A long time ago, I wrote a post declaring that I was aiming to put “Beyond the Red Door” – the reprint – on amazon.com.

I thought it would be a simple process. But it was far from that.

Why I wanted my reprint listed was for two reasons:

1. only two copies of the first edition are listed on amazon.com and one is hugely inflated in price; and
2. postage from Australia is so expensive that I wanted to reduce costs for people in the USA and Europe.

The Saga

But the first time I went through the painstaking process of getting all the relevant information on their site, I discovered months later that it had vanished.

Prompted by a friend to have another go, I sat back down at my keyboard, armed with all the same information, and filled out all the boxes again. You can imagine my surprise when I got a congratulatory message from amazon saying that my book was listed.

But that wasn’t the end of it!

An order came through for me to send them one copy. Sounds simple, right? Wrong!

Right from the start I was under the pump. I had one business day to respond to their request or it would be cancelled. It wasn’t just a matter of banging off an email telling them I’d be sending the book. I had to plough through all the rules and instructions about how to ship the book, how to package it and how not to, what documents to send with it, and the need to inform them of tracking and reference numbers.

If none of this was done, the book would be rejected on delivery.

After reading everything twice, I somberly packaged my book and headed for the post office. So terrified was I of “breaking the rules” that I interrogated the poor woman at the post office about the method of posting my parcel from Australia. I eventually accepted the fact that we have only one international courier with a tracking number. All the other numbers amazon had requested just didn’t exist here.

Next step, after posting my baby, was to inform amazon that it was coming. Imagine my frustration when on filling in all the information on their website, I was given an error message and told to try again. I hadn’t given them enough shipping and tracking numbers. But I only had the one!

After a series of angry emails to amazon – they kept telling me to use carriers that didn’t exist here in Australia – it was accepted that I couldn’t supply them with everything they needed, but that it didn’t matter. Phew!

The Good News

“Beyond the Red Door” has arrived and is listed on amazon.com!

So now you can buy the 2007 edition and not incur huge postal costs. On checking their site, they have a special offer running if you buy before December 10. Problem is, they only have one copy. Once they see it will sell, they’ll order more from me.

To find it on their site, go to amazon’s website and search for “Beyond the Red Door”, then click on “books” in the search results. You’ll see the 2007 edition listed there.

There is no difference between the first edition and the reprint, just that the cover isn’t the same for the reprint. When I’m feeling a bit braver, I’ll try and upload it to this blog. But you can see it on amazon.com.

So get your orders in and let me help you by supplying more copies to amazon.com and reducing your costs.