Laird Barron's "The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All" and Night Shade Books

[slayn666]

Quote Originally Posted by gveranon

Well, they set up their computer system to work this way. They're not doing it to piss people off; they're doing it to string people along. Eventually their customers figure this out and then they get pissed off. No one likes to be manipulated and lied to.

I don't see the point in getting mad at Amazon for the shifting release dates. If you feel the need to be mad at someone, be mad at Night Shade for screwing over authors and customers.

[DoktorH]

amazon is in the same boat we are: waiting for the book. They may be getting these tentative dates from a third party and are just passing them along since its the only info they have.

I just type "laird barron" into a search at the barnes and noble website once every few weeks. I'll order the beautiful thing we're waiting on when it shows up as something I can order.

[gveranon]

My comment wasn't based on frustration with the Barron book delay (a situation I know little about). My comment was based on having ordered hundreds of books from Amazon over the past 15 years or so. Whether the order is of a used book, a new book, or a forthcoming book, Amazon deals with any delays by giving you another date, then another date, then another date. Sometimes these dates may have been given to Amazon by a third party, but it is clear that Amazon's s. o. p. is always to give the customer another date, whether they have to make up the date out of thin air or not. Instead of just being honest and telling you what they know or don't know about an order (why not do that?), they use this date-bait method to keep stringing you along. Like a gomer, I used to take the dates at face value until I realized what they were doing. As a dubious business practice, this is far from the worst, but I don't think they should do it. I don't appreciate it when I realize someone is deceiving and manipulating me.

[njhorror]

Yesterday I cancelled half of an order from Amazon because it was taking too long to ship.

Today I get a notice that my two outstanding orders have shipped.

lol

Unless they've hired "The Amazing Kreskin" I'll have to write it off as coincidence.

[Brendan Moody]

Barron has updated his blog, but alas only to say that there's no news, and to reiterate that Amazon's ship dates mean nothing.

[slayn666]

It looks like a deal's been finalized, so hopefully we'll hear something definitive in the coming weeks.

[Malachi_Constant]

It all really depends on whether or not he signed. I have a feeling he didn't, which means the future of this collection is uncertain, and this could very well take awhile longer before it is published elsewhere. I could be totally wrong though, but I know that it was meant to be published in April and the first book to be published by this new Night Shade is something totally different, a book that was scheduled to publish in May. I think I may cancel my pre-order on Amazon, and just wait until I hear something more concrete before ordering my copy. Either way, it's a bummer, and I hope it gets resolved sooner rather than later.

[scrypt]

Good news, it appears; Barron posted this an hour ago:

So, the deal for Night Shade has succeeded. I'll report on what this means for my new collection when I have details. Shouldn't be long now.

[Malachi_Constant]

Awesome! I just saw that myself! Hope it's not too much longer of a wait, I figured the new deal would mean the books that were already supposed to be published would be put out quick.

[Sam]

Just received an extremely brief newsletter email from NSB, stating "Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Volume 7 by Jonathan Strahan Now Available!!" with a link to the Amazon page for ordering.

The Amazon page says the book was published on April 18, although it seems like it has only become available for purchase now. Hopefully this bodes well for TBTTAUA, which had an original due date of April 2.

Interesting to note, the email is from an Angelica Jones, with a return address at start-media.com. The phone number given under Contact Us is 212-620-5700, a New York number. Looks like things are finally starting to roll in public with the whole NSB --> Skyhorse/Start deal!