# Out-of-Print Books Reborn on the Kindle



## LeeGoldberg (Jun 12, 2009)

The Kindle has been a wonderful thing for authors who have previously published, out-of-print books gathering dust on their shelves. And it's been great for readers, too, who finally have a chance to rediscover early work from some of their favorite authors. For instance, there are now Kindle editions of Paul Levine's NIGHT VISION (The Jake Lassiter Series), April Henry's LEARNING TO FLY, Richard Wheeler's MASTERSON, all formerly out-of-print and hard-to-find...reborn thanks to the Kindle.

But while there's lots of talk here about self-published books, I don't see much discussion about all those wonderful out-of-print books that are now available again. So...if you have a previously published, out-of-print book...or if you've read a Kindle edition of a great, previously out-of-print book, please tell us about it here, along with a product link so Kindle readers can find it.

Lee


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## Daniel Arenson (Apr 11, 2010)

In 2007, Five Star published my fantasy novel "Firefly Island".  Lee, I believe that they also originally published "The Walk".

"Firefly Island" went out of print in 2009.  In 2010, it became a successful Kindle ebook, and will soon be a CreateSpace paperback.  It's now selling more than ever.


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2010)

You're definitely right, Lee. I heard about the deal to bring Sophie's Choice back as an ebook, and that'll probably only be the beginning. Beyond just the normal catalogue of backlist titles, I'm confident we'll see a whole revival of older titles that were lost but probably should've never been. Hey, I'll take a good story wherever I can get it!


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## Paul Levine (May 14, 2010)

Many thanks to Lee Goldberg for his kind mention of NIGHT VISION (The Jake Lassiter Series). http://www.amazon.com/NIGHT-VISION-Jake-Lassiter-ebook/dp/B003SHDU72  Lee has invited me to tell you about the legal thriller, so here goes. First, here's what Larry King had to say in USA TODAY: "Jake Lassiter is my favorite new character in fiction."

One of the themes of "Night Vision" is the loss of privacy in the computer age. The story involves a stalker preying on women in an early Internet chat room, a place where anonymous men and women flirt and tease. The terms "social network" and "Internet stalker" hadn't yet been coined, but here was a deranged man, searching out lonely women...and killing them. Jake Lassiter, the linebacker turned lawyer, is appointed a special prosecutor to investigate and hopefully put the serial killer away.









Looking back, the novel may have been ahead of its time in certain ways. I wrote the book in 1989, and it was published in hard cover by Bantam in 1991. Here's Lassiter monologue about the computer sex chat site:
"Compu-mate was the latest way to profit from people's fears of loneliness. Like-minded adults just a whir and buzz away, courtesy of your personal computer. Talk sweet, talk dirty, titillate your partner, and tickle your fancy until you get a phone number and address. Then cross your fingers, take a deep breath, and wait for the truth. The guy who called himself `Paul Newman look-alike' has the gray hair, all right, but the blue eyes are milky, a paunch hangs over his belt, and he's three months behind on his alimony. `Buxom blonde looking for fun' means overweight and bleached, a manic-depressive."

I expressed my fears - through Jake Lassiter's monologue - about the wholesale invasion of privacy in coming years:

"Somewhere, I am sure, there is a giant computer that stores a thousand megabytes about each of us. What we got in geography and we took to the senior prom. Where we eat, what we buy, who we call. How much we spend on clothes, booze, and pills. Traffic tickets, domestic disputes, diplomas, and the books we buy. Modern life is one sweeping, cradle-to-grave invasion of privacy. An encroachment on our ever-narrowing space. Behind us we leave a trail of carbon copies and floppy disks. Fodder for the snoop and the historian alike.

"In the 21st Century, they tell us, our houses will be smaller, our lawns nonexistent. We'll work at home and recycle our garbage into compost. Our bathroom scale will record our weight, pulse, and blood pressure and transmit the information to the company physician and anyone else with the right password. The paper trail will be obsolete, but in its place, microscopic chips and laser scanners will transcribe details even the most astute biographer would overlook."

NIGHT VISION (The Jake Lassiter Series) is available for a limited time at $2.99. http://www.amazon.com/NIGHT-VISION-Jake-Lassiter-ebook/dp/B003SHDU72 I hope you give it a try.

I have two other out-of-print books just up on Kindle in the past month. TO SPEAK FOR THE DEAD (The Jake Lassiter Series) is also on Amazon Kindle for $2.99.  [URL=http://www.amazon.com/SPEAK-DEAD-Jake-Lassiter-ebook/dp/B003SHDUD6]http://www.amazon.com/SPEAK-DEAD-Jake-Lassiter-ebook/dp/B003SHDUD6 [/url]For a while in late July, it was the number one bestselling hardboiled mystery on Amazon. Just today, REVERSAL went up on Kindle. That's my Supreme Court thriller, which was published in hardcover as "9 Scorions." It too is $2.99.  [URL=http://www.amazon]http://www.amazon.com/REVERSAL-ebook/dp/B003XYFMQ2[/url]


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## Frank Zubek (Apr 27, 2010)

I think it's great that a multitude of older books can find a second wind on Kindle (all of you will have your own list of old faves)

A small problem though, would be that many older books were done on typewriters or if they are saved on older formats (like a floppy disc) who would decide and put up the money to have it transferred to a Kindle friendly format?

I mean, it might be possible to scan the book pages in, but would it 'look' good on a Kindle as opposed to formatting it direct from a WORD program?

I could be off a bit on my tech, but it depends on how far back Lee was thinking as well.


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## Fred Zackel (Apr 24, 2010)

For me, the solution for getting my 1980 OOP novel CINDERELLA AFTER MIDNIGHT, in shape for Kindle was odd. I really did not want to retype a 100,000-word manuscript. Luckily I teach at a university. Knowing zip about computers (etc.) I went to the school's trouble-shooting dept. and the folks there said, we can scan it in an hour. Just bring a copy of your book in, we'll razor the binding, and scan it on our high-speed scanner. Yikes! To razor a 30 year old "Precious" of mine? (As in LORD OF THE RINGS' Precious, of course.) How horrible! Sacra-ligious!

The director there said ... buy a copy of your book off e-bay. Oh. So we bought one, a very raggedy one but with all the pages, had it razored, and then the trouble-shooters scanned it. Then they made it into a word file ... I proofread it ... and it's now available in beautiful condition on Kindle and smashwords.

Fred Zackel

author of ...
COCAINE & BLUE EYES
CINDERELLA AFTER MIDNIGHT
CREEPIER THAN A WHOREHOUSE KISS
A DEATH IN KEY LARGO
TOUGH TOWN COLD CITY
&
MURDER IN WAIKIKI
All (and more) are available on Kindle and smashwords

Click
here to check it out.


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## LeeGoldberg (Jun 12, 2009)

Frank Zubek said:


> I think it's great that a multitude of older books can find a second wind on Kindle (all of you will have your own list of old faves)
> 
> A small problem though, would be that many older books were done on typewriters or if they are saved on older formats (like a floppy disc) who would decide and put up the money to have it transferred to a Kindle friendly format?
> 
> ...


The author's own the out-of-print books and its in their financial best interests to put'em on the Kindle. It's found money and it's really quite easy. You can scan the typewritten pages into a Word file, clean them up, and upload'em. Or you can take apart two copies of the published book, scan the pages into Word, clean them up and upload them. I've had to do both.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

LeeGoldberg said:


> The author's own the out-of-print books and its in their financial best interests to put'em on the Kindle. It's found money and it's really quite easy. You can scan the typewritten pages into a Word file, clean them up, and upload'em. Or you can take apart two copies of the published book, scan the pages into Word, clean them up and upload them. I've had to do both.


Yeah, I used to do scanning for Gutenberg, so when I had a friend who was looking to get an old series up, I did raw scans of all her books. Her partner invested a couple of hundred bucks in Aabby Finereader, which does a better job of OCR than others. It's not _that_ hard, or expensive. (And heck, we all typed the dang things in the first place. It's worth it.)

Camille


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

MEMORIAL DAY (A Mick Callahan Novel) $2.99 on Kindle

Meet Mick Callahan, a former television talk-show psychiatrist foiled by his own ego (and a penchant for liquid refreshment). Now he's earning an undistinguished living as a radio host in Dry Wells, Nevada (a place for which the phrase "small town" is too grandiose). But, several years after his self-inflicted downfall, things are looking up: in a few days, he has an interview for a job that will return him to television. The only roadblock is the potential for scandal surrounding the murder of a young woman caller to his show. Mick needs to find out whodunit before the case can foul up his job opportunity. First-novelist Shannon gives the amateur-detective theme a nice little twist by giving his hero a deadline--and a self-centered one at that. The crisply detailed small-town desert setting adds to the novel's sense of freshness. Callahan isn't the first psychiatrist-detective hero, but he's certainly one of the more memorable. Let's hope he's around for a long run. BOOKLIST David Pitt, American Library Association

http://www.amazon.com/Memorial-Day-Callahan-Novel-ebook/dp/B003DKK1GM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1280896748&sr=1-4


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## G. Henkel (Jan 12, 2010)

Barbara Hambly makes some of her back catalog short stories available on her own website

http://www.barbarahambly.com/?page_id=78

"Quest for Glory," "Libre," "There Shall Your Heart Be Also," "Firemaggot," "Pretty Polly" and "A Night With The Girls" are currently available there. Hopefully she will be able to make some of her other books available as well some time.


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## LeeGoldberg (Jun 12, 2009)

My friend Richard Wheeler, the legendary western author, brought his acclaimed, Spur Award winning, but long out-of-print novel MASTERSON back on the Kindle.

Here's what Publisher's Weekly had to say about the book, which is available on the Kindle now and earned the Western Writers Of America's highest honor:

"Again depicting characters with frailties as well as heroic qualities, the prolific Wheeler's 25th novel (after Aftershocks) is a sprightly romp of revisionist western history. In 1919, legendary gunfighter Bat Masterson is a 64-year-old New York City sportswriter who suddenly becomes worried about the inglorious and mostly false reputation he has endured for decades... The journey is a hoot when the old lawman finds that the public wants the legend, not the truth... This is classic Wheeler, a solid story about real people told with wit, compassion and a bit of whimsy."

I hope the book finds a whole new audience on the Kindle.


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## bluefrog (Apr 6, 2010)

This is one of the things I was most excited about when I got my kindle. All those books in limbo can be available again. No more digging through used bookstores for authors I've discovered after their 15 minutes were up.  I will be one happy book geek when all books are downloadable.


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## HelenSmith (Mar 17, 2010)

Two of mine, Alison Wonderland and Being Light, were first published by Gollancz which is a traditional mainstream publisher based in the UK which has since been taken over by Orion.

The books got great reviews but went out of print last year so I put them up for sale for the kindle on Amazon a few months ago. It has been such a positive experience that I have recently written an article for the Writers Guild of Great Britain saying to any other author in the same position (and there are many, as you know) that they should consider doing the same.

Having lavished so much love on my books when I wrote them, I just couldn't bear to let them die. This, as you say, is a way to see them reborn. Good luck to everyone else who's doing this - and thanks to everyone who is discovering my books and the others listed on here, and buying them and reading them.


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## April Henry (Dec 16, 2009)

Thanks to the Kindle and authors like Lee Goldberg who showed me the way, all my my previously out-of-print backlist is available again.  Including Learning to Fly.  The book got starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal, was a Booksense pick, was a Penzler Pick for Amazon, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award, and was named one of the top books of 2002 by Library Journal. It went through four printings.  It's been optioned for film twice.  

Here's the plot: The chaotic scene of a huge, fiery chain-reaction car accident leaves Free Meeker in the possession of someone else’s bag and the hitchhiker she has just picked up dead.  By the next morning, 19-year-old Free, daughter of aging hippies, has discovered that the bag contains nearly a million dollars - and that the hitchhiker’s body has been identified as hers.  Fate seems to be handing her the chance to make her life over.  But when the owner of the drug money realizes it didn’t burn up in the fire, things get complicated.  And things only get worse when the hitchhiker’s stalking husband decides that Free must be some do-gooder hiding his wife.


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## Amyshojai (May 3, 2010)

I may be one of the few nonfiction authors "kindle-izing" my backlist. I've two (below) already available, and the "aging dog" under review, with a "cutting edge" book (cloning, kidney transplants, etc) ready to go. Several were originally pub'd with NAL, and I've two huge encyclopedias (originally titled "The Purina Encyclopedia of Dog Care/Cat Care") originally pub'd with Ballantine. 

Since they're very prescriptive medical/behavior info but with a warm-and-fuzzy reader-friendly tone, I'm sensitive to the out of date info. The two aging books have been completely updated (mostly stats or titles of the vet experts). I've also had issue with the tables, sidebars, and photos since those can be such a value-added in nonfiction but really hisses me off formatting for Kindle! *s* I'm working with Bob Mayer's publishing company to bring my backlist out with other Ebook and POD venues. I just don't have time to do 'em all.

So far, the kitten book has sold by leaps and pounces. Aging cat book has only been out a couple of weeks and is pricier so not moving as well. But as others have said, the alternative is to let 'em rust with dust bunnies under the bed. 

woofs & purrs,

amy


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## LeeGoldberg (Jun 12, 2009)

Amyshojai said:


> I may be one of the few nonfiction authors "kindle-izing" my backlist.


I've put two of my out-of-print, non-fiction books on the Kindle -- TV Flash Forward







and Unsold TV Pilots







-- and neither book is selling. I'm lucky if I sell a dozen of them, combined, each month. I just don't think the Kindle work as well for reference books as it does for fiction.

Lee


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## Amyshojai (May 3, 2010)

Lee, I've heard that from others as well, that nonfiction does better as POD and fiction burns up the Ebook world. But so far, I've sold a book a day of the kitten care, and about a dozen of aging cat in the first three weeks. *shrug* Maybe it helps to get 'em drunk on catnip first. . .Haven't a clue how the dog book will do. 

But since my print book sales went away when folks wanted their info off the Internet, I hope the pet book sales will continue. If not, well, the POD versions are forthcoming. Lots of folks here use smashwords, I think...might be an option for yours, Lee. I'd go that route if I had more time.

amy


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## LeeGoldberg (Jun 12, 2009)

Both of my non-fiction books have been available on POD through the Authors Guild's Back-in-Print program with iUniverse...and haven't sold well there, either. Maybe the books just suck... 

Lee


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## Amyshojai (May 3, 2010)

Hmmnn....Lee, they sound like books my actor friends would love.   Will send some notes out and about with the links.

amy


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

C.J. Cherryh has begun to make her backlist available online.


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## kae (May 3, 2010)

The Adventures of Elizabeth Fortune







was traditionally published in 2000, OOP in 2004. I put it up on Kindle in May 2010 and generated new interest in it. I also had a second printing done with the Kindle cover. Now to get that to the Amazon warehouse (paperwork paperwork )!


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## April Henry (Dec 16, 2009)

I have also put all four in my Claire Montrose series out on the Kindle. The first three were originally published by Harper Collins, the last by St. Martins. The first in the series, Circles of Confusion, was a Booksense Pick and a finalist for both the Agatha and Anthony mystery awards. It's great to have people reading about Claire's adventures again. Circles of Confusion
Square in the Face
Heart-Shaped Box
Buried Diamonds


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## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

I'm with you, Lee. The ebook revolution has been a godsend for out-of-print books.

My out of print backlist includes:
_*Working Stiffs * _ which is a themed collection of crime stories. I picked up an Anthony Award in 2007 for a story from this book. http://www.amazon.com/Working-Stiffs-ebook/dp/B002VWKG2C

_*The Scrubs*_, a supernatural crime thriller set in London's Wormwood Scrubs prison. I picked up a lot of great blurbs from the industry for this one. Currently, there's some movie interest in it. http://www.amazon.com/The-Scrubs-ebook/dp/B003DQNXTS

_*Road Rash*_, another supernatural crime thriller, based on an incident when I attended a Santeria ceremony in Guatemala. http://www.amazon.com/Road-Rash-ebook/dp/B003DZ1EU4

_*Dragged into Darkness*_, a Twilight Zone-esque collection of spooky stories. A very early book of mine. It went out of print in 2004. http://www.amazon.com/Dragged-into-Darkness-ebook/dp/B002HWSLFU


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## lashepherd (Jul 26, 2010)

I recently put my 1981 book, A Dreamer's Log Cabin, up on Kindle. I revised it very slightly, added a few more and better quality pictures, and listed it as a 30th Anniversary Edition. It did well in 1981; we'll see about Kindle! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VIX1HC


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

THE PRESSURE OF DARKNESS (A Thriller) now only $2.99

"A dark, thrilling tale of murder and intrigue that will have you turning the pages as fast as you can."
--Crimespree Magazine

"Master craftsmanship...a dark and thrilling stroll along the knife edge. Highly recommended."
--Cemetery Dance

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pressure-of-Darkness-ebook/dp/B003DKK1KS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1281128140&sr=1-1


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## LeeGoldberg (Jun 12, 2009)

SimonWood said:


> I'm with you, Lee. The ebook revolution has been a goodsend for out-of-print books.


I don't understand why more authors aren't putting their out-of-print books on the Kindle, ipad, etc. It's so easy, there's nothing to lose and every dollar earned is found money.

Lee


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## Amyshojai (May 3, 2010)

Lee and  others, I suspect some folks simply don't have the E-rights reverted. I know my contracts included them, and I got my rights reverted several years before Ebooks became a growing concern so there wasn't any argument. These days, it could be that publishers are holding onto the rights, and not reverting them, because/until they see where the potential income may go.  

amy


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

Lee, good post.  My series, Calling Crow, Flight of the Crow, and Calling Crow Nation were originally published by Putnam/Berkley.  They've long since 'out-of-printed' them.  I had them somewhere else (won't say where) where they weren't really promoted at all, IMO.  So I pulled the rights and I am in the process now of getting them ready to debut on Kindle.  I've been editing Calling Crow for the past month.  The other two should go faster.  And I can't wait to roll them out... with new covers, thanks to Ronnell.

One further point about this.  Mid  List, out of print, these don't mean poor writing or bad books.  Just books that were not mega Steven King type sellers.  They were the mainstay of the publishing houses.  I think that the publishing houses really didn't give them the respect they deserved (I could tell you some stories...)  Anyway, I've a feeling that a lot of these writers, like you say, will be uploading these wonderful, but unrecoginized works soon.  And the 650,000 number will shoot way up.  Competition will be a lot stiffer.  

For better or worse, welcome to the new two-tiered system.  The recognized and annointed on the top...  Ken Follett, King, whoever wrote Twilight, the author of Harry Potter (I'm not trying to be smart here, I simply can't recall the name), et al.  And on the bottom...  Well, look around, people.  

I'm not making any value judgements here about who should be on top and who on bottom.  I'm simply describing the situation as I see it.

Welcome to the moshpit.


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Some of my stuff just had the reversion clause built in for all rights, others just didn't give it away. Even on newer material, I'meither holding on to them or limiting the ebook rights to a term. It seems that publishers are doing less for us every day. There are a lot of novels I'd love to see on Kindle, and even more that are there but ridiculously over-priced by desperate publishing houses who don't seem to get the point. The recording industry went south by reacting in a similar way to digital downloads.


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## marshacanham (Jul 30, 2010)

I've had books languishing for years in an out of print status...three of the earliest ones were written on a typewriter, so no discs for me.  I decided against having them scanned for the simple reason that I'm a glutton for punishment LOL.  Not really.  Well, yes I am. But on the flip side, typing the books out page by page allows me to revise, edit, and update.  It's a process I'm used to, even with the books I've written on the puter.  I always retype the entire book for a final edited draft. It's amazing how many errors get picked up that way as opposed to just proofreading the words off a screen.  But I digress.  China Rose and Bound by the Heart were my first two books, but it was the third, The Wind and the Sea, that readers have been asking me about for years.  It's impossible to find in used book stores, and online ubs's want a small fortune for copies in not very good shape.  I myself only have two precious copies of it, and while Kindle versions aren't exactly displayable on a shelf, at least the words won't be lost.  China Rose and Swept Away are available now.  I'm working on Bound by the Heart, typing my little fingers off.  The Wind and the Sea is a semi-daunting 531 pages so it's last in line *s*

M


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

I have quite a few out of print romances (formerly issued by a small press) on Kindle, including:

Love Remembered









All I Ever Wanted









Never Love a Stranger


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Ah, Marsha, I did love my old IBM Selectrics 3 typewriter. I didn't have any disc for my first novel either, someone scanned it for me and an editor went through it top to bottom. All of my newer ones were written on some form of computer. Can't believe you have that much discipline, but good on ya!


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## Marie-Nicole Ryan (Mar 29, 2010)

I also regained rights to two of my romantic suspense books from a previous publisher and uploaded them using the DTP. And I'm very happy with the results.

The Man for the Job

See You In My Dreams

I'm still not comfortable in doing the links here on the boards.

Marie-Nicole Ryan
http://marienicoleryan.com


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## kae (May 3, 2010)

Richard S. Wheeler has put up another of his OOPs.


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## LeeGoldberg (Jun 12, 2009)

Author Bill Crider's long out-of-print horror classics, including  Rest in Peace and  Just Before Dark , written under the pseudonym "Jack MacLane" are now available on the Kindle. Here's the plot for REST IN PEACE:

Danny West knew that something was wrong from the first day his folks moved into the rundown house next to the creepy graveyard. The neighborhood kids would never come over to play. At night, he saw weird shadows prowling around the crumbling tombstones, and heard strange gurgling sounds. But his parents wouldn't listen to him. They said he had a good imagination&#8230;

Then bad things started to happen. Terrible, gruesome things that even scared his dad. There was something in the graveyard. Something in the graveyard. Something that no kid could ever have imagined. Something that should have been left alone to Rest In Peace.


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Bill wrote some great stuff. It's fun to see so many books getting a second life.


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

While searching for the Travis McGee novels (unavailable as ebooks, sadly) I found an old pulp novel of John D. MacDonald's, _A Bullet for Cinderella_. Enjoyed the heck out of it! As usual with MacDonald, it was far better than it needed to be, especially considering the delightfully cheesy cover.

I picked up Harry's books for Kindle. I have a couple of them in hardback but was glad to find the rest as ebooks.

My first novel was written on a typewriter and now lives in the garage where it belongs. My second one, _Risen_, was published by Pinnacle Books and just reverted. I have a third book in the works and I really don't think I'll submit it for print publication. Unless you're in that top tier mentioned earlier, it's hardly worth it for the money. I've made more money optioning _Risen _ for films without a film ever being made than I earned from publication. Still, all revenue streams combined, I'd have made more money flipping burgers.

At this point, I'm just happy to have my book available to the brilliant and discerning souls who want it.


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## Consuelo Saah Baehr (Aug 27, 2010)

I tried repeatedly to get my book "Daughters" set in a village near Jerusalem at the turn of the century re-issued.  With the success of the Kite Runner, I figured the U.S. was ready to read about the Middle East.  Even though the book received great reviews and was translated into several languages, I couldn't get to "yes."  Now, thanks to ebooks, it is up and running in the Kindle Store.  I have a small back-list that now has a new chance at readership and that's a wonderful thing.  Also, I learned that formatting a Word doc isn't impossible even for a senior brain.  Thanks for the thread.


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## Amyshojai (May 3, 2010)

I've just recently begun receiving emails and messages from folks who have my 1999 release, a "natural healing" pet book from Rodale, asking if it will be updated soon. The book has been out of print for some time, and they must have discovered I'm updating/releasing 2nd editions on other titles...but that one I don't own copyright. So it's frustrating to me/them not to be able to bring it back. After working with Rodale on several books (others I have copyright), I doubt they'd be willing to kindle-ize the book and frankly, it needs an update. *sigh* Prescriptive nonfiction is funny that way.    Once I figured out the formatting issues, the publishing was relatively straightforward. But it took weeks to get the info current, in some cases.

I've got to see if my agent could figure out who to talk to at Rodale....my editor on the book left the company years ago.


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