[Writer Post] Book Buying Adventure and Partial FAIL at Barnes & Noble

I had a whole, cool plan for today’s blog. I would go to Barnes & Noble on Tuesday night pick up two brand new books – one the end of a long and winding series; the other the debut novel of a new author. I’m talking about Daylighters by Rachel Caine and The Golden City by J. Kathleen Cheney.

Tuesdays have always been “New Release Day” – I’ve never figured out why – everything but Movies come out new on Tuesday. I guess Tuesday is a much overlooked day, and someone – somewhere – thought it needed something special. So, yay for Tuesdays… except when your adventure into Book Birthday Buying ends up in only partial success.
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I have my issues with Amazon. I think they have some bad business practices. I don’t want to give them any more money than I have to – kind of like WalMart. And though Barnes & Noble has its issues, it’s really the only game in town (as well, which isn’t at all good) in my area (which is a major metropolitan area). But, especially for a debut author/book, like Cheney’s, I wanted her to have the Opening Week Bookscan numbers.
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It used to be that you could go into any bookstore or music store and find the brand new release of your favorite artist on the shelf on New Release Day – because hey, it’s right there in the name. The books or albums come into the store a few days to a week ahead, the store has time to get them out on the shelf. Right? Sadly, not so much anymore.

This isn’t the first time in the last year or two that I’ve gone into a Barnes and Noble the week of release to buy a specific book by a specific author, only to have to send the staff to the depths of the back room to pull it because it’s not been shelved yet. Two, I think were Amber Benson‘s as well as Rachel Caine.
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In this trip, one Customer Service person went to the back to find Daylighters for me, because they still had Fall of Night as a New Release (in both hard cover and trade). But they had Daylighters. That customer service person handed me the book (didn’t bring out any more copies, just mine) and ditched me. No big deal, a friend of mine was working that night. When we didn’t find Cheney’s book where the system said it should be, my friend started THE EPIC QUEST to find the THREE copies the store system said they had.

I lost track of time. But a long time later, and three people involved in the search netted me…nothing. The books have been mislaid, misshelved, mis…SOMETHING. No one could find them. So now I’m facing the dilemma of waiting until Sunday (my next opportunity to shop) and hit another B&N and hope their quest is successful, or say “screw it” and buy it from Amazon with Jimmy’s Prime account.

So, listen up, Barnes & Noble as a whole… if you want to keep Amazon from decimating your marketshare further… be better. About everything – about training, about time schedules, about it all. Because you’re losing this war – and your customer and the authors are the collateral damage. 3

Tags: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books, Daylighters, J. Kathleen Cheney, Rachel Caine, The Golden City