Anger is growing against failed online retailer Booktopia from authors, publishers and customers, who are being left in limbo as a lengthy administration process to claw back $60 million in debt now plays out.
The Australian company appointed administrators earlier this month, after battling tough times that some in the publishing world say was open industry knowledge for at least a year.
Industry veteran, Jane Curry, is one of the publishers owed money from Booktopia through her independent publishing company, Ventura Press.
"It wasn't a surprise," she told ABC News about the administration.
"We've been fearing it and dreading it for most of last year.
"The company had been going on and off stop, which is when they hadn't paid their invoices by 30 days, we couldn't supply them with the new product."
The first meeting for its creditors was held on Monday, less than a fortnight after the company collapsed, and lay bare its dire financial standing.
McGrathNicol's Keith Crawford told ABC News they had identified deep debts held by the company totalling $60 million.
"The vast majority of that debt is actually trade creditor debt, principally the suppliers of books," he said.
Publishers who are owed money for books, including smaller independents like Ventura through to big publishing houses like HarperCollins, are all considered unsecured creditors.
There are also about 150,000 orders worth about $12 million now unfulfilled, many of them pre-ordered books that hadn't yet been delivered to Booktopia.
As well as this, customers are owed $3 million in gift cards.
Why are pre-orders in limbo?
Sydney-based author Anaita Sarkar is releasing her second book at the end of July and has been selling pre-order copies of it through both Booktopia and its US rival Amazon since May.
She believes about 100 people had made orders through Booktopia before she says her publisher told her to stop promoting pre-orders through the retailer at the end of June.
"They said they have news, or news through the grapevine, that something's going wrong with Booktopia," Ms Sarkar said.
Booktopia was initially placed in a trading halt at the request of the company on June 13, before being suspended from the ASX four days later on June 17.
The online retailer remains suspended from trading, with a statement by the ASX that the company's suspension "will continue until such time that the ASX is satisfied with [Booktopia's] compliance" with listing rules.
When it eventually went into administration in early July, Ms Sarkar had to grapple with the ramifications for her Booktopia customers.
"My book wasn't going to be shipped by them to any of my customers," she said.
Ms Sarkar says the situation has been "frustrating" because people who now can't get refunds for their pre-orders believe that Ms Sarkar is holding the funds.
The marketing guru, whose book is a spin-off of her first book about opening a packaging business, has been trying to explain the situation to her followers on social media.
"The comments were 'why is it up to us as the customer to get the refund? Why isn't it up to you as the author to give us our money back?'
"And I think that's where the misconception is, they think that I've taken the money.
"If I had, I absolutely would have returned it."
Other Australian writers in this situation include influencer Lucinda Price, also known by her online moniker Froomes, who has her first book coming out in September and was also selling it through pre-order.
Some customers have reported getting refunds through the facility they paid through, such as PayPal.
What went wrong at Booktopia?
Booktopia was founded in 2004 by brothers Tony and Simon Nash and Steve Traurig, and celebrated its 20th year in business in February.
It had grown enormously beyond its humble beginnings after an IPO, opening a Sydney facility to deliver books that was even manned by robots, apparently to rival US giant Amazon.
Yet it never turned a profit on the ASX, and as the company started to warn of dwindling post-pandemic sales, the publishing industry started to get worried.
"I read the annual reports, the quarterly forecasts for Booktopia, because I clearly have a great vested interest," publisher Jane Curry says.
"And it was a lot of things that were promised that weren't necessarily going to be really realistic."
The book retailer underwent a series of executive-level changes in the first half of the year, including the resignation of its chief financial officer Fiona Levens in May and chief executive David Nenke in June — just over a year after the Barnes & Noble alumni began in the role.
Mr Nenke's resignation came alongside an announcement that the company had made 50 staff redundant in June, and had secured $1 million in funding from AFSG Capital for "redundancy related costs".
"I think they were trying to do the right thing, they were trying to trade out of it.
"They've made redundancies, which are widely known," Ms Curry says.
In the six months to December 31 last year, Booktopia suffered a $16.7 million loss, compared to a $3.9 million loss a year ago.
Booktopia made its debut on the ASX in December 2020 at $2.86 a share, but has since lost more than 98 per cent of its value and last traded at $0.05.
In a statement, Booktopia's executive chairman Peter George said the company has "at all times complied with the law in relation to insolvent trading".
"Booktopia had advanced discussions with shareholders and brokers in relation to a capital raising," he said.
"Booktopia's plans were hijacked in the week before appointment by the decision of a credit card service provider, Fiserv, to withhold 100 per cent of all credit card receipts.
"The company had no way of funding the business in the two months between this event and the capital raise proceeds being received."
Fiserv has been contacted for comment.
In March 2023, Booktopia was fined $6 million by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for breaching Australian consumer law with deceptive marketing tactics.
Some in the media have implied this debt, which was being paid to ASIC over a five-year instalment plan, may have added to Booktopia's woes.
McGrathNicol's Keith Crawford told ABC News that it didn't appear this fine was a substantial factor more than any other debt, and that they would be investigating what went wrong in the coming weeks and months.
The administrator is also hopeful of finding a buyer for Booktopia that could continue its operations in some form, with at least 80 parties expressing interest, including reportedly Kogan.
The other option beyond saving the brand would be a sell-off of Booktopia's assets, such as books.
He acknowledged the frustration aired by people at the first creditors' meeting, including from many customers who wanted their money or books.
"There will be some customers that have placed orders for books where the books may actually be in the warehouse," he says.
"Those books are actually assets of the company or the retention of a supplier."
Others are those waiting for pre-orders, like those who bought Ms Sarkar's new book.
"I feel a little bit disappointed," she says.
"They really should have just not taken any pre-orders."
In his statement, the company's Mr George said "Booktopia up until this event had every confidence that books on back order would be delivered".
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