ward

I was attracted by an article last June in The Wall Street Journal announcing the rather meteoric rise of ebooks, also the high altitude of royalties to authors. So after swearing not to I published without the aid of mid to high power NY house. Instead I hired a publicist, which during two months has been successful in booking more than twenty reviews, book giveaways, and interviews. My website's had an increasing number of visits. All very nice, what's not is my sales record. Hardly what it should be after six weeks, and the reason, I'm pretty sure, is the outsourcing of Amazon. Expanded Sales Distribution information is available 60 days after a product is manufactured. Not sold, manufactured. Who except James Patterson, the heir(s) of Steig Larson, John Grisham, et al, knows when a book will be made, or even care since their payments are, if their millions pay for a half decent lawyer, tied very snugly to sales. Not us. We wait, hope.
If Amazon were a shoe store, and not ruler of the universe, it wouldn't be in business. No one would hand over their money, go home and wait for the shoes to be made. They'd go to another store, get what they needed.
Ah, the days of competition. As ancient as Greek sandals.