Sprocket said:
I bought a brand new copy on amazon.com. There were several. I really wanted to get an hard cover, but could not justify the expense.
I agree, Sprocket, and let me give you all a little background on that. Believe it or not, it ties in to Dominick Dunne so is actually quite current now.
My goal was to get a book out about Chandra for the May 1 date of her disappearance last year, so I started writing it more than a year ago. It took a few months, but I held off contacting publishers in the belief that a completed book would have more of a chance than a promise of one.
Of special interest to websleuthers, and unknown to me, is that publishers seem to have an across the board ban on publishing anything on open cases. I had considered what I was doing along the lines of what Dominck Dunne and Mark Furrman had done with their books on the Martha Moxley case, but apparently Chandra's case isn't nearly cold enough to be considered.
For example, and I'm glad I knew this later after I wrote the book, Ann Rule and other major true crime writers say that they only write on closed cases, that is closed after a verdict, so this is apparently a true crime thing between writers and publishers to keep from being sued and interfere with cases.
In addition, I'm no Dominick Dunne or Mark Fuhrman, so rd
didn't have any name power to get a book on a cold case published. In this case, I thought the notoriety of Chandra's case would overcome all that and get publishers to at least take a look, but part of the notoriery was Condit suing people right and left, so the "we don't publish unsolved true crimes" rule especially stood when it came to Condit.
As April, 2004 rolled toward May 1, I debated publishing it myself. I was tight on money but more importantly it wouldn't be in bookstores, just on the many internet book sites such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and others.
Worse of all, I couldn't publish a pocket paperback. That really hurt because I wanted this out as easy to pick up, easy to take with you somewhere, easy to read, and easy on the wallet. I was very disappointed when pocket paperback publishers also had the "we don't publish unsolved cases" rule.
But then, with just three weeks to go before May 1, I saw where the judge allowed Condit's case against Dominick to go forward, and I said that's it, I've got to get this out there to show that Dominick was very much justified in believing what he was told and repeating it with the qualifier that he didn't know if the stories he was being told were true, but Condit was hiding something. I felt the book would help make that case, and I launched it and completed publishing it by April 28, just in time to be out there on the internet by May 1.
I paid extra to have both what's called a trade paperback and hardcover versions published. The trade paperback is identical to the hardcover in size and content, just with a soft cover instead of a hard cover. The hard cover is $10 more at $32. I agree, that is excessive. That's just the costs of printing these a few at a time, however.
The reason I did it however, is that if sales took off, through my publisher Barnes & Noble would do a print run of hardcovers and offer them in their stores for a normal hardcover price. I wanted it to be ready for that and have it out there at a reasonable price.
For that matter, the same thing is true for the pocket paperback. I would love to see it out there on paperback racks and give Chandra's story and just what happened when she disappeared the wide availability a paperback offers.
Apparently, it could be when the case is closed. But the point of the book is that her case will not be closed if questions aren't answered. So the best I can do now is offer it on Amazon and other book sites as a hardcover size with both soft and hard covers, and make this mystery as understandable as possible.
Thanks for finding the book and reading it, Sprocket.
rd
