Privilege Hardcover

Tue 25 Jul 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

The Privilege of the Happy Ending cover - click to view full sizeWhile working on Kij Johnson’s The Privilege of the Happy Ending we bought a collection of vintage sf&f for Book Moon — here are a few, there are more pictures up there, too. We don’t buy much in the way of used books there anymore, which is a shame as I love them, but Easthampton really wanted a new bookshop which is a different kind of fun.

Anyway, while cleaning and pricing some of the old hardcovers I realized it would be fun to do a short hardcover run of Kij’s book along with the trade paperback so we are adding a small hardcover edition and we got to design a new jacket for the hardcover. When I took it to our distributor they liked the idea but pushed for a higher price for the hardcover to differentiate the books so the hardcover will be $34 and the trade paper $18. I am still always surprised by how expensive it is to make a Smyth sewn hardcover using 30% recycled paper so that is reflected in the price. The interiors of the hardcover, paperback, and ebooks are the same so the hardcovers are going to be for those who read their books very hard and need a hardcover to stand up to the force of that. Or maybe libraries and those who like a pretty hardcover. The paperback is 5.5″ x 8.5″ as many — or maybe most? — of our books are as I find that size very readable.

The hardcover should be out at the same time as the paperback, October 24, and Kij will be at World Fantasy and some more places when it comes out.