Friday, January 08, 2010

When Your Books Show Up On eBay


Just before I started to put up the post I'd intended to run today, Google Alerts sent me an e-mail. One of the titles sure caught my attention: BRANDILYN-COLLINS-CRAPPY-BOOK-LOT.

Oh, man. I started to laugh. Now who's talking down my books? I had to go check it out.

Turns out it's an eBay page. And it looks like the "crappy" refers to the condition of the books, not the content. What a riot. Go see the page for yourself.

While you're at it, you might want to bid on the "crappy 4." It's the two books in my Chelsea Adams series, Eyes of Elisha and Dread Champion, plus the first two in the Hidden Faces series, Brink of Death and Stain of Guilt. The buyer says nary on the word on whether the stories themselves are any good.

By the way, all four of these books are in their original (and better) covers. Now that they've been re-released, you can't buy them in these covers anymore.

If ya don't mind messed-up spines and books that smell like smoke, bid away.

10 comments:

Wandering Writer said...

Too funny! When my self-pubbed book showed up on e-bay with "appears to be signed by author" next to it I immediately wondered who it was who was selling them since most of the copies I sold (a whopping 350) were to friends and family. I blogged about it and quickly got responses back from my kids--"not me mom!"

Kathy Cassel said...

Whew--glad it wasn't a disgruntled reader.

Levi Montgomery said...

Given the title, I was seriously hoping you were going to address the actual question of "What to do when your books show up on eBay." I recently saw, in a forum for self-published authors, a writer complaining that he/she/it had seen a signed copy of his/her/its book on eBay. This author's reaction was not (as mine would have been) "Yay me! I'm famous enough that there's a second-hand market for my books!" but "Oh man, this really stinks! How can I keep this from happening?"

Levi

~ Brandilyn Collins said...

Levi, I don't think there's anything that can be done about the situation. And like you, I don't see what the problem is. Perhaps your author friend was upset because the sale of a used book may negate the sale of a new one which would count against royalties. But then we'd have to rail against libraries, too. I never worry about people passing my books around in any fashion, including on eBay. Whenever my books get into the hands of someone who hasn't read me before, I just might gain a new reader who'll buy next time.

Nicole said...

I'm glad to have the originals of these books sitting on the bookshelf in fine condition.

Tracey Bateman said...

I'm doing it! I loaned my copy of EYES and never got it back. Original covers

HollyMag said...

LOL I love it! But alas someone had already bought them! Maybe I'll have to try again on the crappy 4. Just finished Exposure this morning and LOVED IT!!! Couldn't believe it took me so long to make the connection, but that's why you're such a good author!

~ Brandilyn Collins said...

Oh, my. And just last night there were no bids. Apparently this post has sold the books for our "crappy book" seller. It appears she has quite a few more from other authors. This gal must be downright hard on her books.

Perhaps Tracey B. did put in that bid to buy.

Catrina Bradley said...

"Crappy" would describe the condition of most of my paperbacks when I'm done abusing them. :-) On the other hand, when my husband is done with a book, it still looks brand new.

And yes, you can be sure the e-bayer read them before selling them - that's a good thing.

Sheila Deeth said...

That's what I get for being late on the internet. Missed a great chance there. But a fun post.