I get email all the time from people in the UK and Australia/NZ (and other places, too) saying they can’t find copies of the Wilderness books, and do I have any suggestions?
The problem is, I don’t. It’s as frustrating for me as it is for them. No, wait. It’s almost certainly more frustrating for me.
Except I had an idea today, which may or may not work. Here’s the question for you: If it were possible to purchase the first four Wilderness books in paperback and/or Queen of Swords in hardcover, all signed, and have them sent to you the slow way, would people be interested in that?
As you see here, I can order the four paperbacks from Amazon for a total of $23.41 (this is a special deal which won’t last forever; when it’s over the price for all four will go up to close to $30). If I place the order, the books appear at my door nicely packaged. I could then open the package and sign the books, tape it all back together, put a new mailing label on it, and drop it off at the post office.
I estimate the box would weigh five pounds, so mailing cost (parcel post, 4-6 weeks):
Great Britain $24.25
Australia $22.75
Greece $19.25
Ontario Canada $16.00
The Republic of Georgia $23.25
and so on.
Queen of Swords would be $19.32, plus shipping. If all five books were in one package, with an estimated weight of seven pounds, that would be $28.45 to England.
I wouldn’t add any additional charges or handling fees, but it’s still not cheap. If you live in England and you want the four signed paperback books, we’re talking $47.66; for the paperbacks plus the new hardcover, a whopping $71.18. Australia would be a little less. And once the three for one deal is over at Amazon, you’d have to add on another $7.50. So the big question: is this worth talking about? And if there is enough interest, how in the heck would I handle the money end of it?
Thoughts?
Back to work.
You've stumbled across my official website and landed on the front page of my weblog.
While I love the idea of getting signed copies too, if there are Aussies or Kiwis who are just wanting to get hold of the book, they are available at many online bookstores, and the postage would be minimal. Even when they say they are currently out of stock, they will order in, and it doesn’t normally take that long
For example, they are available from
http://books.boomerangbooks.com/frontpagelinesonly.asp?storeurl=boomerang&searchbycriteria=Sara+Donati&searchby=author1
Rosina, I’m willing to pay for the chance to have signed copies of the books. I think it’s a great idea, I don’t mind the wait, especially since all the books I own have been thumbed through so many times. I think it would be great to have signed copies and reading copies!! Yes Yes Yes for me!!!
I was only in Borders yesterday and saw your books there Rosina.
Might help if I said I was in Oz.
Thanks, Marg. I was hoping somebody would provide information on alternate routes.
I think finding the books has been more of a problem in England, actually.
Rosina,
That is a lovely idea – I would certainly love to have your books signed, that would be really special. I was just wondering however the figures you are quoting are they US$ or have they been converted to AU$? If they are in US$ which I assume they are then the conversion to AU$ could be quite expensive. Although I own all your books I would certainly consider purchasing signed copies. All your books are readily available in Sydney so for people in Australia there shouldn’t be a problem getting hold of one of your books. The only book I haven’t seen here is Homestead – I had to borrow that from the library.
homestead has bin tough to find around here too.here being ontario canada. Sounds like a good deal from amazon.
Maybe we can work out something through Village Books. We could handle the money; you could come in and sign when there were orders; we could ship. We could probably do a quantity discount. ??
Dee — How nice of you to stop by. Of course it would be far nicer to do something through Village Books, for me and for you as well. But I think we have to wait and see how much interest there would be from overseas before we can talk about money-type details.
For the rest of you — Dee and Chuck own Village Books, which I’m always recommending here.
What about those of us who can find the books easily but would love an autographed copy?!!
Lynn — you can always go through Village Books. They let me know they have books to sign, I go in and sign them, they send them out to you.
I didn’t know that!! Well, better late than never!! Is there a link to their website somewhere on here — or could you post it right here? Thanks!!
Sounds like a wonderful idea – but as someone else said, we will also have to take the $US – $AUS conversion into consideration since the Aussie dollar is worth about 75c US. Pity you don’t do Bookplates – it would be cheaper!! :)
I am surprised that your books are hard to find here in Australia, because they are readily available at Angus & Robertson as well as QBD and other major bookstores. They aren’t available at stores like Big W, Kmart or Target unless they are a new release (like TTTT is available in those stores now, but won’t always be). The Angus & Robertson website http://www.angusrobertson.com.au/
lists all books and if they are not currently available then they can be ordered in for you. To my shock you can even order in QOS in hardcover!! I have never seen any ITW book in hardcover here in Australia!!! I hope this helps. :)
Nevermind…I found it for myself!!
http://villagebooks.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp
I am in NZ (Auckland), my cousin in Australia (Townsville). Neither of us has any problems getting hold of the Wilderness books.
Maybe if you are in some less populated area of these countries it may be a little harder than going to the local bookstore, but I have found that all the major bookstores are willing to order in from another store elsewhere in the country if they don’t already have what you want on the shelf. You can phone an order or do it online.
I am pleased to say that all my local bookstores have really friendly and helpful staff so if you don’t see what you are looking for on the shelf, try asking.
BTW I went to one of my local bookstores last week to buy a copy of TTTT as a birthday present for a friend. It was at no. 6 on the bestseller list.
oops P.S.
Forgot to say that my Mum in the UK has had problems getting hold of the books, but only when first released. For some reason, here in the Antipodes we are fortunate to have the books available around the same time as the release in the States. Mum seems to have to wait quite a while after we have them to see them on the shelves over there.
Rosina
Do you understand the carve up of the publishing world? My understanding is that OZ is in with the UK and that’s part of the reason we don’t get the wide variety of romances down here.
I can never figure out where we are aligned with. Sometimes we get books when the UK gets them, other times when the US does – although more often than not I think we get UK covers. I have only seen ITW hardcovers in the libraries…never in the stores. We go pretty much straight to trade paperback here!
I hadn’t thought about that Marg but now I think about it most new releases in Australia are trade paperback – you rarely see a hardcover novel in the shops. I know QoS is trade paperback.
You can here buy the books here in melbourne at borders, kmart and big w
l have never seen the books at target.
l went to kmart yesterday (thursday) on my lunch break from work and was looking at the books and was suprised to see Queens of Swords here already on a stand with other latest release book along with the new danielle steel book hrh
l was actually looking for the new book of debbie macomber and found the new queens of swords
l was rapt to find it and brought it for $21.95 here so it will be cheaper than angus and robertson or borders where it would be over $30 dollars
I would like to know when QUEEN OF SWORDS will come into our book stores in Australia? I would love to buy a copy from you signed. bothe you and Dianna are my most treasured authors…Please do not take 2 more years to write the next book I will die…thank you for your time and your magical talent.
It is in book stores here in australia now since last week.
l went into angus and robertson today here in melbourne and l saw queen of swords book
It is about $32 dollars, but if you go into Kmart it is cheaper about $21 dollars
l brought Queen of Swords last week