BEN BOVA's most sought-after novel, THE STAR CONQUERORS, now available!

[andrewburt]

Six time Hugo winner Ben Bova's most sought-after and possibly best novel, THE STAR CONQUERORS, has been long out of print. There was only one small hardback print run of his first novel, never reprinted, and used copies are rare, costing upwards of $500. (Ouch!) Until now!-- ReAnimus Press is pleased to announce the publication of THE STAR CONQUERORS in this special ebook and paperback edition.

It's available at: http://ReAnimus.com/store/?item=1128

To Explore New Worlds... and Resistance is Futile... all found their home here first with Star Watch Captain Geoffrey Knowland in what's not just a great story, but what some say is a virtual blueprint for Star Trek.

This ReAnimus Special Edition features a special introductory essay from Ben Bova about the history of writing of the novel. (Not to mention, valuable advice to new writers on how to succeed.) As an extra treat this edition also includes the cool original Mel Hunter cover art in addition to new cover art from Clay Hagebusch.

It comes in both .mobi and .epub, DRM-free. (We're also publishing several other of Ben's ebooks, namely THE EXILES TRILOGY, THE WEATHERMAKERS, THE DUELING MACHINE, and THE KINSMAN SAGA; and in general, ReAnimus Press publishes works by other award-winning and best-selling authors, so check us out.)

Available exclusively from ReAnimus Press, THE STAR CONQUERORS is a major publishing event you don't want to miss. Resistance IS futile, so get your copy today!

****** Update 11/13/11:

Richard and all, I think we've come up with a creative solution to your concerns. By way of background, we did have higher than usual production costs on this title (starting with the fact that just getting a copy to scan was expensive). But we realize that there are really two categories of readers for this particular book: Collectors, who want something as close to the original as possible, and people who just want to read the story.

So, addressing the points you raised, we've put up a second edition of the book at a lower price now. It's just for those who want to read the story, rather than for collectors. The "Collector's Edition" has extra material, like an essay from Ben about the history of the book, the original cover by Mel Hunter, and some other minor items only of interest to collectors; the "Standard Edition" is the whole story (complete, unabridged), good for reading. If you go to the link above, in the side box there's a link to the Standard edition.

Also, to bring the price down to where you're suggesting, we've created a special coupon just for MobileRead members, good for 20 percent off any titles in our store for the next 72 hours. The code is "mobileread20". So, a Standard edition, plus the coupon, is right at your price. I hope this helps address your concern about the price; and of course we hope you love the book and tell everyone you know.

([removed promotion of affiliate link program at website - moderation] Just to be clear, to try to avoid any confusion regarding posting policies, the link above is NOT an affiliate link; we're the publisher, so that would be moot.)

****** Update 11/24/11:

Just an update that there's a 20% off coupon available for this weekend for MR folks, through Monday. Code is "mr20".

[rhadin]

A bit high priced at $12.99. The other Bova books you have are more reasonably priced at $8.99 and $7.99.

[ozron]

Originally Posted by rhadin

A bit high priced at $12.99. The other Bova books you have are more reasonably priced at $8.99 and $7.99.

Agreed. Bring down the price and I'll bite, regardless of how much the original goes for.

Sorry, but IMHO this is why people frequently pirate. Keep the price reasonable and they'll buy. Price it unreasonably and they'll often seek it out elsewhere.

[Mike Cooley]

Ben Bova is a master! And a great guy. I've met him at conventions here in town (Minneapolis).

Thanks for keeping his out of print books available!

Mike

[andrewburt]

@Mike, yes, Ben's a classy guy. We've got some more of his books in the pipeline, so keep an eye out.

Also, we're glad to take recommendation from readers on books they'd like to see available. If you have a wish list I'm glad to see what I can do.

[basschick]

somehow feels a bit too high to me, too.

[HarryT]

Have we really devalued eBooks so much? $12.99 is £8.06, which is pretty much equal to the common UK price of £7.99 for a paperback. I'm happy to pay this for a decent book.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Have we really devalued eBooks so much? $12.99 is £8.06, which is pretty much equal to the common UK price of £7.99 for a paperback. I'm happy to pay this for a decent book.

Harry, the price may well be the "same" in British pounds, but not in U.S. dollars. More importantly, it isn't a question of devaluing ebooks but of saying that (a) this particular Ben Bova novel isn't worth more than the other Ben Bova novels and (b) that to me this book is overpriced.

Unfortunately, there are hundreds, if not thousands of well-written, captivating ebooks, written by authors who lack the reputation of Bova but put together as well-written a story, but sell for $2.99 or less -- often free. Consequently, to set a price of $12.99 for a Bova story will certainly attract Bova fans, but doesn't stimulate me to buy the book. I like Bova and would consider buying it at $7.99 because in the marketplace, that is all I think it is worth.

[HarryT]

I agree, Richard; it's all a matter of personal value. For me, £8 is about the price of a very cheap take-away pizza. I value a book, which will last me a lifetime, more highly than I do the ephemeral pleasure of the pizza. Of course I'd be happy if it were £4 rather than £8, but, nonetheless, if it were a book that I knew that I'd enjoy, I'd probably buy it. We all have to make our own judgements in these matters.

[xg4bx]

i'm willing to forgive higher prices if the publisher had to jump through hoops to get the book out there, such as buying an expensive original copy as is the case here. they need to recoup their investment and i don't begrudge them.

i put in a request for a norman spinrad novel, the iron dream, that i would gladly pay a higher price for because not only are original copies expensive, the only current ebook edition is trash. its admittedly a novel that i'm sure has a limited audience and i wouldnt begrudge a higher price so they see a financial return on their investment.

i'll pay more for rarity. i won't pay agency publishers over inflated prices for books that have so many copies pumped out that library book sales are full to the rafters of them. i'm not paying $19 for something like a king ebook when i can get a hardcopy for 25 cents in a few months.

[JeremyR]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I agree, Richard; it's all a matter of personal value. For me, £8 is about the price of a very cheap take-away pizza. I value a book, which will last me a lifetime, more highly than I do the ephemeral pleasure of the pizza. Of course I'd be happy if it were £4 rather than £8, but, nonetheless, if it were a book that I knew that I'd enjoy, I'd probably buy it. We all have to make our own judgements in these matters.

No offense, but based on your list of devices, it also seems that you have a great deal of money. Not everyone is as fortunate.

I personally haven't been able to fit a "cheap take-away pizza" into my budget for quite some time now. I get three meals out of a $5 frozen pizza.

Different people have different budgets. At least in the case of the Kindle, part of its appeal (and initial marketing) was that e-reading would be cheaper than physical books (thanks to reduced production costs and no taxing of the books as "assets"). Instead, they are priced higher, much, much higher than used physical books.

[Serpentine]

Price gouging on back catalog sci-fi — why I never!

... and in before publishers publish some made up stats about piracy.

[ozron]

Wow thanks for the special coupon. It's expired. Did anyone get to use it? Would have been nice if you created a new thread (and linked back to this one) so it was obvious.

Sorry but still overpriced for the standard edition.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ozron

Wow thanks for the special coupon. It's expired. Did anyone get to use it? Would have been nice if you created a new thread (and linked back to this one) so it was obvious.

Sorry but still overpriced for the standard edition.

ozron:

When authors/publishers create a thread for self-promotion, they are limited to using ONLY that thread for any self-promotion for that title, and must also follow our Posting Guidelines.

Creating more than one thread for the same book is called spamming and can get a member banned, if it continues.


Don
(Moderator)

[ozron]

Sorry Don, I wasn't aware of that. FYI I didn't become aware of the update to the original post (and the coupon offer) until after I received a forum update email.