News about the new edition of Red-tails in Love

First a word of explanation and then some real news:

Many of you have been writing me about your difficulties in getting a copy of the new, updated edition of my book. Here's what happened, as far as I can understand it.

When plans were being made for publication of a new edition the book had been out for more than six years. At that point the book had settled into a pretty predictable pattern--selling a nice, modest but steady number of books every year. The publisher calculated that they would just about run out of stock at the time the new edition was due to come out, in mid-April, 2005.

The plan was, that just at the time Pale Male and Lola's new chicks of 2005 would hatch and new attention was focused on the hawk the new edition would be be published As usual, the hawk nest would generate media attention, the publisher would promote the book a bit, and they would have plenty of new books in the bookstores.

Based on this plan, [and here's where a terrible decision comes in] the Random House marketing department decided there was no need to assign a new ISBN number to the new edition. Life would just go on for Red-tails in Love with the same old number. A unique ISBN number, by the way, is assigned to every book that comes out. It is the way bookstores order books from publishers, or from book jobbers like Ingrams. I knew nothing about this decision.

But the best-laid plans of mice and men... Along came December 7th, and the nest-removal crisis. Suddenly and unexpectedly a lot of attention was focused on the Fifth Avenue Red-tails, and, by extension, on my book. But not at the expected time. Four months too early the book was mentioned in the papers. I was interviewed on various TV programs, and copies of the book flew out of bookstores.

Soon it became clear that the publisher was going to run out of books months before the new edition was ready. What could they do? They had to do another quick printing to take advantage of this windfall. [Even so there was a period of time in January when there were no books to be had anywhere in NYC.]

Alas, as publication day came around for the new edition of Red-tails in Love, there were no chicks in the nest. But there were still quite a few copies of that new printing around in bookstores. AND, most unfortunately,they had decided not to assign a new ISBN number to the new edition.

So when people went to their booksellers, or to their on-line bookstores to order the revised edition, they were simply sold the old version. And there was really no way to order it. Because it had the same number as the old edition, and the old edition was still in stores and in warehouses. In a way the new edition didn't exist until the last copies of the old edition vanished.

The story is confusing, It took me a long time to get to the bottom of it and there's no reason why it should now be clear as clear to you now. But anyhow, I felt I should try to explain, and to say to all you faithful readers who kept trying and trying:

I'm so sorry!

But here's the good news:

Linda Ellis of J. Michaels Books, a bookshop in Eugene Oregon, had been corresponding with me, via this site, about her difficulties in ordering my book. She said that the people at Ingrams, the book jobber she deals with, told her that there was no 2005 edition, there was only a 1999 edition. And since that was not the edition her customers wanted, she didn't know how to proceed.

I wrote her and gave her the background about the ISBN number. And I suggested that maybe they were running out of copies of the old edition. Maybe if she simply ordered the old ISBN number from Ingrams they'd send the new edition.

Today she wrote me:

Dear Ms. Winn:

Thanks for your letter. Good news - we did order what appeared to be the older edition through Ingram and it was the new edition that was sent to us.With cordial regards and thanks for your attention,

Linda


I wrote and asked if I could give her e-mail address and phone number for readers of my website who might want to be sure and get the new edition. She answered "Of course, we'd be happy to handle any orders of your book you send our way."

Great! Here's the e-mail address and phone number for Linda Ellis at J Michaels Books in Eugene Oregon:

jmbooks@mindspring.com
or
541-342-7690