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Post by kresby on Aug 23, 2010 20:25:58 GMT -6
This will definitely change my buying habits. I buy a lot of the higher priced editions and if Bloodletting, Delirium, Altar 13, Sideshow, and Bad Moon all release a lettered/deluxe at the same time I will not be able to use layaway to make an affordable payment to cover multiple releases. I will have to let some go. I should probably cut back anyway. Larry offering deposit and pay on ship will help. I'm worried about the same things Scott.
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Post by bloodlettingpress on Aug 23, 2010 21:02:28 GMT -6
I can tell you that the big ticket items won't be an issue for you guys because the reserve policy that my store will have is going to take care of you. In the long run I think you'll like the new set up better...pay for items and they ship right away...something the horror genre has needed for quite some time.
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Post by demeter on Aug 23, 2010 23:00:50 GMT -6
Even though I'm probably not one of the best HM customers (only ordering a few books every year), I've been a customer from the begining, and I, too was dismayed to hear about the new policies- as well as the forums shutting down, and Bloodletting going the "Delirium" route as far as binding & dust jackets- I'm taking a wait & see approach. I have faith in Larry, and really hope I still like his books as much as when they were wonderfully bound in Canada. I have to say that I am a bit surprised that there are/were such a large amount of cancellations of "Buy it Now- Pay For it Later" orders. Like I said, even though I've only been good for a few books a year, I've never cancelled an order, and that's because I take that option very seriously. That is a verbal contract, and certainly not to be used as a "wish list". Booksellers/Publishers rely on those orders to do business, and when people abuse that it hurts everybody. I carefully consider each "purchase"- which is why I can only do a few a year.
I've used that "heads-up" announcement-order-pay later system to plan and budget for the titles I really want throughout the year, and it's really worked for me. Especially with the timely production updates from Larry, giving me time to get my financial ducks in a row. I'm worried as well about "surprise" expensive editions available RIGHT NOW that I don't have time to plan for.
I really do wish that you would consider a Pay on Pub option for folks who use it responsibly, but I understand the "times they are a' changin'", and I'll do my best to roll with ya'. Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents.
Ron
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Post by ausleigh on Aug 23, 2010 23:25:37 GMT -6
My concern in the blog message is the statement "If preorders are listed, each shop will be held to only having 3 total advanced order items up at any time (even booksellers)." So if I am not able to order through HM another publisher's (not with a HM store) book at the time it is announced by the publisher, I'll likely buy from the publisher to ensure a copy is secured (and not risk HM not getting any copies in). This means the bookseller element at HM will lose out on orders of other publishers.
Another situation that confuses me: a seller, such as Chizine, announces books for a pre-order period only. If the book cannot be put up at HM early, there will be less time to order through HM meaning folks may miss out.
I can understand the need to change, but it seems with HM, change is all we get. My buying habits (and place of purchase) will definitely be impacted by this decision.
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Post by bloodlettingpress on Aug 24, 2010 1:10:05 GMT -6
Part of this change is going to be giving folks a lot of advance notice of when a book is going to be us and ready to order. One of the things that I believe I can really improve on is my marketing and the Horrorgy blog is a great place to do that.
Right now I've got Alex McVey working on the cover art for the Edward Lee title we'll be announcing. Once that is done I'll blog about the book along with posting the cover art and give a date that collectors can expect to see the book in our hands and ready to order and ship.
Believe me, everyone will be aware a good month before the book goes up for sale and perhaps even longer. We expect the Lee title to ship in October. We'll be much more specific about the date once the printer has the book in their hands which should be in about four weeks. This is a great book...taking us back to CREEKER country with Lovecraft, complete with a traveling freak show. Doesn't get much better than that.
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Post by mrtawkytawny2 on Aug 24, 2010 4:58:51 GMT -6
I've only cancelled one order at Horror Mall and I'm using their layaway for the first time (My layaway order was begun before this announcement). I'm glad I was able to use it for this one more expensive book. I'll really miss the Bill Me option.
Steve
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Post by frankenstein on Aug 24, 2010 8:56:11 GMT -6
I dont see this being a problem for Bloodletting, Delirium or the other publishers at horrormall due to the fact that Horrormall IS the place to buy these books but i would expect a decline in sales for books published outside the horrormall realm due to more people ordering direct now.
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Post by kresby on Aug 24, 2010 11:56:02 GMT -6
It seems this will all flush out for the better as long as we get plenty of warning of when titles will come up for order. Leigh - I don't want to miss out on ChiZine either. Larry didn't address that possible problem. I bet he has a solution. On another issue - I'm confused that the Horrorgy lists the new book CHOSEN by Ed Lee and has a link for ordering yet the book does not show up on the Horror Mall under either 'recently added' or 'latest additions'.
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Post by sweeper4football on Aug 24, 2010 15:04:32 GMT -6
The layaway will be missed by me, I use it to buy 3-4 limited books or a lettered. Now I will have to cut back on my spending, shame....
Shane said this: 'we couldn’t have in-stock items being produced ready to ship and having storeowners stock products for 3-4 months until layaways were paid off.'
Why not? I do international shipping with a few sellers and they keep my books back for me until I have 8 or more to be shipped which saves me money, so they do STOCK PRODUCTS FOR LONGER THAN 3-4 MONTHS. If the international shipping stops in the future then my Horror Mall spending will be finished and I will buy from people in the UK.
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Post by ausleigh on Aug 24, 2010 20:13:10 GMT -6
The layaway will be missed by me, I use it to buy 3-4 limited books or a lettered. Now I will have to cut back on my spending, shame.... Shane said this: 'we couldn’t have in-stock items being produced ready to ship and having storeowners stock products for 3-4 months until layaways were paid off.' Why not? I do international shipping with a few sellers and they keep my books back for me until I have 8 or more to be shipped which saves me money, so they do STOCK PRODUCTS FOR LONGER THAN 3-4 MONTHS. If the international shipping stops in the future then my Horror Mall spending will be finished and I will buy from people in the UK. I think the intent for Shane was that the store has paid for the book (either as the publisher or just as a seller), and does not want to sit on the book in inventory having not been sold. The shipping approach you (and I!) use is to have the seller/store sit on a paid product waiting for it to be shipped. There are many things with this change that don't make sense to me, but hey, the decision is made.
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Post by sweeper4football on Aug 24, 2010 23:42:16 GMT -6
The layaway will be missed by me, I use it to buy 3-4 limited books or a lettered. Now I will have to cut back on my spending, shame.... Shane said this: 'we couldn’t have in-stock items being produced ready to ship and having storeowners stock products for 3-4 months until layaways were paid off.' Why not? I do international shipping with a few sellers and they keep my books back for me until I have 8 or more to be shipped which saves me money, so they do STOCK PRODUCTS FOR LONGER THAN 3-4 MONTHS. If the international shipping stops in the future then my Horror Mall spending will be finished and I will buy from people in the UK. I think the intent for Shane was that the store has paid for the book (either as the publisher or just as a seller), and does not want to sit on the book in inventory having not been sold. The shipping approach you (and I!) use is to have the seller/store sit on a paid product waiting for it to be shipped. There are many things with this change that don't make sense to me, but hey, the decision is made. Ok, but when for example Delirium have paid for 150 limiteds and only 125 have sold he will sit on 25 paid books. Surely having a layaway is good as someone might put some of his titles on layaway, if they cancel the layaway they lose a deposit but it makes no difference to Delirium because he was sitting on them and had already paid for them. I understand the bill me but the layaway??? Nah it's bollocks... I have never cancelled a layaway and have done around 2 a year for quite a long time now. The publisher will be the loser for this i'm sure. (imo)
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Post by Douglas E Wright on Aug 25, 2010 2:26:16 GMT -6
I don't know. I understand the publisher not wanting to sit on stock that isn't paid for in full and sent out. They have put out the $s for it and now waiting for someone to pay. It ties up money they could've used to get more stock. It's warehousing.
And why should they do that for anyone? The name of the game is turnaround.
I worked for a company where the smaller subsidiaries had stock for years and their hands were tied to buy more. Until I came and liquified the assets at 50 to 75% off, they couldn't get much newer, popular stock, thereby losing tons of cash on old stock because it wasn't relevant anymore. So, I do understand where Shane is coming from on that point. I also understand the 'bill me.' Getting books in on what the publisher thinks is a done deal, only to find it wasn't going to be bought in the end. And the publisher ends up with it in inventory along with the extras they might have ordered to line their shelves. That hurts when it isn't planned.
I saw something BMBs said a week or so ago. And I never knew this. That is placing pre-orders with in stock books. They don't get their money until everything is sold, including the pre-orders that might not be in for months. I'm glad he mentioned this, I will never do a pre-order and in-stock order together again. From now on, they are separate. Thanks for letting us know, Roy.
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Post by markgunnells on Aug 25, 2010 3:10:17 GMT -6
Why should they do that? Customer service maybe... I mean, it was a great program for those of us with less money, and it made me turn to them before I turned to other publishers. I agree, the Bill Me I understand, but doing away with the layaway is going to lose them some customers. Maybe not a lot, and maybe since it's losing those of us who can't afford to just drop large gobs of cash we're not customers they're that interested in keeping, but that's the way I see it. Now that I'm saying I'm going to stop buying from Horror Mall, but they have just severely limited what I can buy from them.
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Post by markgunnells on Aug 25, 2010 4:04:50 GMT -6
And allow me to say that despite some disgruntledness, Horror Mall isn't doing anything other stores aren't doing (although the things like layaway I thought really set them apart from other stores and drew me to them), and in some cases are still doing better than others. I mean, it's not like they are taking money for books that have been announced but not even written by the author's yet.
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Post by dathar on Aug 25, 2010 8:53:37 GMT -6
part of me wonders if I helped push this...
I have only ever canceled 2 orders... and both were a case where i had ordered the same book twice and i simply canceled the second copy.
That said just yesterday I was looking at the schedule for books and Thunderstorms 2 elemental HC's are due out at pretty much the same time... that's a $160... and money is tight right now, its con season and I'm running through some bills... I thought to myself, shit i should see if I can combine those two orders and start a layaway... and if i can pay it off faster I will... seems to me a pretty good idea right?
I guess not cause I was told that holding on to the book for 3 months would be too long a time... now i have to face the fact that I pretty much will HAVE to cancel one of the books because I can't flex my budget enough... unless one comes out in sept and the other comes out in october... again we' NEVER have a clear date for a book, they always come out weeks or months later.
So anyway I need to rethink my budget cause I don't like ot cancel and I like to support the mall... sigh.
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