Last Wednesday I was down at our book distribution centre somewhere near Grantham, standing in a vast warehouse full of books from different publishers including Lonely Planet and Titan books. This routine visit coincided with the release of Field of Glory, a release that was not without problems as the scale of orders temporarily overwhelmed us. There was certainly some lively discussion on forums as Amazon delivery dates shifted back and forth between various dates in February and March. The situation has now stabilised and the vast bulk of the orders have now been fulfilled, although due to the huge success some will have to wait until the first reprint is delivered at the beginning of March.
I thought I would briefly explain how the process works so you can understand better the number of people that are involved in delivering a book to your door and maybe get an insight into why there were problems with Field of Glory. Once a book proposal comes up for consideration our Sales Managers consult with bookstores, hobby shops and online outlets like Amazon to estimate how many copies they 'think' they will need. These numbers are used to determine whether a book is a viable proposition or not. Once it has been approved the Editorial team work with the author and artists to put the book together (another story altogether) and then it goes to Production & Design who prepare it for printing and publication. We confirm final printing numbers.
At this stage the stores etc have still not put their firm orders in so these numbers are based on estimates. These estimates are continually revised, but they’re still not firm numbers.
So once the books begin printing there is still the chance that actual orders will come in above or below the numbers we are printing. We are printing in the UK, USA and China. Once the books are printed they are shipped (if from China by sea) to the distribution centre I mentioned above, or an even larger one in the USA where orders from a huge amount of publishers are fulfilled. It is just before they arrive here that orders with the stores are confirmed. In the case of Field of Glory this is where it began to go wrong in the UK/Europe, or I should say right, as orders came in far higher than original estimates, particularly from Amazon. We had to quickly reallocate stock between different priorities, order reprints and then reorganise ourselves, our printers, our distribution centre and our stores to cope with demand, a process which took us a bit of time, as it involved so many partners. This did impact on delivery dates but we hope that almost everyone should be seeing a copy now barring a couple of hundred Amazon customers who may have to wait until the reprint comes in at the beginning of March (which we are flying over from the printers to minimise the wait). Although orders do keep coming in...
So we were caught by surprise by the scale of the success of Field of Glory, a reflection of the great set of rules that Slitherine have created, the fine production values that our Editorial and Production & Design teams have delivered and your enthusiasm for something new. We are sorry for the confusion, it should be all sorted out now. We'll be ready for next time.
I have almost stopped twitching every time someone says 'it is a nice problem to have'.