participating Associate weblinks. It’s a totally invisible process
once you sign up and hyperlink your title to Amazon.
Cheers,
Bill Curry
–
William J. Curry Capticom, Inc.
bill@powerseed.com 603.756.9933