The Golden Oaks Bookstore: Print Orders, Pre-Orders, and Practical Stuff (Y'all) · 3:55pm Jun 23rd, 2019
(FYI: I just emailed this same info out to everyone I have on my mailing list for Bookstore participation, but posting it here as well just in case I missed anyone.)
We've hit the two-week mark en route to the July 7th submission deadline--hope everyone's last-minute edits are going smoother than mine are! Since people are getting close to making final orders, I wanted to pass along a few more details about how the Bookstore will operate in a practical sense, now that they've crystallized a bit more on my end.
First things first, the survey that RBDash47 passed around on FIMFiction last week indicated that we'll have as many as 60 different titles available at the Bookstore, which is incredibly awesome. However, it does come with a bit of a catch: since we were only given a regular-size booth in the vendor hall (10' x 10'), physical space at the booth itself will be at a bit of a premium. We shouldn't have a problem fitting in racks for display copies, but we also obviously won't be able to fit everyone's extra stock in that amount of space simultaneously.
With that in mind, I'm setting a maximum limit of 10 for the number of copies of any one book I'll keep at the Bookstore at any one time. However, that doesn't mean 10 is the maximum order size you're allowed to make--if you want to, you can order as many books as you can physically get to the con and store in your room (or send to me to schlep up from Silver Spring, within reason). All this means is that I'll organize for the convention center union to move in a maximum of 10 copies of each book for opening stock.
After that, I'll keep everyone updated during the day and after the hall closes--either through email or a Discord/Telegram/GroupMe/network of carrier pigeons--regarding what books have sold out and are close to selling out. If stock of your book is getting low, it'll be on you to bring a few more copies by individually so I can refresh stock up to that 10-count limit. I figure this should be a good way to have everyone participate at least on some level in selling their own books while still leaving room for everyone to be represented at the booth.
Secondly, pre-orders! I know some folks have been interested in making this available, and I am too, so here's my plan for that: once the submission deadline has passed and I have a complete list of confirmed stock, I'll announce that list over email and through a FIMFic blog. At that point, I'll also put up a Google form for folks to indicate interest in reserving a copy to purchase and pick up in person at the Bookstore.
Now, a couple things to add onto this: I know this plan doesn't really help people who are trying to gauge interest prior to committing to an order, so please don't hesitate to seek out commitments for pre-orders yourself if that would help you get all your proverbial ducks in a row. In the same vein, I also know some folks who can't make it to the con would still like to purchase some of these books, but for practical reasons, that kind of thing will have to be run through individual authors rather than the Bookstore.
Essentially, my vision for the Bookstore is as a dedicated point of sale at BronyCon which various authors can operate through, not as a distributor in and of itself (example A: the only reason I'm even keeping anyone's money for any amount of time is because Square can't have more than one bank account hooked up to it at once). As such, my approach to pre-orders is in terms of streamlining distribution of books at the booth itself; anything that happens would fall to the individual author to organize in terms of collecting payment and shipping the book(s) out.
Third and finally (or I guess, "Second, Part 2"), I think I've mentioned obliquely the possibility of collecting pre-order info for future print runs after the con ends if someone's stock completely sells out there. It'd be very doable for me to pass on a list of names and email addresses after the fact to any authors interested in doing that, so if you'd be open to taking these kinds of pre-orders in the event of stock depletion, please let me know in your final submission email (or drop a line in the original email thread if you've already sent that to me (which is only like three people, so everyone else chill about the overachievers)).
That's about everything for now. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns, and otherwise I'll check in with you again in a week or so for the final push to submission.
I know you don't have much choice in the matter, but ten seems pretty small. It's probable the authors who want to buy each others' books will likely gobble those up by ourselves. If the bookstore is successful we'll need to stop by and restock repeatedly.
Maybe we authors can come up with a way to get books to each other without overloading the stocks.
Thanks for the info, Aquaman! So excited!
5078664
Hopefully, pre-orders can help with this a little bit. Anything reserved/paid for in advance could be hand-delivered outside of the booth itself, so that initial rush doesn't deplete stock at the booth.
Safe to assume that is 10 per title, not per format/edition? (Asking for the folks who are offering the same book in both paperback and hardback.)
5078764
Yeah, per title, although we could probably work something out for people offering both versions. Maybe 10 softcovers and 5 hardcovers.
I was going to bring 3-5 copies of a book at the most. I kind of doubt too many people would be interested in my stories. Not to sell myself short, but I'm not exactly the most popular cookie on the site.
Thank God I'm driving, or my luggage fees would be nuclear. I would like to see us get a bookstore themed bookmark for all of the sales, though. Something like (slaps something together) this maybe?
i67.tinypic.com/2qu3xax.jpg
The submission deadline is for submitting a manuscript, right? Who does it get submitted to?
5078760
Could we come up with a way to restock that doesn't rely on thirty authors visiting the booth repeatedly? Maybe have somepony do all the restocking throughout the day?
Also I'm going from two books down to one in an effort to keep things to a minimum.
5079424 Ye gads, I may have gone to four with the addition of Monster. Five if you count Letters.
5079509
So you get to stock 50 books and I get to stock 10. :V
5079423
To a limited extent, I may be able to organize runners to help with consistent restocks, but ultimately it just comes down to matters of practicality. Once we have the actual space set up, there may be room for more books and therefore adjustments to this limit--I just want to set everyone's expectations here so we all come in on the same page.
5079509
Are you counting three books published by you and two anthologies you have a story in? Because five books published by you would be two over the limit I set for an individual author, unfortunately.
5079587 No, I've got tongue set firmly in cheek. I set up a project to see how much time beginning to end it took for even a giant book, and (checks) took 10 days (June 6 to the 16th) for my lazy rump to get both Monster and Letters (over 1k pages) configured up, and then 9 days for the proof to be delivered (if it shows tomorrow as I'm guessing) The quad (two-volume set, configured for both hardback and paperback) will go up on Lulu right after Bronycon, so the only physical copies I'll be lugging to the con will be the one-of-a-kind, autographed First And Only Hardback Printing of Monster/Letters for the charity auction. That leaves me 3 books to order at the top of July and bring in the car's trunk:
Sisters! anthology (most of the copies)
The One Who Got Away/Drifting Down The Lazy River (midrange)
The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian (the smallest bunch)
I'm probably not going to get The Lazy Dragon of Dragonvale configured up by then (the simplest things are always the hardest) and my prospective project collection The Many Loves of Twilight Sparkle... just isn't happening. So three.