Lulu.com had estimated that it would take about 5-10 business days for my books to arrive. I placed the order two weeks before the launch date. That way, if I discovered within the first week some horrific typo or oversight in the book, or something went wrong with the printing, I would still have time to get a replacement order in. I ordered 100 copies and hit the "Order" button while staring at the big number beside "Total Invoice."
The lesson today is why you should always have a backup plan. For everything.
I checked the lulu.com site obsessively for a note indicating that the order had been completed. To my delight it happened with about eight days to spare. I was in good shape, it seemed. The next day I went onto the FedEx site to find out where the shipment was and when I might expect it to arrive. I was pretty excited.
It was about 09000h when I found my shipment on fedex.com, next to the status message "order cancelled by shipper." WTF!?!?! It certainly hadn't been cancelled by -me-, so I jumped over to lulu.com to look for a phone number.
Lulu is one of those companies that operate in some variation on the "virtual" model. There was no phone number anywhere on their site. Actually there was just one - it was the phone number for their public relations company, buried in amongst the media resources.
There is no substitute for having direct, real-time communications with someone when things are going wrong. I knew that lulu.com was comparatively efficient at responding to emails, but that only meant that I'd reliably get a response within 24 hours. I needed to know what was going on NOW.
To their credit, lulu.com has a real-time chat function on their site. I was able to get hold of a customer service person within 15 minutes and the investigation began as to what was going on. It was a little clumsy having to type everything. I wanted to make it very clear how concerned I was, but I didn't want to come across as a shouty, inconsolable lunatic. I tried to choose my words carefully to convey the correct tone. I was, after all, setting myself up as a writer here.
One of the unexpected advantages of this awkward way to converse is that I did end up with a complete transcript of what was said - a trick that can be difficult to manage in a verbal conversation, and is frequently thought of as potentially valuable after much as has already been discussed.
The customer service person was attentive and seemed appropriately concerned. The big question was whether the order had actually been printed or not. If it hadn't been printed we needed to know immediately so that we could find out why and get it on the press. If it had been printed and just the shipping was cancelled we needed to know if it was a problem with the shipping or with the finished product. And if it was just a clerical error then I needed to know so that I could safely climb down off the ledge and close the window.
Adding to the sense of panic was the fact that I had a phone interview with The Georgia Straight early that afternoon. There was lots of time to reship a finished order, but if it needed to be printed (or reprinted) then there was no guarantee that, between the printing and the shipping, it would arrive on time. The odds seemed split between having the books arrive the day of the launch, or possibly the day after. Should I mention this in my interview, or just pretend that everything was fine when I knew full well that there was a chance I could be launching a book without having any to sell or even show to the attendees?
The person at Lulu took on the task of finding out what had happened. I decided to just go back to bed. Over the next couple of hours there was nothing I could do to fix the situation, and I couldn't bring myself to do any work to promote the event when I knew it might be for naught. Another hour of sleep seemed like the only sensible thing to do. I was already feeling exhausted and it was barely 1000h.
When I got back up and checked my email an hour or so later there was an email from lulu.com explaining that the tracking number I had been given was incorrect, along with the correct tracking order. A check of fedex.com showed the shipment on its way and due to be delivered the next day. The clouds parted, the sun shone, the cat started purring, and music played.
In the time that I had been in limbo I was wracking my brain for solutions. Should I cancel the launch and rebook it for a later date? How important was it to have books to sell on that day? Could I come up with some kind of coupon that I could sell at the event, which could be redeemed for a free book. If I did a coupon, would I have to pay to mail out the late copies, or was there another way to distribute them? I even considered offering to hand-deliver them - not a huge hardship if only ten people were to show up for the launch.
And that's my second lesson - there are always numerous ways around a given problem. The key is identify what your real goal is. If my only goal had been to have books to sell at the launch then I could have been empirically screwed by a printing/shipping error. But if my goal was more general - to sell books - then a bit of creative thinking would be able to get me there. I might have had to expend a little more energy, or possibly a little more money, but I could make it work. Recognise what your goal is and be prepared to be flexible with your tactics.
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