I have returned from a week away at a festival in France to find finished UK editions of Half a King, and don’t they look lovely?
Ooh, they glitter and shine and feel velvety beneath the fingers. On the left, trade paperback for export, on the right, hardcover for the UK market. The hardcover’s an interesting size, what I believe they call a ‘Short Royal’ in the trade – same width as a standard hardcover but slightly shorter, slightly squarer. There’s also a rather lovely map on the endpapers…
I dropped into the publisher to sign a few copies for retailers, chiefly for Waterstones in the UK:
3000 copies. Those things on the tables? They’re books. Those white bags? They’re ten books each. It was what is called in the trade a metric fuckton of books. I once signed a thousand at the warehouse. This was a lot more. Three times as many, in fact. Here’s just a few of them, closer up…
It took me a day to do 2600, then I stopped back in the following day to do the other 400. There was some soreness in the elbow, shoulder and hand, but overall it was a good deal less painful than I was expecting, and my thanks to Natasha, Eleanor, Tim, Tom, and all the other folks who helped sticker, fold, pass, box, and otherwise achieve this not inconsiderable task of logistics.
Should YOU desire to own one of these 3000 entirely one off, utterly unique, personally inscribed editions of Half a King, you will find them available for pre-order right over here…
14 comments so far
Good work. I’ve just ordered two of them from Waterstones and I’m really looking forward to the story. 🙂
Just ordered one!
Can’t wait! I’m so excited now!
Thanks for writing these awesome books Joe!
Order in, and now we wait……..
Very much ordered 🙂 Thanks for the brilliance Joe, your scribblings are inspired…
All ordered. Thanks Joe. Looking forward to the read!
Joe, once again I have to wonder, will the maps be available to download as image files for those of us who primarily read ebooks?
As great as my Kindle is for reading it’s rubbish for things like intricate maps, and I can’t stand reading off a tablet.
Cheers, and I can’t wait to read it.
Well I ordered my copy,happy me!!
Ordered 2, one for my mate and one for me! Looking forward to carrying on from your earlier taster on the book…and the ones to follow!
Just ordered one of these from Waterstones UK, can’t wait to read it. If its anything nearly as good as what you have already written it will be fantastic.
Ordered 2 copies,to gice one as a present!
I like all these folks ordering 2 copies. A true fan would order 20, however…
Perhaps 1 to read and 1 to vacuum seal and sell for thousands later hmmm what to do, what to do. (Made into a movie the price could climb, tempting Joe very tempting).
Happened to be reading a copy of the daily mail over someones shoulder this morning and saw a superlative review for half a king……can’t wait.
Will any of these signed copies make it into the shops or will I need to pre-order to guarantee getting one?
Just got one from Waterstones. Shipping to Canada is a little pricey, but well worth it I’m sure.