Today I found a copy of Nemesis Train in a bargain bin at a bookshop in Sydney—and purchased it for the princely sum of $2.
It's a kind of sad moment in the life of a book. But one can mourn the loss or celebrate the journey. (And one consolation was the presence of quite a number of other good books on the bargain tables.)
For the reader or potential reader, such "aggressive discounting" also offers the chance of a good bargain just in time for Christmas. Of course, it is the same book retailing in the same bookshop for $17.95 just a year ago.
There's always a chance an editor from a big-time publisher will find it on a bargain table and rediscover and re-publish or perhaps it will become an underground hit, developing a devoted cult following. Maybe I shouldn't have purchased and left it there for the chance of such a discovery.
P.S. Given that my book royalties for three book currently in print this year totalled $2.08, deducting my $2 investment today, leaves me with 8 cents with which to celebrate the "end" of Nemesis Train. Long live the Train!
