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African American Literature Book Club

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Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/23/2020 in all areas

  1. Hi @Mel Hopkins no book seller, I have spoken to, has ever witnessed anything like this before. I was not totally prepared for the surge in books orders -- no one could have anticipated that kind of demand. It put an strain on the entire book distribution chain no one is unaffected not even the big "a." But you are right I was in a position to quickly scale to demand. The things I had working for me was, The website was prepared for the traffic. Thanks to a surge in traffic last year I was forced to upgrade my web server. I ditched Amazon and began selling books directly (many new customers stated they chose AALBC because they'd rather support an indie book seller over Amazon) I simply would not have gotten the extra sales if I were still an Amazon affiliate. Access to credit. I could have brought a couple automobiles with what I spent on books in the last 10 days. I was able to hire help quickly. I had the time and energy to do this work. I worked every day since since May 28 at least 12 hours per day. One evening I had a few friends and tomorrow I'm taking completely off -- but that was it. Yesterday I didn't even take time for dinner. I'm technically capable and was able to quickly make changes to the website, like adding a feature to say when a book would be available. Most of the problems I encountered was simply the availability of books. Because of the pandemic, some books that are still in print, are simply unavailable to me. Some publisher have been shut down until March. Distributors, printers, shipping companies are strained. this all effects booksellers. Virtually every customer has been completely understanding -- it has been amazing. I do have to say there was once customer that gave me some grief.... A month after their order shipped (before the surge), I gave the customer their tracking code. They emailed and called complaining that their book has not yet arrived. They should have gotten it in about a week (it was shipped media). The tracking number indicated that the USPS lost the book in transit. This is info the customer could easily see for themselves. I was unaware of the lost package, because once I provide a tracking number I leave it up to the customer to get back to me. Now during the pandemic everything is slower and lost packages happen occasionally. The customer was sent a new book, but they had to feed me the classic line, "This is why I don't like to deal with own-Black businesses." I know... I was floored too! I explained to the customer that you can't judge all Black-owned business based upon this single transaction with AALBC -- especially when the problem was caused by the United States Postal Service and I made good on the order. If just seems to me that Black business are held to a much higher standard. Literally every other customer has been a blessing. I was selling a hardcover of So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo, but the hardcover is unobtainable right now. I went back to customers, and offered to send them the paperback version instead, with a $10 refund for the difference. To a person they all said, "Keep the $10 we wanna support!" I could not believe it.

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