Dragaera

Fw: Your Amazon.com order has shipped (#103-7370420-2051818)

Wed Apr 7 12:23:58 PDT 2004

On Wed, Apr 07, 2004 at 02:56:21PM -0400, Joy Jennifer Nicholson <jjnichol at MIT.EDU> wrote:
> Mine apparently hasn't even been shipped yet.  If it was officially out
> on the 1st, why didn't they ship it then?
> *waiting in frustration*

They can't ship it until they have it.

It's only with big-name books (eg, the Wheel of Time books) that 
publishers set and enforce a sell-by date.  Otherwise, the 
release dates tend to be "within a month or so"; that is, the 
publisher says "I'll publish this in April", makes arrangements 
to print a run in that month or shortly before, then ships the 
books to their distributor.  The distributor then ships to 
individual bookstores.  In the case of Amazon, they then ship it 
to you.

(This is why Amazon is slower than bookstores, usually -- amazon 
gets the book at the same time as bookstores do, then has to 
package and ship it to you).

So far as I know, Brust is still firmly in the realm of "No, we 
don't expect to see this on the NYTimes bestseller list".

Now, with a big name book, it's different.  I'm going from 
memory here, so anyone actually intimately involved in the 
publishing industry should feel free to correct me, but as I 
understand it, there is usually an official release date, and 
bookstores are not allowed to sell the book before that date.  
However, they usually RECEIVE the book days or weeks in advance.
The book then gets stored in a back room or the like until it can 
be placed on shelves or whatever cardboard displays the publisher 
has arranged for.

Sometimes books leak, if a bookstore puts it out early 
"accidentally", but there are penalties if caught.  Employees, of 
course, can snag the books early if they are stealthy.  This is 
where it pays to know/bribe/seduce someone who works at a 
bookstore.

-- 
Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org)
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