Book Blurb Banner Redux

I'll be traveling for a family get-together for the next week or so, so I'll take this opportunity to post a book blurb, including the official new cover.

A note to my readers: My first book, Ending the Death Penalty: The European Experience in Global Perspective, will be published in the UK in June by Palgrave MacMillan. The cover's at left.

You can pre-order it at Palgrave's website here, at Amazon.com here, and at Amazon.de here.

I've often heard the question "Why does the United States still practice the death penalty"? And interesting question, but the more I researched movements to abolish capital punishment, the more I became intrigued by a related question: "Why does Europe no longer have the death penalty?" That question, I found, had not attracted anywhere near as much scholarly attention. I wrote the book to try to redress that situation. I analyze the question based on the historical examples of Great Britain, France, and Germany. I try to answer questions such as "How did abolition come about?" "Who were the main actors?" "How did public opinion on capital punishment affect the abolition struggle?" I then try to place the resulting conclusions in global perspective.

More information here.

Comments

[Lisa]

I am really interested to read your book, but a bit hesitant due to the price as well. I voted on Amazon for it to be available on Kindle--I hope so! :)

Congratulations on your first book. It looks like a fascinating topic.

[JollyOrc]

Thanks for the prospect of a paperback, and also thanks to Mutter for that link to a cheaper vendor.

I'd be interested in what jabgoe suggested too, if not only because I'm an advocate of Creative Commons and such myself.

Maybe self-publishing via lulu.com and it's ilk is an option for you too? Provided you didn't have to sign over exclusive publishing rights.

Still, it might be an option for your next book :)

[jabgoe]

Your description of the book sounds really interesting. Sounds like a book I would like to read if I saw it somewhere. But ... ahh ... I can just agree with JollyOrc below. 70 €? Particularily with high prices I always tend to calculate the "real" price of the olden days: 140 DM? Whom do you intend to sell it to? To libraries? Is it a "juristisches fachbuch"? Are there any libraries left with money to buy new books? No, just kidding, But if "you don't write monographs to make money" and you"'ll earn nothing but peanuts" from the book, could you not take into consideration to publish it as a non-drm ebook of some creative commons type? Perhaps in addition to the hardcover?

[Mutter]

You might want to consider a different vendor:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780230231986/Ending-the-Death-Penalty

[Andrew]

@Orc: I totally understand your position, and yes, I would love the price to be lower. It's certainly not a matter of author compensation, since I'll earn nothing but peanuts on the book no matter what (you don't write monographs to make money). The way it works in academic publishing is if you sell out the first print run in bloody expensive hardcovers, you may then get a crack at bringing the book out in an affordable paperback edition "for the masses", so to speak. Since I wrote this book to communicate my thoughts, and not to make money, the cheaper it one day becomes, the better.

In short, I don't begrudge you waiting for the paperback, and I hope one day to be able to deliver one to you.

@John: Thanks for the moral support, brother! I'll bring you back some hollow-point ammunition from the Lone Star State. Good for killin' coyotes, as our Governor just proved.

[John]

This is the wonderful pricing world of academic publishing.

Andrew's doing rather well, according to my experience.

But Andrew's book certainly deserves a paperback.

Cover looks great, Andrew!

Enjoy the family...

[JollyOrc]

I'm quite enjoying your blog, and was about to insta-preorder that book. I never thought about the question of how or why Europe came to abolish the death penalty, and am intrigued immensely by it.

But I'll be honest: The price tag is rather steep, isn't it? I was prepared for a price of roughly 30 Euros, would've ordered for 40 still probably, but nearly 70 is christmas-wishlist material.

Can I hope for a paperback or some other less-expensive option?

(Disclaimer: I'm sure that you spent a lot of time and effort into this, and I don't want to appear niggardly - writers do deserve fair compensation.)