"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
Any photos of this? Would be fun to see 😄
Lilja
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
Founder and publisher of Lividian Publications. My other website is BrianJamesFreeman.com. Please always feel free to email me or send me a PM if you have any questions about either!
Founder and publisher of Lividian Publications. My other website is BrianJamesFreeman.com. Please always feel free to email me or send me a PM if you have any questions about either!
Maybe it's just me but I always thought the free-for-all pages looked messy compared to something like this:
But it's certainly not going to stop me from buying a book I want and there may be practical reasons from a publisher's or author's perspective for doing the FFA that I'm not privy to.
That said, I like odd stuff and would get a kick out of a double-signed page, or a page where something unusual was done (a signature in another author's signature or something).
Also, does anyone else have books with multiple signatures and some are WAY larger than others? I wonder, does the author with the big signature think they that deserve to have a bigger place on the page - like, they get the sheet to sign and look at the other signatures and think "well I better make mine bigger than all those ones"? Or, maybe more likely, the most famous author gets them first and signs them in whatever we he or she wants and then the others sign smaller? There's one in particular that I can't think of right now where there's two ordered columns until about halfway down, and then a huge signature by one of the better-known contributors...
Actually, the most famous author would likely get them last. They are less likely to go missing that way.
"One day you're going to figure out that everything they taught you was a lie."
Founder and publisher of Lividian Publications. My other website is BrianJamesFreeman.com. Please always feel free to email me or send me a PM if you have any questions about either!
It's my preference, too, but it's only possible when we're 100% sure of who will be able to sign when the sheets are printed. If someone is a "maybe" and then it turns out they cannot sign, we hate the idea of having a blank line with their name there in the final book. It guarantees that A) we get calls and emails about why the person was "missed" and B) it draws attention to the person who was unable to sign and they get the same questions.
So unless we're 100% sure, we go with "yearbook" style signing sheets. But yeah, that's not my preference. I like the clean look of the named lines.
We're trying to do a better job of letting the authors know how many people are signing each sheet, so they can space themselves out appropriately, but sometimes you see signatures clumped together in one part of the sheet (people trying to leave room for a lot of other signers) and then a few big signatures from the last signers trying to fill space.
And some authors just sign BIG. It might be easier on their wrists depending on their signature. I'm not sure.
There is one author who shall remain nameless (because I've forgotten who it is now -- ha!) who ALWAYS shoved his signature into the highest spot on the sheet, even if he was the last one to sign and there was really no room there and he was signing by the crop marks and his name was going to be partially trimmed off. Didn't matter. HAD to be the highest signature in the book!
Brian
Founder and publisher of Lividian Publications. My other website is BrianJamesFreeman.com. Please always feel free to email me or send me a PM if you have any questions about either!
I remember signing Borderlands 5 -- not only did they have designated spots for each author's signature (also my preference), the sheets came with a cutout "size template" that you put over the line and your signature had to fit within the box!
Author of The Road to the Dark Tower, Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences and The Dark Tower Companion. Co-editor with Stephen King of the anthology Flight or Fright.
Interesting! I assumed that there were reasons for these things that I'm just unaware of and it's neat to hear it from a publisher how this actually works.
Also please don't take my post as a criticism directed toward CD, this was just the thread that made me think about it. I think I'm going to make a new thread for multiply-signed books. There are some cool ones out there and I'd love to see people post and comment on their favorites...
Did CD offer a Remarque on the forthcoming Sleeping Beauties? I’ve started putting together a collection of remarqued gift editions. Just curious...
Wanted:
Carrie PS Publishing Lettered ‘G’
Charlie the Choo Choo U.K. S/L #157
Dark Tower Portfolio #157
What’s the timing on the Sleeping Beauties S/L?
Founder and publisher of Lividian Publications. My other website is BrianJamesFreeman.com. Please always feel free to email me or send me a PM if you have any questions about either!
Brian,
Is there a more definite publication date for Night Shift than what is available on the production update?
Brian, I sent you an email with a couple of inquires
Wanted list:
Ubris
Founder and publisher of Lividian Publications. My other website is BrianJamesFreeman.com. Please always feel free to email me or send me a PM if you have any questions about either!
For those interested, He'll Come Knocking at Your Door and Tales from Greystone Bay will star shipping on Thursday.