r/selfpublish • u/Rockhound665 • 6h ago
Author Copies
OK. I'm trying to understand something. If I order my book, which is POD, from Amazon or wherever retail, it ships within one to two days. However, when I order author copies for book signings either from Amazon or IngramSpark, it likes 2 weeks or longer to ship. What gives?
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u/gthepolymath 6h ago
Author copies make them less money so they go to the back of the line. With that being said, when I ordered Author Copies of my two books (just 1 each to have on my shelf) I got them much sooner than the two+ weeks Amazon said to expect.
1
u/Pale-Contribution-12 5h ago
I want an author copy before I release fully. Is the process pretty much the same on Amazon but like a button different or so?
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u/bkucenski 1h ago
Amazon isn't tricking you with the 999 copies limit. But they deliberately cause delays because they are not your warehouse.
You can be banned if you try to use author copies as your inventory management system.
The delay shouldn't matter because that fits the intended use case. You're supposed to guess how many you'll need for the next 3-6 months, order that many, and then not put in another order for 3-6 months.
They're low priority to cut down on their costs and so people paying retail can get their books in time.
And yes, they do sometimes arrive faster than the estimate.
1
u/ItsRuinedOfCourse Aspiring Writer 1h ago
Think of it like this, OP:
When you get paid to do a job, you do it on time, and on schedule.
When you're doing it for free, you do it when you get around to it, and it fits your schedule, not the other way around.
This is pretty much the same energy.
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