I was in Budapest when the news reached me: a used copy of my book - published twenty-two years before - was being offered on Amazon.com for $99. I checked for myself and confirmed the information before I contacted the seller to find out the reason. Whether it was sold for a penny or a hundred dollars was inconsequential: a writer gets no royalties from the sale of used copies of his book. Yet I wished to discover the market forces that were at work. The seller said something about the price being based on availability. Well okay. Whatever.
On Amazon's site I noticed an ad that said if I were the author I could have my book republished through it's self-publishing arm BookSurge. The release of the new edition on Amazon.com, BookSurge.com, Alibris.com and Abebooks.com on September 12, 2008 was the culmination of more than a year of tough slogging. I am proud of this accomplishment. Not just the writing -which is better than in the earlier edition- but the whole process of project management. As a self-publisher you are responsible for the writing, contracting layout and cover artists, proofreaders and editors to get the book to print. Sometimes a book will suffer because of this, especially with regards to the writing: sometimes the writer is too close to the material to give an objective critique of his work. Whatever its flaws, here it is!
Now I must change hats: from writer and publisher to publicist and salesman. But I am excited about this next stage in the journey.
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