It is no great secret that one of the purposes of this blog is to promote my book, the awesome Attack, Avoid, Survive: Essential Principles of Self Defence.
Now, being what is best described as “constructively lazy” today, when I needed to get a copy of the blurb for this book I simply typed the title into a browser and googled it. Lots of hits since it is now available from a number of outlets, but one that surprised me was a copy available from ebay. A previous customer who no longer wanted his copy? No, it wasn’t, and though I say so myself it is a book well worth hanging on to and re-reading.
Investigating the page revealed that he was asking twice the list price and claimed to have ten copies. The latter is untrue, since no buyer has yet ordered more than two copies from the publisher. This appears to be yet another middleman scheme where the customer pays £36 to the ebay vendor and they then order it for £18 from Lulu and send it on. When my book was first published a company called “Origin” were offering it on Amazon for $180, creating the impression that the title was rare and out of print, rather than just out. Again, they would have ordered a copy and charged you fee of $150+ for moving the book from one envelope to another.
Clicking on some price comparison links threw up very high prices that were presumably Origin still trying their luck, but also some intermediate value of £60 or $80. Curious I typed the title into bookfinder.com to see what would turn up, and this is what I got.
Shows how it pays to shop around! Amazon are currently cheaper than the direct from publisher price, so go ahead and treat yourself to a copy while this lasts. Just tell yourself you are saving yourself over £100!