The Killers Limited Edition -- Ways and Means

Posted by Colin Harvey Oct 8, 2008

In the last post, I wrote that the stellar cast -at least for a member of the small independent press-- for Killers made a limited edition almsot a no-brainer.

When we decided to do it, it was quickly obvious that shipping a hundred paperbacks around the world wasn't viable. Five of our authors were in the US, five in the UK, and one lived in Greece.

I suggested bookplates, but my publisher Dindy (rightly) rejected the idea as too messy, instead advocating that she create a hardcover, the dust-jacket to which would be signed.

I've already blogged about the decision-making process that led to the cover. What I haven't mentioned is the technical aspects that inevitably arise from a photographic cover, and that for a small company, adding in bespoke artwork of an atypical format causes serious delays. Time was rapidly running out if we were to ship to ten different destinations with the authors all due to go away and attend conventions at different times.

Nonetheless, the authors responded magnificently -- the wrappers arrived the morning before Bruce was due to attend a two-week conference, so he sat and signed them there and then. Nor was Bruce's prompt attention at all atypical. Philip took a few hours out of his monthly editing job to do the same. <p> Incredibly, we were on schedule -- until Hurricane Ike struck the coast of Texas, only a few hundred miles from my publishers in Arlington, and all bets were off....