When Mod R sent over the list of questions, my first instinct was to dismiss it, but then I realized that she is going to spend a long time posting individual replies and that time needs to be spent elsewhere.
So let’s talk about the special editions.
What is a special edition?
A special, or collector, edition is a beautiful edition of a book, usually hardcover, made as a keepsake item. It’s a trophy for your bookshelves. A lot of special editions have foiling on the covers, new cover art, extra art, bonus fiction, and painted edges. Some special editions are printed on archive-quality paper.
Special editions can be produced by specialty small press, book clubs, bookstores, or authors directly. For the purposes of this conversations, all these entities are referred to as the publisher.
Anatomy of a special edition.
Here are some terms used to describe the different parts of the special editions that we get questions about.
Dust jacket – a piece of paper, often with the printed cover or design, that wraps around a hardcover book.
Sprayed edges – the pages visible from the side view of the book. The edges can be uniform in color, they can feature a design, or they can be gilded with metallic finish.
End Papers – When you open the book, before you get to the title page, you will see an illustration that covers both pages.
Color Insert – a full-page color illustration in the middle of the book.
Why do the special editions cost more?
The production cost of a special edition is significantly higher. Some of them use high quality paper. Some have a lot of art. Just the new cover and end papers alone can run in excess of 10K, depending on the artist involved. Then they have to be printed, shipped to the publisher, sold, and then finally shipped to consumer.
Some of that price also comes from exclusivity. Most of them are printed once and never again. Reprints are very rare.
How can you buy special editions?
Depending on the publisher, special editions can be sold to the public directly or can come as a part of a subscription model through a book club.
For example, Subterranean Press functions more like a bookstore. They print a certain quantity of the special editions, and anyone can buy them through their website and sometimes other retailers.
By contrast, the Arcane Society is an exclusive book club. You pay a fee every two months and the Arcane Society sends you a box with two hardcovers, art prints, and a pin. Sometimes Arcane Society releases special boxes, which are available for sale to the public. When those boxes are released, the AS members receive a code, which allows them to access the sale of these special boxes before non-members can buy them. Thank you to Ann Giardina Magee for explaining the process.
The FAQ
I have questions about the special editions.
First step: has the publisher announced the special edition? Is there an actual announcement from people selling these things?
No – the special edition does not exist. Hold all questions until the announcement. The special edition may be in production, and the author themselves might accidentally mention that the special edition is coming, but until the people who are making it are ready to tell you about it, it does not exist.
Yes – Amazing. Direct all your questions regarding that special edition to the publisher.
If the author is the publisher – and you will know this, because the author will be selling the special editions exclusively through their site – ask them. Otherwise, ask Arcane, Subterranean, Owlcrate, or whoever is printing and selling the special editions.
Don’t ask us. We can’t answer your questions.
We have never done a direct sale special edition. All of our special editions have been through specialty publishers. Sometimes our regular publisher makes a deal with the specialty publisher directly, and we are informed of it. Sometimes we make a deal with a specialty publisher through our agent. But in all cases, we do not control distribution, layout, choice of artist, etc. We are consulted, and they ask our opinion, but ultimately the choice is theirs. We just collect our share of the royalties.
Therefore, here is a list of questions that we cannot answer for you.
When will something ship? – ask the publisher.
What does the special edition include? – ask the publisher.
Will it be available internationally? – ask the publisher.
Will there also be an early access code? – ask the publisher.
How is this edition different from the normal book? – ask the publisher.
Who is the artist? – ask the publisher.
Is the art AI? Do you support AI artists? – ask the publisher.
Questions We Can Answer
Why are you doing special editions? – because some people want pretty copies of the books for their shelves and we like money.
I don’t like how the artist envisioned the characters.
Don’t buy the special edition. Purchase is strictly voluntary, and money is too hard to come by to spend it on a collector book that you don’t love.
The characters have the wrong hair/eye/skin color.
One time at a convention, a woman came up to us at a signing, and she was angry. You see, the artist of our Kate Daniels had made a massive mistake and nobody caught it. Between our publisher and us, surely we could get our act together and make sure that Kate, who was a blonde, would be properly depicted on the cover.
I gently told her that Kate has dark hair. She argued with me. She pulled out a book. And then she got angrier and told me she would never buy another of our books again. She had come to right a great wrong, and instead found out that she was mistaken. She felt embarrassed and lashed out. I wished her well.
Your recall might not be perfect. This is a normal human trait. Stuff morphs in our heads, sometimes mixing with other stuff. So please check the text before getting upset.
A note regarding skin color: please try to let go of the preconceived notions of what people of different ancestry should look like. Human genetics don’t work like watercolor pigments. For examples, look up beautiful Eartha Kitt and Kitt McDonald, her equally lovely daughter.
While the final say remains with the publisher, most of them do ask our opinion and if we see something egregious, we will voice our objections.
AI art? AI books?
A lot of us reject the usage of AI in art and fiction. People are genuinely worried about it. Artists and writers work very hard, and most of us don’t earn enough. To see our opportunities shrink because of a language model that was trained on our stolen work is infuriating.
People have come up with all sorts of random criteria identifying the intrusion of AI into our creative space. Weird hands, light sources that make no sense, ellipses, using 3rd person, writing faster than others and so on.
None of that means anything. Hands are difficult to draw. Established artists sometimes have lighting that doesn’t make sense. Ellipses have been used for centuries.
Unfortunately, this urge to protect now led to some kneejerk reactions. We’ve had accusations of AI usage on Candice’s work, on Luisa Pressler’s work, on our work that was written over a decade ago. Someone accused Helena Elias of doing AI art on the Arcane Edition, and we have seen every stage of those paintings, from initial sketch to the final. We asked for alterations and saw them implemented.
Most of us have no idea when art or fiction is AI unless someone left a prompt in or there are melted extremities. We need to be careful that in our rush to right a great wrong, like that woman I mentioned above, we don’t inflict emotional damage on human artists and writers. It hurts.
Please consider carefully before accusing someone of AI usage. As Mod R put it, mislabeling can hurt the very people we are trying to protect.
You’ve always been against paywalled content, why did you include exclusive bonus content in special editions?
… Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of my face when I read this question, or this blog post would be a lot more entertaining, heh. Most of the time I can understand how BDH arrived at something, but occasionally the logic doesn’t quite add up.
Here is where I think this came from:
In the past, people have repeatedly asked us why we don’t monetize that free fiction we post on the blog by going through Patreon or Substack. We stated – repeatedly – that as of right now, we do no have plans to implement the Patreon model.
Patreon is a service that charges readers monthly subscription for access. Patreon has been very helpful to many authors, and we may consider it in the future. However right now, it doesn’t work for us. We have readers on limited income, foreign readers, etc, for whom that cost might be prohibitive, and honestly charging $5 for monthly access would mean we have to write $5 worth of fiction every month. We have our hands full right now.
I think the statement above must’ve been misunderstood or misremembered, and someone concluded that we promised that all bonus fiction will be forever free. That’s incorrect.
We did not promise free bonus fiction. We said that we are not monetizing the blog. All novels we have published and will publish are “paywalled content.” You have to pay for them to read the story. They are exclusive to whoever is publishing them. They are not blog posts.
A special edition book is not a blog post, either. It is an actual book. It is edited, formatted, bound, and sold. For profit. People are paying premium prices for it, so they should get some bonus fiction. Sometimes it’s something that has been published before on our site but never appeared in print and sometimes it’s brand new stuff.
I understand that there is a bit of FOMO going on here. We choose bonus content carefully. Usually, it isn’t something that is crucial to enjoying the story. Most special editions also have a limited period of exclusivity, one to two years, typically. So all temporarily exclusive content will be available widely eventually but there is no guarantee that it will be free.
We hope to continue to release fun bonus stuff. Some of it will be posted on the blog. And some will be available for purchase. This is a business. We write to earn money.
We have given BDH a lot of extras over the years, so much so that some of it got caught up in the annual archiving and caused some distress. We will be releasing some of the bonus content in themed anthologies through our store in the near future at a steep discount, so if you want to throw us a couple of bucks to say thank you, we will be very happy to accept it. This way you will get to keep it, it won’t be archived, and it will be a lot cheaper than buying through a retailer.
::hug: I hope that clears things up. Dear Mod R, the next time you get a question regarding special editions, please send this link in response.
thanks for the info! excited to read the next books.
WOOT Special editions are a weakness in our household – but we also know they are a splurge. Its great when they happen but we usually keep an eye out for them at used book stores since sometimes people have to make hard choices in life. We are happy to adopt their precious keepsakes when such choices are necessary
Some other glossary terms for people who might be curious:
Hardcover case (sometimes called “naked hardcover”): artwork and/or foil underneath the dust jacket and printed on the actual book. Sometimes it’s just foil lines (like Arcane Hidden Legacy), sometimes it’s a full color hardback with landscape or character art. The texture can vary: smooth, glossy, or matte.
Reversible dust jacket: sometimes there is artwork on the reverse side of the dust jacket. This gives readers an option to flip and fold the dust jacket to showcase the reverse art.
Ribbon bookmark: some companies (like Owlcrate) add ribbon bookmarks so that you can easily mark the last page you read.
Interior illustrations: some companies (like Subterranean Press) include full-color or black-and-white illustrations as you read the book. It would be like seeing the Inheritance ebook illustrations in full color, but the artwork print quality would be superior compared to the Amazon paperback images.
***
One last thing — I’ve seen people be anxious that a hypothetical special edition might be locked within a subscription and that non-subscribers would be unable to purchase it. Let’s say that was the case. These companies (like Owlcrate and Broken Binding) always have leftover sales for monthly subscription books a few months after the initial subscriber sale. So if a hypothetical SE came out in March for subscribers only, a non-subscriber could eventually purchase the SE a few months later when leftovers go on the website. Companies post leftovers after subscribers have received their book and sent replacement copies (for missing packages and damaged books).
I’m just saying, don’t worry or stress about subscription waitlists. Everyone will have an opportunity to purchase a hypothetical special edition, whether it’s a monthly subscription book or not. 🙂 You might not be able to get it immediately, but leftovers are available until they sell out.
Thank you for the extra info, Di!
Thank you very helpful
You all have the patience of saints and a big generous heart for the BDH🥺💜
I love your stories and shudder at the day you retire so I would never ever complain about anything you give through your blogs, your updates, your personal anecdotes on HA…and free content!
I can only hope the love from your hoard overwhelms the complainers!🥰
It’s one thing to share your books (your babies😉). It’s another to share yourselves and I admire you all for that! Your blogs are always a bright spot to my day!🫶
Well said and I totally agree!
+1000!
Agreed!
+1000!😁
Agree! You capture my sentiments exactly!
Well said Elisa!
Of course HA is a business. The vast majority of the BDH is 1000% behind it being a successful and profitable business, so that the genius author lords can afford to continue dedicating time to it and we can continue enjoying the results. Thank you!
I appreciate your thoughtfulness to the BDH and the way you interact with us. It really is something special. That is all 😃.
What she said!!
Thanks Elisa for writing what I was thinking!
HA and Mod R are amazing people and the BDH is truly lucky!
spot on…and thanks for all you do. and we appreciate your “conversations”. There are some
+1
Totally agree
Thank you for continuing to educate us on different aspects of publishing.
I look forward to the anthologies of archived snippets. 😉 I am one that longs to reread Arabella’s Innterview and the character grousing Innterview that was crashed by Maggie. Hehehe.
We are having splendid September weather today in Maryland. Hope your home in Texas is enjoying the same.
Yes! I went looking for Arabella’s Innterview a while back and wondered if I had dreamed the whole thing, conveniently forgetting the power of archiving!
Many thanks to Mod R for all the patience given to the BDH!
A quick comment about a typo, Kitt McDonald’s has two ‘T’s 🙂
Thank you, edited 🙂
will let us know when the official announcement by the publisher is made? Or do I need to go follow the publishers social media?
I NEED so the pretty books!
We will always announce the House Andrews boxes!
Appreciate the seemingly endless patience to answer our questions.
I do love the “ask the publisher!” answers. It’s like when I get an email that should go to a colleague — let me just forward that — and then do the I-don’t-have-to-deal-with-that dance of joy.
And people shouldn’t interpret “ask the publisher” as “leave me alone”… if it’s something y’all care about please DO actually ask the publisher.
Even if they send an automated nothing-response back, their staff notice what readers are asking about and track stats on what people care enough about to take the time to ask/complain.
No, it’s definitely not “leave us alone” – it’s that the business who handles these projects/ideas/information are the best to give you the up to date, complete and accurate response or take your feedback into consideration 🙂
Thank you! This was a helpful and kind reminder that you are professionals in the acts of creating and selling professional work. Your blog is a delight but is also work. Etc. Take care of yourselves and I hope you have time to pet the pretty versions when they visit your desks.
Ooh!! Bonus content in themed anthologies!! Looking forward to that being in the store!! Lovely printed words to live on my shelves with all the other lovely printed words!! Thank you!! 📚📚📚
That was a great tutorial on the whole world of special editions! Thank you. Much appreciated.
Also: when will the Special Edition of Iron & Magic 2 be available, from which publisher, will it be shipping internationally, why does the artist plan to show Elara as a redhead and will Cornelius’ ferrets be shown on the endpapers? (Asking for a friend…)
Hehe. Funny you should mention that, we are definitely going to update the covers for both Iron 1 and 2.
Aaaaand …. you’re just going to leave that teaser hanging there, aren’t you? Serves me right.
By the way, I ordered a paperback copy of The Inheritance through my local independent bookstore and just received it. Your POD printer did a really nice job.
I give you so much credit for the patience you display with some of the questions and demands that you get. I’ve been dumbfounded by some of the stuff you’ve shared that you’ve gotten from readers. So, I just want to say, as a very long time member of the BDH, that I’m always grateful for whatever we can get and whenever it works out for you to write it. Also, if you do ever decide to go with Patreon, I would sign up.
When I was young and devouring Anne McCaffrey and others, I would never have imagined the ability to interact with beloved authors like we do here at your blog. It’s really fascinating? Really appreciate all of your BDH wrangling. You’re very kind, firm, but kind. 🥰📚
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming of waiting for This Kingdom and diving in for re-reads!!
Same! I never would’ve dreamed that one day I’d be able to interact with a favorite author! Even sending a fan letter to Ms. McCaffrey would’ve seemed too presumptuous to me, let alone this level of interaction.
Thank you, Ilona, Gordon, and Mod R, for all you do for us and give to us! 🤗
A couple/few decades ago, I did muster the gumption to write a fan letter (my first one ever) to Ms. McCaffrey, and received a nice postcard with her signature back through the mail. Signature stamped or live, I don’t care, it is a treasured thing that lives in my bookcases.
That said, I truly appreciate how the authors who are Ilona Andrews make interaction with them so much less scary. Hopefully I can give them my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation through replies to the blog much more often than a once-in-a- lifetime fan letter. So thank you.
Wow! The BDH really and truly are my people. Love !!
Yes! A long time ago when I was in middle school we had to write to favorite authors. I wrote to Anne McCaffrey and Susan Cooper. They both replied and answered my questions. That amazing. Never thought we’d be able to actually interact with authors like we do today on this blog. So even though it doesn’t always feel like it there are wonderful amazing things happening. And this blog is often the highlight of the day.
Grim oak special editions are up there in quality. I try hard to resist but there are many unhealthier ways to spend money so if I have saved up for it, I’ll buy it. Thanks for this. For me I buy a lot of ebooks and some special editions.
Wow to all the questions people asked and keep asking. Mod R, you have the infinity patience. This is why you are the Horde wrangler.
It is so fascinating to read the behind the scenes of what happens whether it is publishing, writing, or just life in general.
**Ahem, Horde – when in doubt, ask the publisher when necessary.** 😁
I’ll just keep reading about Catalina and Alessandro while waiting patiently. (I have to get my swearing in somehow. 🤣)
I made the chicken recipe you posted a long while back. I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Followed the recipe, and made the glaze. It turned out so yummy!
I realize this is off topic. However, I just wanted to let you know about it. Thank you!
I assumed all the HA grocery lists and recipes wee bonus and special editions.
Very well said!
Most important to note as someone who collects special editions myself, don’t let FOMO get you people.
If you love the book, get it, if you don’t, let it go. it’s so easy to get swept away into the limited-time, limited-quantity mentality.
believe me, even if you miss it, you can always grab it again down the road with a little patience.
I greatly appreciate the free content however make a point of purchasing the electronic version of your books when published to be sure I compensate you for your work. I get the electronic rather than print versions as I simply do not have enough room for all the written content I have purchased over the years.
I don’t remember the Kate Daniels hair colour event, but I remember when the cover of the second Nevada Baylor book had a brown haired woman on it ,,,, after paragraphs of information about her blond locks. 🙂
Back when White Hot had people on the cover, the lady was blonde 🙂. Maybe you’re confusing it with a different book?
No, Judy. She is blond on that cover. 🙂 Google it.
I’m one of those who can’t spend bunches on a single book. We just moved into a much smaller place, and most of my books are ebooks on my Kindle.The special editions are gorgeous, however! Thank you, Ilona and Co., for everything you do for us, the BDH.
OH! And thank you, too, for your Dedication to the BDH in Maggie! You rock!! HUGS!!
I’m buying a new house and I had donated or trashed all of my old furniture because it was old and I was tired of it and I’ve tried to make furniture from one house fit into a different house and it doesn’t always work that well, so I’m buying new furniture for the new house. Since my new house has a huge walk-in closet, I don’t really need a dresser/bureau in the bedroom itself, so I’m thinking lots and lots of bookshelves. I had stopped buying paperback/hardcover a few years ago due to space (except for a few select authors, including IA), but I’ll have more room in the new house.
Now I just have to talk myself out of filling those bookshelves with special edition books. So hard. Must resist. I already have ebook and paperback/hardcover, I don’t need special edition. ::resolve weakening::
My grandparents’ house had one whole wall of each bedroom with sliding-door closets, and behind the rail for hanging clothes they had floor-to-ceiling built-in bookshelves. I didn’t realise how efficient this storage solution was until after they passed away and we had to pack up the house – I think each bedroom had about 10 packing boxes of books and the shelves hadn’t even been full (well, at least not compared to the crammed bookcases in the living areas). It kept the room looking tidy and spacious, took up very little floorspace, was almost earthquake-proof, and provided the kids of the family with a brilliant opportunity for hide-and-seek or Narnia adventures.
Oooh, “bonus content in themed anthologies” sounds like a great idea and a solution to my FOMO. Because:
I never buy special editions even if they have extras,
I’d love to read the extras,
and I’m happy to purchase an anthology in ebook format.
+1 !
I can’t buy a special edition, but I’d love an anthology !
Same here. I would love to read the extras, but I also don’t buy the SE due to the cost. Would gladly pay to have them released in a form I can afford.
Thank you all for your patience and grace, even when I know the information is irrelevant to me I still read the posts both because they are interesting and because I enjoy your ‘voice’.
A particular thank you for the Maggie dedication. I had a foul cold last week but seeing the dedication cheered me right up, I exclaimed in pleasure and surprise – at least that is what I thought I did, but according to Mr J. I groaned. He came to check up on me because I sounded so bad he thought something awful must have happened. It really was an awful cold!
What Jazzlet says, except for the Mr. J part. And mine was covid, per a strong positive on the home antigen test. Hope you’re on the mend as I am, Jazzlet! Seeing that dedication sort of made my day.
Robert Heinlein said that about writing decades ago.
On the subject of weird genetic appearances:
Our daughter (welsh/scottish) is married to a very dark hispanic man. They have 3 children who look exactly as we expected, dark eyes, dark hair, skin a little lighter than their father, facial features much like our daughter. Very beautiful children.
Our son in law’s sister, same genetic makeup as her brother, is married to a man of german/scottish descent, very close to our genetics. Their son has blue eyes, light skin, light brown hair.
Go figure.
It’s a different roll of the dice every time, as to which genes come out on top. Random! And then there are the environmental variations that can sometimes influence how those genes are expressed.
There are five living siblings in my generation, and any two of us together may not look that much alike in the color of eyes, hair, and skin. But when you see all five of us in a line, the relationship is apparent.
Genetics is a tricky thing. When I was younger, someone came up to me and asked if my older brother was my husband. We both took after my mom’s side of the family and looked so much alike. I smiled at the person who asked and said “No, he’s my brother.” The person was so embarrassed. 😂
Dear BDH, I propose a letter writing campaign to Ace asking for a special edition of Kate Daniels.
I don’t even speak French, yet I’ve considered ordering the French special editions 😂
Thank you for all the time and effort you make communicating with and enlightening the BDH.
The French editions were beautiful 🥰 I would have ordered them too😂
Thank you for the clarification, tho Id rather you save your hands for typing up stories😂
I have had the opportunity to order from those various places, they have ups and downsides.
I am very excited that White Hot GA is out! Going to listen to that tonight.
Happily Anticipating all the things from IA coming soon, you are so good to us!
Perfect blog topic for a segue into question that I have. I just finished re-read of the two Wilmington Years books, and read the two short pieces, No Heros and Purpose again two. I seem to remember another very short piece with Kate, Grendel and a fluffy grey chicken (assume the same or close relation to the fluffy grey chicken with serious egg laying power from Magic Claims).
Where did I find the fluffy chicken and Grendel short bit?
Thank you.
That blog post has been archived and is no longer available. This happens periodically for articles than are more than 2 years old.
If we’re lucky we might see the scene in Wilmington 3 🙂
Thanks Mod R. 😊
I’ve bought and enjoyed your books for years, and I hope and pray you continue writing and sharing your work. I’m one of those on a limited income, and I thank you profusedly for this blog and any and all the free content you share. I also worked hard for many years, so of course I believe you deserve every penny you earn. All I ask is that you keep on writing and sharing with the BDH.
Thankyou House Andrews and Mod R for all the information about special editions, archiving of old blog freebies etc. I look forward to being able to purchase consolidated publications of cut scenes, extras, etc that I read in blog posts, remember vaguely but can no longer find!
I have a humble request. If time permits, would you consider completing “ When Gerard met Helen” to be released at, or just after, Christmas so the BDH can buy ourselves a holiday treat ? (Gordon, you may have to sit on Ilona to make her keep it to long short story/ novella length.)
The success of The Inheritance shows mature protagonists are embraced by your loyal readers as warmly as your younger protagonists are. ( In fact I believe the BDH is keen to read The Inheritance 2 as soon as you have time to tell us the rest of Ada’s story. ) We love Innkeeper and I’m confident a short prequel novella featuring Gerard and Helen would be successful.
Thank you again for sharing such wonderful stories with us. I am sure I speak for many of the BDH in saying I look forward to Maggie, more Maggie, more Kate Wilmington years, more Iron and Magic, more Julie/ Aurelia Ryder, more Inheritance and more Innkeeper in the next few years.
Great explanation, thank you! My fear was/is that special editions published via Arcane or Owlcrate cannot be ordered by non-members and even if you apply to join, it won’t be in time to be eligible for actually ordering those special editions, i.e. the time from the announcement until the order link goes live is too short to become a regular member in the subscription service. That’s where I see the “behind a paywall” argument but not as a paywall issue and rather an exclusivity issue. I understand that special editions are limited but I – and most of the BDH probably – would really appreciate if we all at least had a fair chance to try and order one of the special editions with said bonus content. Also, the special editions are preeetty (I love my Blood Heir/Iron & Magic Arcane box)!!! So any early information/announcements, etc. are highly appreciated!
^ that part. It’s not that you have to pay more for them etc. it’s that even if you wanted to you couldn’t because it wouldn’t be available. Subscription wall maybe instead of paywall. And yes SO MUCH FOMO 😭
I actually found Blood Heir by Subterraneon Press on ebay. It’s a crapshoot to be there at the exact right time, but sometimes you get lucky.
Oops I lied. I bought Hugh and Julie from SP, it was the second Innkeeper book I found on eBay.
Thank you! Almost all the info above is new to me, so very interesting.
The best part in all of it is the themed anthologies!! Happily waiting… 💜🩵😎
Yay for letting me pay for all the old tidbits at some point in future.
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer these questions so carefully. I do have a sense of how time consuming and energy draining doing so can be. I am a professor at a small tuition-driven university where the major emphasis lately has been “retention” of every student, so faculty have been urged (commanded?) to make sure our customers—ahem … students—are satisfied. This means answering students’ emailed or course software-generated questions—questions to which they could easily find the answers to by reading the first page or two of the syllabus posted on the course website and available 24/7 or by consulting the hardcopy edition I handed to them on the first day of class. I will respond to such questions with the direction to find the answer in the syllabus posted on the course website under “such-and-such” heading.
When their question requires more than a sentence to answer it fully, I usually ask them to call me at home (yes, they have my home landline phone number for emergencies) right then because writing out a response would take much too long and speaking would be faster and allow them to ask follow up questions if anyhing were to be unclear to them. Seldom will they call, I suspect because it involves them to engage one on one with their professor—that and perhaps it takes up too much of their own time.
So, thank you, Ilona (I suspect it is Ilona who has wrtten this, particularly because the author ends w a “hug” gor the BDH). I “get” what responding in this fashion to questions from the BDH can cost. A massive thank you to both Gordon and you for for treating the BDH with such respect, a major clue to how deeply you appreciate the dignity of each human being.
Please, keep writing your novels! You have contributed greatly to maintaing my continued mental health equiblibrium in the face of the growing, now cascading, ill-considered changes to undergraduate teaching in the US. The greatest and most dangerous of these changes, of course, is the new model in which a university education has been commodified as if it were some product to be sold, in much the same way a car will be marketed and sold.
At any rate, thank you for your work and time.
Thank you for all the info, it is appreciated.
Looking forward to the bonus stuff books coming out!!
I just learned a lot. Thank you for taking the time, and making the effort, to answer all these questions.
Off topic but my question would get lost in the flood of over 5,700 posts on the book giveaway blog post.
How are you going to chose the winners? Random drawing? Throw darts?
(Shaking my head, I still can’t get over the number of followers.)
Random number generator 🙂
thank you for planning to release the bonus content in themed anthologies, I will plan to buy it. However, will it be available to buy for Canadians? I saw your explanation previously on why your store can’t sell to Canada because of the different sale taxes in every province (it’s painful for us too sometimes). So while I would prefer you get the money directly, I will buy it any way I can get it such as through a third party. In these specific cases, would you release it through a third party such as Amazon?
All efforts will be taken to make it accessible, but the specifics will be decided closer to the actual anthology release.
I love how you side-step racial labels, and I hope that more writers will learn how to do it properly from you, especially in the melting pot of the United States.
In my archaeology days we used to take out the Muncell book of soil colors and see where we fit. Hue, Value and Chroma, shaded from black to white. Every single person was different, the base hue varying with ethnic origins but with darknest correlating more from sun exposure. The Sumatran and the Ethiopean won for color intensity in the red brown and brown black categories. The Italian was markedly darker than the African American girl, who was also in the yellow brown category. the Italian was reddish brown. I was always in that pale top left corner.
Perhaps someone can take a Muncell book to a Con someday, and authors can learn about all the different color combinations for earth and men.
There are some people that just keep their thought in and are quiet. Others need to get them all out. I/We love that you have to get all your thoughts out and share them…via blog, email or in books. Some are generously given and you all deserve to have us pay for the words you put in books so you can keep the lights on. Gratefull for all the formats.
Is there any chance of getting a word cloud on the comments for the raffle. I only read a few pages, and it was wonderful to see the various ways life makes us happy.
I’ve read every single comment so I can give you a manual one: time with family, friends, books, cats, dogs, hummingbirds, chocolate and professional achievements
Thanks, Mod R!
Thank you for sharing all of this! I am very sorry you have to. I am happy to pay for whatever you want to write and I am extremely grateful you do nice things like this blog and we get nice things.
So thank you for being you and I appreciate the extraordinary lengths HA and Mod R go to reach out to the BDH.
I’ve bought all of your books, and have read and re-read them multiple times. I hope you and your husband write for a very long time. Life would not be near as fun without your books.
Thinking of any other author I like as well as you guys, all I can come up with is Terry Pratchett (ditto on owning all of his books and re-reading them multiple times).
The FOMO and urge to buy special editions, just to get exclusive bonus content, is real for me.
However, as someone outside the usual countries that create these special editions, much as I would adore them, the cost of shipping is often substantially more than the cost of the book itself (I cancelled a fairyloot subscription for that exact reason) and therefore too prohibitive, especially since I already own most HA books in print (and digital, audio and graphic audio…).
I would, however, not hesitate to buy an anthology, and would very much support an option like that down the track.
Side note: I’ve got my mum into HA recently, starting with Innkeeper, then Kate Daniels, and now Hidden Legacy. I was able to direct her to this blog to check out Inheritance to get her hooked. And way back when, I too stumbled upon your blog and serials and got hooked myself.
Your books are an automatic purchase for me, and it all started because of your generosity in sharing content on your website. Thanks HA for wanting to be successful but not greedy. Much love.
(1) until reading this I didn’t realize I HAD questions about special editions. I just figured they were like the murena, someone reached into magic and pulled them out.
(2) Yes. I will happily continue making financial contributions to your continued writing career(s).
People’s perception of skin color is also very individual. Two very white people (my husband and I) adopted a baby in Peru who later had a genetic analysis which said that she was 82% (or so, I don’t remember exactly) native American. She has black hair, very deep brown eyes and dark brown skin which is how we described her on the paperwork to obtain her US citizenship. When we had the interview for her citizenship, the officer, who is African American) changed the description of her skin color to indicate a lighter tone. To us, her Indian skin tone was dark brown, to a person with a much darker tone, it was only a medium brown.
What you describe is not always going to be what we see in our heads.
I love your free content. I freely admit that I have read your books with different pronunciations of words but you are the authors and they are your characters. I now read them my way and then, the audible or Graphic Audio version overlays my thoughts annnddd I keep going. Why in the world would I complain? Your books are delightful and I reread them so much that I can almost remember exactly where I read a particular statement. Thanks so much for helping me to take adventures and feel a part of these characters’ lives. When you write about your actual lives, I also get that feeling because you both are such great storytellers. Thank you for sharing so much of yourselves on here.
I don’t know where to put this comment if the moderator thinks it is not correct for me to delete it. The first thing of all is to apologize for any mistake since my native language is not English. And the second thing yesterday brought me great joy when I saw that HarperCollins had published the Nevada books in Spanish, and I didn’t know they were going to do it. I would like to know, if possible, if there are plans to publish more books in Spanish from Hidden legacy or any other, I love all of his books.
Hi Gema,
Your English is excellent!
I can confirm that there is a Spanish edition of some Kate Daniels books ( for example https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Serie-Kate-Daniels-magia-muerde/dp/8492929014)
There will be a This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me – Maggie The Undying edition in Spanish, although at the moment, I cannot confirm publisher and release date 🙂
Only the first three of Kate Daniel’s are published in Spanish and On the Edge’s the first. It made me angry that they left the series halfway. And I have them all.
Unfortunately, this is up to the foreign publishers, not the authors or original pub house. If there is interest, the Spanish publishers are motivated to continue the translations. Perhaps a different Spanish publishing house would be willing to continue the KD project if enough readers let them know they would like to read the books in their native language? 🙂
Thx for putting up with us. Love your work. Free or otherwise.
❤️❤️❤️
Good response. Thanks for writing it.