Peter Crespin restoration book

Philip Wood posted in the E50 book thread that he had paid 55 dollars for my restoration book. This upsets me greatley and it's time to spell out exactly what is going on and to plead that nobody but nobody pays up front and if they have they should prtobably ask for their money back.

I have not even finished writing the book and it will be so large that it will take several months for Veloce to produce it when i send them the final document.With the other six books I did some pre-publication blurb and I suppose they were promoted before they actually became available - I believe it's normal in the book trade. Either way, it made little practical difference because they were small books and soon finished. This book is verty different but the pre-publicity and the mock-up cover have taken on a life of their own due to the long lead time.

I won't bore you with the details but in 2011 I took a conscious decision to spend some time driving the cars rather than writing about them. Just like with many E-type restorations, during the process there have been interruptions like house moves, weddings, funerals, arrival of grandchildren, work commitments and this last year has seen emigration eat up lots of my spare time. During these periods I have bought and sold (or had stolen) several E-types of different models so I could photograph and work on them, and I have never stopped collating material and beefing up what is there. The intention is to cover all models of all series so the gestation has been prolonged, for which I apologise.

What upsets me is to see the likes of Amazon taking money from people for a product which has not even been finished or printed, let alone priced. Inevitably, all their 'available by' dates have been pure fiction, although in fairness to Veloce Publishing, I did agreed a tentative date for manuscript supply some time ago.

Anyway, this is just a note to say don't spend your money on any kind of deposit, unless the seller promises to supply at that price and you don't mind waiting. If you got a guaranteed supply at 55 dollars you'd probably get a bargain, as I assume it will cost nearly that to print by the time it's finisherd.

Pete