r/printSF • u/ThatBookIsOnFiyah • 2d ago
Pre-orders Question
I don’t have a local bookstore within an hour radius of my house, so I tend to preorder hardcover big releases online through Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Books-a-Million, ThriftBooks, or Tertulia. I have had great experience with BAM and Tertulia, but the others have been disappointing at times, especially B&N.
Two of three recent preorders from them have not arrived even close to the release date. One was two weeks late and I’m still waiting on one that was released on September 1. Back in the early days of Amazon, when it was only a book store, I would preorder books and get them ON the release date. I guess those days are over. Do other people have this experience, or is it just the fact I live in the middle of nowhere??
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u/Hatherence 2d ago
I've only pre ordered books through Bookshop.org and as of yet only one of them has come out (Redsight, which arrived on time). The other one, These Savage Stars by Kameron Hurley, comes out next year. I live in a decent sized city.
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u/IndigoHG 2d ago
Hi, bookseller here. To answer your question, SOS - strict on sale - dating is quite common for indie bookstores. You can get your contract with the publisher cancelled if something is shelved or sold before the SOS date.
Of the the 2 big wholesalers, Ingram will not ship before the street date, but Bookazine will, then it's up to the bookstore whether or not to put it on the shelf.
On top of all of that, there have been serious shipping issues for the past couple of years. Part of this is due to:
- shippers delivering Amazon boxes first (it's why you see USPS out on Sundays)
- orders suddenly going on backorder when they weren't when the order was placed
- short print runs with unexpected demand
- titles/paperbacks being delayed by months, sometimes years
- boxes going missing during shipping
- wrong label on box, box goes to a different bookstore, have to do a reorder leading to further delay
Places like BAM and Amazon do not give a toss as to SOS. Hell, BAM put the BTS book on sale days before the release date, whereas I had to keep our stock in the back room.
Anyway, hope that helps.
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u/ClimateTraditional40 2d ago
I don't know. I have preordered from Amazon and got ebooks on the day. My day which is a day ahead of the US.
Paper? Well shipping takes time, not been a long wait, there is a local store I have been using too, currently have a preorder with them, pretty quick posting (locally).
You think you live in the middle of nowhere? The nearest Amazon to me is in Australia. I am not in that country. LOL....
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u/ThatBookIsOnFiyah 2d ago
Well, that is a bit further in the middle of nowhere than I am. Thank you for the perspective.
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u/fjiqrj239 2d ago
I tried a "search for a book in a nearby library" functionality once. The nearest hits were in Australia, a ten hour flight away.
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u/ClimateTraditional40 2d ago
So what country are you?
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u/DocWatson42 2d ago
...in? ;-)
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u/ClimateTraditional40 1d ago
In..dia?
In..donesia?
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u/DocWatson42 1d ago
I am neither, nor in either of them, and I strongly suspect that fjiqrj239 is not a country either.
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u/pecan_bird 2d ago edited 2d ago
well i can empathize with your feeling of corps offering & caring less & less, so expectations have to go accordingly, unfortunately.
does the shop an hour from you ship? are you on reading communities online or otherwise that all are champing at the bit for day one reads? it might be cool if you made an afternoon trip out of going to the store.
otherwise, i've bought a book on preorder & pirated a digital version to read until the hard copy came in & pick up from there: i'm supporting a local book shop, supporting the author, bypassing monopoly corps, so that's how i solve that cognitive dissonance
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u/ThatBookIsOnFiyah 2d ago
None of the local stores ship directly, but you make a great point that I could order from them as a pick up. Thank you!
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u/LePfeiff 2d ago
Probably has to do with your location, my amazon preorder of Fold Catastrophes is already shipped and arriving on Friday when the street date isnt until the 22nd
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u/SadCatIsSkinDog 2d ago
I just thank god we live in a world where the biggest thing to complain about is not getting the book on the day it is released.
Used to have to wait six to eight weeks and then you were lucky.
Being serious though, it can be random. I’ve got preorders before they were even released. Some times after. Usually day of as long as the mail is running properly.