Friday 3 May 2013

The Great Book of Thorns!

 The Great Book of Thorns!


Shawn Speakman's mega-anthology is released this year and I'll be getting one of the 500 leather bound editions - a limited set that sold out very quickly at $150 each.

I saw recently that Terry Goodkind had sold his work in a limited set of leather bound volumes (plus extras) at $300 each, and sold out within hours. And Terry Brooks is canvasing his readers over leather bound boxed sets at $500 and getting a ton of interest.


I'm wondering if this is becoming a new model, certainly for established top sellers like Brooks and Goodkind. I can understand that for many people who grow up with a particular author's work from an early age the stories can become part of the landscape of their imagination. That breeds a particular kind of loyalty of the type that will set those readers in later (more affluent) life to digging deep for a special book.


The age of e-theft has seen musicians increasingly forced to make their living by touring rather than by selling their songs. Is the super-book the authors' equivalent? With our work being stolen at an ever increasing pace does the hope for making a living rest with book collectors rather than simply book readers? High quality hardbacks for smaller fry like me and leather bound objects d'art for legends of the genre?

Well, I've long harboured an ambition that if the Broken Empire trilogy does really well it should one day be re-released in a single edition - a Great Book of Thorns. Inspired by the above the day dream is now that if the books ever made it big enough then in twenty years time, rocking in my armchair within my retirement pod, I will be able to emerge briefly from my virtual reality cyber world and smile toothlessly at the leather bound, hinged, clasp-locked Great Book of Thorns on my shelf and think it a job well done.














pics of leatherbound books, anti-piracy, music tours, yadda yadda

4 comments:

  1. If I had money, I'd splash out on special editions. I recently spent £11 on an A5 notebook because of how beautiful it is (Lindau Gospel rear cover design, Paperblanks notebook) From a consumer point of view, I think it's a great idea.

    Problem is: "if I had money"...

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  2. Not to that extent, but it mirrors some of those limited edition books Subterranean Press publishes.

    It also makes for a good investment if there's interest. So maybe a reader might get shafted because he didn't get his hands on those limited editions, but as far as the author is concerned, he sold out his product.

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  3. Maybe you should sprinkle a few pages with your very own blood and sell this edition as the Great Bloody Books of Thorns.

    But I got so used to ebooks by now, I find the advantages offered by Amazon - even if they are locking you into their store this way - quite compelling.

    Regarding piracy: Even smartphone games selling for less than 1 EUR get pirated. Often over 90% of the installed copies are pirated. Makes one despair. I have read countless arguments for and against DRM and piracy and all that over and over again. There is no proper solution. Maybe you should make the Brothers shake their heads in disbelief when they experience someone stealing intellectual property. In the style of "now that is really LOW!" :>

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  4. I would totally buy leather bound editions if they were available.

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