Book Ordering Travails Part 3

Last Friday, I went for another round of book orders. I gave the customer service rep a list of 16 books. Here are the interesting results:

The Bad:

As far as books that I'll never be able to obtain goes, that award goes to PS Publishing as I tried to order Zoran Zivkovic's The Last Book. It's not listed in their system so I guess that rules out any PS Publishing Books.

There are also some books that are currently unavailable. For example, I gave them the ISBN for Majestrum: A Tale of Henghis Hapthorn by Matthew Hughes. What they jotted down on my list is that "No Paperback" [Available]. Same goes for John Grant's Corrupted Science (except it's "No Hardcover").

I also discovered that various books have different discounts. Michael Cisco's The Traitor for example only had a 5% discount which meant that it's really really expensive for me to acquire it. On another extreme, a book like Clockwork Phoenix, which has a retail price of $10.95, is actually costing me P1135 or $24.00.

The Good:

I'm actually grateful that I'm able to acquire books from Small Beer Press, Lethe Press, Senses Five Press, Subterranean Press, and Norilana Books.

Having said that, here's the books that I actually ended up ordering (because I was strapped for cash):

• Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008 edited by Kelly Link, Gavin Grant, and Ellen Datlow.
• Realms: The First Year of Clarkesworld Magazine edited by Nick Mamatas and Sean Wallace.
• Generation Loss: A Novel by Elizabeth Hand.
• Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2008 edited by Rich Horton.
• Spicy Slipstream Stories by Nick Mamatas and Jay Lake -- although it's taking them 5 weeks instead of 3.
• Worlds of Their Own edited by James Lowder.
  

Book Ordering Travails Part 2

Last August 25, 2008, I placed orders on some books. I got them from the store today and here's the turnout:
The Good: Well, they did claim it'd be 3 weeks (assuming the right conditions) and it's roughly been 3 weeks.

The Delayed: Sam's Heaven's Bones hasn't arrived. Four books out of five ain't bad. Steve's Magic in the Mirrorstone still isn't on the shelves either.

The Bad: Entire process still isn't as quick as I'd like to be (I'd say the entire transaction including payment took around 15 minutes).

What really bugged me though was that after swiping my discount card in their cash register, the customer service rep told me that discounts don't apply to special orders. Told him that I was given a discount before (and I inquired about it as well when I originally placed the order) but he told me there's a new memo which stopped that. Now I'm fine with company memos but they should have told me that before swiping my discount card in the cash register.

The Ugly: Before I got my books, a customer was inquiring if they had a small book entitled Etiquette. The customer rep typed in the search field Etequette. Multiple times. No wonder the search engine didn't yield any results.

Up Next: Let me just gather my funds as it's been depleted by a personal project right now and the latest D&D books. Will be trying to order books from Small Beer Press and Lethe Press (and the Worlds of Their Own book that I wasn't able to obtain originally).

Book Ordering Travails

Today's a holiday so I decided to pay a visit to Power Books and order some books I would normally not be able to obtain.

Normally, I print out on bond paper the book's title, its author/editor, and its 10-digit ISBN. I found the last part important because it can mean the difference between the bookstore ordering you Christine Freehan's Shadow Game instead of Glen Cook's Shadow Games (well, at least it was technically still "in the genre"). True enough, by the time I got to the customer service section, a couple was having problems with the book they ordered because it wasn't the one they wanted (the book's title was something as common as Rosary and the customer service people showed them an entire list of possible books).

Anyway, despite my list, the entire ordeal was a huge time sink. I spent around 45 minutes to an hour waiting for customer service to process my book orders. To be fair, there were a lot of people at the time (is that good news for the bookstore that they had lots of customers on a holiday?). However, my caveat there is that the last time I ordered books from them during my office lunch break, it wasn't any better (in fact, I returned to the bookstore after work because my 1-hour lunch break apparently wasn't enough time).

One source of the long wait time is the fact that I have to fill out forms for each and every book that I'm ordering. The search engine is computerized (they're using Ingram's ipage) but everything else is done by hand.

Anyway, here are some of the books I ordered and here's the feedback they gave me:

• Magic in the Mirrorstone: Tales of Fantasy edited by Steve Berman. Apparently, the bookstore wouldn't let me order this book because they were getting their own copies. Now I appreciate customer service informing me that the bookstore is having their own shipment (thus making it cheaper when it's finally on the shelves) but it does not alleviate my concerns on whether the book will actually arrive. Also, it's uncommon for bookstores to stock "old" books. Magic in the Mirrorstone was released in February of this year. Technically, if they were getting this title, the book buyer theoretically would have ordered it either in late 2007 or early this year. Anyway, placed a reservation which was the only option they gave me.
  
• Unwelcome Bodies by Jennifer Pelland. Yay, no hassles getting this book.
• Worlds of Their Own edited by James Lowder. This book isn't going to be released until two weeks from now but I wanted to place my order because it's unlikely that the bookstore will be stocking books from Paizo (for the record, the bookstore has only one Paizo book--C. L. Moore's Black God's Kiss--and I don't think it's working out well for them). Anyway, the bookstore told me they couldn't acquire the title because the supplier (Ingram/ipage) didn't have it in stock. After more coaxing from the customer service lady, I discovered that I can try again in the future when the supplier might have more stocks.
• One for Sorrow by Christopher Barzak. So far so good.
• A Whisper of Blood: A Collection of Modern Vampire Stories edited by Ellen Datlow. Highly skeptical because this was a Barnes & Noble exclusive (by the way, this is actually two books in one, the Blood is Not Enough and A Whisper of Blood anthologies). Anyway, long story short, I need to find a friend or a relative who can actually order this book for me from the Barnes & Noble site... (I don't have a credit card.)
• Heaven's Bones: A Novel of the Mists by Samantha Henderson. Another pre-order book but one more readily available.
• Gratia Placenti: For the Sake of Pleasing edited by Jason B. Sizemore and Gill Ainsworth. Check.
• The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia. Not that I haven't read this book but I want my own copy to loan to friends. Like Worlds of Their Own, the supplier is out of copies (so this is a "good problem" for Sedia because the book's been out for a few months now and apparently it's proving popular enough that the supplier runs out. Either that or the publisher isn't shipping out enough copies but hopefully it's the former.).
• The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia. The supplier had a few copies available so yay for me.
  

"Bookstore" Plugs

First up is book auction site Avalon.ph has now publicly launched its online bookstore format. There's a couple of good books in there and the software is as smart as Amazon.


Second is the launching of Powerbooks in Ermita tomorrow. New bookstores are always good.

Plug: Powerbooks Powercard VIP Access Sale

An Event Exclusively for POWERCARD holders.
April 25 to May 5, 2008

Mechanics:

1. The sale is open to all current Powercard and Powercard Plus loyalty card members.
2. Bring your POWERCARD or POWERCARD PLUS to have access to the cordoned off V.I.P. Sale area.
3. Selected books will be included in the sale. Discounts will be as follows: 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70% and 80%.
4. Discounts can be identified by the customers through selected titles that have a "THIS COPY ONLY" sticker that indicates the discounted price of 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70% and 80%.
5. The "THIS COPY ONLY" sticker will be placed near the price tag of the book, identifying the discount.
6. Posters will be placed in the store so that customers will be aware of the discount scheme.
7. Participating branches are Powerbooks Greenbelt, Powerbooks Megamall, Powerbooks Trinoma & Powerbooks Alabang.

Per DTI-NCR permit # 1376 series of 2008

Who Wants to Be A Book Buyer for Powerbooks?

This is the once-in-a-lifetime chance to be a book buyer for Powerbooks! Imagine free books! That your company pays you to read! And then you get to decide what books the various stores stock!

Currently there's an opening in the Children's books and Business/World Affairs. You can email inquiries to irish_powerbooks[at]yahoo[dot]com.

Powerbooks Sale and Short Story Collection Recommendations

Powerbooks is currently on sale until the end of the month with the usual 20% discount on most items. I visited their Mega Mall branch which is done with renovations but since it involved some construction, the books are quite dusty.

Having said that, in case you don't know what books to get, here are some recommendations that are available from Powerbooks:

Little Gods by Tim Pratt

Logorrhea edited by John Klima

Fantasy edited by Sean Wallace and Paul Tremblay

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume One edited by Jonathan Strahan

Black Thorn, White Rose edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Powerbooks Does a Fully Booked: Discounts for Birthday Celebrants

From Powerbooks


Powerbooks had this promo last month but I didn't find out until it was too late but it seems they're going to do this on a monthly basis (they changed December to January!). Basically, Powercard Plus members who are birthday celebrants get a one-time 40% discount on any purchase (subject to limitations written in the fine print).

Powerbooks Warehouse Sale

Powerbooks will be having its warehouse sale from Oct. 5 to Oct. 14, 2007 from 10 am - 7 pm at 25 Brixton St., Capitol Subd., Pasig City (490-1158).

Re-Plugging Volunteer Your Story for Hands on Manila

Hands On Manila Foundation Inc. is celebrating the spirit of volunteerism in the Philippines through a writing competition entitled "Volunteer Chronicles." This contest is open to all non-professional Filipino writers, 18 years old and above, who wish to write about his or her experience in volunteer work. Interested participants may write about their significant experience in community and social development, educational programs, and initiatives for the protection of the environment.

The top three winners will receive awards and their articles will be published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The articles will be judged based on the following criteria: relevance (50%); writing style (25%); and compliance with contest mechanics (25%).

Interested participants may join the competition by submitting the following items in a sealed brown envelope: a duly accomplished official entry form and authorization form inside a sealed letter-size envelope, a printout of the write-up, and a soft of the entry on CD or floppy disk. The title of the entry and the author's pen name should be handwritten or typewritten on the letter envelope.

The official entry form and authorization form may be obtained from any Powerbooks branch. You may also download the forms here:
a) Official Entry Form
b) Authorization Form
c) Contest Mechanics

Deadline of submission is now EXTENDED until September 30, 2007 at 9 pm.

PRIZES
First Prize: P5,000 worth Powerbooks Gift Certificate + Free trip for two to Plantation Bay, Cebu via Cebu Pacific.
Second Prize: P3,000 worth Powerbooks Gift Certificate + Free Accommodations for two at Baguio Country Club
Third Prize: P2,000 worth Powerbooks Gift Certificate + Free Accommodations for two at Taal Vista Hotel.

Powerbooks Sale

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, various bookstores should be going on sale this month. The first wave is Powerbooks, which lasts until the end of the month and you get a free notebook for every P2,500 worth of purchases. As usual, expect the regular rate of discounts. Most fiction books will be in the 20% range and for more cheaper stuff, that means digging through the bins.

Book Orders and Shipments

Are you the type of person who visits their bookstore every single day, hoping to find something new on the shelves? Similarly, are you tired of seeing the same old books on the shelves and tempted to order books via Amazon.com? I used to be that person but I'm not. I discovered a secret that comes in handy and addresses my bibliophile needs. And the two topics might seem separate but in truth, they're related.

To answer the first question, I stopped dropping by bookstores every single day. Why? Because the books on shelf won't change. In fact, the variety will decrease as people pick up books, misplace them, or simply outright buy them. The question you should be asking is when should you visit your favorite bookstore. And the answer is the day after they ship their new stocks. It makes sense, right? But the answer to that question isn't obvious as most bookstores don't advertise. A Different Bookstore, for example, states in their book ordering information that their shipments arrives twice a month, on the 15th and the 30th (the same day as payday!). For the other bookstores, you're left in the dark. Well, here's some facts I discovered after stalking the bookstores (of course I can't guarantee this is 100% true but this is what I've observed):

Bookstores that ship twice every month:

• Fully Booked
• A Different Bookstore

Bookstores that ship once a month:

• Booktopia (transitioning from twice-a-month schedule, or so I heard from Banzai Cat)
• Powerbooks
• National Bookstore

Now what does that mean? In the case of bookstores that ship twice every month, you just have to visit your favorite bookstore twice every month--don't bother visiting every single day, the book selections won't change. And in the case of bookstores that get their stocks every month, it just pays to visit them once. Sounds so simple right? And unbibliophile-like? Well, the way I see it, the less trips you make to your favorite bookstore, the more trips you can make to other bookstores, or the more time you can spend to actually reading your books. So think of this as a time management device. (Or if you want, just visit a section of the bookstore every day rather than tour the entire place in one go.)

I'd also want to clarify that the day a bookstore's stocks arrive to their warehouse isn't the day that the books are stocked on shelf. If A Different Bookstore gets its new stocks on the 15th, you can expect it on their shelves on the 16th or 17th for example. From what I've observed at Fully Booked, back when the flagship store was in Rockwell (it's now the one in Serendra), new books would arrive on the weekend (a Saturday afternoon visit is good). Nonetheless, knowing when books ship is useful to know (so ask the bookstores when they expect their next shipment to arrive... the smaller bookstores are open about it while the bigger bookstore chains usually cryptically answer whether it's soon or not-so-soon.

Knowing the shipment of books helps you make an informed decision on the second part of the question. You don't need to order books via Amazon.com. Most bookstores accept book orders. So why funnel your income towards a big, online conglomerate when your money can instead go to local bookstores that provide you with the same services? Here's a quick summary Amazon's shipping rates to the Philippines, assuming we take the cheapest service:

• Amazon is charging $6.99 for any book shipment. That means whether we're getting one book or a dozen, there's the flat $6.99 fee to pay. It's a good thing to do bulk orders in this case, because the cost is more spread out among the various titles. If you're just ordering one book, an initial fee of $6.99 is easily the cost of the paperback book itself.
• Amazon is charging $4.99 for each item in the shipment. That means in addition to the $6.99 shipping charge, there's an additional $4.99 for each item. Buying in bulk doesn't help as this cost applies to each and every item. So the next time you think you're getting a book "cheap" at Amazon, remember to add $4.99 to the cost.
• 11 to 40 business days. Keep in mind, they're counting by business days. That usually excludes holidays and weekends.

Now Amazon has other shipping rates but that's the cheapest. If you want to receive the book sooner, you might want to avail of those other shipping options but remember, the shipping rates will be higher. That's also not to say you should never order from Amazon if price is a concern (availability and rarity is one reason why you should consider ordering from Amazon). But as far as paperbacks go, the discounts (anywhere from none to 20%) isn't enough to offset the shipping costs. Hardcovers, on the other hand, are a different matter, mainly because Amazon gives huge discounts on them. Take for example Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Amazon is giving buyers a 49% discount, reducing the actual cost to $17.99. Factor in all the other shipping costs and you end up with $29.97. Multiply that with today's exchange rate and it's costing you P1343.26 to order the book. Not bad, considering the book is going for P1400+ in most local bookstores. But you have to bear in mind, that's because the book is quite expensive (at $34.99) and Amazon is giving a huge discount (49%). The per-book cost can go down if you order more books (spreading $6.99 among the number of books you ordered). But remember, think twice when buying paperbacks. Fahrenheit 451, with a retail price of $6.99, can end up costing you P850.24, even when you can get the same book for half the price locally.

I've talked enough about Amazon, let's talk about the local bookstores and why you should order from them. They may not be able to give you the huge discounts but at least shipping won't be such a huge burden on you as it's factored in to their daily shipment of books. I discussed in a previous blog entry about the various conversion rate of various bookstores. You can end up as cheaply as paying P40.00 against the dollar depending on which bookstore you shop. Those big discounts don't apply to ordered books. You'll most likely be paying more against the dollar, around P60.00 = $1.00 back when the local exchange rate was P55.00 = $1.00. And depending on which bookstore you shop, your discount card might not apply. Nonetheless, that's a great deal when you're ordering paperback books. Even assuming that it's costing you P60.00 = $1.00, Fahrenheit 451 will cost you roughly P420.00 (again, half the price it would have cost you to order from Amazon).

The second question when ordering from bookstores is how long it takes before they actually acquire the book. In Powerbooks, it took them anywhere from one to two months (personal experience, although their website has a new delivery date). A Different Bookstore gives me a better timetable, two weeks was the fastest (a fluke!) while four weeks is the norm. The key here is to place your order just after their shipment arrives. If you place your order in between shipments, the book order might only be processed once their next shipment arrives (or rather they might order it but it won't be in time for the next shipment). That means a longer wait for you.

The third question is availability. Thankfully, most bookstores can order whatever titles that Amazon can carry, barring used books. I'll give a summary of the various bookstores and their book ordering services:

National Bookstore/Powerbooks
Delivery Time: 3 - 5 weeks.
Selection: Books available at Amazon
Downpayment: 50% of the cost of the book
Discount: No
More Info: Powerbooks and National Bookstore

A Different Bookstore
Delivery Time: 2 - 8 weeks
Selection: Books available at Amazon
Downpayment: full downpayment of the cost of the book, and refund/change/additional charges on the books when they finally arrive, depending on the current exchange rate.
Discount: Yes

Booktopia
Delivery Time: 2 - 8 weeks.
Selection: No limit, but no guarantees on hard-to-find books. Also searches secondhand bookstore market. (They buy used books so if you don't mind secondhand books, especially for rare titles, they can try to acquire it.)
Downpayment: 50% of the cost of the book
Discount: If you ask nicely
More Info: Booktopia

Aeon Books
Delivery Time: Unknown (but I assume anywhere from 2 - 8 weeks)
Selection: Books available at Amazon
Downpayment: Just ask nicely and they'll try to get the book.
Discount: No

Fully Booked
Delivery Time: Unknown (but I assume anywhere from 2 - 8 weeks) 2 - 6 weeks
Selection: Books available at Amazon (their stocks would suggest they can acquire European books and I tried ordering one but they never got back to me)
Downpayment: Fill out a form and they'll check if the book is available. Haven't progressed any further than that (they never got back to me, which I assume they weren't able to get the book) but I also assume there's a similar 50% downpayment once they can confirm they can get the book. 50% of the cost of the book.
Discount: Unknown Yes

This is all based on my experiences two years ago so any information presented may not be as accurate as I want it to be. If you want to add a bookstore or update any information, feel free to comment with the appropriate corrections and I'll edit the post.

Powerbooks Warehouse Sale

Powerbooks is having a Warehouse Sale from September 29 to October 1, 2006. Head to the Powerbooks Warehouse and get set to enjoy great discounts on your favorite books. Get 30% discount on all regular items and get as much as 70% off on selected titles!

A surprise awaits you on this pre-Christmas sale you should not miss!

See you there!

The Powerbooks Warehouse
#25 Brixton street, Kapitolyo Subdivision
Pasig City
Tel no.: 490-1158