A Tale of Two Covers

Recently I discovered a copy of one of my books with an alternative cover.  In fact, it was a printer's mistake . . . much like a coin cast with two presidential heads or a dollar bill engraved with the image of Frank Sinatra.  My wife noticed this error first when she asked, "Why does your book have another book's cover?"

Her observation made me realize:  1. That Becky is much more intelligent and observant than I am (not being funny here) and 2. that this misprint was the first I had noted among all my books (now in the thousands of copies). 

In fact, I have even started wondering:  "Could this misprint be worth something?"  Rare books are still collectible, and listen, this is a rare one.  I have no plans to discard it.  It's now one of my most cherished possessions and a great conversation piece.  "Hey, you wanna see a real misprint from a misfit writer?" or "Keep your cotton-picken hands off my million dollar baby!"

I'm not sure where I need to store this book or even if I could find a pawn broker to confirm my million dollar valuation.  But I'm certain that I would let the book go to anyone willing to give me a smooth $100,000 for it.  Or, I guess I could place it on eBay with a starting bid of $95,000 and see where that would take me.  Stranger things have happened.  

In the meantime, you can bet that I'll be buying up as many of my remaindered titles as I can find at Half Price books or from those online warehouses that specialize in out-of-print titles (like most of mine).  If I can find another weirdo among the batch I'll snatch it up.  

I must confess, at first I was pissed when I saw this book on my shelves.  But now I'm elated.  My very own mistake.  Kind of like me when it comes to romance and cooking and a thousand other activities that linger in the kingdom of mediocrity.  

The printer did me a favor.  Now I have my very own success story . . . a misprint with my name on it!