John D MacDonald is Back!

[BelleZora]

Originally Posted by Sapphire

These ebooks aren't in my library's digital collection, but they're available in OverDrive for library patrons to recommend for purchase.

Thanks! Just checked my library's digital collection and they now have The Deep Blue Goodbye (#1) and Cinnamon Skin (#20). Both have short waiting lists.

[Illinifan]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

Thanks! Just checked my library's digital collection and they now have The Deep Blue Goodbye (#1) and Cinnamon Skin (#20). Both have short waiting lists.

I just checked the Overdrive Search and none of the Travis McGee books in any format are showing up in any library.

Would love to re-read the whole series.

[Illinifan]

And yet one of my e-libraries has 10 of them listed, but none available.

Hmmm....patience, padawan.

[Sapphire]

Columbus Metro has 10 titles, Illinifan, but they're not sequential -- 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 17, and 19. The wait lists are short.

I'm not sure why the librarians failed to purchase the ebooks at the beginning of the series. Maybe someone will request them.

[CRussel]

All of these are also available as Audible books. Well read by Robert Petkoff. I won't pay $8-$12 for eBook versions, but I'll definitely pay one Audible credit for an audio book version, even though they're fairly short.

I've listened to the first two in the series: The Deep Blue Goodbye, and Nightmare in Pink. McGee is still McGee, and the books have, mostly, stood the test of time. His attitudes towards women are a product of when they were written, but even I am able to get past most of that.

[Dopedangel]

If you guys wait you will be able to get the books for way less in a year or so. Once people that are willing to pay such high prices are less the prices will come down at moment publishers are getting what they can out of extreme demand once the demand goes down so will the prices

[grumbles]

This is really good news. Over the last few years I have been looking for (and finding) some of MacDonald's other books. The McGee books may be the most popular but I don't think that they are anywhere near his best books. I now have about half of his other books. I'd be more than happy to buy the other half but not at $12. I wouldn't pay much more than $6. Better yet, I'll wait for them to appear at the library.

[sufue]

Originally Posted by dkperez

Unrealistic in your mind, not in mine... 50 year old books. Books that have already made their money in hardcover, made MORE money in paperback, then slowly faded away. Author's dead, books are of interested to a pretty small group that read some of them years ago, and now they've been resurrected in e-book form to make EVEN MORE money.

So, YEAH, I figure they're worth about $2.99 each. Publisher wants more, fine. They'll sell 'em to someone else, 'cause I can find a LOT of fine books to read that DO fit into the $0.99, $1.99, $2.99 range.

Totally agree. Old backlist shouldn't be more than about $3 or maybe as much as $4 for real classics like these.

Luckily, like DarkScribe somewhere else in this thread, I've already gotten them all scanned for my personal use. I had a bunch of them already, and I bought used DTBs of the rest, mostly for 25 -50 cents each - also giving my local library some money in the process. I then had them scanned by bookscan.us for a dollar each. Even the shipping didn't cost too much since I send pretty big batches via Media Mail. Presto, problem solved for less than $2 each. It took a little while to get them all, but eventually I did.

If RH had come out with these for $4 each a while ago, before I went to the hassle of getting them all scanned, I would have bought the lot, so they would have had $84 from me, for books that I mostly already owned in DTB. That would have been a pretty good feat. Now, of course, since I already have scans, and since they're $7.99 and up, they won't get anything. Oh well, their business decision...

I will put in a plug for one of John D. MacDonald's non-Travis McGee books. I personally love The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything. One of those few totally-LOL books that I have to read (re-read) alone.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by sufue

...
I will put in a plug for one of John D. MacDonald's non-Travis McGee books. I personally love The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything. One of those few totally-LOL books that I have to read (re-read) alone.

Absolutely!!

Doesn't seem to be available as an ebook, though.

[BelleZora]

Just checked out The Deep Blue Goodbye and I'm going to spend the evening reading it on my Nook. I would have bought it a week ago had it been $7.99 instead of $11.99. But no matter now. I'm just happy to meet up with my old friend Travis again.

[Apache]

About time they lowered the price.
Apache

[BelleZora]

Originally Posted by Apache

About time they lowered the price.
Apache

They didn't lower the price. I resorted to the library when I received a notice tonight that the digital book was now available.

[Pulpmeister]

He also wrote sci-fi, and many more non-Travis McGee novels, like The Brass Cupcake, Condominium, The Executioners (Cape Fear), and many many others. I wonder if they'll do the entire backlist?

[Apache]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

They didn't lower the price. I resorted to the library when I received a notice tonight that the digital book was now available.

I had Googled the book title and forgot to check the book type. The paperback is $7.99 not the ebook.
Apache

[DarkScribe]

I have been re-reading his books over the past few days - this thread prompted me. I had forgotten how often he moralised, lectured, and mounted his "green" soapbox throughout his novels. He was lecturing about conservation and pollution back in the sixties. They are still very entertaining books - proselytising included.