Stop. Returning. Books.

Should I do a thread about the realities indie publishing during a pandemic? It would be...pissy.

. @belt_publishing receives money from sales to booksellers--Amazon, Indies, anyplace books are sold (except our store)--3 months after orders are place. 1/

Since books weren't really selling in March, April, May, and June, our payments from those months have been very low. Those payments came in June, July, August, September.

But in July things picked up. So for the past 4 months, I have anticipated, in the cash-flow part of mind, some relief coming in November, when we receive payment for July sales. Was planning all sorts of exciting things like paying printer bills!

HOWEVER, booksellers can return books at any time for any reason, more or less. And those returns are deducted from payments immediately (not 3 months later, as sales are paid).

And in October, the returns have been higher than they have ever been for us in any one month. Just a tsunami of books that were shipped out to booksellers earlier in 2020 being shipped back.

So now our November payment--that beacon of light for me for months now--has been wiped out by October returns. Each day I see that November payment diminished as more books are returned.

It's frustrating! It's impossible to plan anything with this system!

Our August sales were really really good, so December payment *should* be strong but who the fuck knows. End thread. End returns!