I was wondering why Borders didn’t have “The Last Lecture” after having sent out e-mail discount offers. This April 19th Wall Street Journal article (subscription required I believe) sheds some light on things.
In a potentially costly miscalculation, the book’s publisher, Walt Disney Co.’s Hyperion, didn’t print enough copies to meet initial demand. As a result, Amazon.com Inc. is telling customers the book may not be in stock until May 7, while Barnes & Noble Inc.’s online arm is saying readers will have to wait one to two weeks to get a copy.
Turns out this could be a costly mistake…
The shortfall represents a missed opportunity for Hyperion, which paid an estimated $6 million to $7 million for the book. Buzz about a title is always strongest in the first couple of weeks after a book is published, when marketing impressions are strongest.
So far they have updated their orders twice…
Hyperion initially printed 400,000 copies of the book and shipped 330,000 to retailers. On April 2, the publisher ordered a second printing of 50,000, said Ellen Archer, president and publisher. On April 7, the day before publication, it ordered a third printing of 100,000, bringing its total to 550,000 before the sale date.
But demand is much higher than expected…
By day’s end on April 10 we had back orders for 500,000, and by the end of April 11 we had back orders for 800,000″ she says. “There is no way you can plan for this kind of phenomenon. Demand was simply meteoric.”
Now they have pulled out all the stops and 2,000,000 copies should be available by mid-May.
Fortunately for us, the wife got a copy on a shopping trip to Costco.
