January 27, 2015--$3.99 for Shipping

I am completing work on a book that collects some of my Ladies of Forest Trace stories. It should be available in a month or two. I'll let you know just when so you can . . .

The publisher is calling it, Obama, Oy Vey: The Wit & Wisdom of My 107-Year-Old Mother and we have had a recent discussion about how to price it.

Since I am deferring to them--it's really their call--I thought to have some fun with it.

Some years ago Josey-Bass published my First-Generation Students: Confronting the Cultural Issues and since it is out of print it is available only via websites such as AbeBooks.com. There, for some unfathomable reason, the cheapest copy is going for $362.56 plus $3.99 for shipping. There's a second copy at $424.91 plus shipping, and another for $608.86 with free shipping.

These prices are totally crazy.

If you think I'm making this up (and if I were you I would) you can double check by clicking on this link--

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=zwerling&sts=t&tn=first-generation+students

I am also wondering how these book sellers came up with the prices, especially the 56, 91, and 86 cents. You'd think at these stratospheric levels they'd round them off to $365, $425, and $600. But what do I know.

Again, in the spirit of play I sent the link to my editor with a note saying that these might be helpful when thinking about how to price Oy Vey.

In the same vein, she shot another link back to me, from Amazon, and, tongue in cheek, said she's been using this one to help guide her when thinking about how much to charge.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1555427316/ref=tmm_pap_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=new&sr=8-1&qid=1422039253

I like her thinking: this book dealer is looking to get a whopping $2,820 for the book but has the chutzpah to charge $3.99 for shipping. For nearly $3,000 you'd think they'd throw it in.

To place things in some semblance of perspective, you can get a copy of the 40th anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird, signed by Harper Lee, for only $720, though you'll have to shell out $4.95 for shipping.

But fun aside, in the spirit of full disclosure, if you shop around you can find a bargain-basement copy of First-Generation Students for just $32.04 but will need to add $3.99 for shipping.

We'll see what they come up with for Oy Vey, with or without free shipping.