The quest for the holy grail is complete! I received my copy of Die Softly in the mail yesterday. It looks like it came from a vintage bookstore in Georgia. The copy obviously sat in a bookstore unsold for a long time, too. The poor thing probably got bounced from a mainstream store, to a second hand bookstore or warehouse before winding out in my mailbox, but now I’m happy to report that it has a home! I paid $20 for it with shipping and handling, which is four times more than I bought my original copy for 25 years ago, but it’s worth it to me. I loved this book as a teenager, and I’m happy to have relieved my anxiety over my original copy falling apart now. I’m just surprised that it took this much to find it, especially since it looks like this version was re-released in 2011. Oh well. Hardback and paperback books have a short shelf life in a bookstore, where something new is always coming in to compete for that coveted shelf space.
I know it seems silly to go to this much trouble for one book, but book lovers get it. I wish it were available in ebook format, but my own experiences with Battleground Earth testify to why it isn’t. Converting books that were published before the ebook boom is a harder process, and the publishers usually want the author to pay for it. The publisher for Battleground Earth wanted me to pay $200 to covert that to ebook format, which I couldn’t justify based on the sales (or lack thereof at that point in time). It wasn’t until a year ago when they offered me a discount of $95 before I took them up on it. So I can see why Pike would bristle at paying to have his huge library of titles converted, especially if they aren’t selling. I saw an interesting post on Facebook this past week from another one of his fans that ran across one of his older books in a library, and we had a great discussion on his excellent YA murder mysteries from the early to mid 90’s. The thing is, it was 5 or 6 women about my age (early to mid 40’s), who long since migrated on to adult novels. As a reader, I would love to have his older titles on my Kindle, especially Die Softly, Fall Into Darkness (which I finally found in a secondhand bookstore a month ago, much to my joy after losing my copy in the college/marriage/moving life transitions), Road to Nowhere, and Whisper of Death. I reread each of these at least once a year and still enjoy them. But as a writer, I understand why it isn’t worth the trouble for a few random readers, especially when you have newer titles coming out all the time that you’re focus is on.
It’s also a good testament to why the book industry needs to more fully transition to the new model. I know there are a bazillion books in existence and more every day, so you won’t catch them all in the ebook converstion. But still, we got The Bible and so much of that stuff that we had to read in high school and college English classes converted because they’re “public domain” works. In this day and age, nothing should truly be “out of print.” But I guess there’s a lot of catching up to do from the dawn of man until the 21st century, and there are no doubt some that are lost and can’t be retrieved. It’s a shame, but perhaps the day will come where books produced in the 20th century are converted for ereaders. Time will tell.
That’s all for now. Have a Happy Friday and a wonderful weekend.
Bye!
I know it seems silly to go to this much trouble for one book, but book lovers get it. I wish it were available in ebook format, but my own experiences with Battleground Earth testify to why it isn’t. Converting books that were published before the ebook boom is a harder process, and the publishers usually want the author to pay for it. The publisher for Battleground Earth wanted me to pay $200 to covert that to ebook format, which I couldn’t justify based on the sales (or lack thereof at that point in time). It wasn’t until a year ago when they offered me a discount of $95 before I took them up on it. So I can see why Pike would bristle at paying to have his huge library of titles converted, especially if they aren’t selling. I saw an interesting post on Facebook this past week from another one of his fans that ran across one of his older books in a library, and we had a great discussion on his excellent YA murder mysteries from the early to mid 90’s. The thing is, it was 5 or 6 women about my age (early to mid 40’s), who long since migrated on to adult novels. As a reader, I would love to have his older titles on my Kindle, especially Die Softly, Fall Into Darkness (which I finally found in a secondhand bookstore a month ago, much to my joy after losing my copy in the college/marriage/moving life transitions), Road to Nowhere, and Whisper of Death. I reread each of these at least once a year and still enjoy them. But as a writer, I understand why it isn’t worth the trouble for a few random readers, especially when you have newer titles coming out all the time that you’re focus is on.
It’s also a good testament to why the book industry needs to more fully transition to the new model. I know there are a bazillion books in existence and more every day, so you won’t catch them all in the ebook converstion. But still, we got The Bible and so much of that stuff that we had to read in high school and college English classes converted because they’re “public domain” works. In this day and age, nothing should truly be “out of print.” But I guess there’s a lot of catching up to do from the dawn of man until the 21st century, and there are no doubt some that are lost and can’t be retrieved. It’s a shame, but perhaps the day will come where books produced in the 20th century are converted for ereaders. Time will tell.
That’s all for now. Have a Happy Friday and a wonderful weekend.
Bye!
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