I’m still trying to figure out exactly why most of my Photographer’s Guide paperback books are currently listed on Amazon.com as shipping within 2-3 weeks, when they used to be kept in stock for immediate shipping.  They are print-on-demand books, and there has been some sort of temporary or permanent change in the way Amazon deals with such books, particularly those printed by Lightning Source, the printer that produces my books.

There has been a lively discussion online among print-on-demand publishers like me about what is causing the longer shipping times.  As far as I can tell, there is no definitive answer yet, just several theories.  So, I’m still hopeful that the situation will return to normal within the next month or two, with all of my books shipping quickly from Amazon.

In the meantime, today I received from the printer a new shipment of the three most recent books — those on the Panasonic Lumix LX5, the Leica D-Lux 5, and the Canon PowerShot S95.  I have these books listed on Amazon.com as a third-party seller for $23.95 each; my seller ID there is alexstrawhite.  As noted in my listings, I ship the books by the next business day, and they generally make it to their destinations (if within the U.S.) within 2-3 days after shipping. I also ship internationally, though those shipments of course take longer.

Another option is to purchase the books from Barnesandnoble.com (bn.com), which lists the books as shipping within 24 hours.  This morning I ordered one of my Canon PowerShot books from bn.com to test the actual shipping time. So far I have received a message saying the book is scheduled to ship tomorrow, July 8, which is a good sign.  I’ll post the results of the test here, hopefully by Monday July 11, if the book arrives by then.

Also, as I noted a few days ago, when I did a similar test by buying a Panasonic Lumix LX5 book from Amazon, it arrived in about six days, rather than the 2-3 weeks mentioned in the listing.

So, I hope no one is passing up one of these books because of Amazon’s long shipping times.  The shipping actually is quicker than advertised, and you can always get a book quickly through third-party sellers (including me), or from other online retailers, including bn.com, booksamillion.com, powells.com, and others. In fact, you can do a search at bookfinders.com to get a listing of the various online sites that sell these (and any other) books.

If anyone has questions about any of this, please let me know through a comment, or an e-mail message at contact@whiteknightpress.com.