.
UPDATE: Galaxy bookshop in Sydney have since very kindly and promptly taken note of the problem and will be fixing it – if you want to order the book from them, look for it under Glenda Larke, or as Last Stormlord (without the “The”. They do have copies!)
I wanted to send my books to a few people down in Oz. So I go online.
Geez, that was an exercise in futility. Galaxy in Sydney has never heard of the book. Neither has Abbey’s. Infinitas says they’ll have to order it and it will take 2 weeks. Down in Melbourne, Slow Glass doesn’t take credit cards. Over in Perth, neither White Dwarf nor Fantastic Planet deal with online sales.
So in the end I forget about the sff specialists and I went to the book chain Dymocks. They want the recipient’s email (no problem with that) – but then, blow me down, they also want their bleeding telephone number!!!!!!! How the @# should I know?
And they say shopping online is easy??
;
Shopping online in the US and UK is easy!
I've tried in the past to look into ordering your books from Australia, and it was an exercise in futility. I have to wait and get the books sent from the UK to the US. Fortunately, with the Book Depository's free shipping, it's actually quite reasonable to do so.
I've never tried shopping on line in Oz, but I do agree, its very easy in both the US, Canada and the UK.
How frustrating for you Glenda.
I saw your book on the shelf here in a bigger book store, but I have ordered it from the independent small bookshop. We discussed delayed gratification!!!
try http://www.fishpond.com – the closest thing we have in Aus to an amazon.
I live in Oz and find it easier to buy online through Amazon in the US or The Book Depository in the UK. The Book Depository has free shipping to Oz and is faster delivery than places like Dymocks or A&R. It's even usually faster to buy online from overseas than it is to order a book (that's not in stock) from the store down the road!
Actually, Galaxy do have it. But if you do a search of their online catalogue you can't put the full title in, you have to drop the 'The'.
Which I don't think is terribly useful, Amazon doesn't restrict like that. Anything that makes life harder for a customer is crazy, imo.
Anyhow, the point is it's in stock and immediately available from Galaxy, who really are a wonderful bunch supporting spec fic in Australia.
Thanks for finding that out, Karen. Unfortunately they haven't corrected it yet. They lost a sale for a number of books yesterday, so the mistake has already cost them.
The book has had several different titles as it evolved, but as far as I know it has never been called Last Stormlord.
Tansy – thanks for the link. I hadn't heard of that before.
And Deb, I didn't know about the Book Depository, either.
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Hi Glenda,
I'm so sorry about the trouble you have had with our website. The Last Stormlord is actually on the site and this is the direct link http://www.galaxybooks.com.au/items.asp?id=242855
Unfortunately given the quirk of data-entry (which has us drop 'The' from the begining of a title) and an old website if you search for the full title 'The Last Stormlord' the search engine won't find it (aggggh!). On the upside if you dicide to search by author it will indeed be listed with all your other Voyager titles.
Hopefully the sales we have lost, for both us and you, will be made up in store from the lovely front display you currently occupy.
Regards, Mark.
Thank you Mark, and I am sorry if I sounded a little miffed. I had a frustrating afternoon trying to buy my own books – compounded by the appalling internet connection we get up this way!
I do try wherever possible to support the independents and appreciate all that Galaxy has done for Australian sff.
Many thanks,
Glenda
Hi, Glenda, I stumbled into your blog as I was searching for info on how many books you plan for the Watergivers series. 🙂
Aside from Galaxy (my first stop for sff books), The Book Depository and Fishpond, which have already been suggested in the comments, I also wanted to mention Booktopia, another online bookseller. I've rarely had problems searching their catalogue for books.