Why would you?

I’ve been getting a few emails about this sort of thing. People have been finding early editions of my books on marketplace type websites, going for ridiculous prices.

The emails usually contain the question, “Is it out of print?” No-one can think of any good reason why a book would sell for that much money otherwise… (Apart from the obvious fact that my books are so good that you’d pay whatever you have to to get your hands on one… 😉 )

To deal with the example above, none of my books have ever been printed in hard cover. So how they are offering one in hard cover, I have no idea.

While that edition is out of print (it was the first edition), the second edition is still very much in print. For “Elegant Hardanger Embroidery”, I personally have run out of stock, but my distributors around the world still do have stock. And it is being reprinted as we “speak”.

Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature – this particular edition of it – is still very much in print. I have a whole box in the next room that I could ship off to you on Monday. I’d do it today, but being Saturday, there aren’t many places open where I could do that! I have others stored elsewhere that I could add to your shipment if you needed more.

I would be less surprised if you found a highly-inflated-price version of the first edition of Mountmellick Embroidery. But even if you did, the second edition is better! It has more projects, is in full colour, and has additional stitch and technique instructions.

I just shake my head. Some people are just out to make a buck.

Please also keep in mind that all second hand sales do nothing for me. I get no portion of those sales. With a new book, I have been paid a portion of the sale price. That funds me writing more books. If I got no revenue from sales of my books, I couldn’t afford to write more books and I would have to get a “real job”.

If you’d like to buy any of my books, go to your local needlework store and purchase them there. If they don’t have them, if they’re a good store, they can get them in. And, you can always purchase directly from me from the Vetty Creations website. While I don’t promise to sign all books that I send out (because sometimes I’m tired and I forget!) there’s a very good chance that the book I send you will be autographed.

Just leave those ridiculously priced second-hand books alone, and laugh at them, along with me.

PS: My husband said that if you *really* want to pay that much, he’s happy to sell you one of ours for that price. 😉