Finally, It's on Amazon....

Meet Me: Writers in St. Louis was published April 1, and the first copy was sold (to Lynn Obermoeller) April 12. For four months I've been lugging copies around, selling them one-on-one to interested people, or taking mail orders, because

....Amazon.com's listing said "Not in Stock"!

Two local newspapers printed reviews: the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the West End Word. Too bad for any reader who wanted the book, because

....Amazon.com said, "Not in Stock"!

You get the point. If you want to sell a book, it absolutely must be buyable from amazon.com. My contract specified that it HAD to be there, and I would not proceed with any promotional efforts until it was--because that's where people expect books to be. They don't buy books from publishers or from author websites. They go straight to amazon.com. And if it's not there, they can look at plenty of other books.

The publisher apologized for this agonizing and infuriating delay, citing busyness with other matters and a change in distributors requiring a trip to Chicago and negotiations. Taking things into my own hands, I placed Meet Me on Amazon.com as one of the Amazon Marketplace dealers, and consigned copies to stlbooks.com, another Marketplace dealer just as good. But friends emailed me that Amazon.com said, "Not in Stock." They didn't even see there were sub-dealers. This reinforced what I have always said:

A book must be available through amazon.com!

Amazon.com says "In Stock" as I write this, but who knows, the next hour it may be "Not in Stock"!