The Book I Never Wrote - First Edition Misprint

Last night was a bit of a rollercoaster. After reaching the top when I received the copies of Housekeeping for the Soul I had ordered two weeks ago, I took a fast dip when one of my contacts sent me a message and told me that the advance copy she received today for review was misprinted – right jacket and wrong book inside of it!

I am of firm belief that people’s paths cross for a reason, but this unexpected merging of literary children created sheer panic. Within a matter of hours, I went from being elated that books were already on the way to Amazon and other retailers to being utterly terrified thinking that the one copy was not the only hybrid.

I opened the carton of forty books I received along with the advanced copies, and I held my breath while I opened each book. I found thirty-three legitimate books, and seven misprints. Now, every author wants to hope that misprints of their book’s first edition will be worth something some day, but for the time being, I can only shudder at the thought of unsuspecting readers opening their packages and finding a book they didn’t order.

My hope is that only those eight books got mixed up at the printer, but I have no way of knowing that. I immediately sent messages to the publisher and to the distributor, and they will hopefully correct the problem before the books go out to people who pre-ordered them. Quite nerve-wrecking…

The thing that fascinated most is that the author of the books I accidentally “embraced” into my jacket and I seem to be birds of the same feather. Here is a small excerpt from his biography on Amazon: "We Are All One. When we allow ourselves to become aware of this statement in its purest form, we open the doors to reveal the oneness of being.”

Most people who are used to the concepts I consistently discuss will probably recognize the similarity between my message and the other author’s; I, for one, was pretty impressed by their twin-like nature.

I suppose time will unveil why our books connected at this point of our literary journey, so I’m just going to sit back and see where the road will lead. I hope the powers that be will be able to correct the problem, and that nobody will receive the wrong book, but at this point I can only cross my fingers, hope that everything will work out and that, if a reason indeed exists for the mix-up, it will be revealed to me in due time.

And of course, the real dreamer in me wants to believe that if one or two misprints remain out there, some day they will be popular enough to be auctioned for charity. Now, wouldn’t that be fun?