This is Why I Publish My Books On More Than One Retailer

I just found out Mitch’s Win, Boaz’s Wager, and Patty’s Gamble are not available on the Amazon UK site. I knew Patty’s Gamble hasn’t been available on the Amazon Australia site.  Meanwhile, Google Play isn’t showing Shane’s Deal, Just Good Friends, or the pre-order for Kidnapping the Viscount.

This hasn’t only been limited to those two sites. I’ve had this happen on Kobo in the past, too. As far as I know Apple and B&N have been okay. But I haven’t received feedback from people telling me they can’t find them on those sites, so at one time, maybe there was something missing. I have no idea what to think.

Sometimes there’s a glitch in the system. It’s no one’s fault. It just happens. But this is why I have never been exclusive to only one retailer. No matter what the retailer is, I refuse to be exclusive to it.

Okay, in the course of writing this post, someone in a FB group said they found Just Good Friends and Kidnapping the Viscount on Google Play. So within ten minutes, the books went from missing to being there. True story, guys. I’m not making this up!

See what I mean about unpredictability? Sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason to some of this stuff.

But that’s why I’m on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Google Play, and Smashwords (and the smaller channels Smashwords distributes to). I want to be available in as many places as I can. I don’t know if you will want to go to another retailer to get a book that isn’t on the one you prefer. (I, myself, am pretty loyal to my retailer, so I understand why you might not want to.) I am sorry if you can’t get one of my books on the retailer you prefer. I am doing all I can to rectify that issue, but I can’t promise my efforts will work.

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I wrote the stuff above yesterday evening. Then I put this post in my draft folder since I wasn’t sure I wanted to publish the post. This morning I got an email from an author friend who had a pre-order up on Barnes & Noble. The book had been on pre-order without any problems. Then the book released today. And it disappeared from the Barnes & Noble store this morning. She had no warning. This is a horrible thing to happen on a book’s release day. So now I know of a case where this happened on Barnes & Noble.

This tells me that no retailer is immune this kind of thing. And this is why it’s best for all authors to be on every retailer possible. It’s also best for readers. I know it’s inconvenient to buy a book from another retailer, but at least there’s the choice to do that. If the author only published the book on one retailer and that retailer didn’t show the book (for whatever reason), at least the book can be found somewhere else.