Sunday, November 29, 2009

A case of 48 books for $48.

A few months ago, I was given the opportunity to buy some of my first book from the publisher back. They had pretty much stopped selling, and were dumping them for $1 a copy, so I said, hey. Can I get a few? They said, how about the remaining?

Somewhere around 1,300 books.

It presented a dilemma. I am not traveling around speaking, or have any real way of getting the books into the hands of men, and young men at a large scale. They ain't flying off the shelves or in high demand.

But imagine if all your hard work and labor of something was being discounted at somewhere around 90%. Maybe a version of you at a really cheap rate. I'd like to think while many of us would pay more for our own version then most, we do like ourselves. How could you not go in at 90% off of yourself. You would have to buy yourself at that price.

And how many of yourself would you buy at that rate?

1, 5, 100, or 1,300?

I guess I figured if anyone was going to take that price, it should be me, right? So, I ponied up the money, and bought them. Priceless, original, out-of-print copies of my first book. Pretty dang cheap.

And now they sit. and sit. 1,300 of yourself just sitting there with no one to want them but the person that made them. and to be honest, he's not sure if he made the right choice. I think all 1,301 of us are kind of getting bored at staring at each other. while they are pretty independent, this one has to eat.

I figured, maybe I could sell them. so, i offer me to you, the 90% off me.

you could hand them out to a youth group, use them for firewood, or a ministry, or just give the old beggar a few coins in the tin cup, but I am willing to get rid of them for $48 a box. which includes 48 copies. then $10 to ship them.

So $58 for 48 books.

I think Donald Miller's newest hard back is selling for about $58. so maybe that is where you need to make a real economical decision. 48 of xan, or 1 of Donald Miller. those could be some true odds.

If you are interested, give me a holler at xanhood@hotmail.com

Good tidings.