The Aardvark Blog

Why does dealing with publishers need to be so frustrating (2)
4/07/2014

Today's new saga involves Pearson's book division ( not unfortunately a limb or wing of the RandomPenguin ). A teacher from a local school to whom we supply books popped in this morning to order some copies of an Edexel course book. I called the publisher and instantly an extremely well trainedl customer services person leapt into action to ensure that there was in fact no way in which I could place an order with them or receive the books. The only way to order the books from Pearson and receive a discount was to fill out a full account opening form which would take several weeks. Since the school is closing for the holidays and wished to place the order with me today whilst the teacher had budget, this was not going to cut it. My offer to pay a pro forma upfront was met with scorn. Yes I could do that, but in that case there would be no discount at all. Faced with this stand off I reminded Pearson's well trained and efficient representative of the number of bookshops that had closed over the last decade. Needless to say she had as much interest in the decline of British bookselling, as  the denizens of hell have in global warming. I therefore hung up and ground my teeth for several minutes in frustration.

In the end I found some good condition second hand copies and ordered those for the school. This had the effect of depriving Pearson of a sale, slightly increasing my margin and allowing the school to get a few more copies than they would have done if we had bought them new as intended.

I have more books to order from publishers for author events over the summer. I have a feeling that there may be several more chapters in this book before we are finished.