Is there a way to tell if a book that may not be a posted book now has ever been a posted book? I realize I can WL unposted books in the hopes that someday it will be posted. It's not a new book and actually seems to be OOP.

Thank you.

susan/vt

there is no way to know if a book has ever been listed in PBS that I am aware of.  Now if it doesn't have an ISBN and there is a 6 digit number assigned, then somebody at some point posted that book (or might have created it for a WL but most likely posted the book)

Susan, are you looking for a book, or do you have a book to post?

My co-worker, who is also a member, asked me. She has Blonde Justice by Holliday on her wishlist and is wondering if it has ever been posted. We both work in a library and used OCLC to search and only came up with 4 libraries in the country that own it.  She is just wondering.

susan/vt

Well there are 36 people on WL for this book.  But it's hard to say if it's ever been posted.  It's in the system with an ISBN.  If it was a limited release book and has never been reprinted you might be waiting for awhile. I've never heard of it before so I can't say.  I would search ebay, half.com and other online sites.  She might be able to find it there and then post it here and make one of the other 36 WLers happy. 

Acutally OCLC says the there are only 4 copies listed world wide :)

2 of those are in Baker and Taylors private library and one in ohio, lakewood public library..and the last ohio township public library.. so um just go to ohio.

I just found this discussion about it on Amazon.  http://www.amazon.com/tag/mystery/forum?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2M2KAK12HD871&cdThread=Tx15SU6GTHYEBB9&displayType=tagsDetail

Sounds to  me like it probably wasn't a good seller so it's been scrapped for another series (probably paranormal) by the same author. Everyone seems to be going paranormal.

Thanks for all the help. We are going to try ILL and see what happens. I don't know anything about this series, but she wants to read it.

susan/vt

Looks to me like the book hasn't made it to publication.

eta: In reading her various blogging on the different sites, in February she wasn't done with it. She was seriously ill for much of the first half of the year and she has 3 of the Alyssa Day Warriors books sheduled for 2009 so it doesn't look like it is a priority for her. She's shut down much of the Holliday sites and just routes people to the Day site.

Why the heck do authors have to write under different names? Drives me nuts. 

eta: from her blog when the cover was released

At 11/09/2008 8:33 AM ,  Alyssa Day said...

Very interesting.  I always am somewhat surprised when I see authors saying things like that about the cover to the entire world.  I know authors are people like everyone else.  But I guess I expect authors to sort of remain above "the fray" when there seems to be any sort of confusion or concern about their work (unless it involves litigation - and then I expect their lawyers to handle that).  So I've seen authors on Amazon doing surprising things and now this strange situation.  Interesting!

Ruth

Every once in a while a book will get far enough into the publishing system to have an ISBN and a Library of Congress number assigned to it, but still never actually make to final publication. For example I read two books of a trilogy by an author I really liked and had the third book wish listed because the ISBN had been assigned to it already. Then the author died of cancer and the book was never finished and released. It can also happen if the publishing company goes out of business after already having the rights to the book but not having it printed yet. Or sometimes it is a simple mistake, like this one:

http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/details/9780764282430-Grehsam+Chronicles+A+Room+of+My+OwnWindow+of+Larkspur+InnBridge+Over+Flatwillow

I had this book on my wish list for over a year and couldn't find a copy anywhere even after the release date had come and gone. I finally contacted the author via her web site only to find out that this particular book had NEVER existed, the ISBN had been assigned in error. The title and the author book exist, but they don't go together! And yet it is still shown in the PBS database and on Amazon.com.

If it had a "Members who requested this book also requested" section we would know it was posted before.  Since did does not have this section it is a hint, but not proof, that it has not been posted.  It also has a rating of "1".  People who have read the book rate the book, not people who want to read the book.  This suggests that someone on PBS has a copy.

Some of the books I've reviewed here were library books