Comments on: Lois McMaster Bujold’s Book Not Stocked In Borders Stores

By: jmc

jmc — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:10:18 +0000

According to a post/note on Bujold’s MySpace, the Borders stocking snafu has now been resolved.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=164952151&blogID=470469738

By: SonomaLass

SonomaLass — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:51:27 +0000

I’ve been a regular Borders customer since I got back into reading romance, because the local chain I want to patronize doesn’t carry romance. I prefer it to the local B&N due to the better layout, easier access & parking, and larger inventory of the genres I read. Then there’s the free rewards program; I’m all about that. But a lot of this discussion reflects my recent experiences with Borders — out of stock on books that they really should have, lots of gaps on shelves, and a computer inventory that isn’t much help. Our last trip there, all the books we wanted were listed as “likely in store,” but none of them were. The signs are not good, I’m afraid.

By: GrowlyCub

GrowlyCub — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:01:27 +0000

Ehm, okay so my brain’s been playing tricks on me.

Make that ‘getting onto’ and ‘put stock in’.

By: GrowlyCub

GrowlyCub — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:40:32 +0000

Nikki,

wow, that’s bad news indeed and it’s going to hurt Bujold chances of getting into the bestseller lists which publishers seem to put so much stock on. :(

By: Nikki

Nikki — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:38:26 +0000

The B&Ns had received the books and had not sold any copies. They were not able to find them however. The guy at the first one did an exhaustive search going through the backrooms and could not find it. I went through the other sections hoping it was misplaced but no luck. The second B&N reported they had ordered it but also could not find it. Finally before I drove more, we called from the second and the third store knew they had copies but could not find them.

By: JaimeK

JaimeK — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:30:26 +0000

I live in a small town and our only bookstore is Borders. I used to loooove them. Our store remodeled and with the remodel fewer books were on the shelves. A lot of current titles not on the shelves and it didn’t make sense. I used to be able to special order or spo a book – if I didn’t think I would read it they would send it back. They have now made it a requirement for all “spos” that you have to pay for it before they will order it. I thought this was a real sign of their economic woes. Bujold not being on the shelf is just another indication.

I think it is too bad. If they don’t figure it out we won’t have a “local” bookstore at all. People will spend more and more online instead of dealing with the book seller.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:38:37 +0000

The thing that relaly irks me is that my local stores are delving ever deeper into non-book areas (board games, toys, toiletries, bags, etc.). Even worse is the appearance of those new digital music stations despite the predominace of ipods/itunes & mp3 integration with many cell phones. The cafe at the Stonestown store continues to open 2 hours prior to the rest of the store despite mcdonald’s and starbucks garnering most of the prospective customers. I feel sorry for the store employees, but horrible stewardship of the business could only lead to the worst outcome.

The ultimate irony in all of this is that Amazon has lost its first big sales tax battle, but there’ll be few brick and mortars to shop at even if Amazon starts losing its tax free advantage nationwide.

By: Kalen Hughes

Kalen Hughes — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:16:46 +0000

According to my source Borders did place an order for Horizon, but there’s some snafu with the distributor . . . I'm going to guess they weren't too pleased to be the one bearing the burden of Borders' plan to return books and place new orders for the same titles in order to stay afloat.

This certainly does suck for Bujold and her readers (and all the other authors who I'm sure are caught in the same â€œsnafuâ€).

By: Twila Price

Twila Price — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:05:29 +0000

I nearly did call Nicola’s, Sandy D., but since we were at the Arborland Borders I went with B&N. I *have* bought about ten books at Nicola’s due to the stupid non-carrying of midlist sf/ya of Borders in the last six months (E. Bear’s new hardcover, several YA novels, etc.).

By: Sandy D.

Sandy D. — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:00:01 +0000

Twila, I’m just outside Ann Arbor now, and I’ve always gone to Border’s (if not always the big one downtown recently) by preference over BN. I’m still just gobsmacked that even the A2 Border’s isn’t carrying Horizon. And not only did they lose the $$ that I would have spent there yesterday, in the future I’m less likely to even check there. I guess I’ll just call Nicola’s, while sadly remembering the Border’s of the 80′s.

By: GrowlyCub

GrowlyCub — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:04:27 +0000

Nikki,

did the B&N stores not stock it either or were they sold out?

By: Nikki

Nikki — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:55:27 +0000

So it wasn’t just me. I thought I was going crazy when I went to Border’s for two days in a row. The book isn’t even available via their website. I can’t say that Barnes and Noble was that much better because not one of 3 separate stores could find a copy for me. I finally ordered off of Amazon and have washed my hands of both of them. But seriously, how do you not order a Bujold book? Has she ever not sold well?

I am concerned about Borders becuase compared to B&N their romance, science fiction, and manga were significantly better. Now, my only other option will become Amazon.

By: Dana

Dana — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:48:20 +0000

I wish I had known about this earlier today, I could have saved some gas money. I went to Borders right after my class ended this morning to pick up Horizon, and was very surprised and pissed when I found out that they didn’t have it. Oh well, I just went over to BN to buy my copy. I think I’m ready to give up on Borders. I’ve preferred their store over BN, because they have a much more extensive romance section, but it’s becoming way too much of a hassle to shop there.

By: LauraJane

LauraJane — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:46:56 +0000

In December, I was looking forward to picking up the YA novels Perfect Chemistry and Cracked Up to Be with some Borders coupons I had. I was told at 3 different Borders stores in New York City that neither book would be carried in stores, but would only be available online. The clerks seemed baffled by this. I also went in search of another book, and was told by another baffled clerk that they used to carry the book, but would no longer keep it in stores. Only available online. I took it to mean that Borders was cutting down on the books it was planning to carry in preparation for closing down.

The sad thing? I found a copy of Cracked Up to Be at one of the Borders I visited previously about a week later. When I brought it to the register, the book wasn’t in the system. The manager had to look it up and it took a good ten minutes before they could sell the book to me. It seems they really don’t have it together. I shudder to think of all the books being sold at Borders that aren’t being credited to authors.

By: veinglory

veinglory — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:40:09 +0000

I suspect people will go from brick-Borders to e-Amazon, not borders.com

By: Twila Price

Twila Price — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:33:09 +0000

Sigh. I live in Ann Arbor, which is the home of Borders (the one, the only, the original) and I remember it so very well as being the kind of bookstore one could only dream about back in the day, before going corporate. Now, though? Not so good, even here in its hometown — I still go there, I still try to hope there will be books to buy on its shelves, but it is getting to be a wanner and wanner hope with each week that passes. Luckily, there IS Barnes and Noble, and a local independent bookseller and a mystery bookstore so I can still get my fixes, but it’s just not the same.

By: FD

FD — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:13:47 +0000

Steve Green, you live near me (kinda) and sadly Waterstones does not appear to be carrying Horizons at all. They do have the rest of the quartet, but only as MMPB’s and won’t be carrying Horizon till it comes out in that format.

I tried calling the Birmingham Borders, thinking surely they’d have it, but nope.
Borders UK is not even listing the book either.

What’s more, the ebook is not available till March, for crying out loud. Fail, Harper Collins / EOS, fail.

I’d hoped to avoid Amazon, because I like to support brick&mortar stores. *sigh*

By: Evangeline

Evangeline — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:09:11 +0000

This could be a strategy to force consumers to buy books from Borders.com. I don’t think the site has caught on (though, that’s the fault of Borders aligning themselves with Amazon.com for so long, and not creating an official website that offers anything extra. B&N was smart to tap into the need for social networking amongst readers by setting up message boards and tapping popular authors for monthly columns). It’s a terrible business move all around.

By: Kalen Hughes

Kalen Hughes — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:47:08 +0000

I emailed a link to this post to a friend of mine who works for Locus and she responded with the following (which is from the December issue of Locus; I'm posting it here with permission):

Death Nell for Borders? Borders, already in a weak financial state before the current economy crisis, warned publishers that it will cut book orders across the board and sent out notice to at least one major distributor that it will not be making payment for two months, due to "anticipated excessive returns." In other words, the retailer may return most of its titles to gain the operating cash to carry it through the season, reordering the same titles but starting the payment cycle over again. This would be a huge blow to distributors and publishers alike, and while it might shore up Borders for a few months, it will rattle the industry at large and may ruin some smaller publishers. Book distributor IPG, which "typically carries receivables of approximately two million dollars with Borders," is reported by Edward Champion and Galleycat to have sent out a letter warning its clients regarding the upcoming Borders crisis. While not recommending cutting off business with Borders, IPG apparently asked its clients to choose between not shipping titles to Borders, or accepting that IPG will only guarantee payment for printing costs on any books ordered by Borders instead of the invoiced amount, a policy already in use by other distributors according to IPG president Mark Suchomel.

My friend is also going to do some digging to see if she can find out where this all started (with Borders, the distributor, the publisher . . .).

By: Jessa Slade

Jessa Slade — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:32:56 +0000

What a flail. I can see trying to cut costs by making you purchase less popular books online, but LMB? I’m so glad I live near Powells Books. Their SFF shelves take up a whole room just by themselves and they’re stuffed. Lovely to see.