I think people are getting a little confused. Well, to be more precise, other people seem to be getting confused, then doing things to make ME confused.
If you haven't seen or heard about it already, I'm talking about Maggie Stiefvater's Linger, sequel to her other werewolf novel, Shiver. If you check Amazon or, really, any online retailer, they list the novel as being 'Available for Pre-Order' with the release date of 'July 20, 2010'. But it seems that someone decided to jump the gun, for if you walk into any Borders store it's sitting on the shelf, ready for purchase.
The 'official' release date has been moved up to the 13th, though I assume this applies mainly to online sellers. Maggie seems to be taking the news in stride, though I read somewhere that she had a release party and other publication-related events scheduled leading up to the 20th. Good for fans, not so good for publicity.
So, are the DO NOT OPEN UNTIL __ labels only for Harry Potter books? Are people simply misreading memos? Are these people being fired? Is this a huge problem for publishers/authors, or are fans simply getting an early treat? I know when movies are released a day (or two) early, there are major lawsuits involved—should book releases be treated any differently?
Should I just shut up and stop looking a gift horse in the mouth? What are your thoughts?
I actually bought Linger today at my local Borders & I was completely shocked that they had it out days early. I know that releasing early is sometimes a problem for debut authors' novels, but a popular, bestselling series shouldn't have to worry about releasing early. I was happy I could get it, but a little pissed that the store didn't respect the release date.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why it is like that, but I wouldn't complain about it for sure!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how accurate this is- but I did read that different books have different sorts of release dates. For instance- Harry Potter and Twilight had hard dates, meaning bookstores were absolutely not allowed to put them out early. Other books, like Lisa McMann's Gone and assumingly Linger have soft dates, meaning bookstores are free to put books out as soon as they receive them. It's great that they are out, but I agree it definitly messes up big release parties, etc that might be planned.
ReplyDeleteMaggie said on her FB page that stores are putting out her book as soon as they get it because it's one that is wanted by a lot of fans. I think it's awesome for the fans to get it early, but that it shouldn't be done. Books need to sell a certain amount in their opening week and if it gets put out early it will screw up the numbers.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't really have to worry about this because my Borders doesn't even put books out on time, let alone early.
I don't think it's fair to the author to put the book out before the release date. Maggie S. obviously had some plans to talk up her book before the release date. It makes release parties obsolete and all the work she went into writing the book, it's kind of a let down if she doesn't get to have a huge celebration for the release and see how many books sell in a day or a week. I feel bad for her about that. We as readers will get our books. But she only gets to celebrate the release of her book one time. She should have gotten that date.
ReplyDeleteHeather
I used to work at a Borders, and we got a list of books and the dates on which they were supposed to be released from home office, not to mention a computer program that reminded us of pre-orders and such. We got some books waaaaay ahead of time, so it's easy to make mistakes and put them out before they're supposed to go, especially since at my store, all the noteworthy new releases sat on the same bookshelf from the moment we unpacked them until the date they were to go out, even if it was a month later.
ReplyDeleteFor it to happen at every Borders, I would say home office gave them the wrong release date, or it wasn't big enough to make the list at all, so it went out as soon as it came in.
It sucks for release parties and such, though.
I don't know if this is a common error in the world of book sales, but it sounds like it could have been a simple mistake between the publisher and certain distributors.
ReplyDeleteMy guess its "Do not open until __" labels and the like only exist for high profile products, in which case there might be great pressure to intentionally move up one's release date. For other books, I can't imagine there's an intense pressure in the sales community to jump the gun on a book.