I received nice notes from many of you, responding to last week’s newsletter; turns out my thoughts helped others navigating suddenly uncertain waters. Thank you so much for letting me know; it buoyed my spirits.
Here’s where we are since last Friday (bad news first; good news later—keep reading!):
Orders from our distributor have basically flatlined. Bookstores are closed; Amazon is deprioritizing books.
Returns to our distributor have jumped. See above. In fact, I think returns are outpacing orders, which means our account is probably in the red for the past week. The returns system in publishing is so insane you could literally lose money by selling books.
Because sales from our distributor are paid 90 days later, but returns deducted immediately, our April payment, for books sold back in December (I know! It’s so crazy!) will be lower than I planned (I won’t know until April 5, the day the check is sent, how much it is for) (I know! It’s so crazy!). Obviously I can estimate redu…
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