You have nothing to lose but the chains

Phone call on Wednesday - a (potential) reader tried to order one of our books at his local WH Smith. He was told it would take 3-4 weeks to obtain, so he rang us and the book went in the post the same day. WHS could also have had the book next day if they could be bothered. Thursday, an employee of another national chain emailed asking about a book his shop had ordered to his firm's national distribution centre on 28th March - was there a problem with that title? No, but our trade distributor has not received the order for it from the distribution centre (though they did return ten copies of the book last month). Friday, checking sales: bookshop sales of our title Scamp are good... but one chain ordered 30 (further) copies last month and have returned 21 this month.