Obtaining your novels

[jbcohen]

I know what people think about getting the books from the library versus getting them from the neighborhood book store. But how do you feel about the various book sellers? There are two major book sellers that come to my mind plus one on-line one (Amazon.com, Barns and Nobels (books.com) and Borders). What is your feeling about the on-line sellers?

 

[Gary Wassner]

as far as stocking the books and shipping them, they are all pretty good. But, you will never see amazon or b & n recommend a new author to anyone. They are like pay to play sites; the publishers tell them pretty much what to promote. so unless you know what you are looking for, you will get more of the same. I have questioned them regarding what it takes to get one of my own books on the "if you liked this, you will like this" list, but the answer was clear; a major publisher's push!

 

[fluffy bunny]

amazon does do the- customers who bought this also bought...

Helps if the book is in a specialised area of a genre, but other than that, amazon also do the recommendation thingy- input a load of ur books in there, rate each one out of 5 and it'll pull some fancy stuff with looking at what other customers who bought similar stuff to you also looked at. I'm now looking at these, then asking other people what they think of them.

Obsure books are less likely to come up though- unless say- someone bought one of gemquests books, loved it, gave it a five star rating, - his/her other books would pop up on the list somewhere

And doesn't help if you don't want 'more of the same' kind of books.

Sometimes you could do what all of us do on occasion- just go into a shop, shut your eyes (ok not literally) and pick a book at random. (oh it's cheaper if you do that down your local library- there are some real gems down in mine)

 

[DarthV]

I buy all my novels at locally owned bookstores. I finally became fed-up with the BS in dealing with Chapters. I haven't ordered any books online.

The local bookstore actually stocks new SCIFI/Fan novels...so I don't think I've had to order in any newer books.

 

[Gary Wassner]

There is one problem with buying at a small, local store - not a problem for you, but for authors who publish with small presses.
The online stores carry everything. There is no issue with stocking the book, so they can list them and purchase them when needed, or list POD books etc. The small bookstore has to buy the books and have them on their shelves. Though there are many high quality small presses like Wildside and Tachyon, they don't have the dollars to spend on marketing and they cannot sell on the same terms that the big publishers do all the time. Small stores buy from reviews often in Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and Locus, and the small presses don't always have the dollars to spend on sending out lots of review copies. So, the local small store may not carry the more obscure authors or the new and promising ones unless they are published by Tor or Delray etc.

 

[Daenerys]

Had to reply: I work in a bookstore

Needless to say: I do not order online. And in one case only did I have trouble ordering a book: it was indeed by a small publisher, but I never even checked if it was available online. (I think it was, the publisher had a site through which I could order it, but me living in Holland, them being in the US, I just skipped it. Too bad.)

Ordering online, it just can't be compared to actually walking into a bookstore and talking to the staff. Especially if you found the one person who reads scifi/fantasy. I have my 'own' circle of customers. And it's not always about selling; sometimes we just exchange information. Of course selling books helps pay my bills, but in the end I am as much a customer as the person I try to 'sell' books to.

And then there is the feel of a book; and the opportunity to see the printed pages; to read a chapter before you buy it. How can anyone be satisfied buying books online? Or is that just my Dutch attitude?

personal feel good moment in the store today: I sold another Ash, by Mary Gentle *marks on bookcase* That makes eight.

 

[fluffy bunny]

Have to say Daenerys. Your bookstore seems a lot more friendly than the stores around here (mainly big chain bookshops). That and noone there seems to have similar reading habits to me. You're right about the heft and feel of a good book- only thing is if i go into a bookshop, I end up coming out with far too many books by your method

 

[kater]

I get mine of the internet mostly, amazon normally has good deals where as conventional books stores don't do much in that way. Also there's another fairly large chain of book stores in Britain that I go to often in Nottingham called Waterstones which is pretty good.

 

[Gary Wassner]

Daenerys: My point exactly! I would love it if my books were being sold by small bookstores because that is really how word spreads and a following is generated. But, you would never know about my first book because it is not promoted by my publisher and it does not appear in the catalogs you probably buy from, though it is distrbuted by Ingram and listed by Bowker and Publishers weekly.
The small presses in the US are publishing some very high quality material now that the major publishers are running scared and making it almost impossible for a new author to get published by them. Try spending two years first finding an agent who will then spend two years soliciting the publishers that wouldn't look at your work beforehand even though it hasn't changed during that entire time.

 

[fortytwo]

I'll only buy on-line as a last resort.

i.e... Book out of print (try to get second hand copy)
...Book not published in the U.K.

There are three good bookshops in my nearest town
Ottakers
Waterstones
Methuen
Any of these will order books for you at no extra cost if it appears on their computer.
Unlike the well known on-line store which offers books at a discount and then by adding on postage/handling brings the cost back up to where it was before the discount- you might as well go to your local shop in the first place.

PS. (Not to be read by authors ) There are many fine second hand book shops out there too!

42

 

[courtney]

There's a wicked bookshop in Brisbane that's called Pulp Fiction, and i have the pleasure of going in there and finding that regardless of weather i'm looking for something specific or not, they always have something that grabs my attrntion. And of course they;ll order in anything they don't have so it's all good ultimately. Plus the staff now know me and so can point out hings that i might well take a fancy to. I'm old fashioned, and like that type of personal touch. I mean y'all here on this site like that type of thing too otehrwise we wouldn't spend time chatting and bickering with each other right?
the online stuff is good in a way, but for me doesn't have the same vibe as when i can pick up a book at my leisure and peruse it y' know? if something is unobtainable any other way than that's cool but otherwise...
and i love the smell of new books; it's nice to have a book in your hands and to take in the smell and feel of the book before yo buy it- online stuff doesn't have that. sorry it's something i'm working on, give me time and i'm sure i'll get over it!

 

[jfclark]

I live in Boston, a city with both great chain bookstores (esp. Borders and the Harvard Barnes & Noble) and great independent bookstores. I shop at them all frequently. Their fantasy sections tend to be well-stocked with all the latest offerings of the mainstream fantasy press (e.g., Tor).

That said, I've bought hundreds of books online. In my mind, online shopping for used books has far surpassed simply going to a used bookstore in terms of the quality of choices. But I also buy books online that I know are hard to come by in stores in the U.S. (like Steven Erikson's books), small press books (I buy a lot from Wildside Press and Old Earth Books), and later volumes of series that I've begun and expect to finish.

Shopping at bookstores is great. But if you want something other than the flavor of the month, online shopping is generally the easiest way to satisfy.

 

[Sammie]

Oooh - i can moan here. As i was paying for my books in my big Waterstones bookstore, reently, i casually asked the guy why a FIFTH of their sf/f section was filled with copies of LotR........he gave me the most FILTHY look, and told me VERY coldly that that was what people bought the most of. I left THOROUGHLY subdued!!

 

[jbcohen]

Ok, I am going to have to admit it. I prefer dealing with the smaller and independent book stores, but since Barns and Nobel and Borders came to town there has been no independents left in my neck of the woods. There is a Chapters in Georgetown (You probably have figured out what village I live in). Are the independents better then the larger chains? I typically use Amazon to help me select the novels, because they are willing to show a few pages for nothing. I will never purchase anything from them because of the shipping charge. I take the price of the novel and add to the cost the shipping cost. I take this result and compare it to the cost of the book in the local used or new book store. The price in the local book store is always cheaper.

 

[Solaar]

Originally posted by fortytwo

There are three good bookshops in my nearest town
Ottakers
Waterstones
Methuen
42

I always go with Ottakers - they've always managed to turn up books I want - especially the out-of-country Heroes Die.

Solaar
do I owe 42 a pm?

 

[Pluvious]

Independent Book Store?

What's an independent book store? The only book stores I ever see are Barnes & Noble, Borders, & Waldenbooks. Other than that there are used book stores, but I havn't seen a decent sized book store that isn't specialize in used books.

That being said I can usually find what I want. I prefer Amazon because it is easy and their recommendations for nonfiction are great. The chains offer the newer books in an accessible way and the used book stores offer a less expensive chance to find some book from the past.

But I've never got much advice from booksellers. I just look around or go in knowing what I want.

 

[ezchaos]

Here in my neck of the woods, we have a Borders, a Waldenbooks, and a few small, independant stores. None of the independant stores have a good fantasy section, so I don't bother with them. Waldenbooks, well, nuff said. Borders isn't too bad. They usually have a better than average supply of fantasy books. If I drive 1-2 hours there are a few Barnes & Nobles I can check out.
As far as ordering online, I've only done it a few times. Usually because I want a hard to find book, like Gardens of the Moon. I bought that book from a small shop in British Columbia. I only like to deal in cash, so I stay away from places like Amazon for the easy to find stuff.

 

[DarthV]

I'm quite surprised that for a small city (60-70k population), the locally owned stores haven't been driven out of business since Chapters opened up in the largest mall. We have 2 pretty decent local stores...and they actually treat you like they want your business. There were a few employees at Chapters that were great to deal with...but those were the exception to the rule.

GemQuest, I can see your point about the small pusblishers and how it's easier to deal with online sales. Then again, any good bookstore can order in copies of your work on request. I'd rather spend my money at a place that is locally owned...and not just around to drive everyone else out of business and then provide less and less service & value.

 

[Radthorne]

As far as Amazon goes, don't believe the "Customers who bought *this* also bought *this*" routine. Back when my book was an iUniverse title, lo and behold one of these lists popped up for it. Funny thing was the same list popped up for several dozen other iUniverse authors all at the same time...all with the same books on it. It's strictly a marketing ploy, and is not based on any real comparison of actual purchase combinations by customers.

Just to really make my day, Amazon recently opened an "Apparel" online store. So to promote this, they're taking the "Customers who bought" schtick and really running with it. If you look up the current edition of my book on Amazon, on a random basis you may get a truly insipid message on the page that says, "Customers who wear clothes also shop for: 'Clean Underwear' from Amazon's Target Store." I kid you not. Thanks, Amazon, that looks really nice when people are shopping for my book... (Are there customers who don't wear clothes? I suppose if there were, they wouldn't need to shop for clean underwear... or dirty underwear, which one presumes must also be available by the logic of Amazon's sentence...)

At least at the local bookstore you don't have to worry about clothing recommendations...

 

[Keyoke]

I try to buy from my local bookstore, and if I can, from a indie bookstore.

I will order books online if I feel that I'll never see the book on my local shelves, such as some U.K. books.

I am fortunate that I have indie bookstore that caters to scifi/fantasy only. Called the Sentry Box here in Calgary, it's a excellent source of novels. And, they have a rather huge inventory, and I have found some books on their shelves that are out of print.

Keyoke