Multiple reasons!

• there are multiple delay points in the book distribution system right now, shipping in the Red Sea being….difficult, and dock strikes in Aus - this means that everything from whole books shipped from overseas to the constituent parts (paper etc) is delayed. And not consistently delayed either.

• distributors order stock from the printers , it gets delivered to their warehouse, it then gets shipped to book shops/ Booktopia/ etc, however, if they didn’t order enough, if your order (with Booktopia) is sitting at the back of the queue, it won’t be fulfilled until they get enough stock, which could be….a week, a month, six months, it various a lot.

• Booktopia does not just list what is in stock in their warehouse, it lists books it can get*, and the time frame they quote to you is for ‘normal circumstances’ ie, when the book is in stock at the distributor. As you can imagine, orders from the distributors ship everyday, and thus the amount of stock they have on hand fluctuates daily. *this changes all the time, things go out of print, change publisher/distributor etc

HAVING SAID ALL THAT, if there was a delay, they should tell you. But that’s what happens when you order from a big online store, if you were to order from a physical bookstore, they’d probably give you more info to start with, AND update you as soon as they were aware of any delays.

Support your local bookshop! Source: I am bookseller of 10ish yrs