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jhanic
02-20-2011, 03:46 PM
Here are pictures of my US Harry Potter proofs:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone front:

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr60/johnhanic/Other_items/HPSorcerersStoneprooffront.jpg

back:

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr60/johnhanic/Other_items/HPSorcerersStoneproofback.jpg


Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets front:

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr60/johnhanic/Other_items/HPChamberofSecretsprooffront.jpg

back:

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr60/johnhanic/Other_items/HPChamberofSecretsproofback.jpg


Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban front:

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr60/johnhanic/Other_items/HPPrisonerofAzkabanprooffront.jpg

back:

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr60/johnhanic/Other_items/HPPrisonerofAzkabanproofback.jpg

After these, Scholastic decided proofs were no longer needed for the following books.

I don't own any of the UK proofs of the Harry Potter books because they are just too expensive for me. I do keep looking for a deal, though.

John

thegreattim
02-20-2011, 07:12 PM
Nice collection, John! I didn't know that you collected other proofs besides King. How does the price of the UK proofs, I'm thinking of Philosopher's specifically, compare to the 1/1 trade edition? Is it even more insanely expensive?

P.S. Not surprised they stop making them for newer books. I'm honestly surprised Scribner still does for King!

jhanic
02-21-2011, 04:37 AM
The UK proofs start at an asking price of about $2500 and go up from there. I've never seen one of the UK Philosopher's Stone offered for sale, but I do know they exist.

John

thegreattim
02-21-2011, 02:00 PM
Wow, expensive indeed! I bet the first one would be virtually priceless to the right collector.

jhanic
02-23-2011, 03:32 PM
I just won this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rt=nc&nma=true&item=350439687286&si=mTKdbObw1y51LArd2zrNPsQCjCE%253D&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT

John

Tito_Villa
02-24-2011, 01:19 AM
That's been listed a number of times and have thought about going for it. Glad that the book has ended up with someone who will appreciate it!

Brice
02-24-2011, 09:53 AM
I've parted with all my HP books except for one (just a pb copy of The Philosopher's Stone that was a gift from one of our UK members).Those proofs are great, John.

jhanic
03-30-2011, 11:25 AM
I just received this US proof of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

Front:

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr60/johnhanic/Other_items/HPOrderofthePhoenixprooffront.jpg

Back:

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr60/johnhanic/Other_items/HPOrderofthePhoenixproofback.jpg

I read that there were only 5000 of these issued (which, for a Harry Potter title, is very small). I'd love to find out more about this edition.

John

Tito_Villa
03-30-2011, 11:42 AM
Love the artwork on that!

jhanic
03-30-2011, 11:47 AM
Yeah, me too. I didn't realize until just a bit ago that it's different than what was actually published. Neat!

John

mikeC
07-11-2011, 07:46 AM
If anyone is interested, sorry if it's in the wrong section.
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/gallery/pieces/244?page=all

Nerak
07-11-2011, 08:56 AM
John, I am jealous! When you die, can I have them?!?! LOL I think I need a Harry Potter Tat next! LOL

Patrick
07-11-2011, 08:07 PM
Cool variety of art styles with the Harry Potter theme, Mike.

John, congratulations!

jhanic
09-21-2011, 02:33 PM
Heritage Auctions sold a UK first edition, first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with a signed photo and transmittal autograph note signed on her own stationery for $11,950:

http://historical.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=6058&lotNo=37073&short=6058-22001

John

Merlin1958
09-21-2011, 09:15 PM
Heritage Auctions sold a UK first edition, first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with a signed photo and transmittal autograph note signed on her own stationery for $11,950:

http://historical.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=6058&lotNo=37073&short=6058-22001

John

OH My God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

carlosdetweiller
09-22-2011, 04:23 AM
Heritage Auctions sold a UK first edition, first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with a signed photo and transmittal autograph note signed on her own stationery for $11,950:


Wow. And it was a fairly shabby, ex-library copy at that! Double wow!

ELazansky
09-22-2011, 04:56 AM
Heritage Auctions sold a UK first edition, first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with a signed photo and transmittal autograph note signed on her own stationery for $11,950:

http://historical.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=6058&lotNo=37073&short=6058-22001

John

What is the last image? Is it a custom traycase? Looks nice if it is.

jhanic
02-16-2012, 05:39 PM
I had almost forgotten I had this. It's a special charity book issued by Waterstone's, I think back in 2009. It contains a number of VERY short stories by various authors, including J.K.Rowling and Neil Gaiman, all written in the authors' handwriting, in what approximates a post card size and card stock. The J.K.Rowling story is a "prequel" to the HP series, featuring James Potter (Harry's father) and Sirius Black, back when they were teenagers. I'd estimate its length at about 1000 words.

Front:

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr60/johnhanic/Other_items/WhatsYourStoryfront.jpg

Back:

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr60/johnhanic/Other_items/WhatsYourStoryback.jpg

I don't know if it's still available.

John

goathunter
02-17-2012, 02:11 AM
It doesn't appear to be. Once upon a time, Waterstone's had the stories posted on their site, but they don't appear to be there. Here's a typed version of J.K. Rowling's story, which was originally published in her handwriting (and somewhat difficult to read):

retyping of JKR's postcard story (http://mercuryblue144.livejournal.com/10605.html)

Hunter

Tito_Villa
02-17-2012, 02:19 AM
Thanks for that, ejoyed reading the story!

Patrick
02-21-2012, 10:36 PM
John, you should post that in the Neil Gaiman thread too!

jhanic
02-22-2012, 05:47 AM
Will do!

John

goathunter
02-23-2012, 11:32 AM
In the news today:

J.K. Rowling inks deal with Little, Brown for adult book (http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/deals/article/50754-j-k-rowling-inks-deal-with-little-brown-for-adult-book.html)

Hunter

jhanic
06-26-2012, 08:13 AM
It was 15 years ago today that Bloomsbury first published Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. 15 years!

John

Nerak
06-26-2012, 08:45 AM
JOHN! OMG! How can I get a copy of that book?!?! I NEED IT!!!!!

Nerak
06-26-2012, 08:46 AM
And I still call dibs on your Harry Potter stuff when you die. So please put me in your will. I will take very good care of them! LOL

jhanic
06-26-2012, 09:02 AM
I'll remember that! :P

John

Nerak
06-27-2012, 08:06 AM
he he he he seriously...how do I get that book?

jhanic
06-27-2012, 09:02 AM
If you're talking about the first/first Bloomsbury printing of Philosopher's Stone, you're talking at least five figures. There were only 500 copies printed.

John

Brice
06-28-2012, 06:17 AM
I think she meant the What's Your Story book. I have one too that was a gift.

Nerak
06-28-2012, 06:25 AM
Yeah, the What's Your Story book. You are gonna put the rest of them into your will for me...so I can just wait for those....but I really want the What's Your Story book now! LOL

Brice
06-30-2012, 05:31 PM
If mine wasn't a gift from our very own Darkthoughts (lisa) I'd consider sending mine to you, but I can't part with it. I'm sorry! :(

becca69
07-09-2012, 11:39 AM
Here is my little HP collection (1st printings & deluxe)

I'm missing #1-3 UK and #1 & 5 US (for some reason I only purchased Phoenix as a deluxe??)

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/becca3969/Book%20Collections/HPotterBooks.jpg

becca69
07-10-2012, 08:02 AM
I think there needs to be more pics of collections posted!! Anyone have signed stuff?

Thelangoleer
07-10-2012, 02:22 PM
Ill post my plethora of potter stuff soon

jhanic
07-10-2012, 04:01 PM
In addition to the proofs, I own all the US and UK children's editions and two of the UK adult versions. I also have both the US and UK trade editions and the gift edition of Beedle the Bard and both paperback chapbooks Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages. I also own the What's Your Story that has a very short story about James Potter and Sirius Black.

I don't know about 1st/1sts, though. I probably have all 1st/1sts from Goblet of Fire on.

John

Brice
07-10-2012, 04:09 PM
I gave away most of my HP books. I only hae the What's Your Story one John mentioned.

becca69
07-11-2012, 06:19 AM
In addition to the proofs, I own all the US and UK children's editions and two of the UK adult versions. I also have both the US and UK trade editions and the gift edition of Beedle the Bard and both paperback chapbooks Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages. I also own the What's Your Story that has a very short story about James Potter and Sirius Black.

I don't know about 1st/1sts, though. I probably have all 1st/1sts from Goblet of Fire on.

John

Would love to see some pics! I'm always beating myself up for not buying up the whole display of HP Sorcerer's Stone when it came out. I thought it looked silly! Who knew?

jhanic
07-11-2012, 08:43 AM
I'll have to dig them out. It will take a while.

John

Thelangoleer
07-11-2012, 05:26 PM
Any of you interested in selling the what's your story?

jhanic
07-11-2012, 05:42 PM
Nope. It's fairly scarce and I kind of like it!

John

Brice
07-11-2012, 08:14 PM
Everything John said...plus mine was a gift from my oldest and one of my dearest internet friends.

herbertwest
07-19-2012, 11:07 AM
Any completist here?
An essay from her, is available in the 2013 edition of Writers & Artists : yearbook.

Among other writers are also Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Artists-Yearbook-2013/dp/1408157497/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1342724881&sr=8-2&keywords=Writers+%26+Artists+%3A+yearbook+2013&tag=csk21-20

Lurker
07-19-2012, 05:09 PM
Here's my US, Sorcerers Stone is early printing, rest all 1/1
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac54/ICONfan/US.jpg

Also have a copy of Half Blood Prince with no purple on the DJ
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac54/ICONfan/NoPurple.jpg

Deluxes and the US schoolbooks
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac54/ICONfan/OtherUS.jpg

UK adult and kids and schoolbooks
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac54/ICONfan/UK.jpg

I really like that limited Beetle Bard. Ah, another thing to add to the list. I've got the "postcard" book around here somewhere...

jhanic
07-19-2012, 05:20 PM
Lurker, is there any difference in the US and UK editions of the schoolbooks? I only have the UK ones.

John

Lurker
07-19-2012, 05:34 PM
John,
I think the text is the same, but the intros are slightly different. And the UK's are much smaller.

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac54/ICONfan/schoolbooks.jpg

jhanic
07-19-2012, 05:36 PM
Looks like I'll have to try to locate the US editions!

John

pmtarantino
08-17-2012, 06:41 PM
This is my collection the last year.
All the USA copies are 1st/1st except HP1.
The UK editions are 1st/1st except 1, 2 and 3 of the market edition, and Hp2 in The Deluxe Edition (my fav).

Hp7 from USA is signed and dedicated (i also have a letter from Jo Rowling):
http://p.twimg.com/Ai1kVA3CMAA5t6M.jpg:large

Lately I added Beedle the Bard collector's edition, Goblet of Fire deluxe edition and ARCs of HP2 and HP3 from USA.

I also have this weird stuff:

http://d3-03.twitpicproxy.com/photos/full/352316271.jpg?key=600450

jhanic
08-18-2012, 05:48 AM
Very, very nice!

John

becca69
08-23-2012, 06:29 AM
FYI - JK Rowling will be in NYC Oct 16th for her only US appearance.

herbertwest
08-23-2012, 08:58 AM
So, any proof of her new book out there?

Bev Vincent
08-23-2012, 09:12 AM
No -- they're not issuing any copies before 9/27

herbertwest
08-23-2012, 12:23 PM
Wouldnt surprise me... but i am certain that there are still proofs out there... probably only a handful though... Top secret stuff

Bev Vincent
08-23-2012, 01:18 PM
This is straight from the publicist: "You are on our list to receive a copy on/around 9/27. There are no early copies of this book."

jhanic
08-23-2012, 01:22 PM
I'll be looking for one.

John

Bev Vincent
08-23-2012, 01:28 PM
I bet Ian Rankin has a copy.

pmtarantino
08-23-2012, 02:04 PM
And James Runcie, for sure :D

By the way Bev, will you receive a trade copy? Because they told me that was not going to do any proof copy.

Bev Vincent
08-23-2012, 02:18 PM
That's my understanding -- that I will be getting a finished copy of the book.

herbertwest
08-24-2012, 04:00 AM
IMO, the only proofs that probably exists are :
- for internal purpose only (within the publishers)
- translators that have an extremely tight schedule to do their work : 3 weeks for some of them.
I've read an article about how the US publisher will not be able to give the book prior to a specific date (being... now?), that was only leaving 3 weeks for the translator to do their job as some of foreign publishers (ie : France & Sweden) will still release the book on the 27th of september...

Edit : because of the tight schedule, they may actually be working on a finished printed copy?

pmtarantino
08-24-2012, 09:00 AM
Yes, I would say they work with a finished copy.
In fact, I'd bet that if the foreign publisher accepts to do the translations 3 weeks before the release (for saying something), they are allowed to publish on sept 27., but if not, you can't have the finished book before that.

herbertwest
08-25-2012, 03:12 AM
My guess as well.

pmtarantino
08-25-2012, 06:39 AM
http://www.therecord.com/whatson/artsentertainment/article/786989--new-j-k-rowling-book-flies-under-the-radar


But the secrecy surrounding The Casual Vacancy isn’t. As with Harry Potter, there are no advance copies for the media, no early reviews.

jhanic
08-25-2012, 08:53 AM
Thanks for the link. I've already got a copy on pre-order at Amazon.

John

jhanic
08-28-2012, 06:25 PM
I also have this weird stuff:

http://d3-03.twitpicproxy.com/photos/full/352316271.jpg?key=600450

Thank's for posting the pics of the Advanced Potions Making. I didn't even know it existed. I just ordered a copy off eBay.

John

jhanic
09-04-2012, 08:57 AM
I just got my copy of Advanced Potion Making. It's a VERY interesting item. There's no title page, no copyright page, and no indication of who actually wrote it. All it really has is a statement on the last page stating that it was made by "The Magickal World of Wizardry" and that neither Rowling, Warner Bros or "any other offical entity" was involved.

it's really kind of neat!

John

becca69
09-07-2012, 07:33 AM
Is anyone getting tickets for the NYC appearance in October?

becca69
09-10-2012, 06:40 AM
Well those tickets went on sale 12 hours early (by accident :nope:). This sucks! Reminds me of a certain S/L fiasco!

UPDATE: I actually got thru by phone and got the last two tickets. Looks like my luck is turning around :D

pmtarantino
09-11-2012, 08:31 AM
Congrats Becca!

Could you upload photos of you Advanced Potion Making, John?

jhanic
09-11-2012, 10:59 AM
Here's the cover:

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr60/johnhanic/Other_items/AdvancedPotionMaking.jpg

And one of the internal pages (page 12):

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr60/johnhanic/Other_items/AdvancedPotionMakinginsidepage.jpg

The paper is wrinkled and parchment-liike and printed on only one side. It's a pretty neat little item.

John

becca69
09-11-2012, 12:13 PM
That's cool. Where can I get one?

jhanic
09-11-2012, 02:19 PM
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=harry+potter+advanced+potion&_sacat=0&_odkw=harry+potter&_sop=1&_osacat=0&_from=R10&LH_PrefLoc=2&_armrs=1&_mPrRngCbx=1

The seller is actually the person who printed this.

John

pmtarantino
09-11-2012, 03:55 PM
It is great!

I made myself my copy, based on a Deathly Hallows copy so inside they have the seventh book.

I copied the style and colors from the one which appears in the adult cover of HP7, even the wrappers and the damage parts.

jhanic
09-11-2012, 04:04 PM
It is great!

I made myself my copy, based on a Deathly Hallows copy so inside they have the seventh book.

I copied the style and colors from the one which appears in the adult cover of HP7, even the wrappers and the damage parts.

Can you post some pics? I'd really like to see it.

John

pmtarantino
09-12-2012, 11:27 AM
This is the original Half Blood Prince adult edition cover:

http://www.dancewithshadows.com/potter/images/uk-adult-cover.jpg

And this is my self-made copy. I tried to remain loyal to details :)

http://s9.postimage.org/eh7xstxob/2012_09_12_16_22_00_492.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/eh7xstxob/)

http://s9.postimage.org/uthzikbzv/2012_09_12_16_21_04_620.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/uthzikbzv/)

http://s9.postimage.org/fngj5dbcr/2012_09_12_16_21_17_439.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/fngj5dbcr/)

http://s9.postimage.org/ildhz2j0b/2012_09_12_16_21_29_140.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/ildhz2j0b/)

http://s9.postimage.org/n9thu986z/2012_09_12_16_21_37_193.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/n9thu986z/)

http://s9.postimage.org/k9h8rgm9n/2012_09_12_16_21_45_229.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/k9h8rgm9n/)

jhanic
09-12-2012, 12:03 PM
Nice! I'd never be able to do something like that.

John

pmtarantino
09-12-2012, 02:36 PM
Haha thanks :)
It was easy. It may seem hard, but it is not.
I had a duplicated copy of Deathly Hallows, without dustjacket, so I gave it try.

Patrick
09-13-2012, 11:15 AM
That is cool.

jhanic
09-27-2012, 03:39 AM
One of the first reviews of Rowling's The Casual Vacancy (WARNING: SPOILERS!!!!):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/the-casual-vacancy-review_n_1917058.html

John

ELazansky
09-27-2012, 05:16 AM
Here's another one - http://shelf-life.ew.com/2012/09/27/j-k-rowling-casual-vacancy-review/

Doesn't matter what the review are, it is going to sell tons of copies.

jhanic
09-27-2012, 08:25 AM
I just got the notice that my book has shipped from Amazon (via Fedex!) and should be here Monday.

John

pmtarantino
09-27-2012, 09:06 AM
John, general question here:

Living in the US and having the chance of going directly to the bookshop and buy it in the release date, why chose buying in Amazon?

jhanic
09-27-2012, 10:05 AM
The closest book store (a Barnes & Noble) is about 30 miles away. Plus I don't think the discount they would provide would be the same as that of Amazon, even including shipping.

John

pmtarantino
09-27-2012, 10:45 AM
Oh, I didn't know Amazon had great discounts compared to bookstores.
Glad to know how it works now :)

mae
09-27-2012, 12:09 PM
Yes, Amazon's discounts are always greater than those in physical stores, plus you don't pay tax. We have a dedicated "Vacancy" thread in Dutch Hill, so please share your thoughts on that book over there, but as we apparently don't have a dedicated Harry Potter discussion thread (unless I missed it), I though this was an interesting piece of news:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19711553

Author JK Rowling says she is tempted to create a "director's cut" of two Harry Potter novels, because she ran out of time to finesse them.

Rowling, whose first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, is published on Thursday, said she had deliberately taken her time to write it.

"There were a couple of the Potters and I definitely knew that they needed another year," she said.

Her final Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, came out in 2007.

"I had to write on the run and there were times when it was really tough," she told BBC arts editor Will Gompertz.

"And I read them, and I think 'Oh God, maybe I'll go back and do a director's cut', I don't know.

"But you know what, I'm proud I was writing under the conditions under which I was writing, no one will ever know how tough it was at times."

Emma Watson, who starred as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, said the author was "too hard on herself".

"I think they [the books] are the way they were meant to be," she told BBC Newsbeat.

Rowling said she wrote her latest novel simply because she "wanted to". It is aimed specifically at an older audience and includes adult themes and swear words.

"I hope that we've made it really clear that this isn't a book for children," she said.

Gompertz revealed in his blog the swearing gave him "a bit of a jolt" when reading the book, "given that she is the world's most famous children's author".

The novel is centred on the death of Barry Fairbrother, whose unexpected passing shocks the local villagers of Pagford.

Publishers Little, Brown & Co said: "Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war."

The company describes the tale as being "blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising".

Rowling, who admitted being flattered by Gompertz saying it had "something of Dickens" about it, added: "When I did start writing it I was aware that I was doing a contemporary version of what I love, which is a big, fat 19th Century novel set in a small community.

"So to an extent - swear words notwithstanding - that is what The Casual Vacancy is.

"It is a parochial - literally - novel that's looking at slicing through a society with everything that that implies. That's what I wanted to do."

She added that the huge success of of Harry Potter meant she "had nothing to prove".

"I certainly don't mean that in an arrogant way," she added, "I certainly don't mean that I think I can't improve as a writer.

"But Harry Potter truly liberated me in the sense that there's only one reason to write, for me - if I genuinely have something I want to say, and I want to publish it."

Rowling said she will judge the success of this book by "speaking to readers".

When the "hype became insane" with the latter Potter books, she described it as "a monster that was out of control" , adding that "speaking to readers really brought you back to what it should be about".

Her next novel is likely to be for younger readers, although she was keen not to commit herself to anything.

"I think it very likely that the next thing I publish will be for kids," she said.

"I have a children's book that I really like. It's for slightly younger children than the Potter books."

However, the author admitted she was "proud" of The Casual Vacancy.

"I like it, and if you can say that, however nervous you are on publication day, you're streets ahead of the game," she said.

"Because to put out something you're not that happy with or that you think 'God, I wish I'd had another year to rework it' - and I have been in that position - is very different."

More than 450 million copies of Rowling's seven Potter books have been sold worldwide.

The novels, about a boy wizard who survives the attack that kills his parents, became a worldwide phenomenon and were turned into eight blockbuster films starring Daniel Radcliffe.

Rowling spoke of the downside of her success, which led to her giving evidence at the recent Leveson Inquiry into media ethics.

"It was a big deal giving evidence to Leveson, because you're in that paradoxical position of trying to stick up for your privacy whilst slightly invading your own privacy," she said, adding she had to think "long and hard" about what to tell the inquiry.

"There were a couple of things that didn't go into the statement," she said.

"Because even though they represented some of the worst things that had happened to me at the hand of the press, or my family, I would have been invading my own privacy quite seriously to talk about them. So that's the odd thing about an inquiry like this."

jhanic
09-27-2012, 12:31 PM
Here's the Harry Potter discussion thread (in The Mansion section of Dutch Hill):

http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?292-The-Official-Harry-Potter-Book-Discussion

I do wish Rowling had done a "director's cut" of the novels. That would have been interesting.

John

mae
09-27-2012, 12:37 PM
Hey thanks! I did a search but I guess I didn't look hard enough.

ELazansky
09-27-2012, 02:50 PM
Yes, Amazon's discounts are always greater than those in physical stores, plus you don't pay tax.

Actually, Amazon is required to start charging Sales tax in a state where they have a warehouse. There is a warehouse less than an hour from me and every time I order, I get hit with tax. Still cheaper than buying elsewhere.

Lurker
09-27-2012, 03:58 PM
Amazon cut a deal with the "no new taxes" Texas GOP government and now we have to pay taxes because of a "future" warehouse. But that's not why I didn't order this from them. Last time I ordered a hot best seller (Dances w Dragons) I got a third printing. And since my nearest B&N is 20 or so miles I got a copy at my local Krogers. $20.58 including tax and has a full number line.

Thelangoleer
09-27-2012, 05:04 PM
Yeah I actually got a second print of FDNS last time I ordered from amazon- never again

deanhoadley
09-28-2012, 12:42 AM
I was lucky enough to be at the talk JK Rowling gave at the Southbank, London, Last night, It was a very good evening and was also lucky to get the new book signed and hologrammed. I might need to raise some funds soon for a move so may consider selling this if anyone is interested.

deanhoadley
09-28-2012, 12:47 AM
JK also spoke about a chat she had with Stephen King a short while ago when she was in the US, about how much it has changed when it comes to pre publication and giving out advanced copies for press, reviews, proofs etc. Her publishers dont allow her to do it, and she said the Stephen King was the only other author she had spoken to who is in the same position where he feels that he cant really let advance copies go out for fear of the book appearing on the net in full or being sold on ebay etc.

pmtarantino
09-28-2012, 06:12 AM
Glad to know that Dean :-)

I never knew who was the weird guy: if King for giving away proof copies, or Jo for doesn't do that.

Thelangoleer
09-28-2012, 11:01 AM
I may have a proof copy of prisoner of azkaban available for any interested parties - us version

becca69
09-28-2012, 11:41 AM
The closest book store (a Barnes & Noble) is about 30 miles away. Plus I don't think the discount they would provide would be the same as that of Amazon, even including shipping.

John

John, If you buy from B&N.com it's usually the same price as Amazon plus they give free & upgraded shipping if you have a membership card. Totally worth it and they ship in boxes.

jhanic
09-28-2012, 11:48 AM
Thanks, Becca! I'll have to check into that.

John

jhanic
09-29-2012, 08:39 AM
My copy of The Constant Vacancy arrived today from Amazon. It's a first printing. I'll be starting it tonight.

John

pmtarantino
09-29-2012, 07:05 PM
Casual :P

jhanic
09-30-2012, 03:20 AM
Sorry, you're right. The Casual Vacancy. Another senior moment.

John

sgc1999
10-01-2012, 08:36 AM
Im about 30% the way through. Not my favorite story for sure, but her writing is really amazing.

jhanic
10-01-2012, 08:44 AM
I wish she had put, in the front of the book, the cast of characters. I get a bit confused.

John

sgc1999
10-01-2012, 09:31 AM
Ya, no doubt.
There are so many characters introduced right up front, you dont even have time to really get to know them.

pmtarantino
10-12-2012, 05:03 AM
Received today :-D

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A4-XoCgCAAEI8i2.jpg:large

jhanic
10-12-2012, 05:14 AM
Signed!! WOW!

John

pmtarantino
10-12-2012, 06:59 AM
Yes, a friend of mine went to the Reading event in London on Sept 27 and get it for me :)

(I bought her the ticket, so it is fair, I guess!)

Joe315
10-12-2012, 09:05 AM
Nice. I've been looking for a copy but I'm not willing to pay $800 for one.

sgc1999
10-12-2012, 10:27 AM
I would love to get one too!!!

becca69
10-12-2012, 10:46 AM
It's possible I could have an extra from the signing in NYC next week... maybe.

sgc1999
10-12-2012, 12:00 PM
that would be A W E S O M E !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
please keep me in mind. I would really love to buy it from you.

Joe315
10-12-2012, 02:01 PM
It's possible I could have an extra from the signing in NYC next week... maybe.

I'd be interested as well.

becca69
10-12-2012, 06:51 PM
I'll let you know what happens.

pmtarantino
10-13-2012, 09:58 AM
I hope she used a blue pen or something different than in London. You cant tell the difference between the signature and the book title if you see it quickly.

Lurker
10-15-2012, 12:12 PM
Wow. Where is than green with envy smilie?

Randall Flagg
10-15-2012, 12:52 PM
We have a drool emoticon.. :drool:

ELazansky
10-15-2012, 01:06 PM
I saw some books on eBay from the signing with holograms...pretty cool way to hopefully prove authenticity

Joe315
10-15-2012, 06:42 PM
May not be the best place for this but I have a poster from the release of The Deathly Hallows that Borders produced. Not really sure if its worth anything but if anyone wants it send me a pm. All I ask is that you pay shipping and the cost of the tube mailer. The condition is pretty good: not tears, hasn't been hung or framed, been rolled up for five years. Does have some creasing from storage and a couple corners have a slight bend in them.

becca69
10-17-2012, 04:55 AM
Just got back from NYC. JK Rowling was very cool and funny. The signing took forever and we were in the second of three rings so were some of the last people there. Of course we were like cattle and herded through the line but she actually slowed down and talked to my son for a second which was nice. I'll post our books in my collection thread later.

becca69
10-17-2012, 06:17 AM
Here they are:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/becca3969/Book%20Collections/Rowlingscore.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/becca3969/Book%20Collections/Rowlingsig.jpg

becca69
10-17-2012, 06:18 AM
And of course my camera died and had to take this with an iPod Touch.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/becca3969/Book%20Collections/JacobRowling.jpg

jhanic
10-17-2012, 08:47 AM
Nice, becca!

John

pmtarantino
10-17-2012, 08:57 AM
Awesome! :)

sgc1999
10-17-2012, 12:16 PM
super jealous:)

becca69
10-17-2012, 06:16 PM
I might have one of these available. It technically belongs to my son who won't (shouldn't) read it anyway. I'm sure I could convince him to let go of it if he gets enough to buy some new fancy schmancy Apple product that might or might not be coming out soon.

sgc1999
10-17-2012, 07:29 PM
i would be interested:) Let me know how much your thinkin.

becca69
10-22-2012, 09:24 AM
For Sale: One copy of Casual Vacancy (see above), signed with ticket and flyer - $375 + ship. I've listed this in the Classified thread also.

pmtarantino
10-22-2012, 06:21 PM
Nice price! ;)

pmtarantino
10-31-2012, 11:23 AM
I receive this today:

http://s14.postimage.org/flbmnd2c1/A6ikbhp_CQAAMDz_C.jpg

Thomas Taylor is the cover illustrator of HP and the Philosopher's Stone :)

The remarqued copy is the 1st/1st deluxe edition:

http://www.theharrypotterjourney.com/mat/1/books/deluxe.jpg

Patrick
10-31-2012, 11:38 AM
I like it! :thumbsup:

jhanic
10-31-2012, 12:18 PM
Beautiful!

John

sgc1999
10-31-2012, 12:40 PM
magical

pmtarantino
10-31-2012, 12:48 PM
Thanks! :D

jhanic
11-20-2012, 10:11 AM
Signed Casual Vacancy:

http://www.modernsignedfirsts.co.uk/authors/m-r/r/j-k-rowling/the-casual-vacancy-by-j-k-rowling-signed.html

John

ELazansky
11-20-2012, 11:55 AM
Signed Casual Vacancy:

http://www.modernsignedfirsts.co.uk/authors/m-r/r/j-k-rowling/the-casual-vacancy-by-j-k-rowling-signed.html

John

So I'm not a Rowling collector, but I'm curious. The general consensus is that King's signature on a modern first adds roughly $200 to the value, give or take. Is her signature worth as much and more? Maybe because she doesn't sign as much? Also, do you think her sig in this particular book will hold value down the line? It's not Potter...

jhanic
11-20-2012, 12:11 PM
I didn't buy one, mainly because I don't like the novel that much. Now, if had been a Harry Potter...

I think that's a decent price for Rowling's signature.

John

WeDealInLead
11-20-2012, 12:16 PM
I clicked on the link expecting the price to be anywhere from $500 and up. The first few that sold after her UK reading were selling for close to a thousand bucks.

I'm not sure if they'll hold their value.

Joe315
11-20-2012, 04:16 PM
I don't think they will hold either only because it seems there are so many out there.

ELazansky
11-26-2012, 08:33 AM
Here you go guys:

http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Page-Screen-Filmmaking/dp/1612185916/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1353943713&sr=8-2&keywords=Harry+Potter%3A+Page+to+Screen%3A+The+Com plete+Filmmaking+Journey

jhanic
11-26-2012, 09:16 AM
Here you go guys:

http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Page-Screen-Filmmaking/dp/1612185916/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1353943713&sr=8-2&keywords=Harry+Potter%3A+Page+to+Screen%3A+The+Com plete+Filmmaking+Journey

I'd love to have it, but it's much too expensive for me.

John

Scoogs
11-26-2012, 06:01 PM
Looks cool.
For that price you would think at least one of the eight volumes in the set would have been signed by someone involved in the film production.

becca69
11-27-2012, 07:15 AM
I just want that Monster Book of Monsters!

pmtarantino
12-23-2012, 06:04 PM
Anyone from the US, I need a little "help".

I have The Casual Vacancy in the UK Edition, and as a collector, I would like to have it in the US edition too. My girlfriend is going to visit the US next month, so I am asking her to bring it to me.

Can anyone upload a photo of the details page where I can show her how it should look to be a 1st/1st edition? Thank you :D

Joe315
12-23-2012, 06:13 PM
Here you go.

http://i1153.photobucket.com/albums/p505/rodman109110/6A0CCCC4-508C-4EC6-9520-D789FB8154B9-837-00000108CA472F39.jpg

pmtarantino
12-24-2012, 08:42 AM
Thank you so much Joe! :D :D :D

pmtarantino
01-14-2013, 01:26 PM
I don't know if this is the correct place, but I am running a crowdfunding campaign to convert my Harry Potter website into seven ebooks :-)
http://www.indiegogo.com/theharrypotterjourney/
(Sorry if this is considered spam!)

jhanic
01-14-2013, 01:48 PM
Interesting. I'll be contributing, but just not right away. (I've got taxes to pay yet.)

John

pmtarantino
01-16-2013, 06:39 AM
Thank you John, you are always very nice :)

Stebbins
02-02-2013, 02:08 PM
I have 1st editions of the 1st five novels thanks to my aunt; I was one of the early-adopters in the product life cycle thanks to her :thumbsup:

I really enjoyed the first four novels (all I've read thus far), in particular Chamber of Secrets

jhanic
02-03-2013, 10:13 AM
You've got to read the remaining books! They're great!

John

Joe315
02-03-2013, 11:49 AM
You've got to read the remaining books! They're great!

John

Second this.

mae
04-30-2013, 12:27 PM
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/17c7738c-ad44-11e2-b27f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2RlAdg0HI

The rare book dealer Rick Gekoski is raving over his latest acquisitions: “It’s like discovering a herd of unicorns,” he says. “For a time, when you see them together, you think they must be quite common. But when you buy your unicorn and take it home to your little smallholding, then your neighbours will fall over with astonishment. That’s what’s going to happen with these books. After a year or two passes, each one is going to look like a little marvel and the prices will seem reasonable, even cheap, in retrospect.”

Perhaps he chose the analogy of the unicorns at random, or maybe it popped into his head because he’d been reading the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone; the part where Harry follows a trail of blood in the forest and discovers a dead unicorn and sees Voldemort drink its blood.

If Harry Potter was on Gekoski’s mind, it is because J.K. Rowling is one of more than 50 authors who have agreed, at his invitation, to go back to a first edition of one of their books and annotate it at will. However unlikely it sounds, that a writer would revisit a work he or she finished decades ago and risk uncovering its errors, to say nothing of the potential agony of rereading a younger self, this is exactly what they have done. The resulting copies, with their anecdotal scribbles, deleted paragraphs and occasional exclamations of self-loathing, are to be auctioned at Sotheby’s next month in aid of the writers’ charity English PEN, which defends the rights of writers and readers and promotes freedom of expression around the world.

The list reads like a roll call of major British, Irish and Commonwealth authors from the past half-century, including 16 Booker prize winners and plenty more shortlisters, two Nobel laureates and winners of other literary gongs. Seeing the spines all lined up on a shelf at Sotheby’s is like seeing a collection of paintings made by a collector with a judicious eye: Julian Barnes, Seamus Heaney, Tom Stoppard, Ian McEwan, Hilary Mantel, Peter Carey, Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, Alan Bennett, John Banville, Joanna Trollope, P.D. James, Howard Jacobson, Philip Pullman, Nick Hornby, Frederick Forsyth, Colm Toíbín, Helen Fielding, Nadine Gordimer, Graham Swift and many more.

The idea of asking authors to annotate their first editions as a way of raising money for PEN came originally from the literary agent Peter Straus, who is well known in the book world for his laconic but encyclopedic recall of Booker prize winners and other literary lists. He first suggested it in 2005, but it was only when Gekoski joined the board of PEN in 2010 that he took charge of the idea and made it work. Together with his wife, Belinda Kitchin, he set about making a list of authors and choosing which of their titles was most likely to make a good price at auction. He then wrote to each of them, suggesting which book he’d like them to use. In most cases he supplied the first edition, which he sourced through his contacts in the trade. When writers asked him what “annotate” really meant, he told them, “… like ‘Humpty Dumpty’, ‘It means whatever you want it to mean. Though I have my own sense of it, it would be impertinent for me to tell you how to respond to your own book.’ And I sometimes added, ‘Whatever it is, please do a lot of it!’”

J.K. Rowling had only agreed to annotate a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on condition that it was a genuine first edition, from the first print run in 1997 of only 500 copies, 300 of which had gone to libraries. Gekoski had to find one of the remaining 200. “So she was quite surprised,” he said cheerfully, “that two days later, I came up with a copy and said, ‘Let’s go ahead.’”

It had cost him £20,000 (he will be reimbursed after the sale). But now, “freely annotated” by its author, with more than a thousand words “on the process of writing, editorial decisions and sources of inspiration …” along with 22 illustrations, it is likely to go for a great deal more.

Sotheby’s has released a short paragraph to give a flavour of what’s inside – though what she describes is so familiar, it’s already part of JKR mythology. “I wrote the book … in snatched hours, in clattering cafés or in the dead of night … The story of how I wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is written invisibly on every page, legible only to me. Sixteen years after it was published, the memories are as vivid as ever as I turn these pages.”

The last time a rare copy of a Rowling book was auctioned was in 2007, when one of only seven handwritten, illustrated copies of Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard raised £1.95m ($3.98m) for Lumos, the charity (formerly The Children’s Voice) that she founded and chairs. It was bought by Amazon, which put pictures of it on its website as a preview for its special collector’s edition, which went on sale, with a share of the profits donated to the charity, the following year. This time Rowling’s lawyers have inserted a clause in the contract that restricts the buyer from “using the book for any commercial and/or marketing purposes”. But Gekoski doesn’t think that will be much of a deterrent to buyers: “There’s no question about it, it’s in a category of its own. It will make the highest price. It is the über-definitive version of what you might argue is the publishing sensation of the century.”

Harry Potter is the obvious popular favourite, but so many other authors have spent hours, even days, poring over books that they thought they had proofread for the last time. And for some of them it has not been an enjoyable or an edifying experience.

“It was an appalling experience in my case,” the novelist John Banville said. “I can’t bear to revisit my own work. I physically can’t bear it. But they asked, and it’s a charity, and so you do it.

“I remember Ed Victor, my agent, saying that his wife Carol once gave Stephen Spender a lift home from some event, and Spender was complaining about it, and she said, ‘Well why did you go?’ And he said, ‘Well they invited me months ago, and I thought by the time it came round I’d be dead.’ I work on that basis. Now that I’m teetering on the brink of being ancient [he’ll be 68 in December], they do come round, and you have to do them.”

Banville agreed to annotate The Sea, which won the Man Booker prize in 2005. “It was strange to reread this book,” he said. “I went through it with one eye shut, reading through splayed fingers … dreadful all around. The only thing that I got from it was the opportunity to defile my own book. It’s like peeing all over it. Take that, you swine!

“Even doing proofs is painful, so you don’t want to revisit the thing. I mean, readers are always disappointed when you talk about your work. You have to say to them, ‘Look, you’re talking about work you may love … I’m talking about work that I loathe …’ It’s nothing to do with me any more. Really, it has nothing to do with me. I looked through The Sea, and there is the odd sentence that I think, ‘Well, that’s quite nice.’

I can’t say in all honesty that it’s as if it was written by somebody else, but it was written by a different version of myself, and in a way, it’s more radical, because the selves we leave behind are more strange to us than strangers.”

. . .

Tom Stoppard, who returned to the 1967 Faber edition of his first play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead , also discovered passages he hated “Overkill!” “Too complicated!” “My first editions contain lines from which I have to avert my eyes, eg on p.49 – horrible! There are lines I don’t recognise at al l…”

At least a playwright can cut and adapt in rehearsals. David Hare donated his own 1991 copy of Racing Demon – “the copy of the play I used to make changes for all subsequent productions”. But Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, looking through his first book of poems, Death of a Naturalist, published in 1966, adds a note to “The Early Purges” which might well have been accompanied by a sigh: “One of the most popular in schools since it can start a good argument. But at this stage, I’d like to rewrite it.”

Lionel Shriver, asked to annotate We Need to Talk About Kevin, which won the Orange prize in 2005 and was then made into a successful film, took a mordant relook at the novel and made comments both on the process of writing it, and on readers’ reactions to it. One of these involved criticism of her choice, in the book, of a tiny elephant shrew that Eva, Kevin’s mother, gives her small daughter Celia for Christmas as a pet. Celia christens the beloved creature “Snuffles”, but soon, fatefully, Snuffles disappears. Celia is inconsolable. Kevin is suspected, and Eva, finding the bathroom sink mysteriously blocked, pours down Liquid-Plumr and leaves it to do its job.

“So I got stick from some book group for my lack of political correctness in including an endangered species as a pet in my book. But in fact it’s not endangered. I made a note in the margin with a tiny little drawing – though it didn’t come out very well.”

Against the opening paragraph she has written: “I am usually very private about first drafts & protect them from prying eyes until the manuscript is finished to my satisfaction. But when I sat down unceremoniously to begin my novel, my partner sidled up behind me & read that first paragraph; with so little at risk, I let him.

“‘Yes,’ he said. ‘That’s just right.’

“He would not see any more of the book until it was through. But that small reassurance comforted me during all the proceeding chapters. The first paragraph remains word for word as I originally wrote it.”

And at the very end of the book, “Forever your loving wife, Eva”, she notes: “It was so odd – when I wrote that last line, I burst into tears.”

For Ian McEwan, who has annotated a first edition of Amsterdam, which won the Booker prize in 1998, it wasn’t so much revisiting the text that upset him as the physical act of marking the pages. “The sensation of writing in any hardback book always seems transgressive, unless it’s in pencil in the margin. And in this case I used black ink, so it was rather like defacing my own novel.”

Rereading it, he said, had been a trigger for certain memories. “I remembered sitting in on rehearsals at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam – it was Nikolaus Harnoncourt, a conductor I admire – and I was reminded of how I almost prefer rehearsals to an actual concert; you get to know passages very well, the piece gets taken apart, and I can remember thinking perhaps there was another novel in there. Later I wrote a libretto for an opera by Michael Berkeley, For You, which was based on the character of a conductor and composer.”

. . .

Some authors have illustrated, as well as annotated their texts. Graham Swift has added a series of small pencil illustrations to a first edition of Last Orders. Kazuo Ishiguro has done full-page drawings on the endpapers of The Remains of the Day, and at the beginning of each new section of the text. He has also written copious notes throughout the book, some anecdotal, such as one that explains that the title “came about on a deserted Australian beach, when I asked a group of writers – Michael Ondaatje, Victoria Glendinning, Robert McCrum and Judith Herzberg (from Holland) – to come up with something for my almost finished, as-of-yet unnamed novel …” Other notes offer insights into his craft: “I’ve always been drawn to the ‘diary entry’ way of narrating a story in which the timeframe keeps shifting as the book progresses and the narrator’s emotional and intellectual position keeps shifting with it. This method is particularly good for highlighting a character’s levels of self-deception, I find.”

It is this kind of commentary – the aside to one’s self, which doubles as a conversation with the reader – that makes so many of these books such a pleasure to read. More intimate than any interview, the author is supplying details about the process of writing no interviewer could ever know to ask about. But the writers realise their most casual additions will be critically read.

“Oh God. Am I sounding smug?” asks Helen Fielding in the margin of Bridget Jones’s Diary. “Am I supposed to be criticising the book saying how much better I’d do it now? Trouble is, I think I peaked.” And as she reads a list of Bridget’s wasted years of “[m]illions of cheesecakes and tiramisus …” she notes: “Mmm. Hungry now. Bored by writing notes. Slightly puffed up by thoughts of PEN people reading notes, rather as if I am Ernest Hemingway or something, though obviously not dead.”

Philip Pullman has given a copy of Northern Lights, the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy, “marked for reading”. It shows how, before a public event, he will précis certain passages, rewrite others, and cut bits out to move the narrative on more swiftly. His neatly inscribed undulating erasures are in soft pencil; white labels have been stuck over paragraphs and new sentences handwritten on top.

Alan Bennett has drawn a little self-caricature on the title page of his annotated edition of The Uncommon Reader. Edmund de Waal has pasted a handmade envelope on to one of the pages of the illustrated edition of The Hare with Amber Eyes. Inside is the photo of his grandmother, Elisabeth, which is reproduced on the opposite page.

Two of the most coveted books will be those whose authors are both dead, but whose illustrators have added new drawings to their first editions. Roald Dahl’s Matilda, published in 1988, went on to become a hugely successful film (in 1996) and musical (in 2010), but it was Quentin Blake’s illustrations that made it such a memorable edition, and his new drawings on the front and rear endpapers are a delight. Similarly, it’s hard to think of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, first published in 1971, without the wild, seedy, scratchy illustrations by Ralph Steadman. They captured the spirit of Thompson’s “gonzo” journalism in 1971 and in the 55 pen-and-ink drawings he has added to the copy for PEN there’s no sign that it has diminished – new drawings for each chapter are scrawled across the text leaving a trail of blobs and blots in their wake. New characters face old ones across the gutter: “Hot Damn!!” our hero exclaims at the gaming tables, “I Won!!!!!”

Sotheby’s is not putting estimates on the books. Philip Errington, its books and manuscripts specialist, who oversaw the sale of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, says this is its usual practice for charity sales: “The market will decide on the night.” Gekoski agrees with the decision: “The writers have gone out of their way equally.

If you then say an estimate for this writer is £300 to £400 and an estimate for that writer is £12,000 to £15,000, it’s an invidious comparison.”

He is obviously delighted with his haul – 50 top authors is more than he ever dreamt of – and admits to only six or eight people whose omission he regrets. “I can tell you books that are likely to do well. The Steadman and Matilda; Ishiguro, the Barnes of course. Hilary Mantel will do well. Wolf Hall is the book that opens the new set of doors for her and here is this extraordinarily forceful annotation of how it’s done …”

Jeanette Winterson asked if she could submit two books, her first, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, published in 1985, and her recent (2011) Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, “because they go together”.

“Is this character Jeanette, me?” she scribbles in the margins of Oranges. “I really believed I could write myself as a fiction. And stories seem to me to be the truth of life. And growing up.”

Then: “Better to nail yourself as a fiction than as a fact.”

To the end of Why Be Happy? she has added almost a prose poem: “In this night-soaked bed with you, it is courage for the day I seek. That when the light comes I will turn towards it. Nothing could be simpler. Nothing could be harder. And in the morning we will get dressed together and go.”

The final annotation is shared between Winterson and her partner: “I think I should sit down with Susie Orbach and write ‘The Possibility of Love’.

“What do you think Susie?”

Then, in another hand: “I think I should, I think you should, I think we should.”

One of the most generous and personal donations was made by Julian Barnes. It was also one of the first. When PEN made an initial request for annotated copies in 2007, Barnes had been one of the few authors to reply. He decided to donate the copy of Metroland, his first novel, which he had given to his parents when it was first published: “To Dad & Mum with love from Julian 1980” he had written on the opening page. He also included the cuttings of reviews that were folded between its pages, and the letter he had written to go with it. “Dear Ma & Pa – Well, here it is! The cover’s jolly good, anyway, whatever you may think of the insides.”

Under the original dedication he has written, in his precise hand, in red: “Annotated July 2007 for the benefit of PEN.” And then an asterisk directs the reader to a second, later note, in black, below: “who finally got around to organising the sale in 2013 … (which allowed me time for a few more, minor, emendations).”

-------------------------------------------

First Editions, Second Thoughts, a charity auction of contemporary first edition books, annotated by their authors, with all proceeds to English PEN, will be held on May 21 at Sotheby’s, 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1. To browse the catalogue visit www.englishpen.org/FEST; to register to bid visit www.sothebys.com/pen. The books will be on public display at Sotheby’s on May 20-21, 9am-4.30pm

mae
04-30-2013, 12:28 PM
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/17c7738c-ad44-11e2-b27f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2RlAdg0HI

The rare book dealer Rick Gekoski is raving over his latest acquisitions: “It’s like discovering a herd of unicorns,” he says. “For a time, when you see them together, you think they must be quite common. But when you buy your unicorn and take it home to your little smallholding, then your neighbours will fall over with astonishment. That’s what’s going to happen with these books. After a year or two passes, each one is going to look like a little marvel and the prices will seem reasonable, even cheap, in retrospect.”

Perhaps he chose the analogy of the unicorns at random, or maybe it popped into his head because he’d been reading the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone; the part where Harry follows a trail of blood in the forest and discovers a dead unicorn and sees Voldemort drink its blood.

If Harry Potter was on Gekoski’s mind, it is because J.K. Rowling is one of more than 50 authors who have agreed, at his invitation, to go back to a first edition of one of their books and annotate it at will. However unlikely it sounds, that a writer would revisit a work he or she finished decades ago and risk uncovering its errors, to say nothing of the potential agony of rereading a younger self, this is exactly what they have done. The resulting copies, with their anecdotal scribbles, deleted paragraphs and occasional exclamations of self-loathing, are to be auctioned at Sotheby’s next month in aid of the writers’ charity English PEN, which defends the rights of writers and readers and promotes freedom of expression around the world.

The list reads like a roll call of major British, Irish and Commonwealth authors from the past half-century, including 16 Booker prize winners and plenty more shortlisters, two Nobel laureates and winners of other literary gongs. Seeing the spines all lined up on a shelf at Sotheby’s is like seeing a collection of paintings made by a collector with a judicious eye: Julian Barnes, Seamus Heaney, Tom Stoppard, Ian McEwan, Hilary Mantel, Peter Carey, Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, Alan Bennett, John Banville, Joanna Trollope, P.D. James, Howard Jacobson, Philip Pullman, Nick Hornby, Frederick Forsyth, Colm Toíbín, Helen Fielding, Nadine Gordimer, Graham Swift and many more.

The idea of asking authors to annotate their first editions as a way of raising money for PEN came originally from the literary agent Peter Straus, who is well known in the book world for his laconic but encyclopedic recall of Booker prize winners and other literary lists. He first suggested it in 2005, but it was only when Gekoski joined the board of PEN in 2010 that he took charge of the idea and made it work. Together with his wife, Belinda Kitchin, he set about making a list of authors and choosing which of their titles was most likely to make a good price at auction. He then wrote to each of them, suggesting which book he’d like them to use. In most cases he supplied the first edition, which he sourced through his contacts in the trade. When writers asked him what “annotate” really meant, he told them, “… like ‘Humpty Dumpty’, ‘It means whatever you want it to mean. Though I have my own sense of it, it would be impertinent for me to tell you how to respond to your own book.’ And I sometimes added, ‘Whatever it is, please do a lot of it!’”

J.K. Rowling had only agreed to annotate a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on condition that it was a genuine first edition, from the first print run in 1997 of only 500 copies, 300 of which had gone to libraries. Gekoski had to find one of the remaining 200. “So she was quite surprised,” he said cheerfully, “that two days later, I came up with a copy and said, ‘Let’s go ahead.’”

It had cost him £20,000 (he will be reimbursed after the sale). But now, “freely annotated” by its author, with more than a thousand words “on the process of writing, editorial decisions and sources of inspiration …” along with 22 illustrations, it is likely to go for a great deal more.

Sotheby’s has released a short paragraph to give a flavour of what’s inside – though what she describes is so familiar, it’s already part of JKR mythology. “I wrote the book … in snatched hours, in clattering cafés or in the dead of night … The story of how I wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is written invisibly on every page, legible only to me. Sixteen years after it was published, the memories are as vivid as ever as I turn these pages.”

The last time a rare copy of a Rowling book was auctioned was in 2007, when one of only seven handwritten, illustrated copies of Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard raised £1.95m ($3.98m) for Lumos, the charity (formerly The Children’s Voice) that she founded and chairs. It was bought by Amazon, which put pictures of it on its website as a preview for its special collector’s edition, which went on sale, with a share of the profits donated to the charity, the following year. This time Rowling’s lawyers have inserted a clause in the contract that restricts the buyer from “using the book for any commercial and/or marketing purposes”. But Gekoski doesn’t think that will be much of a deterrent to buyers: “There’s no question about it, it’s in a category of its own. It will make the highest price. It is the über-definitive version of what you might argue is the publishing sensation of the century.”

Harry Potter is the obvious popular favourite, but so many other authors have spent hours, even days, poring over books that they thought they had proofread for the last time. And for some of them it has not been an enjoyable or an edifying experience.

“It was an appalling experience in my case,” the novelist John Banville said. “I can’t bear to revisit my own work. I physically can’t bear it. But they asked, and it’s a charity, and so you do it.

“I remember Ed Victor, my agent, saying that his wife Carol once gave Stephen Spender a lift home from some event, and Spender was complaining about it, and she said, ‘Well why did you go?’ And he said, ‘Well they invited me months ago, and I thought by the time it came round I’d be dead.’ I work on that basis. Now that I’m teetering on the brink of being ancient [he’ll be 68 in December], they do come round, and you have to do them.”

Banville agreed to annotate The Sea, which won the Man Booker prize in 2005. “It was strange to reread this book,” he said. “I went through it with one eye shut, reading through splayed fingers … dreadful all around. The only thing that I got from it was the opportunity to defile my own book. It’s like peeing all over it. Take that, you swine!

“Even doing proofs is painful, so you don’t want to revisit the thing. I mean, readers are always disappointed when you talk about your work. You have to say to them, ‘Look, you’re talking about work you may love … I’m talking about work that I loathe …’ It’s nothing to do with me any more. Really, it has nothing to do with me. I looked through The Sea, and there is the odd sentence that I think, ‘Well, that’s quite nice.’

I can’t say in all honesty that it’s as if it was written by somebody else, but it was written by a different version of myself, and in a way, it’s more radical, because the selves we leave behind are more strange to us than strangers.”

. . .

Tom Stoppard, who returned to the 1967 Faber edition of his first play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead , also discovered passages he hated “Overkill!” “Too complicated!” “My first editions contain lines from which I have to avert my eyes, eg on p.49 – horrible! There are lines I don’t recognise at al l…”

At least a playwright can cut and adapt in rehearsals. David Hare donated his own 1991 copy of Racing Demon – “the copy of the play I used to make changes for all subsequent productions”. But Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, looking through his first book of poems, Death of a Naturalist, published in 1966, adds a note to “The Early Purges” which might well have been accompanied by a sigh: “One of the most popular in schools since it can start a good argument. But at this stage, I’d like to rewrite it.”

Lionel Shriver, asked to annotate We Need to Talk About Kevin, which won the Orange prize in 2005 and was then made into a successful film, took a mordant relook at the novel and made comments both on the process of writing it, and on readers’ reactions to it. One of these involved criticism of her choice, in the book, of a tiny elephant shrew that Eva, Kevin’s mother, gives her small daughter Celia for Christmas as a pet. Celia christens the beloved creature “Snuffles”, but soon, fatefully, Snuffles disappears. Celia is inconsolable. Kevin is suspected, and Eva, finding the bathroom sink mysteriously blocked, pours down Liquid-Plumr and leaves it to do its job.

“So I got stick from some book group for my lack of political correctness in including an endangered species as a pet in my book. But in fact it’s not endangered. I made a note in the margin with a tiny little drawing – though it didn’t come out very well.”

Against the opening paragraph she has written: “I am usually very private about first drafts & protect them from prying eyes until the manuscript is finished to my satisfaction. But when I sat down unceremoniously to begin my novel, my partner sidled up behind me & read that first paragraph; with so little at risk, I let him.

“‘Yes,’ he said. ‘That’s just right.’

“He would not see any more of the book until it was through. But that small reassurance comforted me during all the proceeding chapters. The first paragraph remains word for word as I originally wrote it.”

And at the very end of the book, “Forever your loving wife, Eva”, she notes: “It was so odd – when I wrote that last line, I burst into tears.”

For Ian McEwan, who has annotated a first edition of Amsterdam, which won the Booker prize in 1998, it wasn’t so much revisiting the text that upset him as the physical act of marking the pages. “The sensation of writing in any hardback book always seems transgressive, unless it’s in pencil in the margin. And in this case I used black ink, so it was rather like defacing my own novel.”

Rereading it, he said, had been a trigger for certain memories. “I remembered sitting in on rehearsals at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam – it was Nikolaus Harnoncourt, a conductor I admire – and I was reminded of how I almost prefer rehearsals to an actual concert; you get to know passages very well, the piece gets taken apart, and I can remember thinking perhaps there was another novel in there. Later I wrote a libretto for an opera by Michael Berkeley, For You, which was based on the character of a conductor and composer.”

. . .

Some authors have illustrated, as well as annotated their texts. Graham Swift has added a series of small pencil illustrations to a first edition of Last Orders. Kazuo Ishiguro has done full-page drawings on the endpapers of The Remains of the Day, and at the beginning of each new section of the text. He has also written copious notes throughout the book, some anecdotal, such as one that explains that the title “came about on a deserted Australian beach, when I asked a group of writers – Michael Ondaatje, Victoria Glendinning, Robert McCrum and Judith Herzberg (from Holland) – to come up with something for my almost finished, as-of-yet unnamed novel …” Other notes offer insights into his craft: “I’ve always been drawn to the ‘diary entry’ way of narrating a story in which the timeframe keeps shifting as the book progresses and the narrator’s emotional and intellectual position keeps shifting with it. This method is particularly good for highlighting a character’s levels of self-deception, I find.”

It is this kind of commentary – the aside to one’s self, which doubles as a conversation with the reader – that makes so many of these books such a pleasure to read. More intimate than any interview, the author is supplying details about the process of writing no interviewer could ever know to ask about. But the writers realise their most casual additions will be critically read.

“Oh God. Am I sounding smug?” asks Helen Fielding in the margin of Bridget Jones’s Diary. “Am I supposed to be criticising the book saying how much better I’d do it now? Trouble is, I think I peaked.” And as she reads a list of Bridget’s wasted years of “[m]illions of cheesecakes and tiramisus …” she notes: “Mmm. Hungry now. Bored by writing notes. Slightly puffed up by thoughts of PEN people reading notes, rather as if I am Ernest Hemingway or something, though obviously not dead.”

Philip Pullman has given a copy of Northern Lights, the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy, “marked for reading”. It shows how, before a public event, he will précis certain passages, rewrite others, and cut bits out to move the narrative on more swiftly. His neatly inscribed undulating erasures are in soft pencil; white labels have been stuck over paragraphs and new sentences handwritten on top.

Alan Bennett has drawn a little self-caricature on the title page of his annotated edition of The Uncommon Reader. Edmund de Waal has pasted a handmade envelope on to one of the pages of the illustrated edition of The Hare with Amber Eyes. Inside is the photo of his grandmother, Elisabeth, which is reproduced on the opposite page.

Two of the most coveted books will be those whose authors are both dead, but whose illustrators have added new drawings to their first editions. Roald Dahl’s Matilda, published in 1988, went on to become a hugely successful film (in 1996) and musical (in 2010), but it was Quentin Blake’s illustrations that made it such a memorable edition, and his new drawings on the front and rear endpapers are a delight. Similarly, it’s hard to think of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, first published in 1971, without the wild, seedy, scratchy illustrations by Ralph Steadman. They captured the spirit of Thompson’s “gonzo” journalism in 1971 and in the 55 pen-and-ink drawings he has added to the copy for PEN there’s no sign that it has diminished – new drawings for each chapter are scrawled across the text leaving a trail of blobs and blots in their wake. New characters face old ones across the gutter: “Hot Damn!!” our hero exclaims at the gaming tables, “I Won!!!!!”

Sotheby’s is not putting estimates on the books. Philip Errington, its books and manuscripts specialist, who oversaw the sale of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, says this is its usual practice for charity sales: “The market will decide on the night.” Gekoski agrees with the decision: “The writers have gone out of their way equally.

If you then say an estimate for this writer is £300 to £400 and an estimate for that writer is £12,000 to £15,000, it’s an invidious comparison.”

He is obviously delighted with his haul – 50 top authors is more than he ever dreamt of – and admits to only six or eight people whose omission he regrets. “I can tell you books that are likely to do well. The Steadman and Matilda; Ishiguro, the Barnes of course. Hilary Mantel will do well. Wolf Hall is the book that opens the new set of doors for her and here is this extraordinarily forceful annotation of how it’s done …”

Jeanette Winterson asked if she could submit two books, her first, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, published in 1985, and her recent (2011) Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, “because they go together”.

“Is this character Jeanette, me?” she scribbles in the margins of Oranges. “I really believed I could write myself as a fiction. And stories seem to me to be the truth of life. And growing up.”

Then: “Better to nail yourself as a fiction than as a fact.”

To the end of Why Be Happy? she has added almost a prose poem: “In this night-soaked bed with you, it is courage for the day I seek. That when the light comes I will turn towards it. Nothing could be simpler. Nothing could be harder. And in the morning we will get dressed together and go.”

The final annotation is shared between Winterson and her partner: “I think I should sit down with Susie Orbach and write ‘The Possibility of Love’.

“What do you think Susie?”

Then, in another hand: “I think I should, I think you should, I think we should.”

One of the most generous and personal donations was made by Julian Barnes. It was also one of the first. When PEN made an initial request for annotated copies in 2007, Barnes had been one of the few authors to reply. He decided to donate the copy of Metroland, his first novel, which he had given to his parents when it was first published: “To Dad & Mum with love from Julian 1980” he had written on the opening page. He also included the cuttings of reviews that were folded between its pages, and the letter he had written to go with it. “Dear Ma & Pa – Well, here it is! The cover’s jolly good, anyway, whatever you may think of the insides.”

Under the original dedication he has written, in his precise hand, in red: “Annotated July 2007 for the benefit of PEN.” And then an asterisk directs the reader to a second, later note, in black, below: “who finally got around to organising the sale in 2013 … (which allowed me time for a few more, minor, emendations).”

-------------------------------------------

First Editions, Second Thoughts, a charity auction of contemporary first edition books, annotated by their authors, with all proceeds to English PEN, will be held on May 21 at Sotheby’s, 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1. To browse the catalogue visit www.englishpen.org/FEST; to register to bid visit www.sothebys.com/pen. The books will be on public display at Sotheby’s on May 20-21, 9am-4.30pm

becca69
04-30-2013, 12:51 PM
Can't imagine what that might go for. He paid 20,000 pounds for an the unmarked copy :o

Coulrophobia
04-30-2013, 05:48 PM
One for sale on AbeBooks Price: US$ 45,475.66.

London; Bloomsbury, 1997., 1997. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. Octavo., pp. 223. Publisher's pictorial laminated hardcovers, without jacket as issued. Very slight edgewear. Most handsome. Housed in collector's clamshell box. An fine copy of a book that browns and wears very easily. A stunning example. Scarce. Exceedingly scarce. Intended for school libraries, this first edition had a tiny print run of 500 copies (as stated by Bloomsbury).

herbertwest
05-01-2013, 02:45 AM
And i dont see it. Gone already ??

jon10g
05-01-2013, 08:04 AM
Wow. I wish I had the money to bid on some of these books!

herbertwest
06-03-2013, 10:50 AM
From AbeBooks' blog : A record price for a Harry Potter
>>> http://www.abebooks.co.uk/blog/index.php/2013/05/22/2581/



"Well done to English PEN for a successful charity book auction of annotated first editions last night. The sale raised £439,200 for English PEN’s campaigns for freedom of expression, reports the BBC.

A rare first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, with annotations and drawings by author JK Rowling, has sold for a record price. After a bidding war between two buyers the book sold for £150,000, a new record for a printed book by Rowling."

jhanic
06-03-2013, 10:52 AM
Simply amazing!!

John

mae
06-03-2013, 11:13 AM
None of our super collectors here?

Kingfan24
06-03-2013, 11:27 AM
LOL if anyone here has about 300,000 to drop on a book....

becca69
06-03-2013, 12:54 PM
Guess they got their investment back :D

Joe315
07-13-2013, 06:34 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/13/jk-rowling-pseudonym-robert-galbraith_n_3592769.html

Signed copies here (http://www.goldsborobooks.com/books/the-cuckoos-calling-robert-galbraith-signed-first-edition-3559.html). Sold Out


J.K. Rowling has written a crime novel called The Cuckoo's Calling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Rowling is reported as saying to the Sunday Times of London, “I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name.”

The novel was published in April by Sphere in the UK - the same imprint at Little, Brown as her first fiction novel after Harry Potter, The Casual Vacancy. Set in London, it features a one-legged private detective called Cormoran Strike, who is hired to investigate the death of a supermodel called Lula Landry. The book's description on Amazon says "You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this."

Scoogs
07-13-2013, 09:07 PM
Interesting.
At that price I'd expect Goldsboro to sell out pretty quickly now that the news is out.

Joe315
07-14-2013, 12:24 AM
Interesting.
At that price I'd expect Goldsboro to sell out pretty quickly now that the news is out.

And they are now out of stock.

Br!an
07-14-2013, 02:35 AM
ABE has unsigned copies shipped for $20

Someone is selling a signed copy for $500

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=9781408703991&sts=t&x=44&y=17

jhanic
07-14-2013, 03:37 AM
Ordered a copy off ABE. Kind of anxious to read it.

John

herbertwest
07-14-2013, 04:33 AM
Its now all over the news :)

Kingfan24
07-14-2013, 05:26 AM
Dammit 16.99 pounds for a signed book. Looks like this is one i won't be getting my hands on anytime soon

ELazansky
07-14-2013, 07:37 AM
But would everyone value a Robert Galbraith autograph the same as a J.K. Rowling? I"m not a big fan of pseudonym-signed books.

Scoogs
07-14-2013, 08:17 AM
Interesting.
At that price I'd expect Goldsboro to sell out pretty quickly now that the news is out.

And they are now out of stock.

Glad that I ordered when I did!

Scoogs
07-14-2013, 08:19 AM
But would everyone value a Robert Galbraith autograph the same as a J.K. Rowling? I"m not a big fan of pseudonym-signed books.

It may depend on how she handles the book going forward. Will she keep signing them under the pseudonym, or just revert to her actual signature?

Joe315
07-14-2013, 09:32 AM
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith JK Rowling SIGNED UK 1st/1st Hardback (http://www.ebay.com/itm/261246481501)

This copy is up to $560 already.

Joe315
07-14-2013, 06:43 PM
Deleted because it is sold out. :(

ELazansky
07-14-2013, 06:53 PM
Another link for the Rowling pseudonymous book - http://www.mysteriousbookshop.com/products/robert-galbraith-the-cuckoo-s-calling

Well, I had to buy a signed copy for $43. She is one of the most famous authors in the world.

RandyinAK
07-14-2013, 08:46 PM
Another link for the Rowling pseudonymous book - http://www.mysteriousbookshop.com/products/robert-galbraith-the-cuckoo-s-calling

Well, I had to buy a signed copy for $43. She is one of the most famous authors in the world.


Yep, me too.

Bev Vincent
07-15-2013, 02:17 AM
I like this book a lot more than A Casual Vacancy

chrise
07-15-2013, 05:23 AM
Another link for the Rowling pseudonymous book - http://www.mysteriousbookshop.com/products/robert-galbraith-the-cuckoo-s-calling

Well, I had to buy a signed copy for $43. She is one of the most famous authors in the world.

That looks like a great deal!

Highbury
07-15-2013, 07:16 AM
That eBay auction is insane, who on earth is wanting to pay that?! Craziness.

Joe315
07-15-2013, 08:37 AM
$1200 is a shockingly high price. Hopefully it sticks.

Scoogs
07-15-2013, 09:40 AM
Wow, $1200 already? Apparently it's good to be the first seller!

I had ordered two copies from Goldsboro, but they emailed today and said

In the light of recent developments and in order to satisfy loyal and regular customers we are unable to provide you with multiple copies of The Cuckoo's Calling.
We've immediately refunded you for the difference.

I don't actually care as long as I get one, but I have ordered from them 3 or 4 times. I guess that's not enough to qualify as a loyal or regular customer?

surly
07-15-2013, 10:12 AM
Mysterious just cancelled my order.

subie09lega
07-15-2013, 10:14 AM
Oh poo, when did you place your order?

surly
07-15-2013, 10:16 AM
Oh poo, when did you place your order?

Just this morning.

subie09lega
07-15-2013, 10:17 AM
Oh poo, when did you place your order?

Just this morning.

That is a bummer, I guess their system didn't pull it when inventory was depleted.

Tito_Villa
07-15-2013, 10:21 AM
I expect mine will be cancelled soon then :(

chrise
07-15-2013, 10:26 AM
Just got the email as well.

subie09lega
07-15-2013, 10:31 AM
I just got emails for both my orders that were submitted last night. :cry:

Joe315
07-15-2013, 10:34 AM
Mine was cancelled as well. :( still have my order from Goldsboro though

subie09lega
07-15-2013, 10:36 AM
Mine was cancelled as well. :( still have my order from Goldsboro though

Show us pics when you get it!

Joe315
07-15-2013, 10:37 AM
That'll be in 2-3 weeks. :)

Joe315
07-15-2013, 10:38 AM
Wow, $1200 already? Apparently it's good to be the first seller!

I had ordered two copies from Goldsboro, but they emailed today and said

In the light of recent developments and in order to satisfy loyal and regular customers we are unable to provide you with multiple copies of The Cuckoo's Calling.
We've immediately refunded you for the difference.

I don't actually care as long as I get one, but I have ordered from them 3 or 4 times. I guess that's not enough to qualify as a loyal or regular customer?

They are probably referring to their book club members. Or they decided to limit it to one per customer.

subie09lega
07-15-2013, 10:39 AM
We're a patient bunch, especially when we aren't getting any.


That'll be in 2-3 weeks. :)

pmtarantino
07-15-2013, 10:41 AM
As a J.K. Rowling collector since a few years ago, I am really sad of how the events developed.

I couldn't get a signed from Goldsboro, it was already sold out, and I reserverd from Mysterous books yesterday in the morning, also canceled.

So from the four books I want to own (UK and US 1st, US arc and UK signed), I won't get any of them.

A good way to start the week crying :(

ELazansky
07-15-2013, 11:13 AM
Mine was cancelled from Mysterious as well

pmtarantino
07-15-2013, 12:13 PM
By the way, if someone bought two signed copies and wants to sell one, please pm or email me to patriciotarantino at gmail :)

becca69
07-15-2013, 12:34 PM
I talked to Myst. Galx. and they told me they only ordered 3 copies for hundreds of orders. They also said Amazon UK is sold out of 1st printings.

Scoogs
07-15-2013, 02:32 PM
As a J.K. Rowling collector since a few years ago, I am really sad of how the events developed.

I couldn't get a signed from Goldsboro, it was already sold out, and I reserverd from Mysterous books yesterday in the morning, also canceled.

So from the four books I want to own (UK and US 1st, US arc and UK signed), I won't get any of them.

A good way to start the week crying :(

Chances are that this book has only had one printing so far. Just try to grab the less expensive copies off ebay and I would think you still have decent odds of getting the two 1st/1st editions.

Scoogs
07-15-2013, 02:33 PM
Wow, $1200 already? Apparently it's good to be the first seller!

I had ordered two copies from Goldsboro, but they emailed today and said

In the light of recent developments and in order to satisfy loyal and regular customers we are unable to provide you with multiple copies of The Cuckoo's Calling.
We've immediately refunded you for the difference.

I don't actually care as long as I get one, but I have ordered from them 3 or 4 times. I guess that's not enough to qualify as a loyal or regular customer?

They are probably referring to their book club members. Or they decided to limit it to one per customer.

I'm ok with that.
Thanks for the tip. If you hadn't posted, I wouldn't even have one that one on order.

Mysterious cancelled my order as well.

Lurker
07-15-2013, 04:15 PM
I ordered US and UK from a bunch of different places yesterday so we'll see.
I talked to the lady at Murder By The Book this afternoon and she said the shipments that will be coming in in August will be second printings.
Foyle's seems to still have some but who knows if that's correct or not.

pmtarantino
07-15-2013, 04:23 PM
As a J.K. Rowling collector since a few years ago, I am really sad of how the events developed.

I couldn't get a signed from Goldsboro, it was already sold out, and I reserverd from Mysterous books yesterday in the morning, also canceled.

So from the four books I want to own (UK and US 1st, US arc and UK signed), I won't get any of them.

A good way to start the week crying :(

Chances are that this book has only had one printing so far. Just try to grab the less expensive copies off ebay and I would think you still have decent odds of getting the two 1st/1st editions.

The cheapest copies out there aren't yet in stock. They say will ship next week, as major bookstores are saying too, when they receive new stock. I think they will be second print :(

More info:
http://pottermore-news.com/2013/07/15/the-cuckoos-calling-to-receive-300000-copy-reprint/

becca69
07-15-2013, 05:10 PM
Yes, all the cheap ones on Ebay and also at most US book stores are going to be 2nd printings. Everywhere I emailed or called said the book would be in stock next week, meaning they are reprints.

becca69
07-15-2013, 05:15 PM
I took a chance and ordered from Foyles. It said it would be dispatched within 2 days. Fingers crossed.

And if anyone gets an extra US copy, I would love one! (as long as it's not $1000 - :P )

pmtarantino
07-15-2013, 05:26 PM
A bookstore told me:
"The good news is we are getting fresh supplies in on Wed/Thu this week and we will ship your order the same day."
Are they 2nd printings or what?

Joe315
07-15-2013, 06:09 PM
From the Mysterious Bookshops Facebook: "We are, unfortunately, completely out of the Rowling/Galbraith book. But we've just put in an order for more... so keep your eyes peeled! We'll let you know as soon as we have them in."

Not sure if they mean signed copies or unsigned copies.

becca69
07-15-2013, 07:32 PM
Did anyone else order from Foyles?

Joe315
07-15-2013, 07:35 PM
From the Mysterious Bookshops Facebook: "We are, unfortunately, completely out of the Rowling/Galbraith book. But we've just put in an order for more... so keep your eyes peeled! We'll let you know as soon as we have them in."

Not sure if they mean signed copies or unsigned copies.

When I talked to them, they said they never had any signed copies, just 3 US firsts.

Based on your previous post I think you may be mixing up Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego/LA and Mysterious Bookshop in New York City.

Joe315
07-15-2013, 07:38 PM
An unsigned 1st UK is up to almost $500. http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Cuckoos-Calling-Robert-Galbraith-First-Edition-Hardcover-J-K-Rowling-/321165095044?pt=Fiction&hash=item4ac6ee7084

I find this more shocking than the signed copy. There had to be a decent amount printed in the UK. These aren't Harry Potter numbers where 500 first printing hardbacks were printed. It had to be at least 5,000.

becca69
07-15-2013, 07:47 PM
From the Mysterious Bookshops Facebook: "We are, unfortunately, completely out of the Rowling/Galbraith book. But we've just put in an order for more... so keep your eyes peeled! We'll let you know as soon as we have them in."

Not sure if they mean signed copies or unsigned copies.

When I talked to them, they said they never had any signed copies, just 3 US firsts.

Based on your previous post I think you may be mixing up Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego/LA and Mysterious Bookshop in New York City.


Yep, they had the 1st edition listed but only had 3 copies. I delete the post since it was the wrong bookstore anyway. I've been on the hunt for a 1st since it was posted and haven't had any luck. I missed the earlier link to Mysterious Books.

And I was told 1500 UK 1sts but I don't have confirmation on that.

Joe315
07-15-2013, 07:59 PM
From the Mysterious Bookshops Facebook: "We are, unfortunately, completely out of the Rowling/Galbraith book. But we've just put in an order for more... so keep your eyes peeled! We'll let you know as soon as we have them in."

Not sure if they mean signed copies or unsigned copies.

When I talked to them, they said they never had any signed copies, just 3 US firsts.

Based on your previous post I think you may be mixing up Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego/LA and Mysterious Bookshop in New York City.


Yep, they had the 1st edition listed but only had 3 copies. I delete the post since it was the wrong bookstore anyway. I've been on the hunt for a 1st since it was posted and haven't had any luck. I missed the earlier link to Mysterious Books.

And I was told 1500 UK 1sts but I don't have confirmation on that.

Wow, that seems low to me. But as it was believed Galbraith was a first time author, that is very possible. And a good number of those would have gone to libraries if I am not mistaken.

I don't think Mysterious had many either since it seems many people had orders canceled. I have a feeling that she only signed a few hundred copies. I wish we could get actual numbers on these types of things.

Br!an
07-15-2013, 08:03 PM
I bought two UK editions. One yesterday from England $21.37 already shipped, and one today from US 27.16 they claim is in stock no confirmation yet.

I also bought two US editions today $26 each, also stated as in inventory.

Fingers crossed.

Joe315
07-15-2013, 08:08 PM
I bought two UK editions. One yesterday from England $21.37 already shipped, and one today from US 27.16 they claim is in stock no confirmation yet.

I also bought two US editions today $26 each, also stated as in inventory.

Fingers crossed.

do you mind sharing the name of the US store? I've looking on and off but haven't found any other places selling them.

Kingfan24
07-15-2013, 08:09 PM
I bought two UK editions. One yesterday from England $21.37 already shipped, and one today from US 27.16 they claim is in stock no confirmation yet.

I also bought two US editions today $26 each, also stated as in inventory.

Fingers crossed.

I actually picked mine up the minute I found out about it - one off Abe which was a uk and one off eBay that was a us

Joe315
07-15-2013, 08:22 PM
I bought two UK editions. One yesterday from England $21.37 already shipped, and one today from US 27.16 they claim is in stock no confirmation yet.

I also bought two US editions today $26 each, also stated as in inventory.

Fingers crossed.

I actually picked mine up the minute I found out about it - one off Abe which was a uk and one off eBay that was a us

Same here. I recognized the cover from some place and the first place I checked was Goldsboro Books. And they still had copies for sale so I nabbed one. I'm just happy I was on my computer basically when the article came out.

Kingfan24
07-15-2013, 08:29 PM
I bought two UK editions. One yesterday from England $21.37 already shipped, and one today from US 27.16 they claim is in stock no confirmation yet.

I also bought two US editions today $26 each, also stated as in inventory.

Fingers crossed.

I actually picked mine up the minute I found out about it - one off Abe which was a uk and one off eBay that was a us

Same here. I recognized the cover from some place and the first place I checked was Goldsboro Books. And they still had copies for sale so I nabbed one. I'm just happy I was on my computer basically when the article came out.

Did you nab a signed one?

Scoogs
07-15-2013, 08:29 PM
The articles all seem to say 1,500 copies were sold before the news broke, but they don't clarify if that's world wide or just the U.K.
If that many were sold in the U.K. already, and it had not gone to a second printing yet, I would think the print run was at least larger than that.

The initial articles were British papers, so I would tend to think those were U.K. sales numbers.

Joe315
07-15-2013, 08:36 PM
I bought two UK editions. One yesterday from England $21.37 already shipped, and one today from US 27.16 they claim is in stock no confirmation yet.

I also bought two US editions today $26 each, also stated as in inventory.

Fingers crossed.

I actually picked mine up the minute I found out about it - one off Abe which was a uk and one off eBay that was a us

Same here. I recognized the cover from some place and the first place I checked was Goldsboro Books. And they still had copies for sale so I nabbed one. I'm just happy I was on my computer basically when the article came out.

Did you nab a signed one?

Yep. :excited:

Joe315
07-15-2013, 08:39 PM
The articles all seem to say 1,500 copies were sold before the news broke, but they don't clarify if that's world wide or just the U.K.
If that many were sold in the U.K. already, and it had not gone to a second printing yet, I would think the print run was at least larger than that.

The initial articles were British papers, so I would tend to think those were U.K. sales numbers.

I think they were UK numbers. I would imagine the US first printing was larger just due to population differences. I did see that the second printing will be 300,000 in the US.

"We have 10,000 copies in print in all formats. Mulholland (the Little, Brown imprint that published the book) is going to press for 300,000 copies and we will start shipping those to stores later this week.''

http://www.tampabay.com/features/books/orders-soar-for-cuckoos-calling-after-rowling-revealed-as-author/2131578

subie09lega
07-15-2013, 10:15 PM
Did anyone else order from Foyles?

I ordered from Foyles after you posted that you posted that you ordered from them. I like the UK cover better than the US.

RandyinAK
07-15-2013, 10:40 PM
Did anyone else order from Foyles?

I ordered from Foyles after you posted that you posted that you ordered from them. I like the UK cover better than the US.

Are those signed copies? or are you ordering for a 1st/1st trade edition?

Joe315
07-15-2013, 10:59 PM
As a J.K. Rowling collector since a few years ago, I am really sad of how the events developed.

I couldn't get a signed from Goldsboro, it was already sold out, and I reserverd from Mysterous books yesterday in the morning, also canceled.

So from the four books I want to own (UK and US 1st, US arc and UK signed), I won't get any of them.

A good way to start the week crying :(

There is a US arc for sale on eBay. Currently at $100. http://www.ebay.com/itm/151082996414

herbertwest
07-16-2013, 02:22 AM
I like this book a lot more than A Casual Vacancy

I forced myself to finish A CASUAL VACANCY. It wouldnt have been JK Rowling, i would have gave up. Overwhole i was bored during this reading.

Br!an
07-16-2013, 02:35 AM
I bought two UK editions. One yesterday from England $21.37 already shipped, and one today from US 27.16 they claim is in stock no confirmation yet.

I also bought two US editions today $26 each, also stated as in inventory.

Fingers crossed.

do you mind sharing the name of the US store? I've looking on and off but haven't found any other places selling them.

http://www.oblongbooks.com/book/9780316206846 still has the US editions. Mine has been confirmed

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=The+Cuckoo%27s+Calling&x=32&y=13 has the British edition. Mine is now marked as shipped.

Bev Vincent
07-16-2013, 03:21 AM
I like this book a lot more than A Casual Vacancy

I forced myself to finish A CASUAL VACANCY. It wouldnt have been JK Rowling, i would have gave up. Overwhole i was bored during this reading.

I didn't like any of the characters in The Casual Vacancy. This new one has a couple of great protagonists and it seems like a good detective story so far.

subie09lega
07-16-2013, 05:13 AM
Are those signed copies? or are you ordering for a 1st/1st trade edition?

I gave up hope getting a signed copy so I'm just hoping for a 1st trade. Looking at their website, looks like they're out of stock now but at least my order hasn't been canceled.

pmtarantino
07-16-2013, 05:19 AM
I ordered from Foyles too, but mine will arrive a little late to Argentina, so keep me updated!

becca69
07-16-2013, 05:28 AM
http://www.oblongbooks.com/book/9780316206846 still has the US editions. Mine has been confirmed

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=The+Cuckoo%27s+Calling&x=32&y=13 has the British edition. Mine is now marked as shipped.

I don't see where it says the US book is in stock... it says ships from our warehouse in 1-5 days. That could mean anything. Did you get a different message?

becca69
07-16-2013, 05:31 AM
Did anyone else order from Foyles?

I ordered from Foyles after you posted that you posted that you ordered from them. I like the UK cover better than the US.

Are those signed copies? or are you ordering for a 1st/1st trade edition?

They are not signed but were in stock, so hoping for a 1st. And it looks like it's not available now.

becca69
07-16-2013, 05:36 AM
I do have an extra signed copy of A Casual Vacancy from the NYC signing with flyer and ticket if anyone is interested in a trade for their extra UK signed.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/becca3969/Book%20Collections/Rowlingscore.jpg (http://s12.photobucket.com/user/becca3969/media/Book%20Collections/Rowlingscore.jpg.html)

pmtarantino
07-16-2013, 06:21 AM
I bought a UK edition in AbeBooks from Paperbackshop UK, which are the same as Book2Anywhere. They refund me now because they said they have in stock and now confirmed me they are receiving new stock tomorrow, which won't be first print.

becca69
07-16-2013, 06:54 AM
I talked to someone at Oblong and she said the books they have online are on order.

Br!an
07-16-2013, 07:16 AM
I talked to someone at Oblong and she said the books they have online are on order.

I suppose I took "Available in our warehouse" to mean it was actually sitting in the warehouse and available.

I sent an email inquiry and am awaiting their reply.

If it isn't a first I am a little bummed because I could have purchased two more UK editions earlier.

pmtarantino
07-16-2013, 07:29 AM
The Cuckoo's Calling has been deleted from Foyles website:

http://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/fiction-poetry/the-cuckoos-calling,robert-galbraith-9781408703991

http://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/the-cuckoos-calling,galbraith-robert-9780316206846

A part of me tells me "That's good! That means they are out of 1st printings, and you purchased one before they deleted them", but the other part... :P

subie09lega
07-16-2013, 07:32 AM
A part of me tells me "That's good! That means they are out of 1st printings, and you purchased one before they deleted them", but the other part... :P

....makes me paranoid that it might still be a 2nd edition. Right?

pmtarantino
07-16-2013, 07:35 AM
A part of me tells me "That's good! That means they are out of 1st printings, and you purchased one before they deleted them", but the other part... :P

....makes me paranoid that it might still be a 2nd edition. Right?

Yes. I am too paranoid, but also I am too negative, so the best thing you can do it is ignore most of my warnings :P

I mean, the first option is what I already said.

The second option is:

They have X in stock, and received Y orders, with Y > X. Then, they will ship the first X and to Y-X, they will make them wait until they receive the 2nds printings. Meanwhile, they delete the books from their store, to avoid more conflicts.

becca69
07-16-2013, 07:41 AM
They don't actually have their own warehouse. The girl I spoke to said they order from the publisher's warehouse.

pmtarantino
07-16-2013, 07:43 AM
So, it's a 2nd printing for sure, right? :(

becca69
07-16-2013, 08:52 AM
She wasn't sure but the books are all on order from the publisher, so it sounds like that is the case. I'm going to call next week and see if they got any 1sts in. They said their order was placed a few days ago and they never had any in store.

Br!an
07-16-2013, 09:20 AM
Oblong just confirmed the books are backordered.

I canceled.

On the bright side my two UK editions have already shipped. I'm telling ya I should have just bought four UK editions.

pmtarantino
07-16-2013, 09:25 AM
Yes, you should have Brian!

I will wait for Foyles, but I think they won't be 1st.

Scoogs
07-16-2013, 09:50 AM
That signed copy on ebay made the news here (http://news.yahoo.com/signed-copy-rowling-book-could-160618840.html).

Tried ordering from a semi-local store last night that listed an unsigned US 1/1 in stock, but an email from them today indicates that it is on order. Sounds like that will be a 2nd printing.

Br!an
07-16-2013, 10:16 AM
I found what appears to be 3 UK editions in stock in Australia. No shipping options outside of AU.

http://pottspointbookshop.com.au/catalog/search?keyword=The+cuckoo%27s+calling&search_type=core^keyword&commit=

Clacke
07-16-2013, 12:06 PM
I found what appears to be 3 UK editions in stock in Australia. No shipping options outside of AU.

http://pottspointbookshop.com.au/catalog/search?keyword=The+cuckoo%27s+calling&search_type=core^keyword&commit=

I wonder do they still clip the prices off UK dustjackets in Australia.....?

Joe315
07-16-2013, 12:28 PM
I found what appears to be 3 UK editions in stock in Australia. No shipping options outside of AU.

http://pottspointbookshop.com.au/catalog/search?keyword=The+cuckoo%27s+calling&search_type=core^keyword&commit=

I wonder do they still clip the prices off UK dustjackets in Australia.....?

It says those are paperbacks.

Joe315
07-16-2013, 12:32 PM
With 20 hours to go the eBay auction is at $3100!!!

jhanic
07-16-2013, 12:41 PM
19 different bidders and 73 bids! Amazing.

John

Br!an
07-16-2013, 01:05 PM
With 20 hours to go the eBay auction is at $3100!!!

The unsigned first is $635.

Br!an
07-16-2013, 01:07 PM
I'm telling ya I should have just bought four UK editions...


Yes, you should have Brian!

I will wait for Foyles, but I think they won't be 1st.

...Or ten.

Lauterer
07-16-2013, 01:21 PM
This is absolut amazing...

Those signed editions were sold for 19Pound? This is nice plus ^^

Lurker
07-16-2013, 01:30 PM
Well, so far it looks like I have a US first on the way from an Amazon seller but have been cancelling a lot of orders today. Guess I should just be happy with the one...

pmtarantino
07-16-2013, 01:38 PM
Lurker, you should be happy with a one. I would be more than happy if I'd had a 1st US and a 1st UK. The signed and the proof copies can wait :P

Scoogs
07-16-2013, 04:22 PM
With 20 hours to go the eBay auction is at $3100!!!

That's incredible!
How high can it go? It's the only signed copy currently listed and the hype is huge, think it will hit $5,000?

pmtarantino
07-16-2013, 04:49 PM
I found this:

http://biblio.co.uk/books/610987961.html

It says "Bookseller has 222 copies at this price.", which seems weird. 222 seems a random number :P

Anyway, I think tomorrow or Thursday, a library having stock won't mean anything anymore :(