When Amazon Decides to Ship Your Book Early...
You embrace the chaos!
One of the (many!) great things about publishing with a start-up, boutique, female-founded imprint is that I have been able to see behind the curtain and learn so much about how books get made.
Just when I thought I had a handle on process, and everything started coming together, Amazon decided to, well, Amazon.
The official publication date for my debut memoir, Mom, Rediscovered: My Midlife Breakup with Drinking and Diet Culture, is this Tuesday, October 21. My official book launch(/45th birthday!) party is tomorrow, October 19. So, in advance of my party, I ordered around 50 hardcover copies of Mom, Rediscovered direct from IngramSpark, the company that actually prints and distributes books for smaller publishers like mine.
[Side note in case you didn’t know this and are interested, because I didn’t know it until I wrote a book and find it interesting: IngramSpark is a printing and distribution platform for independent authors and small publishers within Ingram Content Group, which is the umbrella company that handles global distribution for basically everyone, including the Big Five publishing houses. So IngramSpark gives authors like me access to the same distribution channels as big-time authors. Cool, right?]
Amazon, however, also prints its own paperbacks, on-demand, for indie authors like me who are published by smaller imprints and use IngramSpark. Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) is its own whole thing, y’all.
What this means is that if you buy Mom, Rediscovered from Amazon, it will be printed by Amazon KDP. If you buy my book through another e-tailer or at a brick-and-mortar store, it will have been printed by IngramSpark.
My publisher and I set the book up on IngramSpark to be available prior to my release date so that I could order my hardcovers and bookstores could place their orders, too. We planned to wait until yesterday to “push the button” on KDP to tell Amazon that Mom, Rediscovered is now available. We wanted to time it so that books pre-ordered from Amazon would arrive right on the pub date.
Alas, Amazon’s gonna Amazon.
Amazon prioritizes immediate fulfillment. So a chunk of pre-orders got sent into the queue because Amazon knew that the book was technically listed as “available” on IngramSpark. Other e-tailers, like Barnes and Noble, abide by the “On Sale Date” as listed within my book’s profile on IngramSpark. Not Amazon!
Does this surprise anyone? Ha!
My mom received her copy yesterday. A bunch of friends have texted me today with photos of their paperbacks. Even though these books come from Amazon, they were printed by Ingram, because Amazon had to Amazon and insisted on getting them out, pub date be damned, and Ingram was all set up to print ‘em.
Does any of this matter? No. But I just needed to spill this tea.
What’s more: the me of several years ago, stuck in perfectionism and people-pleasing, would have FREAKED THE F OUT that the pre-ordered paperbacks were arriving early. I told people that Tuesday was the day, not today! I told people to order the “pre-release” hardcover that I’m signing at my party and now the paperback is here sooner! Etc.
Instead, I decided to embrace this hiccup as a gift. I posted a video about it.
And I wrote some instructions to maximize the impact of these early arrivals:
Most importantly, I have been delighting in the texts and DMs I’ve received from those whose books have arrived. I even just saw my very first review posted to Amazon—a huge milestone for me (and an even huger thank you to my amazing friend who posted it!).
Does any of this feel real yet? No.
But that’s okay.
In fact, it’s all good.
Even though she’s arrived a little early, I am so grateful Mom, Rediscovered is out in the world, and I can’t wait to celebrate over the next few days.
To my readers, thank you for being on this journey with me. You have my heart and soul in your hands, and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts and feedback.