Blog Blazers Amazon Status
Firstly let me just apologize for the on and off “In Stock” and “Temporarily Out of Stock” messages appearing on the Blog Blazers listing on Amazon. What’s happening is that we’re trying to work with Amazon’s JIT (Just in Time) inventory system and experiencing some difficulties as illustrated in the screenshot below:
Basically the way it works for first time and self-published authors is that Amazon doesn’t want to order too many books ahead of time and be stuck with a larger than necessary inventory on hand. Nor can we blame them. From what I understand, most self published books end up selling less than 200 copies, and 60% of these sales are to friends and family. That’s pretty dismal. Of course that’s not always the case, there’s lots of examples of very successful self-published authors. The biggest I know of is Robert Kiyosaki who started his book series of Rich Dad Poor Dad as self-published. Another great example is Peter Bowerman with his book like The Well-Fed Self-Publisher.
In any case, Amazon is looking out for itself, and that’s perfectly understandable. Selling books is a business, and they do it well. So what happened with our book is that Amazon initially ordered a small number of books. Now before I continue, something to be aware of is that Amazon will only accept books they ordered if they come with a purchase order (barcoded). You cannot just ship books to Amazon to add to their inventory when you want to, you have to wait for them to order books. Makes sense.
Anyways, a lesser known trick is that they will often accept more books than requested as long as they’re part of the same purchase order and as long as the surplus is reasonable (don’t try to ship 1000 books when they ask for 20). However knowing that Blog Blazers is going to is selling well, we decided to ship some extra books with each PO (Purchase Order). On average so far, we’re shipping 2-3 times as many as they request per purchase order (sometimes more).
Getting back to our story, within a day of being released, the Blog Blazers inventory on Amazon was sold out. And it’s no wonder, the initial order was too small. Which means the status of Blog Blazers on Amazon fell to “Temporarily Out of Stock”. The next day, another PO came out, we did the same. And on it’s been continuing since…
So if you see the book Blog Blazers on Amazon with a status of “Temporarily Out of Stock” don’t worry, this is because Amazon is still trying to figure out how many books they need to have on hand to meet the number of books sold (JIT – Just in Time). And it definitely isn’t helping that the sales of Blog Blazers are increasing on a daily basis as more and more bloggers are posting about it every day!
I guess of all the problems I could have, this is the best one to have. But still…
· November 19th, 2008 · 3:17 pm · Permalink
That’s too bad – I’m a fan of Jennette Fulda and just went over to Amazon to try to buy it and instead of “Temporarily out of stock” it says “Not in stock; order now and we’ll deliver when available.” Will try a local bookstore; hope Amazon catches up with your sales soon, the book looks great.
· November 19th, 2008 · 3:28 pm · Permalink
Hi Rachel,
Please go ahead and purchase it on Amazon, new books (purchase orders) are being continually delivered to them (almost every day). It shouldn’t be delayed by much, a day or so at the most.
As well, if you’d like you can also purchase it directly from the Blog Blazers website at: https://www.BlogBlazers.com.
· November 19th, 2008 · 4:58 pm · Permalink
Having purchased mine so early, I am both apologetic (for contributing to the Out of Stock problem) and thrilled. It is a great book and has some useful insights from some of the top bloggers alive – Seth Godin has always been one of my favorites. I have also added to my reader several of them that I didn’t previously know. Good work.
· November 19th, 2008 · 11:21 pm · Permalink
Hi Michael,
Please don’t be apologetic, it’s great to hear you got one of the first copies. Congratulations!
And it’s great to hear you got a lot from the book! Thank you also for letting me know, it’s very appreciated. It’s always very rewarding to hear when people enjoy and appreciate your work.
· November 20th, 2008 · 1:49 am · Permalink
Sometimes it’s good to be out of stock. It gives a certain degree of ‘get-it-now-before-it-runs-out-again’ perception to the buyers.
Steph, I’m happy that the books are selling well. I’m reading all the positive reviews from some of the top bloggers across the blogosphere. You’ve done a great job in getting the message across.
Yan
· November 20th, 2008 · 4:42 am · Permalink
So if these books from Amazon looks “out of stock” it means the owners are not using your “rule” ?
e.g. shipping extra with each PO…
· November 23rd, 2008 · 4:51 pm · Permalink
Hi Yan,
It does do that. Unfortunately I also want to remove all possible barriers to purchase. Another thing it also does is prevent the book from climbing the Amazon sales ranks since they can’t keep it in stock.
And thanks Yan. Yes so far 100% of the reviews have been positive which is incredible!!! I plan to start referring to the reviews on my blog (and on Blog Blazers) sometime this week. Basically as soon as I have a chance.
· November 23rd, 2008 · 4:52 pm · Permalink
Hi Codrut,
That or they could truly not be selling. As well they could be out of print. It’s hard to say. But for a new book, if it’s temporarily out of stock, this is very likely the issue.
· November 23rd, 2008 · 9:48 pm · Permalink
[…] of everything that’s happening with Amazon, I’m going to go on a lurk and offer free shipping for the book Blog Blazers until Xmas when […]
· November 28th, 2009 · 3:05 pm · Permalink
This might save you some time checking Amazon constantly,
If your looking for anything that is out-of-stock at Amazon, you have to check this out, E-ZGrabber.com Instead of manually checking all the time to see if your item is in stock at Amazon, just go to E-ZGrabber.com enter the produtct ID from Amazon for the item you are interested in and E-ZGrabber does the rest. Don’t pay the prices the third party sellers are asking for at Amazon, E-ZGrabber lets you know the moment the item becomes available in Amazon’s stock. It checks Amazon every few seconds and instantly alerts you when they are back in Amazon’s stock. You can then immediately purchase your item at the regular retail price from Amazon.
· January 11th, 2010 · 1:30 am · Permalink
Hey, I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say GREAT blog!…..I”ll be checking in on a regularly now….Keep up the good work! 🙂
I’m Out! 🙂