Coming in November...

[calliaume]

Regarding Amazon, they have screwy pre-order stuff pretty often, actually. They're especially fond of claiming that something is no longer in production when all that's happened is they filled up all their pre-orders.

That could be the publisher.  If a book sells so little that a reprint is difficult to make work financially, they may sit awhile until the backorders accumulate.  Or they may be holding on a decision to put the book out of print.

If there's ever a question about a particular book, check with the publisher.  (If it's a Sourcebooks title, you can check with me, I guess.)

[Robert Hutchinson]

[quote name=\'calliaume\' date=\'Aug 26 2003, 05:16 PM\']

Regarding Amazon, they have screwy pre-order stuff pretty often, actually. They're especially fond of claiming that something is no longer in production when all that's happened is they filled up all their pre-orders.

That could be the publisher.  If a book sells so little that a reprint is difficult to make work financially, they may sit awhile until the backorders accumulate.[/quote]
Actually, the specific example I'm thinking of is a DVD set (Firefly), and it was selling like wildfire (ranked #2 or #3 several days in a row) right up to the point where Amazon started saying it was no longer in production.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Robert Hutchinson\' date=\'Aug 27 2003, 07:00 AM\'] [quote name=\'calliaume\' date=\'Aug 26 2003, 05:16 PM\']

Regarding Amazon, they have screwy pre-order stuff pretty often, actually. They're especially fond of claiming that something is no longer in production when all that's happened is they filled up all their pre-orders.

That could be the publisher.  If a book sells so little that a reprint is difficult to make work financially, they may sit awhile until the backorders accumulate.[/quote]
Actually, the specific example I'm thinking of is a DVD set (Firefly), and it was selling like wildfire (ranked #2 or #3 several days in a row) right up to the point where Amazon started saying it was no longer in production. [/quote]
 Couple things.  If you have one specific example that you're thinking of, it's probably not very accurate of you to say that Amazon does this sort of thing \"pretty often\".  Secondly, from everything I can find, it appears that the Firefly DVD has been delayed by the manufacturer.  That's not Amazon's fault.  Just as with the books, they work with the information they get from their suppliers.  When that information changes, they have to scramble to change theirs.

I can't find anything to support your assertion that Amazon says something is \"no longer in production\" for the purpose of closing off their pre-orders.  What a way to lose business, not to mention customer trust.  If you must, say that you can't guarantee delivery by the original date, but you wouldn't tell people it's not being made anymore when they can find it a thousand other places.  Anyway, seems to me that there would never be a reason to limit the number of pre-orders you took in.  If you get more orders than you expect, you just order more from the manufacturer.

[Robert Hutchinson]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Aug 27 2003, 08:00 AM\']If you have one specific example that you're thinking of, it's probably not very accurate of you to say that Amazon does this sort of thing \"pretty often\".  Secondly, from everything I can find, it appears that the Firefly DVD has been delayed by the manufacturer.[/quote]
Sorry--I meant to say it was the latest example, and I was mainly pointing out that that particular example didn't involve books, so Curt's explanation couldn't cover things entirely.

Regarding an actual delay, I didn't mean to rule that out entirely. It's just that I'm part of another forum interested in this particular show, among other things, and several members of said forum are so incredibly good at investigating behind-the-scenes matters that I tend to think something like a publication postponement isn't true unless one of them confirms it.