Curious King Books - New publication details

They just shared preorder details & mockups for their first published title, The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, on their blog: https://curiousking.co.uk/the-blade-itself-info-release/?mc_cid=10556603df&m...

Their standard and numbered editions look absolutely stunning to me, though interestingly the lettered has a design style that reminds me of recent Easton Press (or even Barnes & Noble leatherbound) titles, albeit with infinitely better craft and materials.

I haven't read Abercrombie before, but I think I'll have to get myself a standard set to read, while I try to get numbered rights for their next publication, one of my favourite modern novels "The Fifth Season."

Love abercrombie. My experience with this series is that all 3 are better read back to back to back if this is your first read through. His standalone within the first law world are great as well.
Will go with the standard on this one.

>2 trentsteel: "3 are better read back to back to back if this is your first read through"

Good to know! We'll see if I have the patience to let these sit on my shelf for a couple years to complete the trilogy - though maybe it will go faster than that, sinnce we alluded to having designs ready for all 3.

It's really a beautiful standard - it's what I wish a lot of small presses like SST or Subterranean who are already offering high quality clothe-bounds, many slipcased or with foil stamping, were able to do with their works.

>1 NathanOv: The standard and numbered are both very well priced IMO. I expected more actually given recent inflationary trends. Surprisingly, even the standard has tipped in plates. I will likely go for a numbered.

" though interestingly the lettered has a design style that reminds me of recent Easton Press (or even Barnes & Noble leatherbound) titles, albeit with infinitely better craft and materials."

Interestingly, Easton Press sprang to mind as well for me, although I think it is unfortunate that full leatherbound books with a "classic" appearance, no matter what the materials/craft, get associated with EP books. I think this comparison was made for the lettered Lyra's Dorian as well.

>4 punkzip: Agreed on pricing!

As far as the lettered design, I think it's the bright, high-contrast colors applied to a classic leatherbound design that gave me that impression. Kind've like this one, though I do find the CK design a bit more tasteful: https://www.eastonpress.com/all-categories/sci-fi-and-fantasy/the-illustrated-wo...

Another agreement on pricing especially given the page count, seems whatever Randle prints either at the Whittington or Nomad presses start off at reasonable figures. I'm not much of a fantasy reader but will definitely be keeping an eye on this and might well be a last minute impulse buy on my part.

>6 wongie: "Another agreement on pricing especially given the page count"

Their commitment to longer page counts is impressive! The Fifth Season is over 500 pages in standard print, and it looks like the next two First Law books are both ove 600.

>7 NathanOv: Indeed! I love The Broken Earth Trilogy. I've been hoping for a nice edition of this series.

>7 NathanOv: "Their commitment to longer page counts is impressive! The Fifth Season is over 500 pages in standard print, and it looks like the next two First Law books are both ove 600."

Word count is more helpful. The Blade itself is about 191K, which is very high for a letterpress book. The Fifth Season is about 134K.

A 191K word count copyrighted letterpress book with tipped in illustrations for 200 GBP is pretty striking in today's market and frankly makes some other publishers look expensive in comparison. It's very encouraging as I hope other publishers will attempt longer letterpress works - Lyra's Stardust and Dorian for example are relatively short works in the 60-80K range. It's also notably well priced compared to what genre non-letterpress small press publishers would charge. For example, the standard is not much more than a SubPress book, which is not only not letterpress, but may contain few if any illustrations and certainly not tipped in, without a slipcase as well (although the selling point of the SubPress book would be the author's signature).

I do think it is possible though that this release has been underpriced, which is not uncommon for first time publishers (Curious King has just done a rebind before) and the prices may increase in the future, regardless of where inflation goes.

I agree with everything here so far. Great price, standard and numbered are priced well, and the lettered is almost garish.

And agree as well it does make Subterranean Press look like poor value. Their prices have been creeping up to $200 these days, and sometimes no illustrations. The lettered 10K Doors of January was a simple quarter bound leather, slipcase, and a single illustration from Vess, with chapter headings, offset, and cost $750.

Subterranean Press is generally very sparse when you think of illustrations, creative bindings / covers etc. What you do get is a good-quality book with regard to the paper, a sewn binding, and often a signature. Other publishers in the genre put much more emphasis on illustrations, which I really appreciate.

As to this one by Curious King: Did I understand it correctly that they all have the same illustrations, with the lettered edition having one as a fold-out that the others have as endpapers, and the standard edition having an exclusive illustration as its dustjacket? Or does the numbered edition have an extra illustration over the standard edition? The description is a bit strange, but I thought it was basically the same for standard and numbered except for the dustjacket.

>11 SF-72: "Did I understand it correctly that they all have the same illustrations, with the lettered edition having one as a fold-out that the others have as endpapers, and the standard edition having an exclusive illustration as its dustjacket?" This is correct. The standard and numbered also use the same paper, which is why the standard edition is a VERY good value. Of course, the numbered is full leather, has the author's signature, and the 150 limitation is smaller than most other numbered releases.

I have no interest in the lettered state but would be curious to see how many if any go to lottery. Given that it makes no sense just to buy the first volume, if the other 2 books are comparably priced, that's a total commitment in the 6900 GBP range. Similarly, in the very unlikely event that someone does not exercise rights to future volumes in the series, an individual lettered volume in isolation will be a very hard sell.

I take it with SubPress that you are largely paying for the author's signature, as you'd have to pay quite a bit more for an author's signature with most other publishers. They also do a lot more series than other publishers, as well as more contemporary SF and fantasy books, like recent Hugo/Nebula winners and nominees. If you are just looking at physical qualities of the books in isolation, they are not good values.

>11 SF-72: I had to read the descriptions a couple of times myself to make sure I understood, but I believe the answer to your questions is "yes, they are the same." He mentions in one that there are 7 total color plates, INCLUDING a frontispiece, and then in a description for the other state, he mentions that there are 6 PLUS a frontispiece, resulting in the same count.

>13 whytewolf1: Oddly, the standard is the only one with exclusive illustrations, since the dust jacket art is not contained in any of the others as far as I can tell.

I would’ve expected that to get the gold out treatment as well!

>14 NathanOv: I think he's following the Suntup model there, with the dustjacket illustration exclusive to the lower-cost edition. It will absolutely result in some people buying a numbered (or a lettered) and a standard edition, as well. One thing thing that's nice (assuming this is true, as I've not seen any verification) is that someone said that the publisher was supposed to be including a gallery with all of the artwork in the final installment of the trilogy. But again, that's unverified.

>15 whytewolf1: I definitely get it as a marketing strategy, but as a reader / collector prefer when the cover art is tipped into non-jacketed editions either as a frontispiece or backmatter.

>16 NathanOv: Oh, for sure. Same here.

>12 punkzip: According to a FB post the Standard edition will now also have the author's signature. The price remains the same. I would say that's incredibly good value now and I think it's now enough to push me over the edge to pick up a copy.

>18 Levin40: The standard edition is probably the best value in recent memory. For about $50-60 USD more than a recent SubPress release one gets letterpress, tipped in illustrations, and a slipcase. The Suntup AF was letterpress for $195 but this is a much longer author-signed book, and the illustrations are tipped-in. In fact, the numbered edition now only has the full leather binding (and smaller limitation and full rights) to distinguish it from the standard.

I was originally planning on the numbered but may decide to go for the standard instead. Will have about 6 hours to make up my mind...

>19 punkzip:

It also has sprayed edges and a reading ribbon, both of which I find quite nice to have. I'd honestly be tempted by the numbered edition, I also like the colours, but I prefer cloth to leather. And the fact that you lose out on the image from the dustjacket from the standard edition is another factor, at least for me.

>20 SF-72: "It also has sprayed edges and a reading ribbon, both of which I find quite nice to have" As best I can tell from the description, the standard has a reading ribbon as well. The numbered just has a different ribbon (and tailbands), as well as the sprayed foreedge. As for the dustjacket, it would be nice if they made it available for sale separately, like Suntup does.

>21 punkzip:

You're right. I read "The tailbands and ribbon are also unique to this state" to mean that the other edition doesn't have these, when they're probably just different.

Does anyone know if it's allowed to buy both a standard and a numbered edition? I know that each has a limit of one per household, which I appreciate and see it as a way of selling as many as possible to people who actually want the books for themselves and not for re-sale. But Suntup allow this combination, and since so much of this is closely following the Suntup model it would be interesting to know if they also do in this or if it's one of all states per household.

>22 SF-72: "Does anyone know if it's allowed to buy both a standard and a numbered edition? I know that each has a limit of one per household," Where does it say that there is a limit of one per household? I didn't notice that in the blog post, but perhaps it was stated elsewhere? Typically this wouldn't prevent one from buying different states, in particular, I would imagine that someone buying a lettered state might want a standard state to read.

>23 punkzip:

It's on their Facebook page, where they describe each edition and also provide this information. Any purchases above the allowed limit will be cancelled an refunded.

>24 SF-72: Why not just email Curious King and ask? As a practical matter, if someone really wanted to order multiple copies they could do so by asking relatives or close friends at different addresses to order copies.

They don't seem to answer to emails, at least they haven't to a friend and me when we asked (different) questions.

And of course there are ways around it, if you have people who can make such orders for you. My friend and I don't, part of it being the language barrier.

>26 SF-72: If you're a facebook user, that's where Anthony seems to be most responsive. I am 90% sure it is one of each state per-person, as that tends to be the standard across any presses with such rules. I've seen plenty of people planning on trying for both, and you'd imagine most lettered rights holders will likely be getting a lower state as well.

>27 NathanOv:

Thank you, that's good to know.

I don't have a Facebook account (and don't want one), so I can't ask questions there, only read what others have written.

His recent Facebook post says you can buy a standard and a numbered, but not multiples of either.

>29 CTPress-Tony:

Thank you, that's good to know.

>30 SF-72: You're welcome! It’s good to have it sorted before they become available so everyone knows the rules going in.

For anyone interested, looks like store page is up just can't add to cart yet

>32 NathanOv: I can't see it yet. Can you share the direct link?

>33 c_schelle: Sure, here you go:
https://curiousking.co.uk/shop/the-blade-itself-numbered-edition/
https://curiousking.co.uk/shop/the-blade-itself-lettered-edition/
https://curiousking.co.uk/shop/the-blade-itself-standard-edition/

>34 NathanOv: Thanks!

Website is down. :(

Another genre crasher +)

can't add anything to cart

In a turn of events that surprises no one, their website is buckling under the strain.

I can't get anything in my cart even with these links.

Looks like this is going to be an prolonged F5 battle.

>41 wongie:...hunched over our laptops, tablets, and phones furiously punching F5 as quickly as possible on multiple screens on the myriad devices. Did I say punching?

Anthony on Facebook:
"I may have to reschedule pre-order if this isn't resolved.
Everyone will still have the same chance, no copies were sold.
Thanks"

Has anyone here managed to buy something? I only get bad gateways whenever I try to put a book in my cart.

>43 Aleks3000: I kind've figured this would be the case, could be a little messy to get running again.

>43 Aleks3000:

Thanks, that answers my question.

Oh no, server issues! Who could have foreseen this?

It's being rescheduled, according to CK FB post.

It doesn't look like it's still going to work out today. Frustrating all around, I'm sure for him as much as us.

Postponed. Time to give F5 a well-earned rest.

Well that was a disaster. As far as I know no one managed to order a copy. It looks like options for the rescheduled sale would be:

1) A lottery.

2) CK could temporarily purchase more server bandwidth somehow?

BTW, does anyone know if this is the first sale that has been postponed due to server crashing and no one getting a single copy?

>51 punkzip: A third option is staggered release.

50 numbereds at 1pm / 50 at 3pm / 50 at 8pm etc.

>53 NathanOv: Yes that is what PS publishing does.

Apparently though the server company said the website could handle 100,000 users at a time. So I suspect that something was not right on their end, and it will probably be another open sale - FWIW, other sales (not books but say coveted tickets) draw far more potential customers and can handle the volume.

>51 punkzip:

They bought extra bandwidth and there was supposed to be enough for 100,000 people according to the company they used, but that doesn't seem to have been the honest truth according to the Facebook post.

>53 NathanOv:

I don't see how that would help unless only a limited number of people get the link then? I think Centipede Press did Dune like this, but then they had a waiting list and sent emails out in the order of that list.

>56 SF-72: Yeah, I was scratching my head over that too. What's to stop everyone still crashing it at 1pm? What they could do is numbered and standard at different times, might help a little by separating the audience.

I'm surprised more publishers don't go with a lottery on titles this anticipated, especially when there's no (perceived or actual) need to give some parties an early shot. There's virtually no downside and a lot of upside. Sure, some folks will miss out - but some folks are going to miss out on a battle royale anyhow, and at least this way no one has to camp out at their computer and furiously mash F5.

>57 Levin40: It distributes the amount of people trying to order at a time. Sure, some people will try multiple time slots but it's a system that other presses use and that works.

>58 donaldmcobb: I guess the issue is that unless you're 100% convinced of the demand you might end up with egg on your face.

>58 donaldmcobb:
>60 Levin40:
Or, take preorders and build the initial number of publications to the paid sales.

>58 donaldmcobb:

I'm really no fan of lotteries. I hope they'll get the website stable enough to manage this level of interest so that people can buy on their own.

>60 Levin40: I definitely get that, but it's why I specified "titles this anticipated." There's no way The Blade Itself isn't going to sell out in minutes.

>51 punkzip:

It's safe to say that a larger limitation could be sold in this case. I guess they played it safe, a bit too much in this case.

Alright, there's been an email informing us that the pre-order will be moved to another time. I hope it will work better next time. This has been stressful, but certainly more so for Anthony than us. So best of luck!

>62 SF-72: Having been involved in enough FFA-style preorders to last a lifetime, there's essentially no difference between this setup (even with adequate bandwidth) and a lottery. In both cases it comes down to the luck of the draw because, more likely than not, more people will be trying to purchase the book when the preorder goes live than there are available copies.

>66 donaldmcobb:

I guess in this case it feels more like it's in my own hands than with a lottery, not pure luck, at least if the website is working and well designed. What makes this more tricky are be websites that don't reserve your cart for you for at least a few minutes. In that case someone with a faster system can definitely buy the book straight from your cart, it's happened to me twice. But I guess we can only wait and see anyway.

>67 SF-72: My experience is that most sites work that way. Cart sniping is real and hugely frustrating and I'm not personally aware of any sites that have a measure to prevent it (mostly because it can open the door for abuse by bots).

I would prefer a lottery, this was a frustrating 40 minutes I wasted, and I would rather not repeat it

>67 SF-72:: IMHO, that feeling of control is completely illusory if there's high demand. I favor a lottery which is less stressful, but it seems that could be abused with people creating multiple email accounts or getting friends to join in. Actually, I just changed my mind; the current system does make both those possibilities more difficult.

They just need to pay Shopify (or some other e-commerce platform) to handle demand spikes, and then all will be well with the world. Bandwidth is almost certainly not the bottleneck resource in this case.

>68 donaldmcobb:

I sometimes buy from an art website that reserves the item in the cart for a few minutes, enough time to check out but not more, then allows the next person in line access if there's no purchase within that time frame. Very fair, I must say. I also know systems like that from ticket-selling websites, where there can also be very high demand. So it's definitely an option, and a nice one, though it looks like book sellers don't usually provide this, at least Suntup and Subterranean Press don't.

>70 vicwong: "I favor a lottery which is less stressful, but it seems that could be abused with people creating multiple email accounts or getting friends to join in"

As I recall as large percentage of entries in the recent Lyra's lettered Dorian Gray lottery were duplicate entries. And those were just the ones that were caught.

>73 punkzip: Amaranthine’s system of requiring you to register an account seems like a good safeguard, but then that’s asking people for more of their time without any guarantee of getting a book.

>34 NathanOv: I'm curious how you even got to those links in the first place (not that you could actually have added anything to your cart using them). I was using the single link in the email and nothing ever loaded. On the webpage, nothing ever showed up in the shop.

>75 punkzip: They came up in Google search results

>53 NathanOv: Wouldn’t that actually make it even worse?

>77 What_What: It would have been worse if some people would have been able to order using those links, which was not the case. If some people were able to order using those links, that would have been an uneven playing field as few people would think to use a Google search as opposed to going to the website or using the email link. Not sure what CK would have done with those orders in that case, as there would likely have been many (reasonable) complaints from those who could not order using the CK provided methods.

Interestingly, Google search still comes up with this page, although it cannot be accessed from the CK website. https://curiousking.co.uk/product-category/the-blade-itself/

Another open sale this Sunday. A numbered edition will be given away, I assume by lottery.

>78 punkzip: My question was how would possibly thousands of people competing for 50 books three times be more efficient than thousands comparing for 150 books.

Other companies like Cemetery Dance that do this tend to have hundreds available at a time, as their limitation is 1,000 copies IIRC.

>79 punkzip: I guess one lucky person who ordered will get a delightful email letting them know about their refund?

>80 What_What: I explained previously, but the idea is to distribute traffic ... Other businesses use this method, and it works.

Here is an idea from left field for publishers that expect similar acute demand spikes: use Kickstarter.

The platform takes a 5% cut, but is also highly competent at serving high demand. The fee could easily be worked into pricing and might even be competitive with costs otherwise paid to specialty consultants, e-commerce maintenance, and loss of good will due to service issues (if one could accurately quantify all of those costs). Also comes with essentially free marketing.

Just something to consider for future decision-makers in this space.

>82 abysswalker:

It also makes it possible to decide the actual number of books after the Kickstarter has ended and you can see how much interest there is. Though this works better for something that isn't based so much on the limitation concept, of course. But we've recently seen how well this can work with the Brandon Sanderson Kickstarters, or Michael J. Sullivan on a less extreme scale.

>82 abysswalker: I think this is an interesting idea. I was disappointed, but not surprised, at what happened yesterday, and agree with “leaving it up to the professionals” rather than having a publisher try to deal with website and hosting issues. Can even work when there’s a finite number of books available.

>85 What_What: Publishers don't even need to rely on a site like Kickstarter - they could setup a Shopify store for $30 / month, and pay far less in fees without having to worry about any hosting issues.

>82 abysswalker:
>85 What_What:
>86 NathanOv:
Kickstarter has been proven to work well for across genres this sort of sale. I'm a fan of the method. The Kickstarter cost can be passed along to the customer in a variety of creative ways that don't create ill will.

Or, take preorders on your own site and build out the numbers after the preorder period. There are publishers who do it that way. Lividian, I think? It may be someone else but it seems to work well for them.

>83 SF-72: This runs smack into contractual limitations. Sanderson and Sullivan can sell as many copies as they want via KS because they themselves are the publisher. I'm sure Curious King Books (and SubPress, and Centipede, and Suntup...) would absolutely love to sell as many copies of popular titles as they possibly could, but there's just no way a contract amenable to both sides could be hammered out.

There are exceptions, of course - Lividian occasionally does open preorders, but those also tend to be for AGEs or unnumbered runs.

>88 donaldmcobb: Hasn't Thornwillow done it on Kickstarter?

>89 SDB2012: So has No Reply Press

>88 donaldmcobb:

You're quite right about the contracts you mentioned, of course. But I'm not so sure that some of the publishers you mentioned would love to sell as many copies as possible. Apart from it requiring logistics some of them don't seem to have, part of their business is also that there's a relatively low limitation and once it's gone it's gone (often within minutes or hours) and you can only get that edition at very high prices second hand. (That doesn't go for all titles, of course, but there's certainly a tendency, especially more recently.) So I think to some degree, the exclusiveness is part of the business for them.

>89 SDB2012:
>90 kvnchn:

To my knowledge, yes. And at least one case I'm aware of was a book that was still in copyright.

...

Kickstarter is a great tool for fine press publishing, period. I started my career as a crowdfunding consultant, and introduced Thornwillow to Kickstarter, which lead to my employment there and subsequent work with No Repy. (In the first seconds of Thornwillow's first KS project video, I'm the fella off camera feeding lines to Luke.) So actually for me, Kickstarter came first, fine press came second. The ethos of Kickstarter embodies exactly what fine press thrives on – open ended timelines, funding from idea, community interaction, and most of all a pushback from complete consumerism. The Kickstarter execs are incredibly wonderful people, and are hugely supportive of fine press work. It's a great tool, but can be difficult to use without expertise, so many fine press publishers shy away from it. Hiring a professional to run a campaign is worth every penny, and even doing one on a shoestring budget and with no prior experience is worthwhile.

It's worth noting that Kickstarter is two things in one. It can serve as a pop-up online shop – a way to collect orders essentially. It can also serve as a marketing engine. The first is easy, the second requires expertise or luck. For example, if you've ever wondered why Thornwillow or No Reply's "project goals" are so low on KS ($10,000 for Ulysses?) it's because it isn't a real goal. Projects which have exceeded their goals by a lot (800% funded!) are more searchable and get recommended to potential backers more. As a pop-up online store, Kickstarter is about as effective as any old website. As a potential marketing tool, Kickstarter is an enormous bargain at 5%. The average No Reply Kickstarter campaign gets about 50% of its funding from Kickstarter itself – random people browsing the website, Kickstarter's newsletter, Kickstarter recommendations, etc. The vast majority of No Reply and (I'd bet) Thornwillow's collectors have come to the presses via Kickstarter.

On the point about limitations and Kickstarter, Kickstarter is great when you have only a limited number of an edition you can sell. Limitations are built into the platform. The downside (actually) is that a lot of presses take advantage of a "gold rush / FOMO" mentality, which Kickstarter can hinder. If demand isn't as high as supply, there's no hiding it, and the urgency falls apart. Kickstarter pledges can also be canceled before the end of the project, giving collectors the chance to think on it. In other words, you can't as easily push collectors into impulse buying based on concealed supply. I wonder, actually, if this is why many popular publishers don't turn to Kickstarter? (And for the record here: This isn't an accusation or shade thrown at any particular presses. This is a standard business practice. If you read No Reply's latest email, you're told directly that it may be the last chance to order "Amontillado," without being told exactly how many are left...)

>93 grifgon: Thanks for the detailed write-up. Kickstarter seems like a great tool to support the achievement of a long-term vision of quality publishing that focuses on a broad range of title and genre.

>93 grifgon:

That's very interesting, thank you.

In terms of letterpress specifically, which publishers have used KS? I can think of No Reply, Thornwillow, and Angel Bomb offhand.

>97 SDB2012: Which states of The Divine Comedy were letterpress? I must have missed those.

>98 NathanOv: >97 SDB2012: I do not believe any of them were actually printed letterpress, though the original Thornwillow production of Inferno by the same artist, of course, was.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/newdivinecomedy/la-divina-commedia-the-new-...

The Facsimile Finder Divine Comedy - which I ordered and have - is definitely not letterpress. I was asking specifically about letterpress as there are many examples of offset books from small presses/publishers on KS.

>97 SDB2012:
>98 NathanOv:
>99 whytewolf1:
>100 punkzip:
Ahh, my bad. For some reason I thought it was. Must have been confused with the Thornwillow. Going to delete that comment so I don't cause confusion.

I'm recovering from a hernia repair so I blame the meds +).

>101 SDB2012: Easy enough mistake to make, considering the prior Thornwillow publication. In fact, I think a lot of folks expected that the complete set would be letterpress, even though the creator opted against it.

Managed to order both a standard and numbered (I was initially planning on a numbered only but the standard was such a good deal it was hard to pass up). Initially I could not check out as it did not recognize my US address. After a minute or two it gave me an option for express shipping at 100 GBP! Expensive shipping...

Huh, I got to paypal order and it didn't list any shipping charges. Wonder if they would charge after PayPal processing? I ended up passing not proceeding to order, the number of preorders from other publishers I have outstanding I couldn't justify anymore. So that would have been about 850ish for numbered.
Looks like it's going to be good from mockups, but I managed to refrain from the temptation.

>103 punkzip: Yeah... I'm a bit bummed. It didn't recognize my US address. Seems like that happened for all in US. After the shipping popped up for me, it was sold out. Shipping was $70 and I think that was US dollars. And, I'd had it in my cart within seconds of it going live. Ahh well, such is life.

>104 trentsteel: Yeah. I hit Paypal as I couldn't enter a credit card due to it not recognizing my address. The shipping charges came up after Paypal was connected.

>105 SDB2012: That's too bad! I managed to get it at 1:04 after they fixed the US shipping issue. Thrilled to have got both numbered and standard, though I'll probably be parting with one or the other after The Fifth Season goes on order since that's my most anticipated letterpress publication in a long time.

>105 SDB2012: So it looks like there was a shipping bug. I could not check out initially when I added a numbered to my cart as it did not recognize my address. I figured, I might as well use the time to try to get the standard which I was also trying to get so I added that to my cart - once I did that it showed combined shipping of 100 GBP.

Looking at the FB page, this seems to have happened to more people than just me. It's sad that people could not get a numbered due to this bug.

I had the numbered in my cart after one minute, but didn't recognize my address in Norway, so couldn't get it :( Got a standard after they fixed the issue...

>107 NathanOv: Looks like the numbered sold out a minute or two after 1:04 so you got in just in time :). 5-6 minutes for the numbered to sell out, but I suspect this may have gone faster if not for the shipping bug.

>110 punkzip: Yes. I was the first person asking about the shipping problem on Facebook. I'm sure they'll be popping up on secondary soon.

>107 NathanOv: I love The Fifth Season. As many accolades as it has received, it's still underappreciated as a fantasy masterpiece. I wonder if the rights stay with the book the way the do with Suntup Editions.

>112 SDB2012: Rights for the numbered Blade Itself will carry over to The Fifth season, but NOT the standard rights. However, there may be additional numbered Fifth Season outside the rights system. Not sure how this would work as it will be risky to try to get numbered copies for each book separately although I imagine that if you missed the first book you are not likely to go for later book in the series.

> 113 What I meant was if I buy a numbered The Blade Itself on ebay, will I have the numbered rights going forward? If you do that with Suntup, you get the rights. Although, it doesn't matter much now since numbered Suntups are almost always available after the preorder period.

>114 SDB2012: yes, rights always stay with the books! I believe there are no exceptions to this as there are with Suntup.

The numbered Blade Itself carries two sets of rights: to the next Abercrombie book, and to the next publication from the press which would be The Fifth Season.

The standard only carries rights to the next Abercrombie title.

I first bought the standard, no problem, but when I tried to buy a numbered edition, it didn't recognise my German address. When I went back, it was sold out. I originally thought I got the error because of that, but it seems that wasn't it. It's not the end of the world, but interesting to know that this wasn't just me but a bug in the programming.

7 hours later copies of the 500 limitation standard are still available. IMO this was probably the best fine press value in recent memory - a high word count letterpress book (much longer than recent letterpress books by other presses), tipped in illustrations, slipcased, dust jacket, first book of a well-known series with rights to the rest of the series, and a copyrighted book signed by the author - for 200 GBP (roughly $250) I can't think of anything else that can beat that for value.

If this were a SubPress release with the same limitation it would likely have been gone in the first hour, if not within 5-10 minutes, and that would have been a far worse value. The recent (IMO mediocre) 750 limitation Suntup Omen sold out within hours.

>117 punkzip: The ordering was frustrating - they literally had one job over the past week, and still managed to screw it up.

And what’s up with shipping? £70 to North America.

>118 What_What:" The ordering was frustrating - they literally had one job over the past week, and still managed to screw it up."

As I understand it there was and is no issue with ordering the standard, it was the numbered that was bugged, so that doesn't explain it.

It's interesting that other non-NA publishers such as Lyra's, Amaranthine and Books Illustrated have offered "free" shipping to NA. Perhaps this actually makes UK customers (in Lyra's and Books Illustrated's case) essentially subsidize NA customers (which may make sense given that NA is a larger market).

I do think there is a psychological barrier when the shipping cost is a substantial portion of the retail cost. I passed on the standard Hand and Eye WITW for that reason (shipping for that would have been about 1/3 of retail which is about what it is for the standard Blade Itself).

Sold out! Picked up a standard and agree with >117 punkzip: that it's excellent value, particularly now that it's signed by the author. Looking forward to it, though I think at this point it'll be sometime next year. Ludlow's seems to have quite a backlog these days - Rich Tong has (at least) Dorian, Words of Fire, Coraline and A Christmas Carol also lined up, and I'm not sure where this'll fit into the big picture. I imagine the printing at Nomad will take some time too. Wonder how long it'll take to complete the series, and I wonder if they'll start on Broken Earth before completing The First Law...

>118 What_What: The main problem seems to have been that many countries were not selectable, either initially or at all. For example, from comments on FB it seems that shipping to Australia wasn't possible. Was this an error or intentional? Very frustrating from Australian customers who woke up in the middle of the night twice! I actually looked at the drop down list of countries and there were only about 20 available: UK, USA, CAN and western European nations. If this was intentional I really think they should have announced these restrictions in advance.

As for shipping it was £28 even within the UK, which is pricey (though forgivable given the aforementioned good value of the book).

>119 punkzip:
>120 Levin40:
Shipping didn't work to the UK either for the Numbered - which is the reason I have missed out. You would think that a publisher in the UK would have at least the domestic shipping sorted properly. Based on facebook comments, all (or most) copies must have gone to USA and Canada while other countries were effectively blocked, irrespectively of whether they were on the list or not.

>121 Raenas: That's odd, as I ordered a Standard to the UK immediately and without issue. I also saw customers in the US complaining they couldn't order initially. So I guess it was just which they fixed first.

>122 Levin40: Yes they apparently fixed the US first. Note the Standard didn't have issues - I am talking strictly about the Numbered. I appreciate all the effort the publisher puts into the book, but this was a very poor management of sales - fixing one country first inevitably gives an unfair advantage. The sale should have been cancelled and rescheduled again once shipping is fixed for everyone. Now the only thing I can do from the UK is to buy it from a scalper, but not sure it's worth £1500-ish for me, which is the price it will likely go for given the rights following the book.

>123 Raenas: Agreed. I just find it odd that the shipping configuration was different for Numbered and Standard. I can't think of any reason why they'd have done that and would have expected the shipping process to have been separate from the exact product selected (given that they're both books of more or less the same weight etc).

Anyway, I guess it's the first and last time he'll have this problem, as rights will drive most sales moving forwards.

>123 Raenas: "The sale should have been cancelled and rescheduled again once shipping is fixed for everyone"

I don't disagree as a customer but from the publisher's perspective this likely wasn't an option given that the first sale failed completely. Doing it for a third time would likely been a major reputational disaster for a new publisher.

BTW, does anyone know how the free numbered edition (as compensation for the failed first sale) will be allotted? Perhaps it could be given out in a lottery limited to those who did not get a numbered?

>125 punkzip: In my opinion this second time was just short of a disaster as well, and within the first minute when it was apparent the site was failing customers randomly, it should’ve been stopped altogether. It’s hard to see how this sale could be considered a job well done.

>126 What_What: As I understand it, the glitch - not being able to order a numbered initially without also ordering a standard - also affected Lyra's first sale of Stardust. That sale was not cancelled and rescheduled. I do see the argument for doing so, but CK was definitely between a rock and a hard place given the complete failure of the first sale, and frankly I think that having a third try at a sale would probably be worse for CK's reputation.

>127 punkzip: The Lyra's issue was different. I think it was just a website being overloaded. I participated in both offerings and Lyra's website was extremely slow and didn't show the numbered option to buy. The CK website was very fast and responsive. When it was time to checkout, I kept getting a message that shipping wasn't available to my address.

But in the end, I was able to get a numbered Stardust so I can't complain. I did order a standard The Blade Itself after the shipping was fixed. Hopefully, someone will sell me a numbered down the road. I'm a bit of a fantasy geek and CK is making fantastic selections so far.

For anyone who missed out, Joe Abercrombie tweeted that remaining copies are going out next Monday at 8:30 pm BST.

No word yet on the lettered lottery or numbered giveaway that I’ve seen.

- Anthony sent out an email a bit ago explaining/apologizing/communicating next steps and the changes he plans. Seems like a great guy that cares a lot.

>129 NathanOv: Just got an email from CK about this. Interestingly, they are still not sure what went wrong. The remaining copies are just from duplicate orders which have been cancelled. The email seems to imply that if one ordered duplicate copies both orders will be cancelled but I hope this is not the case as I can see how this could happen in error due to the website issues. I can't imagine there are too many numbered books left so it will likely be extremely competitive. I hope everyone who missed out here gets a copy in the upcoming sale.

>131 punkzip: This is just anecdotal since I haven't seen anyone else report the issue, but I was initially charged in 4 seperate transactions for 3 standards and 2 numbered despite only completing the checkout process once with one of each in my cart, and recieving one confirmation for one of each.

If Shopify was duplicating a lot of transactions, there could be a decent amount available.

Third time's a Charm…🤞

>132 NathanOv: I doubt there will be too many duplicates. I can only hope. There were two in my cart when I checked out but it took all of two seconds to remove the second copy. The website was truly responsive except for that whole "can't deliver to that address" error.

>134 SDB2012: Maybe, I'm just saying that there's so far at least three different categories of duplicate orders, with some people intentionally ordering multiple, others like you getting the "extra in cart" error which I did see several mentions of, and then potentionally more like me who's orders misprocessed despite only having 1 of each in the cart, though I don't know if mine was actually counted multiple times in their system or how widespread that error was.

>135 NathanOv: Interesting. It's a weird issue. Hopefully, there are more than a handful left and we'll have at least 15-20 seconds to make a purchase. +)

Good luck to all still looking for this on Monday and, of course, in the lottery.

Got the email for The Blade Itself, and clicked on it ASAP! Problem is... it sold out in a couple of seconds. LOL

>137 Undergroundman: yeah. I was waiting on the page. I didn't realize there would be standards for sale so clicked on the wrong one. I added the numbered and removed the standard. After I hit the pay button, the out of stock message came up. Less than thirty seconds total time. Probably less than 20. Such is life. Now, the question is- do I look to the secondary market for rights or enjoy my standard set and buy The Broken Earth Trilogy on the secondary market.

I'm just glad that I got a standard edition, and was more interested in that one than in the numbered edition. Otherwise this would have been extremely frustrating. I already had a numbered edition in my cart but it wouldn't accept my address and it was sold from out of my cart during the second sale.

>139 SF-72: yeah same with me and a lot of us. I'm glad there's a market for letterpress fantasy. The Broken Earth has been on my wish list for years though.

It looks like there were 7 numbered so less than 30 seconds would be expected. I think that it was previously stated that standards would also be going up for sale. Having said that I think that the standards originally took close to 9 hours to sell out so that was previously open to everyone.

There's always the raffle! +)

>142 SDB2012: Where is the raffle?

>143 punkzip: CK is holding a raffle for a numbered for all of us who missed out due to technical issues. The odds of winning appear to be mighty slim.

Looks like these books are going for quite the premium on the secondary market, based on a post today on Facebook.

Seems like there was some confusion with an earlier post, but it disappeared before I could see what was happening.

>145 What_What: I think that there were complaints that the price was too high, the complainers were kicked out of the Facebook group, the initial post deleted and then reposted wiping out the earlier comments.

>146 DMulvee: Well that was me, but the complaint was not about the price - rather the seller's practices which there's a long history with.

No need to bring that over here though.

>147 NathanOv: Ouch, you’ve gone all irrational on FB before with that seller. No wonder you got banned, and if it was anything like your previous blow-ups, I’d say well deserved!

And it’s also nothing as simple as Mulvee here makes it sound I’m sure, as it wasn’t the last time all your posts got deleted.

>148 What_What: I really don’t think your reply is appropriate or accurately reflects the situation. In the case you’re referring to, the seller’s post was removed not my specific comments, and the publisher himself had had to step in to correct the seller on what’s allowed in the rights system.

I hope you’ll delete your comment and will delete this one if so since that conversation does not need to carry over here.

I swear some people will go to the ends of the earth to defend total stranger’s rights to capitalism, even when what they’re doing is expressly forbidden by the publisher.

>148 What_What: I didn’t see the comments. There were 34 comments on the post but only 10 were visible (not Nathan’s) and so I was trying to deduce what had happened based on the remaining comments

Just got an email from CK where yet another series has been announced.

"This Sci-Fi series is a big one (more than 3 books) and is just incredibly well written, with such a cool concept.

I have a feeling not everyone will have read this series, but I know how well it is regarded and the author has a huge following (but maybe not in sci-fi…). "

Not sure what this is but it looks like CK has clearly established itself as the fine press genre series publisher. Glad to see this is happening as it is different from the trend of recent children's/YA books - no one else is doing it.

I'm going to have to set an alarm for The Fifth Season and cross my fingers I can get in

When do preorders open for The Fifth Season?

>153 RRCBS: From the email it sounds like the 13th or 14th of January

>152 gmacaree:

Join the club. That's gonna be a sought after series for sure. Good luck, gentleman. Well... maybe not too much luck. LOL

>155 Undergroundman: I don't have high hopes!

>151 punkzip: Trying to guess the series now. Maybe Donaldson's Gap cycle?

>157 ambyrglow: I think you may be right. I've read the Gap cycle, and I'm not that excited about it. But it does fit - 5 books, and Donaldson is not famous for SF but fantasy, specifically the Covenant series. I didn't think it was particularly well written though but that may be Anthony's opinion.

It's a very surprising choice for a fine press series, as it is fairly old and wasn't that successful as I recall. A 5 book series is a lot for letterpress and collecting the entire series will be expensive.

The Donaldson series I like the best is one that is a bit polarizing - Mordant's Need.

Would be nice if the newsletter wasn't so whiny, but had a more positive note. And we're all adults, but swear words? Really?

>159 What_What: Yeah, that was kind of weird. Don't recall the other British publishers having such naughty mouths in their newsletters.

Firstly, I wish Curious King would just release a book instead of continually talking about what's on the horizon. I mean, he's already talking about a new 3+ book series but still has 3x3-4 book series in the pipeline, from which not a single book has yet been released (not even artwork completed). Secondly, I don't think it's a good idea to do a pre-order before at least the art is complete. I can't think of any other publishers who do this. Even Suntup, who are known for their long waits after pre-orders, at least have the art and prototypes complete at pre-order time. It's probably not a good idea to rush artists and, reading between the lines, it seems that that's what's happening now.

The good news is I have received all four books limitation pages signed by Dan Simmons, which is fantastic. Does that mean there will be a signed standard edition of Hyperion? Hope so.

>161 Levin40: Yes, not a good idea to throw your artists under the bus so publicly.

And agreed, I know publishers always have a lot of irons in the pot, but paradoxically it does somehow come across as unfocused and not serious to be talking about 3-4 other series of books (not just one-off books!) without even having artwork done for the very first one.

>161 Levin40: Yes. As interested as I am in the Broken Earth books, it’s hard to imagine being ready to put down money in a few weeks with no prior examples of the press’s work or a very clear prospectus.

>159 What_What: The newsletter has a very casual, non-professional, or unprofessional, tone, depending on how you see it.

The broader question is whether CK (or any other fine/small press publisher) is just another member of a community of enthusiasts and hobbyists, or a more corporate endeavor.

If fine/small press publishers are just members of a hobbyist/enthusiast community, I see no issue with a very casual communication, including use of the "f" word.

On the other hand, you'd never see a communication like CK's email from any "corporate" publisher.

Interestingly, there are certain members here who seem to take umbrage at any criticism, even implied, of fine/small press publishers here (such as criticism of book choices, business practices, etc). Yet of course, no one has any issue with extremely harsh criticism of any corporation. Perhaps the idea is that you shouldn't criticize other members of the community, while corporations are just faceless.

So there seem to be two different views of what role these fine/small presses actually are.

I have no issues with a publisher swearing in a newsletter, but publicly throwing a collaborator — even a hired one — under the bus is ... unedifying, at best. If you're running a business, I think you ought to take responsibility for delays/problems externally, and handle what you need to handle in private.

>165 gmacaree: Yes, but what explanation should have been given for the delay then? Should the communication have said that the book was delayed, but they can't say why?

>166 punkzip: Tact is important. To me, it read at best as rudely blunt, and at worst like this brand new publisher is already having some behind-the-scenes conflict with the established industry professionals they're working with.

Just my two cents though - I'm only in for The Broken Earth trilogy, and all the extended series piling up are giving me some pause on that now too.

>166 punkzip: As I mentioned above, I think he must still take ultimate responsibility for holding the pre-order before the art was ready. That's not the artist's fault.

Now I’m curious to see this letter!

>169 RRCBS: https://www.curiousking.co.uk/christmas-2022-update/ I think is what they are referencing.

>166 punkzip: Should the communication have said that the book was delayed, but they can't say why?

Unfortunately, the book will be delayed by XXX months due to some tasks taking longer than initially expected. I share your frustration and have worked hard for the past few days/whatever to resolve these issues as soon as possible, and am confident that we can publish the book in March/whatever.

A good manager doesn't throw his people under the bus. If I were the artist, I'd never work with him again tbh.

A far cry from the erudition one once expected from fine press publishers.

>166 punkzip: I would have said something like "I was overly ambitious with the schedule and the book isn't where we hoped it would be, but we're working hard to catch up, and making sure we don't make these same mistakes in the future. Thank you for your continued patience."

Just got the email for The Fifth Season. Holy crap! Must buy. They absolutely put the Subpress editions to shame.

I am surprised at how nice the standard and numbered look. It is good to see the lettered having nicer paper, though the design of the lettered isn't to my taste.

>174 Undergroundman: The least expensive edition also costs more than 3x what the SubPress edition did, so I'd be shocked if it wasn't significantly better.

The Standard edition looks great, possibly my favorite of the lineup. I’m not particularly fond of the art though, reminds me of a video game rendering.

>176 donaldmcobb: Disagree. The least expensive edition is currently ~$255 USD based upon today's exchange rate. The current Subpress books are $185-195 (to be fair, one should compare to current inflationary prices). So for about $60-70 more you get letterpress (most importantly), interior art (tipped in no less) and a slipcase - which to me, is a vastly better value, not even close. CK and Subpress have a similar wheelhouse but CK's first 2 releases show - to me at least - that Subpress books are a relatively poor value at current prices.

Having said that I likely won't buy the standard as I already have rights to the numbered. Interestingly, I decided at the last moment to buy a Blade Itself standard in addition to the numbered when I found out the standard would be signed. If I didn't decide to do that, I would likely not have gotten the numbered due to the initial glitch which prevented many from getting a numbered. Hopefully CK will have learned from the fiasco last time and everything will go smoothly now.

Glad to see that the Standard edition is far-and-away my favorite design , and that they've kept up the same quality paper as the numbered and tipped in illustrations.

I always have a pretty visceral reaction to crystals embedded into books, but I can't say I'm a fan of the blind-stamped white leather or the overall color scheme of the numbered either.

>178 punkzip: Most SP books have interior illustrations, though inexplicably a couple recent ones didn’t, despite their price. As their books creep inexorably towards $200, they really do come across as poor value compared to what other presses are producing. But they do churn out very popular and recent releases, so if no one else is producing those books, it really is a moot point.

>179 NathanOv: Is the odd blind stamping somehow linked to the story? Half of the stamping is on the right of the front board, the other half on the left of the back. There’s no way to ever see what they look like next to each other.

In my line of work we'd perhaps call this one over-designed. I had assumed I'd be one of those fighting it out for a numbered, but I think the standard is more attractive for half the price.

>180 What_What: Well, it appears to just be another title treatment, I think based on the geode motif which, oddly, has much more to do with the second book despite being the cover of this one.

I can't think of any reason for presenting it in that manner, though. However, it looks to be one of 5 variations of the title treatment, so I'd imagine they simply liked it enough that they wanted to come up with somewhere to use it in the design.

>182 NathanOv: Having read the book (as well as the trilogy) I think it is thematic. First of all, the Earth is "broken", as is the logo. In addition, it would also be related to the major plot surprise in the first book - to say more would be a spoiler..

Be sure to check your email if you have numbered rights - I just got mine and can preorder. Interestingly, even if one does like the standard better, it's hard to pass up on the numbered as it would likely be hard to get a Hyperion numbered I think without rights.

>183 punkzip: I guess the idea of a broken sphere is, in general, thematic for the series but I don't really see that reflected in the rather odd blind embossing.

Still, most of my issues with the numbered are just personal preferences that I've seen other collectors have strong opposite feelings about!

It's petty, but I wish they would actually link their updates from their homepage as well as emailing about them--I hate email newsletters and try to subscribe to as few as possible.

Having tracked down the update and still feeling petty, I also raise an eyebrow at the description of The Fifth Season as "an incredible debut fantasy novel." It was Jemisin's sixth novel. Oh well.

>186 ambyrglow: I also raise an eyebrow at the description of The Fifth Season as "an incredible debut fantasy novel."

Yeah. Me too. Odd thing to say.

I agree with the room- the standard looks fantastic and a great value. I ordered a numbered and looking forward to reading the book again. It's one of my favorite fantasies. I love it.

Thanks for the interpretations of the stamping on the board. Still not sold.

Also, wouldn’t have hurt to have someone else read over the newsletter a couple times before hitting send - there are about five typos.

>188 What_What: I was going to say - I hope more effort is being taken to make sure no typos make it into the publications, as the eye for detail displayed in the newsletters is concerning.

>189 jordanxn: I’m rooting for them, but with all the minor red flags lately it does make me wish a more established press had gotten such a landmark series.

Alas, there’s probably not another fine press that would’ve actually taken it on.

Does anyone have a link to the relevant page with the details?
I was able to find a post on instagram but with only one picture of the art.
I wasn't exactly pleased by that either (I have yet to see a single example of "fine press" genre literature where the art wasn't (to my taste) obviously subpar in relation to the text) but as I enjoyed the book I'd be willing to consider this if I could actually get to see it.

I also agree that the constant typos and the generally unprofessional tone of the press' communication does not exactly inspire confidence.

191: There you go: https://www.curiousking.co.uk/the-fifth-season-info

The pre-order appears to have been postponed to Sunday Jan 22, 2023 (@ 20:00 GMT).

I care less about typos in the newsletters than about the fact that they're taking orders for multiple books without (as of yet) having produced any. Ready Player One was a rebind. The mock-ups of the Standard edition are lovely examples of bindings, but it's hard to convince myself to back this without a single page example of what the typesetting will look like. I trust experienced publishers to make attractive choices about font and whitespace, but I don't really know what to expect here.

193: Nomad letterpress has a teaser of The Blade Itself title page on their Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/nomadletterpress/?hl=en

>192 supercell: Thank you!
And yeah, but no. Hard pass for me. Just the font choices on the spine label are enough to put me off...

>192 supercell: Hopefully the typesetting isn't done by whoever the heck designed that webpage. White background and grey text that's so tiny it makes it even harder to read than it already is. Damn.

The Curious King logo on the spine is hideous. I wish all the books just had the Curious King text on the spine like the lettered.

I preordered the Standard edition! Really excited to receive it eventually! I was wondering if anyone knows the target date for shipping the books out? Couldn’t find any details on the site.

>198 RRCBS: It might be a while. As The Blade Itself is farther ahead in production, and it isn’t clear when that one is to ship.

>198 RRCBS: I’m happy with a standard edition as well. The design is more refined and elegant than the other states, with the same text block as the numbered.

As long as no horrific typographic choices were made, I can at least be confident in the excellent printing and binding!

As far as timeline, I believe The Blade Itself is fully printed and headed to Ludlow. Assuming that means delivery in the next 3-4 months for that edition, that’ll be just under a year from preorder to delivery.

The numbered went in a few minutes. Missed out, but I at least got a standard. Will standards get you pre-order rights for the next standards?

>201 Undergroundman: It'll get you rights to the next Broken Earth standard edition, but not to standards from any other series.

https://www.curiousking.co.uk/rights/

that lettered is just funny bad. i guess someone liked it though.

>202 NathanOv: Thanks. Was hoping for the Dan Simmons books.

>204 Undergroundman: also I thought I had read somewhere that the Hyperion books would only be produced in numbered and lettered states, no standard (very disappointing!)

>205 RRCBS: Thanks for that info. Now I am completely devastated for missing out on the numbered.

>206 Undergroundman: Per his August update:

"I can only share a few details at the moment, but it is currently unlikely that there will be a standard edition for this series due to a myriad of factors. My current plan is to publish the lettered and increase the numbered edition significantly to 300 (numbers 151-300 will only have rights to future Hyperion Cantos books). I understand this will be disappointing for some people, and I haven’t taken this decision lightly. There is however a small glimmer of hope, as if there is overwhelming response to having all four of these books in Standard Edition, i may well revisit this (and reduce the amount of numbered editions down)."

>207 wongie: Well, if he can't, he cant. Sucks, but such is life. Might have a chance if the numbered is increased to 300.

The press has shared a February update for anyone interested: https://www.curiousking.co.uk/february-update/?mc_cid=e68608065f&mc_eid=eadd...

Key details are that The Blade Itself, curiously, is having the artwork redone despite the text already being printed and ready for binding. The Fifth Season is still scheduled for Q4 delivery, though, and Hyperion should go on order in May or June.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is coming, with Gary Gianni doing the art. There will be a Standard edition, and 42 (of course) Lettered, and pre-orders won't be until late 2023 at the earliest. I for one would be very interested :)

>210 AMindForeverVoyaging: Exciting team with Gary Gianni and Marcelo Anciano both working on it, but my goodness - is this the 15th book announced as under contract without a single delivery yet? Three trilogies and the to-be-confirmed 5+ book cycle?

>211 NathanOv: Curious King announces too much in advance and Conversation tree too little IMO.

>210 AMindForeverVoyaging: a must buy for anyone with fond memories of the book, or fans of sci-fi and humor.

>211 NathanOv: Nor even a single interior picture (aside from the title page) of the one book that's finished printing.

It is a good title and series, but I wish they had waited until a fortnight before pre-orders (so after the delivery of The Blade Itself) before announcing this. At the moment the press is just hype, hopefully we can see their creations and then get excited

>211 NathanOv: Yeah, this is starting to look really lame, and desperate for attention on their part. I'd be excited if I actually saw proof of them actually sending out books. I just hope this doesn't turn into another Cemetery Dance abomination...

>216 Undergroundman: what happened with Cemetery Dance?

>217 RRCBS: They announce a bunch of titles that take years to ship out.

The publisher just sounds really enthusiastic and happy about being able to publish these books to me. It's not like Hitchhiker is actually up for sale yet, so there's no need to worry about money in this case. I could be wrong, but that's the way I read it. I'm looking forward to these books and hope they'll live up to my expectations.

>219 SF-72: Nearly every publisher that has ever gone under and taken a boatload of preorder money with them sounded happy and enthusiastic about what they were doing right up to the moment everything came crashing down.

I'm not saying that's what's going to happen with CK, and it is important to note that this was only an announcement of a book and not a preorder, but I've been in this hobby long enough to be wary of publishers that announce book after book before actually publishing a single volume.

Does this owner have any prior experience in fine press or publishing whatsoever?

>221 edkennedy: He did a rebind of Ready Player One.

>222 donaldmcobb: A rebind...?

>223 edkennedy: He took the page blocks from 1st/1sts of RPO and rebound them with custom materials (Atari-themed as I recall).

It's...not really publishing. Bookbinding for sure, which is certainly an aspect of publishing, but he never had to deal with printers and selecting paper and whatnot.

>224 donaldmcobb: On that note, I found the comment exchange Curious King engaged in on this post a little eyebrow-raising: https://www.facebook.com/lyrasbooks/posts/pfbid0ZaSJC5Xen5in3wmRVK4VJ5T6LnAEgiL3...

>225 ambyrglow: Yikes! Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

I pre-ordered a standard copy of The Fifth Season. Hope I don’t end up regretting it.

>226 Nightcrawl: I wish the publisher was more focused, and there's a very real risk of them biting of more than they can chew. However, the vast majority of the work is being done by highly skilled and established craftspeople, and the fact that so many of them have agreed to multiple collaborations and signed off on plans / timelines is promising.

The biggest quality concern, in my opinion, is the manuscript and text design, and the biggest risk factor is likely cash-flow and ability to deliver.

I do wonder if the publisher has some experience in the business we don't know about / that's not obvious from the website. He certainly has access to some excellent craftspersons and gets rights that are pretty impressive.

>224 donaldmcobb: He also did this custom personal version of Gardens of the Moon, which included laying out the chapters.

https://www.curiousking.co.uk/first-project-gardens-of-the-moon/

Given our conversation 6 months ago, I have to say that - even though we're still waiting for the books - I've been impressed by the last few updates from Curious King. He seems to be taking a much more pragmatic approach now. I appreciate how open he's being about the setbacks faced (the reprint of the Fifth Season pages must have been a bummer) and in particular how he's refraining from future title announcements and the statement 'I am now engaging artists much earlier as their work takes the most time, and I’m reticent to announce a title until I have all artwork in hand – this way I ensure more accuracy with my shipping dates.'

Well done. Very much looking forward to these books.

Does anyone know the timeline for The Fifth Season? I don't recall receiving any updates.

>231 astropi: They sent one out / posted one yesterday. Supposedly still shipping by end of year.

The point where you may have gone a bit overboard on production, is when you find you need to hire a master stonecarver: https://www.curiousking.co.uk/elementor-4348/

🤯❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

>233 emarshal: I really wouldn’t want this! I like some stonework, and have a number of different sculptures in my house, but would I want a 7kg case? No!

I think the book itself looks very attractive. Previously I thought that the design of the different versions had been a little inverted, as I thought the standard was the nicest, then the numbered, with the lettered the weakest, but now the Roman design is the best of the four. I am confused as to who the buyer would be, especially as you have to commit to all three in the series. Over 20kg on three cases seems crazy

Owners of this definitely need to be extra careful when taking it off the shelf that they don't accidentally drop this on their toes, especially a corner landing! My toes are curling just thinking about it..

I actually find this quite beautiful visually, the book and the box, but the weight does give one pause. (As well as what it will cost, but since this will be well beyond me, I can just watch in relaxed amazement.)

Shipping cost alone will be interesting.

>238 filox:
Indeed, but I think you dont really care if you can afford such a book 😅

>233 emarshal: Looks like a ripoff of Suntup's numbered Wolfen.

Looks gorgeous! The price for the sold-out lettered was £2450 which is about 5 times the cost of the numbered. So I'm going to guess it will be about thrice the price, or roughly £7500 each, and I also bet they will sell out before you can even say "amethyst!"

>241 astropi: thats very true. 🤣

>240 Undergroundman: No.

From the August 2023 update email today:

Future Titles

...

I’m toying with the idea of offset litho printing the Standard Editions for a few reasons. It’s a much easier binding process with a block printed that way, but the main reason is the market for letterpress printed Standard Editions has taken a bit of a dive.

Any feedback from the community would be great. It would allow the price of the Standard Edition to be greatly reduced too. Perhaps to around £125ish (I haven’t got all relevant quotes, so it’s a ballpark).

As far as I can tell, this only would apply to future titles. Presumably folks here would have some opinions about this.

>244 abysswalker: I can't say I see the point, especially since he seems to exclusively pick titles that have already had small press limited editions. If they're not produced at a higher level of craft, then just a new dust jacket and set of artwork isn't necessarily going to sell it.

I think at the end of the day, he'd actually be reducing his audience that way rather than expanding it.

>245 NathanOv: I’m not in favour but it is interesting. The Fifth Season standard is still available, and if the first in a trilogy is difficult to sell, then I guess the second and third would be tougher?

>246 DMulvee:
Yeah what if I don't buy the second and third book from the serie ?
They won't sell forever, because people miss on the first book 😄

It feels slightly odd that if you are trying to attract a higher clientele (the Roman numeral Fifth Season wanted you to purchase all three books not just the first one and so costs at least £34k!) that you would want to be associated with a cheaper product. I’m surprised that the number of standard books isn’t just cut, and the prices raised slightly

If the books looked better I'd buy them!

>246 DMulvee: >247 Ragnaroek: I think part of it is lack of awareness / confidence in a brand new press. They'll likely get a small second wave of sales when The Blade Itself finally ships, and then a larger one that could very well sell it out once books are actually in hand and people, including the author, are showing them off.

I just received a “Have you moved?” email, indicating The Blade Itself would be shipping before the end of this month.

I hope someone is selling it somewhere 😂
I love that series, but missed out on it.

>251 const-char-star:

Me too. I'm really looking forward to it.

Apparently shipping has started for The Blade Itself. Just received my UPS notification. Congratulations to Anthony/Curious King - it's been a long journey and he must be relieved to get the book out there at last. Really looking forward to receiving my copy.

Awesome news.
The next publication should be Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons ?

I personaly would like some more Grim Dark Fantasy novels.

>255 Ragnaroek:

The tricky bit being that this will be lettered and numbered only, so not accessible to many.

>256 SF-72:
True. I bet it will sell out very fast.

>254 Levin40: Thanks for the information. I also got teh UPS notification, but wasn't able connect it to a specific book as I didn't get a shipping notice from Curious King.

I got my copy of The Blade Itself just now. First impressions: Impeccable binding job by Rich and the team at Ludlow; as usual, though the printing itself is well done (the second color initial caps and chapter headings are nice), Nomad used a small typeface again; the illustrations are great; sturdy slipcase (my only real gripes about the book are (1) that neither the spine of the book nor the back of the slipcase has the title on it, so on the shelf there is no way to know what it is, and (2) according to the website, the slipcase was supposed to be lined with custom printed papers, and it isn’t (maybe there was an update from Anthony I missed where he talked about that, but I don’t remember if so); and nice, though not amazing, paper. Some of those quibbles are to be expected - I knew about the title issue when I ordered, and I only ordered the standard state, both of which I think are improved in the higher tier versions, but the slipcase lining was not. Overall though, I’m very happy with it.

Sounds positive overall! Note - the printer isn't the one who sets the type, so it's not a quibble on Nomad about the small typeface.

>259 jsg1976: Is it just the standard edition dust jacket that’s textless? Or was there a design change to the book?

The typography and internal design is what I’m most nervous about with The Fifth Season, since as far as I can tell the publisher is designing and laying these out himself, but small font on its own isn’t necessarily a deal breaker for me if it’s otherwise readable and attractive.

The small font has me worried. When I buy an edition like this, I want a comfortable reading experience, not burning eyes. My eyes are admittedly not that great anymore, but still - a luxury edition should be better than your average mass market edition in this regard. I should receive the book this week - hopefully it won't be as bad as what I'm imagining just now.

There should be some reviews on YouTube soon I guess.

Iam excited 🙂
(The most beautiful and attractive looking standard editions from the mock up pictures you can currently see are the ones from The Conversation Tree Press. Iam most excited to finally see some books in real from that press)

Edit: the standard copy's should have the custom papers . The Web page says it still.

My copy has arrived. I like the paper, and overall am pretty impressed. My one disappointment is the font size combined with the typeface. I wish this was larger. Some pages it appears faint (and there are a lot of italics near the start).

Hopefully this won’t be repeated with their next book

Can someone share a photo? So far all the photos I’ve seen are the binding and the artwork. Obviously, there’s much more to a book than that.

Here are some pics from my copy:

Looks very nice indeed ? The pictures don't really show, maybe iam just blind, but is this copy Letterpress printed ?

>267 Ragnaroek: Yes, by Nomad Letterpress on their Heidelberg Cylinder.

>266 A.Nobody: The typography, layout and two-color printing actually looks quite nice. I'm impressed for what, from the information we have, is a first-timer's book layout and typography design.

>268 A.Nobody: Thanks for making that effort! Great photos.

Received my copy and am quite pleased. My most significant complaint is that I would have preferred a title treatment on the slipcase spine, but we knew that would be absent from the mock up photos. If we can get the 2nd and 3rd volumes at this quality and price point, I’ll be very excited.

Anyone got the numbered already ?

>266 A.Nobody: Thank you. Will you get first rights to the next book of the series?

>273 Undergroundman: It's been so long since I placed my order, I'd have to research to find out. I believe CK offers continuing rights within series.

>274 A.Nobody: Thanks. I ask, because I ordered the standard edition of The Fifth Season. Obviously, I don't only want the first book.

>275 Undergroundman: As I thought - from the CK site (regarding Standard editions): "If part of a series, then this book carries rights to the remaining books of that series, but not to new publications. If not part of a series, then the book carries no rights at all."

>276 A.Nobody: Thank you.

My copy arrived today, and as several others have said, I think the binding and design is great. However, IMHO, the small size of the typeface combined with the faint printing, is a bit of a disappointment. If this would be the same for the next books in the trilogy, I'm probably not getting them. So, hopefully, this will be rectified.

I finished it, and was surprised at how good the story was. I think that my initial impressions of the book hold. I like the two colours at the start of the chapter, and do like the quality of paper. Not all pages had the ink uniform, with a few pages almost looking faint. I would have preferred a larger font size, but it didn't impact my enjoyment.
The layout is good though not perfect. For example if you look at page 357 there are a few lines of blank space at the top of the page, and this looks odd.

I had expected not to continue with this series and instead focus on the Fifth Season series, however I will continue with this if the price point doesn't change too much

Very happy for all who received their copies. Watching Curious King execute this project has been wonderful.

I'm bracing myself for the Hyperion preorder. I had been feeling slightly disappointed because I thought all illustrations would be black and white, but Anthony himself replied to a post confirming there will also be 8 colour illustrations.

Hopefully I'll be able to get a copy and upgrade my Easton (known for its awful artwork of retouched photographs). It will be very expensive (any ideas?) and preorder will be wild.

The numbered Joe Abercrombie book will get shipped now.
(News on Facebook)

https://youtu.be/_Cywv2lwYhY?feature=shared

Unboxing of the standard edition

I'm looking for a copy of The Blade Itself. If anyone has a copy for sale/trade please let me know, thank you.

>283 astropi: there’s a standard listed for $435 plus shipping from Canada — it’s on the Fans of Curious King Facebook page

>283 astropi: I have a standard copy I can part with for a trade or maybe sale. I ordered the standard but was later able to get a numbered. Send me a PM of potential trades if you want.