Why are the release dates for Hardanger Filling Stitches different around the world?
As Vetty Creations is the Australian and New Zealand publisher of Hardanger Filling Stitches, I do my own distribution in Australia, and orders went out as quickly as I could possibly send them. I have no control over release dates anywhere other than Australia.
NZ books are taking a while because I rely on my NZ distributors to ship the books to NZ. I send them when they ask, to their shipping agent, to be consolidated with shipments from other publishers. They only ship when they have a large enough shipment to move. It’s their logistics, not mine. If I send them earlier than they ask, they have to pay storage fees, so it doesn’t make it any quicker and it just makes them like me less!
Search Press are my co-publishers for the rest of the world, and take the book to all places other than Australia and New Zealand. The timing for this is Search Press’s timing. It’s to do with physically moving the books around the world, to warehouses, making sure the stock is ready to go at the right time etc.
Some books were shipped direct from the printer to UK, and some to US. (The rest came to me in AU.) For the US and UK shipments, they will have gone into warehouses somewhere, and then get shipped out within their regions, from there.
The UK release was later than AU because it takes longer to get to the UK than AU. US was later still because it takes longer to get to the US. And then there’s all the logistical stuff that a big warehouse needs to deal with (it’s one title amongst thousands), whereas for little me, it’s me shipping 1 title amongst 11. I’m therefore a bit more nimble!
I hope that explains why some people have had their books for [seemingly] ages, and others are still waiting. But for those who don’t have theirs yet, it won’t be too much longer! I know you’re just excited, and it’s hard to be patient when you’re excited!
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
This world of global trade does mean we get to hear of things – sometimes well in advance! – which is better than not at all, but it does also impose a certain patience!
Yes, and I feel it definitely did not work in my favour in this case. It has meant that people feel like they’ve been waiting forever for this book. And during the process of writing the book, because the delivery date kept getting later and later, I felt like I was continually letting people down. It was not the most pleasant aspect of writing this book. I found that to be a very unhappy experience.