I am trying to get the print on demand company to sort things out as the online store is still showing "Ships only from North America" for Strange & Mysterious Beasts/Mysterious & Strange Beasts but I just ordered copies and the postal rates were UK ones.
It seems to be a site bug and I was told it would be sorted last week but the POD is not renowned for being efficient.
If you are in the United States you will see US postal rates. Europe -your usual postal rates and in the UK there is standard (un-tracked), tracked and fast delivery rates.
Sadly, print on demand means having no control opver the online store or the system being used.
Having made a big publicity show of the new books it seems that I have now lost sales because the POD company, Lulu, has AGAIN fecked everything up. One potential buyer noted:
"Price of book is given as £25 and total inc p&p and VAT was given as £50. I live in the UK."
Yet I ordered copies at UK postal rate and statistically the people put off buying now will probably not bother after a delay.
That's a hefty financial loss. AND I had a couple of people report that they could not order Some More Things Strange & Sinister...which was correct BECAUSE Lulu had a site bug that I was promised had been sorted out last month. It had not so I had to do a revision to make it now available for order.
Based on the people who did not/could not order that is a loss of £200 which, truthfully, I cannot afford to lose. Come the new year I need to look for a new Print on Demand company.
