Charles Petzold

When an author gets a book published, the publisher generally gives the author 10 complimentary copies of the book. Usually the author signs these books and gives them to all his friends, but then he has 7 or 8 copies still left over, and these tend to gather dust on the bookshelves of the author's home.

Over the years, I've written a number of books that might once have been considered important, but which nobody cares about any more, and I'm stuck with a bunch of leftover complimentary copies. I'd like to give these books away to the readers of my blog, and of course I'll sign them first.

Feb 7, 9:00 PM EST Update:
Sorry, no more books are available!

Here are the books I want to unload (in order of publication):

	Programming the OS/2 Presentation Manager (1989) 4 copies
	Programming Windows, 2nd edition (1990) 3 copies
	Extending DOS edited by Ray Duncan (1990) 2 copies
	Programming Windows, 3rd edition (1991) 5 copies
	Extending DOS edited by Ray Duncan, 2nd edition (1992) 3 copies
	OS/2 Presentation Manager Programming (1994) 12 copies
	Programming Windows, 4th edition (1996) 14 copies
	Programming Microsoft Windows with C# (2001) 8 copies
	Programming Microsoft Windows with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (2002) 9 copies
	Programming in the Key of C# (2003) 7 copies
	Programming Microsoft Windows Forms (2005) 5 copies
	3D Programming for Windows (2007) 7 copies

These books are in excellent conditions and some of them have unopened pouches containing diskettes.

Here's how you can get one (and only one) of these free autographed books:

1. Address an email to freebook@charlespetzold.com or click here to create an email to that address.

2. In the body of the email, type in at least your name and city. These should match the address that the book will be sent to.

3. If you want a particular book from the list above, include the title in the body of the email. (Be specific! Some books have identical titles but are different editions.) You can include a 1st choice and 2nd choice and even a 3rd and 4th choice if you want.

4. If you have a special request (for example, an inscription such as "To Pete the Programmer, with much respect and admiration, Charles Petzold") include that as well. But be reasonable, OK?

5. Send the email.

That's all you have to do right now. If you are one of the first 90 people to send me one of these emails, you will receive an email in response that provides further instructions. These instructions require you to:

1. Address a padded envelope to yourself.

2. Attach postage to this envelope sufficient to send a book from New York City through the US mail to your address. Within the domestic US, media mail costs $4.15 for a 5-pound book. Of course I'll accept requests from outside the US, but determining the correct postage will be your responsibility!

3. Put that envelope (along with a copy of the email response that you received) inside another envelope,

4. Send that envelope to me at my address in the email response.

If you don't feel up to following these instructions, don't start the process!

Yes, I am aware that the number of books I've listed above totals to 79 but I'm offering signed books to the first 90 responders. Turns out I also have a few copies of Programming Windows Phone 7 (Silverlight and XNA editions) that I'd like to get rid of. If that's actually your first choice, let me know.

When I receive 90 emails, I'll post a banner on this blog entry that the free book giveaway is over.

I reserve the right to refuse sending a book to anyone who doesn't follow the rules, for example, by sending multiple emails.