Nagi Maehashi, the massively successful cookbook author behind RecipeTin Eats, is promising to personally refund customers who pre-ordered her upcoming book from Booktopia in the weeks leading to its collapse.
In a highly unusual move, the bestselling author and recipe blogger invited customers left out of pocket by their Booktopia preorder to provide their banking details via email.
“I have received upset messages from readers and I whole heartedly agree it is unjust,” Maehashi told her 3.7 million Facebook followers on Tuesday.
“It’s been really bothering me, to the point it’s dampening my excitement about release day.
“So I decided to do something about it and personally refund affected customers myself.”
Refunded customers can then purchase a new copy of the book, Maehashi says.
Social media users are praising Maehashi for the gesture.
“I wasn’t affected by this personally but this damn classy act has inspired me to buy the book,” wrote another.
Maehashi asked for the purchase receipts and banking details of affected pre-order customers in order to handle the refunds personally, prompting some commentors on social media to raise security concerns.
Maehashi is one of Australia’s culinary superstars, with recipes from her website and bestselling 2022 cookbook RecipeTin Eats: Dinner becoming nearly ubiquitous in kitchens nationwide.
Fan excitement grew in June this year when Maehashi announced the upcoming release of her sophomore cookbook, RecipeTin Eats: Tonight, to be published by Pan Macmillan Australia on October 15.
Preorders for the book opened June 7 across multiple retailers, including major online bookseller Booktopia.
But Booktopia collapsed into voluntary administration and suspended new orders on July 3, leaving customers with outstanding orders and gift vouchers as unsecured creditors.
At the time, around $15 million was owed to customers in the form of unfulfilled orders and unspent vouchers.
Preorders at local bookshops, retailers like Readings and Dymocks, and online marketplaces like Amazon were unaffected.
Administrators McGrathNicol confirmed Booktopia’s sale to digiDirect founder Shant Kradjian in mid-August, and its online webstore resumed taking orders soon after.
Booktopia’s new ownership did not assume responsibility for preorders racked up before the administration, but offered support to customers seeking chargebacks through their credit providers.
“Asking the new Booktopia owners to honour the pre-orders would be pointless,” Maehashi, a former auditor, says on her website.
“I used to work in corporate. I know how they operate, they aren’t going to offer refunds ‘just to be nice’. It’s legally not their problem – they bought Booktopia on the basis of this reality.”
Pan Macmillan Australia, the publisher of Maehashi’s new book, declined to comment.
Maehashi says she is “not at liberty” to disclose the number of Booktopia preorders for RecipeTin Eats: Tonight.
The figure could be significant, if the new book is anything as successful as her previous work.
Her previous title, RecipeTin Eats: Dinner, reportedly sold around 253,000 copies across all retailers in 2023, making it the nation’s bestseller across all book categories.
At time of writing, her new book is the #1 most pre-ordered title on Booktopia competitor Amazon Australia.
SmartCompany has contacted Maehashi, McGrathNicol, and Booktopia for comment.
Australian publishing experts and authors say Maehashi’s pledge is unorthodox, especially given the large number of presales that may have been secured via Booktopia prior to its voluntary administration.
Maehashi’s pledge is “very open and generous,” says Tim Coronel, a lecturer and subject co-ordinator at the University of Melbourne and former general manager of industry group The Small Press Network.
Other high-profile business collapses, like the fall of Borders and Angus & Robertson owners REDGroup in 2011, saw many Australian readers left without their presale orders.
However, Coronel tells SmartCompany he cannot recall another instance of an author stepping in to personally refund their would-be readers.
Will Kostakis is an Australian author whose latest title, We Could Be Something, recently won the Young Adult Literature Award at the 2024 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.
He says Maehashi’s refund pledge — and the idea those refunds could be used to re-purchase the book — shows the importance of strong presale numbers for local writers and publishers.
“There is this contract between fan and author where it’s like, ‘If you buy my book, preorder it… my title will then go really well in the charts, and it will give me the best shot possible at making a career out of this, and giving the book a life beyond those first three months,” Kostakis says.
“So I totally understand an author coming in and being like, ‘Hey, my readers supported me, and they have been drowned by something completely out of their control. I want to step in and make good on [my] promise to get them a book.’”
Kostakis says the scenario also underlines the role of local booksellers on pre-order success.
“Especially with children and young adults in Australia, it is really challenging to get above the noise the big American titles, and the big celebrity titles,” he says.
“And it is those independent booksellers who are hand-selling our stuff, that’s been really vital.
“And so we try to kill two birds with one stone. We try to support the local sellers, while also trying to get those pre-orders in.
“Because if your book doesn’t make a splash in the first three weeks, it’s basically over for that title. Write the next one.”
Never miss a story: sign up to SmartCompany’s free daily newsletter and find our best stories on LinkedIn.
Senior Business Journalist
Focused on the small business sector, David’s work covers the political, regulatory, and economic issues facing Australian entrepreneurs. Prior to joining SmartCompany, he was a reporter for Business Insider Australia. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
Senior Technology Journalist
A multi-award-winning journalist, Tegan has been reporting on technology, telecommunications and gaming for the past 10 years. She regularly appears on mainstream media channels as an expert tech commentator. Her previous roles include editor of Gizmodo Australia and global reviews editor at Finder. She has also served as a reporter and editor across Business Insider, Lifehacker and Kotaku Australia. Tegan was the co-host of one of the top technology podcasts in Australia, Queens of the Drone Age. You can find her on Twitter @Tegan_Writes.
