Saturday, January 14, 2012

A HUGE REASON TO READ THE BOOK

I am Al Sumrall, co-author with Mark Cowan of "Old Hoodoo" The Battleship Texas (1895-1911). While we would love for you to obtain, read, and review our book "Old Hoodoo", there is a more important reason that transcends the story of the USS Texas.   Once you read this illustrated history  you will absolutely understand the reason we need to save the USS Olympia which is in grave danger of being lost in the next two years.  The book covers not only the story of the Texas in detail but also all the equipment used on the Texas and the fleet that surrounded it.    It is one thing to read a book about these subjects and look at pictures. It is quite another to actually walk the deck  and experience the history. The USS Olympia is the last chance to do that.

3 comments:

  1. Hi, as a native Texan I would very much love to purchase this book, but as I live now in Europe the shipping costs and customs tax make it too pricey. Any chance on getting a UK distributor?

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  2. Hello Texas Jack. Thank you for your inquiry. The book is published by Createspace, an affiliate of Amazon.com and as such does not really have a distribution network. It is currently only available online via Createspace or Amazon.

    Based on your message I checked into it and have discovered that our book is only listed on the US version of Amazon's website. This is a real disappointment to me as I think it would be much more economical for it to be printed there rather than be shipped from the US.

    On further investigation, it seems that in order to get Amazon to list the book overseas, we'd have to sign up for their "extended distribution channels." Unfortunately, I have heard horror stories of other authors signing up for the EDC program only to see their own books being published in China and selling on EBay for cents on the dollar, competing head-to-head with the US published books. In essence, authors have to be willing to practically give their books away in order to publish them internationally.

    We very much regret the inconvenience and added expense for you. If you or anyone else out there knows how to beat this "catch-22", please let us know!

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  3. I really enjoyed your book and would like to design a model of the ship. Can you give any source for the plans you reproduce in the book that might have a better resolution... or can you supply them yourselves.. I'm more than willing to pay reproduction and shippping costs. Thanks
    Ken Tyler
    510.384.7321
    ken@8thfold.com

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