CN Central: Who is the distributor of Completely Novel books?

hellllen - Newbie: +5

Hi Andrew, I’m new and sent my book for proof reading on 7 nov, but its now 18th and I’ve heard nothing despite sending emails. I am very concerned as I have a serious deadline. Can you offer any advice please. Can Itrust Completley Novel ?

Andrew - Bookilicious: +142

I’m new to this as well so not in a great place to comment. To their credit, Completely Novel did answer my question earlier tonight… Eight days after it was asked. I’ll put it down as a blip and hope for better communication in future.
Good luck with your publication!
Best wishes
Andrew

Oliver - Lord of the reads: +3092

Hi everyone,

Sorry I was away last week and was unable to get on the net.

The CN distributor depends on who is printing the books.

If they are printed by Lightning Source then list Bertrams as the distributor with Lightning Source as an agent.

If they are printed by CPI Antony Rowe then Gardners is the distributor and CPI Antony Rowe is the agent.

The distributor is the party who receives and handles the order. The agent is the party responsible for sourcing the book and fulfilling it.

Hope that helps.

Oli

Charlie - Page ranger: +43

Seriously Ollie? No one at CN was in a position to answer a simple question for a whole week?

WTF? What kind of business are you running? Maybe let customers know this before you go incommunicado, rather than mention it after?……………. seriously, no one else was available to answer that? …….. wow.

You know, the more I try to deal with CN, the more I feel that it is run by some 16 year old from his bedroom at weekends. It’s a great idea, but as you know, in my year with you, practically nothing has worked. From Amazon and waterstones unable to source the book for months on end, to sales not being recorded in my portfolio to this day. (Yes, I contacted you about this over a month ago but as usual got no response. I never get a response to legitimate issues until I kick off on the forums here, whereupon you take my complaint down and address my problem privately. How about someone answers me just once, before I get pissed off? Just once! Does the ‘contact us’ form even work?)

Yes, you refunded the majority of my subs, but Ollie, that is little compensation when I’d spent so much time promoting my work only for it to be unavailable. OK it was a print issue with the cover…..so it was ignored and no one thought to tell me for several months after I chased you on it?

I’ve cancelled now. You know my whole experience with CN has just left me completely demoralized and of the conclusion that self publishing just isn’t worthwhile. If I do get it into retailers, the shipping charges are so high that in order to be competitive, I have to sell it to retailers for no mark up. To be honest, I’m just not that desperate to be read. It’s a fine service to see your own work in print, but the retail aspect just fails epically.

And what’s with my book being available via some ebay seller and various Amazon sellers at over inflated prices? It’s even listed as having ‘used’ copies for sale yet as it’s been practically unavailable since joining you, where have these used copies come from? Some even have it ‘in stock’! allegedly, yet not according to my sales portfolio….oh yea I forgot, that’s classified information that you don’t share with me.

Finally, I know, despite your secrecy, of at least two copies that were sold via waterstones several months ago that have never been accredited to me. Why not? If you have not listed those, how can I or anyone else be sure that you are actually accrediting us with actual sales? Let’s face it, I could sell a hundred and would never know about it because you don’t seem to be sharing sales information with me. Does anyone actually have proof of how many of their books you have sold? Do YOU even know? My sales portfolio suggests you either don’t have a clue or you can’t be bothered to update it.

So I cancelled a few weeks ago due to my question on my sales being ignored, (as expected). Of course I’m still listed everywhere as available. It’s the level of efficiency I have come to expect from CN. I’ll still use you to proof copies of my next book, if I can now be bothered to finish it, (and if the ‘order proof copies’ link ever takes me to anything other than that dumbassed badger apologizing for the broken link and suggesting I use the ‘contact us’ form……… yea right, the Badgers obviously never tried to contact you via that form, if he had, he’d know it was pointless), the actual books when printed are great quality, but the rest of the service is really non existent.

And please don’t remove this post. It is an honest, if somewhat peevish review of my experiences with CN and I am fed up with you censoring my legitimate complaints from your forum. Remove me this time and I will go all over the net with my CN experience with a complete, properly written review of the whole year.

You know Ollie, trying to publish sucks balls enough already, without a couple of people promising stuff and constantly failing to deliver, making it an even bigger fight than it already is.

Writers are such a patient breed for sure. Sad thing is, this thread is yet another that is starting out in the exact same way my own experience did. I suspect you get away with it because on the surface you present an opportunity rather than a service. In my experience you have pretty much struggled every step of the way to provide either.

More excuses to come, I’m sure.

Harry - No-vel prize: +950

I am sorry to hear of your problems. I have been with CN for two years and have had the best of attention at all times. Of course occasionally there is a little delay with a reply, nothing is perfect but on the whole I have nothing but praise for the crew who set up and run this organisation.

Occasionally problems occur with other companies and information is not always available when one thinks it should be, a possible example being the Waterstone’s sales you mention. There are chains of communications that occasionally get distorted and delayed as others have discovered.

Regarding the ‘in stock’ statements by other companies, CN is not in control of what they put on their web sites and hence this has no bearing on their actions…Amazon did similar things to my listing[two books] and again that was incorrect but not controlled by CN, they can only advise these other companies.

Harry