I get an email or three per week asking me why the price for a print copy of Shadowrealm (book III of The Twilight War, new copies of which go for $200USD or more) is so high, so I thought I’d put up a post for Google to index.
The short answer is this: It’s just very hard to find in print, demand has outstripped supply by a wide margin, so sellers are offering it only at very high prices. Important point: I have nothing to do with pricing. 🙂
The longer answer is this: The Twilight War has sold well. The first book of the series, Shadowbred, has gone through at least six printings. Shadowrealm has only been reprinted four times (I think) and that hasn’t put enough print copies on shelves to meet demand. This is a particularly acute problem of late, as many new readers have found the Cale stories as they prepared for The Sundering and the release of The Godborn.
Now, from time to time I’ve pinged WotC about doing another printing of Shadowrealm, or about doing an omnibus version of the entire Twilight War series (as they did with the Erevis Cale Trilogy), but at this time WotC doesn’t seem inclined to do either of those things. (Incidentally, the Erevis Cale Trilogy Omnibus had been out of stock/print for while, but Amazon and other outlets appear to have some now. I don’t know how long that will last, though, so if you’ve been after a copy, now may be the time.)
To those of you having trouble locating a reasonably priced print copy, you have my apologies. I wish it were otherwise. All I can do is point you in the direction of the ebook, which is selling for normal price.
The same thing happened with THE SPECTRAL BLAZE. I hear from somebody lamenting the ridiculously high price for a print copy of that book at least a couple times a month.
Sounds like WotC needs to consider a couple reprints. 🙂
I think I saw one @ Second Story books on Mon used for $4.50? I paid over $40.00 including SH to get “Cry of the Ghostwolf” after reading books I & II, I had to see (read)how the story finished. So I over paid for used paperback? Good Story.
I was going to email you about this Paul…thanks for the post. Would love to finish off reading the trilogy before starting on the Sundering so i guess its to the ebook for now.
Yeah. Sorry about that, B. I hope you enjoy, though.
I was lucky enough to find a copy for $3.00 at a used book store a few years ago.
I scour the used bookstores for older Forgotten Realms books. I have a book cataloging app on my phone that I use to keep track of what I own and what I have read, and I pick up anything that I do not have. I know that the used book store sales do nothing for your numbers or for royalties, but so many of these books are out of print new anyway that a used book store is the only place I can find them.
And, when I am done with the books, I tend not to keep them but instead send them back out to someone else who wants to read them. I currently use Bookmooch (bookmooch.com) and essentially recycle my books in exchange for books that others are giving away. Outside of some of the current series and the rereleased omnibuses, the used book stores are my primary sources of books to read these days.
Music by Mail has them in stock. I really hope it shows up at my door.
I just started looking and saw these prices and decided I didn’t need to read it.
$2,207.34
+ $3.99 shipping
Used – Like New
Wisepenny Books
It’s absurd. Ebook is under five dollars.
Well that explains that, at any rate. I had gotten The Godborn recently for my birthday as it was on my wishlist, started to read it and realized HEY I’M MISSING SOMETHING, and sure enough, I hadn’t read Shadowrealm yet.
This is, I have very limited shelf space, so I am picky about what physical books I get. And this series is one I consider shelf-worthy. So I might just end up buying the e-book so I can catch up, and then see if I can find a physical copy at the used bookstores to add to my collection. It’s win-win right? 🙂
That’s a win-win. 🙂
Oh wow, there’s actually a post on this. Over here in Europe things look just as bad, for about 30€ you might get a copy that looks like it was present at a tavern when 30 dwarfs met to jump on the “free beer all night” offer.
I need this book, but yeah, I might as well get a kindle and the eboob at this rate.
Did I just write eboob though? -_-
Ha!