Ah, forgot to mention one interesting detail (well, interesting to me anyway). Looks as if the UK trade edition of Best Served Cold will be hardback only, rather than the previous setup of a small hardback run and a general trade paperback release. However it’ll be priced about the same as the trade paperbacks have been previously (so in the region of £12.99, I’m guessing). Then there’ll be a mass-market paperback probably 12 months later. Lovers of hardcovers rejoice! Haters of trade paperbacks rejoice!
With any luck the US edition should come out about the same time as the UK edition this time round as well. No longer need you cast your jealous eyes across the briny Atlantic. Americans Rejoice!
All details subject to confirmation and total change at short notice. You can preorder Best Served Cold on amazon.co.uk, which features a blurb I don’t particularly like. They still say april, and they still say paperback. These details, as you now know, are WRONG. Ah, well. Everyone rejoice!
10 comments so far
Does that mean that hardbacks are no more expensive to produce than paperbacks, and thus that we get massively ripped-off every time we buy a hardback for £19-20?
Or that your publisher has decided to be very generous?
Or maybe that it just found a load of old unused book-covers lying around that it couldn’t think of anything else to do with?
I think that’s enough alternative reasons for now…
Hi Joe,
Over the past 3 weeks, I have read the First Law trilogy, and (I am sure you’ve been praised time and time again, but here’s another one) I couldn’t get enough of it..
I laughed and was horrified, I loved the characters and loathed them. I’ve changed my mind about them as they changed themselves.
What a journey, delightful!
So I was reading your blog in the insane hope that you would announce Best Served Cold would be published, well.. Tomorrow?
Ha! But you have to be realistic.
;0)
Thanks for your good work, blood, sweat and tears.
Alex,
I’m not 100% sure about this, but I think it’s mostly a question of economies of scale. Hardbacks aren’t much more expensive to produce than trade paperbacks since the pages are the same, only the binding is different. Hardbacks are usually expensive to the consumer because the runs are short because the publishers can’t sell that many, at least with new and mid-list authors.
If they’re printing a lot more copies they can do so much more cheaply, and therefore sell at a lower price. So to go for hardback only is a good vote of confidence in an author (me, in this case), since it means they feel they’ll sell quite a lot of books. Not the same with every publisher, incidentally, they all have their own methods.
Mylene,
Glad you were both delighted and horrified. And Best Served Cold will be published in a couple of weeks … plus a year.
Get in there, Joseph!
Hardback ‘Dish served Cold’ – ideally aimed for the early holiday maker (going on a beach holiday in the sun? What better book to pick up than something with ‘cold’ or ‘best’ in the title).
And a later publication date (and hardback cover) is a scary launch-pad for you to be propelled from, dare I say, geek fandom to, perhaps, mainstream Fantasy dude! Akin to a movie release date – you’ve been earmarked for a main summer blockbuster rather than a marginal ‘Indy’ hopeful.
Speaking of Indy – bring it on with the ‘Crystal Skull’!
This reminds me of China Mieville’s latest book Un Lun Dun, which was hardcover when it first came out but they must have printed a ton of copies as it was very cheap (less than a tenner brand new, thank you very much).
Hm, I hope the blurb on Amazon didn’t give away as many plot twists as it looks to have. Maybe all that stuff happens early on?
But of course I will be buying the hardcover either way.
Ady,
“geek fandom to, perhaps, mainstream fantasy dude,” shall be the title of my autobiography.
Adam,
Well this won’t be a tenner, because I’m guessing it’ll be a much longer book, and also obveeyosly weigh much betterer than that rubbish innit.
Thorn of Camorr,
I don’t love it as a blurb, but it doesn’t spoil anything beyond the first chapter.
It’s a busy first chapter.
Nice, looks like this’ll be another fast-paced doorstopper that I will have to abstain from food, sleep, and school assignments to finish in one sitting. Thanks Joe.
When are you sending out review copies? : )
Hope you are well.
Little Kid avec Beard
Don’t. Like. Hardbacks.
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