You would think, wouldn't you, that authors would have unlimited supplies of their own books, but this is just not so. Every now and again we get an author contacting us to buy a copy of their own book. I had just such a call today, from the author Stuart Stirling. Yesterday he bought online, a copy of his book The Last Conquistador, he received it this morning and was ringing to see if we had any more copies. Unfortunately we don't but I put him onto another website where I thought he might strike lucky. The point is that authors are usually only allocated a few copies by their publishers and once they have distributed them to assorted proud family members and friends, they find themselves in a position where they have to buy any extras they require. It seems wrong somehow to charge an author for his own book, but they are usually, on the whole, jolly nice about it. I know I'd be extremely peeved if it were me.
The book tells the story of the last of the Spanish conquistador to die aged seventy-eight leaving a unique and famous apology for the conquest in his will.. During his lifetime he played a central part in the conquest of the Incas, survived imprisonment and torture, took an Inca princess as a lover, abandoned his wife for the gaming tables of Lima and spent the rest of his life in Peru.
It sounds fab - no?
No comments:
Post a Comment