Somebody wanted to buy the trilogy on Saturday but they wanted to pay by cheque so I refused to sell. Was I wise? In these troubled financial times any remuneration would be welcome surely? The problem is when the actual cash is not being wafted under your nose you have the suspicion that you are about to be fleeced and start to feel protective towards your tomes which, a moment before, you were quite prepared to allow out of your jurisdiction. As my publisher (stifled laughter) has hot footed it away holding a fistful of my dosh in her hot sweaty little hands and I have only a small number of books left to sell I have to be careful to whom they are sold – not for any other reason than I want some dosh too, you understand.
For those who have an interest in the second-hand book market one of trilogy (not all three) was offered for sale at £119.00 on Amazon!!! The highest I’ve seen recently is for around the £70 mark but it’s an American seller so I’m not sure whether to feel proud or amused. Unused ones go for about £14 on average but the used ones can be cheap as chips if you look in the right places.
I think if I want to republish them then I must give some thought to Kindle. It may be the way forwards but my reservation, amongst others, is that the finished product has no smell. Call me old-fashioned if you like but paper books, especially new ones, fulfil more senses than the visual ones. Paper books get warm to the touch, they smell new or old, or that wonderful musty smell you get with a really old book you have discovered in some battered second-hand book shop, and when the author really gets up your snoot with some ridiculous comment or observation – you can write in the margins thus initiating yourself into the art of literary critic!
infida 