Welcome to the Guestbook!
I’m always eager to read your comments about my books and stories, so please feel free to pitch in. Here are a few things for you to know:
1) I answer the messages here personally.
2) No message shows up here until I actually answer it to prevent spam and other inappropriate postings. So there will sometimes be a delay before your message posts, especially if I am traveling.
3) Teachers, a gentle request: Please do not have multiple children send me variants of the same message. A group email is much easier to respond to and not such a drain on my time. My thanks in advance for being alert to this.
Sign the Guestbook!
Hi, Mr. Coville. My best friend and I LOVE your Unicorn Chronicles books. She has all but the Last Hunt. Her 13th birthday is coming up and I wanted to do something special: get her the Last Hunt. But I can't find it anywhere for less than $20 as a paperback! So my question is: why is it so expensive? ~Dru
Reply by Bruce Coville
Hi, Dru - Glad to know that you and your best friend LOVE the Chronicles!
One thing that many people do not understand is that unless a book is self-published, the author has nothing to do with the price. That is determined by the publisher . . . or, in the case of used books, by the bookseller.
The reason THE LAST HUNT is so expensive is that Scholastic, for reasons I have never understood, chose not to release a paperback edition. (Any version you find in paperback is almost certainly an ARC - an "Advance Readers Copy" sent out for reviews.) Because there was no paperback the book is fairly rare, and people who do have it are holding on to it. So used booksellers are charging a lot of money for it.
I have regained the rights to the books, and my agent and I are seeking a new publisher to bring them back into print. But even if we found the new publisher today, it would probably be a year or more before they are available.
I understand your frustration . . . believe me, I am frustrated by this, too! But the matter of availability has entirely to do with the publisher.
I am sorry I do not have better news for you.
Bruce Coville
One thing that many people do not understand is that unless a book is self-published, the author has nothing to do with the price. That is determined by the publisher . . . or, in the case of used books, by the bookseller.
The reason THE LAST HUNT is so expensive is that Scholastic, for reasons I have never understood, chose not to release a paperback edition. (Any version you find in paperback is almost certainly an ARC - an "Advance Readers Copy" sent out for reviews.) Because there was no paperback the book is fairly rare, and people who do have it are holding on to it. So used booksellers are charging a lot of money for it.
I have regained the rights to the books, and my agent and I are seeking a new publisher to bring them back into print. But even if we found the new publisher today, it would probably be a year or more before they are available.
I understand your frustration . . . believe me, I am frustrated by this, too! But the matter of availability has entirely to do with the publisher.
I am sorry I do not have better news for you.
Bruce Coville