Honest and Open about Amazon

Normally on this blog, I post pretty photos of my outdoor adventures or I share good things because I'm generally a glass-half-full sort of person.



Today, I'm going to depart from that and post about what has been going on with me this week.

After years of hard work, my book was finally BORN!
Release Day for ICE DOGS was wonderful (except for the part when my spouse had a chainsaw accident and 8 stitches in his head, but this post is not about him)

It was the day AFTER release - Feb. 5, when I learned a few more things about the industry.


Amazon buys their own copies and sells them on their site. That is why they have that little message saying how many copies are left, or if you have to wait to get your order.

Amazon ordered such a tiny number of copies of ICE DOGS that they sold out after one day.

I suppose that sounds like good news, but it took until today - 7 days - for them to get more. So for most of my release week, the Amazon message said that your order will take up to 4 weeks to arrive.

That is not good for sales.

Amazon Canada is still out, and that message is even worse - two months!
(PLEASE, JUST ORDER. It won't take that long.)

Regardless of Ice Dogs getting good reviews, and being a Junior Library Guild Selection, Amazon lowballed their order. And if a title is out of stock, that will affect sales. I was sad to hear the chains weren't carrying it either. It seems the industry didn't think sled dogs would sell to the masses.

But if it's not on the shelf, and you can't order it, how can it sell? Poor little sled dogs didn't have a chance.

I know, there are lots of other places to purchase books! Go Indie you say! Those of you reading this blog know that, but the reality is, most people only know Amazon to shop for books.

And so, I'm going to ask 
EVERYONE WHO HAS READ ICE DOGS, 

if you would please consider writing a review on Amazon. They use the number of reviews as a gauge of interest. I would love to show them that people are interested in a variety of books.

If you are interested in reading ICE DOGS, but can't buy it - send me an email. I WILL SEND YOU A COPY! 
I can't send everyone one, but the first five people who email me, I can. 

With all that I cannot control in this situation, I can do that one little thing.

I only wish Amazon didn't have so much control, but there's nothing to be done about that except write my next book and hope that a small army of dogsledding fans will show them that readers want variety, and choice matters.



And now here is my pretty photo for the day.

This is me winter camping with sled dogs in Alaska near Nenana - the setting of ICE DOGS.
Notice the dog harnesses hanging in the tree