My friend Bill Crider alerted me to this interesting new wrinkle in the world of publishing…
Author Douglas Clegg is auctioning off on ebay limited edition, hardcover rights to his next novel THE ABANDONED, which will be published in paperback by Liesure Books.
This is the first auction for the rights to a limited and/or lettered edition hardcover ever done on eBay with an award-winning novelist who has had novels at such houses as Penguin USA, Berkley/Ace, NAL/Signet, Tor Books, Leisure Books, Pocket Books, Dell Publishing, as well as in the independent presses, such as Cemetery Dance Publications, Subterranean Press, Delirium Press, and Bloodletting Press. It is suggested but not required that bidders be Publishers of a legitimate small or independent press that has published at least one or more signed, limited and/or lettered edition hardcover books.
The listing also includes the contract, which is negotiable. The current bid is $1000. I’m not sure what the point of this exercise is beyond getting a little publicity for his book as yet another ebay oddity.
Well, this is not nearly as exciting as the one that appeared a week or so ago:
You have to see it to believe it
I guess you weren’t the only one who missed it, Lee; sadly, he’s had to relist it, and at a bargain price.
Thank you for pointing me to that ebay auction… as you may have noticed, I had to post an item on my blog about it. You’re right…it’s unbelievable. How did you ever stumble on it?
I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I said I was all-knowing and all-seeing? Actually, someone I know through several online mystery lists passed along the link.
Do you really think it’s a joke? I have a sinking feeling the guy is serious. Hey, at least he typed it – after a look at the cover, I was afraid the entire thing was handwritten.
What’s wrong with that? All my novels are handwritten. In crayon.
That explains so much, Lee.
Wait, I give them 5 stars when I review them. Never mind. 🙂
Hey,
Thanks for posting about the auction of the limited edition rights of my novel, The Abandoned.
The major point of this exercise: to create some early excitement around the rights offering of a book within the small press and the horror and suspense reading and writing community.
The secondary point: to try and create a performance piece of sorts — the actual rights offering of a book (not a manuscript from a writer that’s never sold books to New York publishers before) — as a way to see where the online world of art and commerce and public performance (which is what some of the internet has become) can meet…on eBay no less. I’ve certainly conducted private auctions off the internet before (my recently trilogy, The Vampyricon, sold to Penguin USA at auction a couple of months ago for hardcover and softcover rights).
But to do this publicly, well, I felt somebody had to do it. Might as well be me.
And finally, I wanted to allow aspiring writers to see this. Admittedly, the decision was made to keep the bidding private — this was out of consideration for the publishers themselves, because the tradition in publishing is to not brag about who lost the auction (unless those publishers decide to come forward and talk about it.)
Of course, I’m on the edge of my seat wondering what will happen in the final hours…
Best,
Douglas Clegg
http://www.DouglasClegg.com
UPDATE: Douglas Clegg sold the limited edition hardcover rights for $3050. Twenty one bidders took part in the auction. The identity of the winner was not disclosed.