Reposted by Meg Reid 🦦
Meg Reid 🦦
@megireid.bsky.social
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Executive Director / Hub City Writers Project Publisher / @hubcitypress.bsky.social Habs fan / Canadian in the South 🍁 www.megireid.com
Executive Director / Hub City Writers Project Publisher / @hubcitypress.bsky.social Habs fan / Canadian in the South 🍁 www.megireid.com
![, Some Books Miss On-Sale Dates
Challenges with getting copies of Josh Silver's Fruit Fly and Marlon James's The Disappearers are just two examples of a supply chain stretched thin this fall. New US tariffs on goods from Canada including paper, higher fuel prices, and the closure of the Coral Graphics plant in New York have all made it harder for publishers to reprint to fill demand, and print books on time in order to hold their original publication dates.
"The book manufacturing industry is experiencing elevated demand as publishers prepare for the fall season," Book Manufacturers International executive director Matt Baehr said. "Recent changes in available industry capacity, combined with seasonal demand and pressure on certain materials and components, have created a challenging production environment across the market."
For booksellers, the issues compound what is already an intense pre-holiday selling season. Penguin Random House and Harper Collins have contacted stores to tell them to expect delays in shipments, and booksellers report that other publishers are slower than usual as well.
In some stores, Harper titles have not arrived in time for their on-sale dates. Even popular backlist titles are hard to come by as booksellers experience longer wait times for reorders and publishers’ stated reprint dates come and go.
"As a bookseller, I'm worrying that this moves the needle towards digital books or audio," Daniel Goldin, owner of Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee, said.
According to Porter Square Books buyer Sarah Rettger, "the bigger issue [than initial shipments] is the titles that immediately go out of stock. We just saw our first copies of Fruit Fly in three weeks, and we've still got outstanding orders."
Harper has suggested to some booksellers they would be better off ordering from wholesalers. Ingram has been well stocked and has had standard delivery times, according to Astoria Bookshop owner Lexi Beach. Booksellers also say that they are rece…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:izhwsjxjck5eaccfaz4vldrg/bafkreidesl5jk6hyasngartbh4guf2k3vfqvax77eptmaxuiauxyvmh5wu)
