Howdy Threads West Readers!

Howdy Threads West Readers!

We know from emails, Amazon messages, and social media posts/messages that many of you received notice in the past few days from the dot coms, including Amazon, to the effect your preorder of Books 4, 5, and 6 have been cancelled and the books are “no longer available form the source”. Don’t fret–just part of the process of removing the previous distributor, which was “the source”.

The book industry is in many ways a circle. In really simplified terms, the author writes the book, the publishers handle covers, editing with author, and host of other concerns, then print the book. However to get the book to market (Amazon, stores, you name it) ie., to the reader who buys it retail, the great majority of publishers use distributors. Some distributors are general distributors–they supply BN, Amazon, etc. Other distributors are specialty (truck stops, airports, military). A good distributor is far more efficient than the typical publisher, with much wider reach. So, for Amazon to sell the book, Amazon needs to have the books available. That availability is through the publisher’s designated distributor who lists all the titles they have available for BN, Amazon, Hastings, Indie stores, etc., to buy to sell to you. The listing is in what is usually called a catalogue. One distributor can not put a book in their catalogue before the distributor before them is out of the picture. So, where we are at is the old distributor is now out of the picture, the books are being listed in the new distributor’s catalogue, and when that is complete Amazon, BN, and all the other outlets then again have an official source for the books and the sales pages are reestablished for readers to use to buy or pre-order, etc.

If you have been following our blogs on www.threadswestseries.com, and postings on face book ( www.facebook.com/threadswest andwww.facebook.com/romancingthewest ) the publishers and I have been alerting our readers across the country and the world that 1) the publishers were VERY dissatisfied with the distribution problems that were encountered on Book 3, Uncompahgre and prior; 2) That there were other grave concerns about the distributor that the publishers had been using–which we will reveal to everyone’s dismay (guaranteeeeed) when the timing is appropriate; and, 3) The new distributors–among the largest and best in the industry are in the process of taking over all the old accounts  and will be in the saddle by November 4–earlier in some cases, such as Amazon. In fact, the first three books have already been switched over to their control on that dot com. Moccasin Tracks, Footsteps and Blood at Glorietta Pass will be back up shortly, and according to what I have been told, the preorders might transfer also. But to get from here to there, those pages have gone dark for a few days while the behind the scenes machinations/technical requirements are completed. Remember–the cowboy has long said not to preorder books on the dot coms! Either wait for the release date, which typically has lower prices, and qualifies you for contests and other fun stuff, or you can go to the publishers website (www.threadswestseries) and reserve any or all of the books there (and enjoy full participation in the release date rodeo)…great prices, ships in many cases prior to any other source, and no cost for the reservation!

Want to thank all of you for being Threads West series fans–you bet the Threads West tale–this story of us– is proceeding 🙂 …with guns, history and passions ablaze! Chuckling–and believe me–we may be more anxious than you to get these horses out of the corral!  We thank you all for the communications and comments–keep em coming!!  And Keep your ears to the track!