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Post by weirdmonger on Feb 24, 2011 18:18:27 GMT
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Post by David A. Riley on Feb 25, 2011 8:05:08 GMT
I'm sorry, Des, but peacock feather included or not, none of this would make me feel like buying this book at $200. That's insane. |
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Post by weirdmonger on Feb 25, 2011 8:23:52 GMT
I'm sorry, Des, but peacock feather included or not, none of this would make me feel like buying this book at $200. That's insane. I think there are only a hundred available, so they'll probably sell them, as Mark Valentine is often considered to be one of the greatest living writers in our field. |
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Post by David A. Riley on Feb 25, 2011 8:37:33 GMT
I'm sorry, Des, but peacock feather included or not, none of this would make me feel like buying this book at $200. That's insane. I think there are only a hundred available, so they'll probably sell them, as Mark Valentine is often considered to be one of the greatest living writers in our field. As for the first point you may well be correct. At a hundred, there are probably enough people who will be prepared to pay $200 for this book. As for the second, I can't comment, not having to my knowledge read any of Mark Valentine's stories - though at this price I'm hardly likely to either. Perhaps someone like Chomu Press will eventually reprint it at a more sensible price, as they are Mark Samuels' The Man Who Collected Machen, due next month at £6.75 with free postage from The Book Depository. |
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Post by weirdmonger on Feb 25, 2011 8:52:05 GMT
I think there are only a hundred available, so they'll probably sell them, as Mark Valentine is often considered to be one of the greatest living writers in our field. As for the first point you may well be correct. At a hundred, there are probably enough people who will be prepared to pay $200 for this book. As for the second, I can't comment, not having to my knowledge read any of Mark Valentine's stories - though at this price I'm hardly likely to either. Perhaps someone like Chomu Press will eventually reprint it at a more sensible price, as they are Mark Samuels' The Man Who Collected Machen, due next month at £6.75 with free postage from The Book Depository. Yes, David, I am pleased, too, that Chomu Press is publishing my own first novel in June.  Regarding the other matter, I guess those involved will claim that Mark V's stories as collected - with the journal notes etc etc - are an intrinsic whole, one aspect enhancing the others... |
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Post by rolnikov on Feb 25, 2011 11:08:23 GMT
It does seem like an extraordinary amount of money, but if people are willing to pay it I can't blame the publisher for taking their cash. Like David, though, I don't think I'd ever pay that much for a new book myself. I think the highest I've ever gone was about £80 for a Folio Society book, Richard Burton's A Secret Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, which I quickly regretted. It's currently doing a marvellous job as a stand for my monitor! I just spent £90 on the complete collection of Penguin mini moderns, but that was a special birthday treat, and there are 50 of them. Not all Mark's work is so expensive - The Collected Connoisseur, which I liked a lot (my short review is here), is a fairly affordable paperback, and he has a chapbook out from Nightjar Press. |
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Post by David A. Riley on Feb 25, 2011 11:19:32 GMT
It often surprises me just how much collectors will pay for a book.
Having a bookshop, we recently sold a Folio edition of War and Peace for £650. I personally think that's an insane amount of money to pay for a fairly recent edition of a very familiar book, but there you have it. I'm just not that kind of collector myself.
I'll have to take a look at some of Mark Valentine's books. I attended a talk he did on the Yorkshire writer W. F. Harvey (author of The Beast with Five Fingers) at the Halifax Ghost Story Festival and was impressed by his presentation and knowledge of the subject. As for the book Des reviewed, I'm afraid I'll have to wait till a much cheaper version comes available, peacock feather or not!
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Feb 25, 2011 11:46:56 GMT
I feel there is an important distinction between a rare and valuable book and a book that is being made to be rare and valuable.
If I had loads of money I would stupidly go out and buy the first copy of 'A Voyage to Arcturus' by David Lindsay (which cost about a shilling when it came out) on the grounds that I love the author and would get a kind of orgiastic thrill at seeing a first edition of his work - it is very rare and valuable.
I've read nothing by Valentine - I'm sure he's very good, if not great, if not a genius - no idea really, but good luck to him. I can't imagine any circumstances - even if I was rich where i would fork out that kind of money for a relatively modern author.
I feel posterity makes that judgment and to make it too early devalues 'rare and valuable.'
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Feb 25, 2011 11:53:26 GMT
I should also add if he can get that kind of money, why not.
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Post by David A. Riley on Feb 25, 2011 12:55:06 GMT
I feel there is an important distinction between a rare and valuable book and a book that is being made to be rare and valuable. If I had loads of money I would stupidly go out and buy the first copy of 'A Voyage to Arcturus' by David Lindsay (which cost about a shilling when it came out) on the grounds that I love the author and would get a kind of orgiastic thrill at seeing a first edition of his work - it is very rare and valuable. I've read nothing by Valentine - I'm sure he's very good, if not great, if not a genius - no idea really, but good luck to him. I can't imagine any circumstances - even if I was rich where i would fork out that kind of money for a relatively modern author. I feel posterity makes that judgment and to make it too early devalues 'rare and valuable.' I agree. First edition copies of certain writers - I can think of Robert Aickman or M. R. James - would interest me too. I did get an early Aickman first edition in nice condition too some years ago. Cost me 10p at a carboot sale. Worth considerably more. Not that I intend to sell it. Putting new, relatively unknown writers in deluxe editions that command massive prices does smack a little of hubris to me. How many of these will stand the test of time is anybody's guess. Many, I am sure, will fade into obscurity, especially since relatively few of those whose books are today published in the small press will be known to more than a handful of readers. I would bet that the first edition Lindsay you would love to have, Craig, is anything but a deluxe edition to look at. Probably very nondescript in every respect other than its first edition status. |
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Feb 25, 2011 14:02:13 GMT
I feel there is an important distinction between a rare and valuable book and a book that is being made to be rare and valuable. If I had loads of money I would stupidly go out and buy the first copy of 'A Voyage to Arcturus' by David Lindsay (which cost about a shilling when it came out) on the grounds that I love the author and would get a kind of orgiastic thrill at seeing a first edition of his work - it is very rare and valuable. I've read nothing by Valentine - I'm sure he's very good, if not great, if not a genius - no idea really, but good luck to him. I can't imagine any circumstances - even if I was rich where i would fork out that kind of money for a relatively modern author. I feel posterity makes that judgment and to make it too early devalues 'rare and valuable.' I agree. First edition copies of certain writers - I can think of Robert Aickman or M. R. James - would interest me too. I did get an early Aickman first edition in nice condition too some years ago. Cost me 10p at a carboot sale. Worth considerably more. Not that I intend to sell it. Putting new, relatively unknown writers in deluxe editions that command massive prices does smack a little of hubris to me. How many of these will stand the test of time is anybody's guess. Many, I am sure, will fade into obscurity, especially since relatively few of those whose books are today published in the small press will be known to more than a handful of readers. I would bet that the first edition Lindsay you would love to have, Craig, is anything but a deluxe edition to look at. Probably very nondescript in every respect other than its first edition status. Absolutely David. It's a small thin nondescript Gollancz edition rarely appearing with its plain yellow cover. Missed out on getting it relatively cheap once, then it rocketed. The issue for me is almost always that the book represents a moment in time, a kind of step closer to the author - One reason why those pulp paperbacks appeal to me so much. I have a little small press edition with me and Des in it somewhere which I personally value highly. It's these little things that make it all worthwhile |
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Post by Dr Terror on Feb 25, 2011 19:46:08 GMT
I wonder if it would increase sales if I offered a goose, duck or chicken feather with the Black Books.
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Post by weirdmonger on Feb 25, 2011 20:19:13 GMT
I'll have to take a look at some of Mark Valentine's books. I attended a talk he did on the Yorkshire writer W. F. Harvey (author of The Beast with Five Fingers) at the Halifax Ghost Story Festival In which case, you will probably love the story THE LATE POST in 'The Peacock Escritoire'. |
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Post by weirdmonger on Feb 25, 2011 20:30:47 GMT
I wonder if it would increase sales if I offered a goose, duck or chicken feather with the Black Books. I think you should offer a shoe-shine boy or girl with it. |
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Post by jamesdoig on Feb 25, 2011 20:56:05 GMT
I feel there is an important distinction between a rare and valuable book and a book that is being made to be rare and valuable. I agree, and I'm thinking particularly about things like the "Deluxe Traycased Lettered Edition limited to 12 copies" that appear from time to time and cost about 100 times more than the trade paperback. Limited edition specialty publishers like Tartarus, Ash Tree and Ex Occidente are more affordable, though not cheap - and of course they're a great investment for the discerning schmo. Which I'm not - I've known about the specialty presses for maybe a dozen years, and in that time I've passed on hundreds of titles. So I didn't buy Mark Valentine's In Violet Veils when it came out, or Terry Lamsley's Conference With the Dead, etc etc, all now worth a packet! But I've always like hunting for books in bookshops, junk shops and book fairs, and buying stuff off the Internet just isn't as much fun. From memory, the only horror speciality press book I've seen at a junk shop is a copy of the Sarob Margery of Quether by Baring-Gould, which set me back $2. They're not the sort of book someone is inadvertantly going to donate to Vinnies or the Salvos! |
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