Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Buy This Book!

Several years ago I got a call from Clyde Wilson, a famous Houston private-eye. He wanted me to write a book about his cases, of which there were many. Clyde was, for example, Ivana Trump's investigator when she divorced The Donald. (The story's in the book.)

So naturally I was interested. I went to his house, met him, and we hit it off. I then started taping his tales, and eventually shaped them into a book. I thought it was great. I told Judy that it was going to make us rich.

Guess what. It didn't. New York, according to my agent, wasn't interested. So the book languished. Every now and then I'd make an effort to sell it to some regional publisher. One editor told me, "We can't publish this. We'd get sued."

Finally a guy named Mike Cochran agreed to write an introduction to the book. He knew the owner of Eakin Press in Austin, and his name on the cover was enough to put the book over with her. I never thought it would be published, but tonight I went to a Barnes & Noble in Houston and saw copies of Where the Hell is Addis Ababa? for myself. Clyde was there for the signing, and we sold exactly 100 copies. The store manager said that Newt Gingrich had been there a couple of weeks ago and sold 85 copies. So at least we beat The Newt. The crowd was a real gathering of the rich and semi-famous: TV anchors, lawyers (Racehorse Haynes was there), doctors, cops, and other private-eyes.

This book is the real thing. Trust me. And you can order it here. Get several copies. Clyde and I can use the dough.

1 comment:

Jayme Lynn Blaschke said...

Wow! A hunnert whole copies. Congrats! But damn, Crider, I can see I've got a long way to go to catch up with you. The most books I've ever sold at signings is 10. That's cumulative, mind you...