Waterstones and JKR new book

[AllosaurusAlliteration]

An exciting day for fans of Strike & Robin!

Despite having a pre-ordered Kindle and Audible version auto sent to me today, I decided to pop into the large city centre Waterstones I was passing on my lunch break from work to see what they were doing for publication day of the Hall Marked Man.

There was nothing in the window, no posters, no signs, no copies displayed. So I popped inside.

There were tables out with "new fiction" hardbacks but it wasn't there, not on its own table like a few others, and not with others in a shared display. So I went to the "new fiction" section for the shelves and searched under G - nothing there either.

I wandered about a bit, assuming I'd made some sort of mistake, before asking a member of staff whether I had got the day wrong. I was assured they did have copies and they could get me one from behind the desk. I asked why they weren't out and was told that they were, so I explained that I couldn't see or find them, and the member of staff just sort of laughed in response.

It was seriously weird.

I have been left feeling really quite uneasy. Why does such a large bookseller want to make customers ask for a book? Seriously thought this shit was blowing over!

Has anyone had a better experience?

I went to buy mine at Waterstones yesterday and was also surprised by the window display. HM was there, but hidden like ET in the soft toy cupboard 😂.

There was a display inside the shop, but it wasn't prominent.

More prominent was the stack of pre-ordered Hallmarked Man on the counter. Mine wasn't one of those, so they had to retrieve it from further stacks in the back 😆.

I then went looking for TWWWW. Couldn't find it anywhere.

Went to the till to ask. Guy says 'Oh the Scottish book. Well I don't know if we have that in stock.' 😳

He looked on computer, found there was one. Went looking for it. Put it on the counter for his colleague to process.

Colleague said 'who's this for' and the guy pointed at me and said 'this!'.

😳😆

Yeah, it was definitely weird.

Agree with this.
Someone has decided to give out innocuous novels from under the counter, like a sex shop in Soho. Head office will not think that looks good for the company.

I still don’t understand why G?

JKR’s pseudonym for the Strike books is Robert Galbraith.

Depends. Most likely, as most likely with most retail, a rogue, dickhead member of staff in the branch. As others have reported, it is available in other branches without much palaver. That or the boxes hadn’t been unpacked yet, which could have been impacted by a whole number of factors, if the stock had been embargoed until a set publication date, delivery of stock, boring logistics reasons.

A lack of posters or POS material isn’t really relevant. Not all books get released to the same fanfare.

All in, no great conspiracy. Truly, Waterstones HQ doesn’t plan like that. It’s all about the numbers at HQ. Market share, TCM, sales forecasts, publicity & discount.

(note, I don’t work for them, but I do work with them, so know how it works)

Agree. If they want to act like tit-heads then call them out on it. Fucking weirdos!

I find a lot of books either end up on the shelves a day or two before publication date or a few days after the date.

I’m sure I saw Waterstones plugging the book at half price in some branches.

Most fiction of this kind is bought on pre order anyway so there is no rush to get it on the shelf.

Presumably the staff in the shops have influence on how stock is displayed, not necessarily what is ordered?

Because JKR writes them under the own name Galbraith, but in fairness I didn't go and double check under R!

Fair enough. I would have probably bought it if it has been out and I hadn't been made to feel so strange by the weird interaction with their staff though, so they're a sale down from me at least.

But it's also made me feel mildly threatened.

Get a fucking grip.

Surely this is captured staff making their own little protest. I agree it's intended to make customers feel uncomfortable, like they are doing something wrong.

I wonder if all the Harry Potter books were on the shelves?

So in the end they offered to get you a copy and you didn’t buy it but left instead?

My local Waterstones had them at the front on. table on their own. I spoke to the manager when I paid, he was pleased and said they’d sold loads.

I’ve just got my copy at Manchester Deansgate. There is a table of them as you walk in the door, so the books are the first thing you see.
Definitely email head office and let them know what’s happened @AllosaurusAlliteration

Think they were just out for a fight really and disappointed when they didn't get one as it seems to be just one branch as they said

That makes me feel a lot better (if childishly cheated)

Opening Waterstones' website it's. the first thing you see, so it definitely seems to me that the branch has made a conscious decision, one NOT backed by head office.

I would complain to Head Office, particularly that the book is behind the desk. Now if they'd said that they have some free-roaming fuckwitted customers who would damage the books if they were out on the table, that would be one thing. But she laughed and there's no window display, so it's not that.

Get onto Head Office and complain, complain, complain.

BettyBooper I then went looking for TWWWW. Couldn't find it anywhere.
Went to the till to ask. Guy says 'Oh the Scottish book. Well I don't know if we have that in stock.' 😳

'The Scottish Book'😂
Did you say 'no I don't want Macbeth, I want TWWWW'?😁

Agree that you should email head office - at the end of the day its a popular book and isn't cheap so if they are hiding them away they'll be losing a lot of money!

Even if it was a new sudoku book or something i.e. in no way controversial (not that a fictional detective book should be controversial) it was a shit example of customer service. Some customers of book shops could be potentially neurodiverse/have English as a second language etc and already find asking for something quite intimidating - surely the only possible response is to either walk with them or tell them exactly where to find it?

Large table right at front of store dedicated to the book at my local Waterstones. Lovely big book to read as a treat. Loved Cormoran long before I know he was a JKR creation.

Complain to head office. People need to do their jobs - which at Waterstones is to display a best seller on release day. You are a customer with power.

They're definitely promoting it online - definitely looks like local silliness

This sort of nonsense has really tainted my opinion of Waterstones as a brand and I have voted with my wallet accordingly. I have a branch locally which I browse in but very rarely actually spend my money in there now. Given I’ve bought around new (not secondhand) 240 books in the last eighteen months that’s a fair few sales Waterstones are not getting - I don’t just avoid them for books written by women authors they don’t approve of.

When the last one came out I couldn't find it in a big bookshop in Scarborough, I think also Waterstones.

I'm all for supporting real bookshops over Amazon but half the books I want are too obscure to be in stock and then for some reason they don't have current bestsellers either!

Brighton by any chance, with a captured manager?

Fair enough - but I’d keep pointing it out to them. In the words of the TERFs - receipts are everything. I’d send them those and say that money would have been spent with you but for your inability to manage your teams. They will take notice. Money talks!