Monday Morning Coffee – 18 November 2019
Here are a few stories to read this Monday morning.
- PW reported, and the IBPA confirmed, that Amazon is reducing the number of copies of books it is holding in its warehouse.
- The secret hell of being an audiobook narrator.
- A former B&N manager stands accused of stealing $15,000 through falsified book returns. That’s what, two textbooks?
- His fans call John Ford "the greatest SF author you’ve never read".
- The untold story of the book that made Florida Man a national figure.
Comments
Disgusting Dude November 18, 2019 um 1:55 pm
About the PW piece?
Nope.
10% discount? Yeah. Right.
B&N alone will eat them up alive.
Miss M November 18, 2019 um 2:38 pm
While the PW link is interesting, I doubt it’s the story you intended to highlight – it’s not the story about Amazon cutting books in storage.
Nate Hoffelder November 18, 2019 um 4:04 pm
nuts! I fixed it, thanks!
Disgusting Dude November 18, 2019 um 3:02 pm
A lot more amusing, though.
Disgusting Dude November 18, 2019 um 6:56 pm
Two interesting quotes from the PW.
From Amazon:
"…a representative from Amazon said that the company’s teams and systems are always evaluating what they expect its customers want to buy and place orders to its vendors to ensure that it has enough stock in inventory to meet its customers' needs."
That could mean they expect those books to be poor sellers. Or all books. (Book gifting for theholidays has been declining for several years.)
Or, they need the space for more profitable products they expect to be hot.
The book types think this year will be exactly like other years. Maybe Amazon knows something?
"The head of yet another company said if Amazon orders don’t rise to what has been typical ordering patterns in past years within two weeks, "we [could] lose the entire holiday season." He added that if problems with Amazon persist and orders continue to be low, it is possible that some online book sales could move to BN.com and other retailers such as Walmart, which has invested heavily in its online operations. If Amazon starts running out of stock, he added, "maybe they’ll lose some market share to their competitors."
Or maybe those competitors will be returning lots of stuff come January?
If Amazon, with its massive warehouses, starts seeing pbooks as a low profit drag on shelf space, times could get interesting. In the ancient "chinese" curse sense.
Paul Clayton November 22, 2019 um 12:43 pm
"A former B&N manager stands accused of stealing $150,000 through falsified book returns. That’s what, 8 textbooks?"
The linked article says $15,000, not $150,000. So just one textbook – paperbound.
Nate Hoffelder November 22, 2019 um 12:50 pm
Thanks! They must have changed it, because there was an extra zero when I read the article.