Since AW doesn't really have a 'whine thread', please let me do it here. As a new publisher, I'm plugging along trying to learn the ropes of operating an honest business. I made the decision not to take on any other authors until I know more about the business. I'm using my own books as the 'guinea pigs'.
Long story short, I just released the second book in my series (The Eyes of Innocence). I was thrilled to get 5 orders within a few hours of its release. So, I ordered a carton of books from my printer.
So are those the ONLY copies of your book that currently exist???
I waited and waited, no books. Today, I got a large envelope in the mail from the USPS. Dear Valued Postal Customer - we have an empty carton in the Bulk Mail Center in Philadelphia. Your name is the addressee, but the contents are missing.
In my strive to bring my readers books at the lowest cost possible, combined with my infinite stupidity - I did not insure the shipment. After all these years, I have never ever had a problem. Surprise! There's a first time for everything.
Somebody wanted those books more than you did Tika!
After I finished banging my head on my desk, I opened my electric/gas bill. OMG
Any posts of sympathy will be accepted. Where IS that crying smiley???
Tika
Hey, someone thought your book was good enough to steal. That's something.
And I'd guess the only reason they would have wanted to STEAL those copies is to SELL them (!), most likely online (!!!). Look for copies on eBay, Amazon, half.com or other sites were books can be sold. Do a Google Alert with the title. Check
http://bookfinder.com and
http://addall.com for copies. As far as what to do
if when you find them, you'll have to somehow get police interested in the case. You might want to report these stolen to the police NOW, so they'll have a heads up when they start showing up online (they might have already shown up!).
Surely the post office would have to investigate this. The full box was posted which, I imagine, would mean handing it over the counter into the care of a postal worker. The box wouldn't have been out of the care of the post office except, perhaps, where one of their contractors had responsibility for it. I think it looks as though they should take responsibility for their slackness.
Best of luck, anyway.
Yeah, do that too. But without having paid for insurance, I'm wondering if they'll be that interested. See if you can get both the regular police interested as well the USPIS. They might be interested if you can convince them these books were stolen for profit and resale, and they're the only copies that exist. It would be hard for such a thief to have taken a worse package!
But if all you wanted to do was whine, please disregard this post.
ETA: I see there are many copies of that title by "Tika" on Amazon - I'd keep checking and look for when "like new" copies show up.
I'm on a big used bookseller's forum, and I can post a link to this thread to give a heads-up if a stranger walks into someone's bookstore wanting to sell several new copies of your book. It might be a long shot, but would you like me to do that?
