Phantom book

Posted by Ken Edwards on Thursday, August 30, 2012 Under: Reality Street
The Alchemist's Mind - the anthology of narrative prose writing by poets, edited for Reality Street by David Miller with my collaboration - has gone to press. And very exciting it is. I think it's a wonderful selection, both thought-provoking and entertaining. You can't buy it just yet, as it's scheduled for a November release, but have a look at the list of contributors and download David's introduction for a foretaste.

But here's a thing. I've done the wherewithal (as usual) to get the book indexed and listed on Nielsen BookData and Amazon (both dot co dot uk and dot com). Within days, the book's details and cover shot were on display on Amazon.co.uk. OK. What amazed me, though, was that "1 used" copy was advertised. Well, at that stage I hadn't yet actually authorised the book to be printed! On investigation (ie clicking on the link), I found that this alleged secondhand copy was being offered for sale by an outfit called Super Book Deals.

So I wrote an email via Amazon to Super Book Deals, as follows:

Dear Super Book Deals,

This small publisher has just uploaded details to Amazon of a book we are to publish in November: The Alchemist's Mind, edited by David Miller, priced at £13.50. I was amazed today to see it being offered as "used" from yourselves at £9. This is simply not possible - the book DOES NOT YET EXIST! As of today the only copy in existence in the whole world is the proof copy sitting on my desk. Therefore there cannot yet be any secondhand copies available for sale.

I would like to know what on earth is going on?

Yours,
Ken Edwards (Reality Street)

Well, three weeks later I have received no reply. Today I checked, and "1 used copy" is still listed as available, but this time from Spineys (in the USA), and the price has gone up to £15.02 (£1.52 dearer than the recommended price!). By now, copies have winged their way to all the contributors. It's just possible that a contributor has already offloaded their copy, but I don't think so.

More news soon.

 

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Ken Edwards This blog is written by Ken Edwards, co-founder and editor/publisher of Reality Street, and it's mainly about the press. Ken's personal blog can now be found at http://www.kenedwardsonline.co.uk