Today, I was pleasantly surprised to see a paperback copy of Professor Challenger in Space, a book I self-published years ago, going for $321.73 here on Amazon! How pleasing for my vanity that someone thought it was worth that much, even if they were, sadly, quite mistaken.
But what's this? The third in that series, Rolnikov, Mad Knight of Uttar Pradesh, also on sale, from the same vendor, for the same price! To say that was a surprise would be an understatement, given that I never actually wrote the book - it is a bibliographic ghost, registered with the ISBN Agency, but never published.
So two things are clear. I need to write that book, else it'll haunt me for the rest of my life. Secondly, Mygrandmasgoodies is listing books for sale that he or she doesn't actually possess.
I confess, I was half-tempted to order it. I bet it would have been by far the best of my novels.
By the way, Professor Challenger in Space is available on Kindle for much less than $321.73 - $1.39 in the US, and 86p in the UK. Still overpriced, though!
I like the fact that the condition note reads, "Very nice Copy - almost no wear".
ReplyDeleteThe same company seem to have many hundreds of other (less prestigious) titles at a very similar price.
Blackwells have previously taken my money for several books that they claimed to have in stock, being the only UK bookseller charging a reasonable amount for specific out of print titles. After a week or so they refunded me when they realised they couldn't find the books. But if they ever did have them in stock, why would they be charging £15 when the average market price is £150? Clearly they don't have a functioning stock control system, but is there some advantage in them doing this? Is it just too much effort for them to stock-take properly? As an Amazon bookseller for Oxfam, I do spend quite a bit of time scrutinising the prices of books online, but I have to confess that in this case I don't get it.