Betsy Phillips, after reading Diana Pavlac Glyer’s explanation why her book’s publication date doesn’t correspond with what’s on Amazon, wrote a series of tweets about the problem in general.
Phillips also blogs about sf/f (and many other interests) at Tiny Cat Pants.
I want to say a few things about this in relation to Hugo eligibility: https://t.co/vj4JlsYjSB
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
Amazon is not some infallible font of information about the publication status of a book. Amazon has the information a publisher gives them.
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
Amazon is also not always great about updating information later. This includes pub dates.
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
(Also, as a side note, when Amazon says they only have x copies in stock, that's NEVER accurate. It's a marketing gimmick, not a fact.)
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
Also, here's how university presses operate. We get the books four to six weeks before the pub date. So, books can be on sale before
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
a book is published, depending on when retailers get them. Also, there are two dates that Amazon sometimes conflates into one:
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
the pub date (which is what you'd think it is) and the on-sale date. I don't know why those are two different fields, but they are.
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
I have also learned through cruel and terrible experience that, once you set an "on sale date," the chances of Amazon letting you change it
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
are slim and none. That's why I never set one. University presses try to give Amazon (and other folks) information as early as possible.
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
Because the information is so early, often things are wrong. Pub dates, for instance, slip. Usually, the information can be updated at
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
Amazon no problem. But when Amazon decides to mess you up, it is a nightmare headache to get straight.
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
Also, even though it appears that trade publishers are able to control when Amazon puts their books on sale, my first-hand experience is
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
that university presses do not have that control. Sometimes Amazon holds sales until the pub date. Sometimes Amazon sells books as soon
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
as they get them in stock. This is also true for ebooks.
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
If Hugo nominators go by what Amazon does and says rather than what the publisher does and says, then university press authors are screwed.
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
How our business works and how Hugo voters assume it works based on Amazon's doing are two vastly different things.
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016
Long story short: Please do not use Amazon's behavior as any indication about whether a university press book was published in 2015 or 2016.
— Betsy Phillips (@AuntB) March 29, 2016