In Print or Out of Print – That is the Question!

Back in 2002 APA Books published my Great Psychologists and Their Times: Scientific Insights into Psychology’s History. So far so good. But then the marketing people took over and made two big mistakes. First, they tried to sell it as a history of psychology textbook, which it definitely isn’t and never intended to be. Not surprisingly, it even received some bad reviews from readers who thought that it would teach that subject. Second, for some inexplicable reason they treated it as an edited volume, with me as the editor, and with chapters all sole authored by me – which makes no sense. I’m not listed as editor anywhere in the book or on the dustjacket. Google Scholar even at first refused to list it as one of my books because APA Books sold the chapters separately (fortunately, I was able to correct this at a time when author corrections were permitted). The upshot is that the nonbook went quickly out of print, as you can see here: Great Psychologists and Their Times: Scientific Insights Into Psychology’s History (apa.org). Yet here’s the kicker: You can buy all of the chapters separately at APA PsycNet PsycBooks-TOC along with getting the front matter and the back matter (references) for free. Hence, the entire book is available for purchase from the same APA site even though it’s listed as out of print. Hence, is it in print or out of print?