I Miss the Days When Special Editions Were Special

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about how much money I’m spending on books, a line of thought which inevitably arrives at one of my biggest expenses over the last few years – special edition Black Library books (variously called Special Edition, Limited Edition, First Edition…). I’ve been planning to blog about special editions for a while now, but I’ve been finding it tricky to work out how to get my thoughts down into sensibly and thoroughly, so what I’m going to do in this post is take a look at just one issue that’s been bugging me for a while – the fact that special editions don’t really feel special any more. I might wright up some wider thoughts at some point, but for the time being I’m going to try and stick to this one point.

Over the last few years whenever there’s been the opportunity to buy a special edition of a book I have, for the most part, taken that opportunity despite the pain caused to my wallet. That has generally been a price I’ve (literally) been willing to pay because the special editions have been beautiful books which have given me enjoyment to read, and just to own. If I could go back in time to make decisions again, there are very few of the special editions that I would choose not to buy. Recently, however, I’ve been finding it difficult to make those decisions – or rather, the value judgements I’m faced with as to whether to buy a £40 hardback over an £18 hardback (or an even cheaper ebook).

Most of the special editions that BL release are genuinely lovely books, and fundamentally I’m happy to pay £40 for them, because they’re worth it. They HAVE to feel exclusive, though, and they HAVE to offer me the things I’m looking for in a special edition. The best of the BL special editions are, first and foremost, books that feels great to hold and read. They feature beautiful design, taking in the cover and the page edges (and preferably the pages themselves), and they look unique. They make great centerpieces of a collection – the books you look at on the shelf and think “wow, that looks gorgeous!” It’s important to me that they feel like the standout pieces in my collection, and that means they need to be special, and to be uncommon. In other words, there shouldn’t be too many of them.

I could write a whole post about the subjective value of special editions (I might actually do that) but at the moment I think the biggest bugbear I have is that there are SO MANY of them now that I’m just not really excited about getting them any more. As I’m writing this, I’m waiting to get hold of a copy of Chris Wraight’s The Lords of Silence, which I decided to order in standard edition rather than go for the £40 Special Edition. I’m also looking ahead to the next few months’ worth of upcoming BL releases and the Special Edition of Robbie MacNiven’s Blood of Iax alongside the Limited Edition of Guy Haley’s Corax: Lord of Shadows…both of which I’m planning on picking up in standard edition (eventually, in the case of Corax). There are some books that I know are coming out in the near future and I’m slightly dreading the thought of the special editions…

Why? Because I’ve already bought so many special editions this year, and as a result I’m feeling a bit burned out. “Oh right, ANOTHER special edition to fork out £40 for. What’s special about this one?” That might sound a bit dramatic, but a quick trawl through the spreadsheet where I keep track of BL releases (nerd, I know) shows that between January 2017 and November 2018 BL have, or will have, released TWENTY-FIVE Special Edition or Limited edition books. That’s assuming they don’t spring any surprise extras on us before the end of November. Twenty-five. That’s a total cost of £1,050 if you were to buy them all – twenty-three at £40 plus The Magos at £45 and The Warmaster at £85.

Over A THOUSAND POUNDS in less than two years?! That’s a lot of money if you want to get the lot. Personally, I decided from the off not to go for the Limited Editions of the Primarchs novels, so that’s eight taken off the list, but seventeen is still a lot! Now, I suppose you could argue that if one has the money to buy all these posh books then that’s great, and if one doesn’t then it’s just a case of prioritising and only buying those that are most interesting, but I’m not sure I really buy that argument. Strip out the financial aspect, and you’ve still got a release schedule averaging more than one special edition per month. That’s a lot of demand to sustain year on year, right?

Speaking of demand, let’s take a look at that as well. Back when special editions were still a rarity, every time a new Horus Heresy novella or a beautiful new hardback novel was announced BL would give it a big push online, we would all get excited about picking it up, and they would sell out immediately. Often, the BL website would struggle under the load of so many simultaneous transactions. Why? Because each one was a special event as well as a special edition. It felt exciting. I would be waiting anxiously at my computer as the on-sale time approached, ready to hit refresh and get my order completed. I remember being hugely excited to get hold of my copy of Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s The Talon of Horus special edition, which sold out SO QUICKLY because everyone was so hyped.

Fast forward to August 2017 and the LONG-awaited release of the sequel, Black Legion. The same beautiful styling. Exclusive short story. Limited to 2,000 copies. £40. Buy the SE hardback and get the ebook for half price. Once again, I remember waiting with bated breath for it to go on sale, and rushing to buy my copy. I needn’t have bothered. Twelve months later, and it’s still available to order on BL’s website. I mean…WHAT?! This is a book that fans had been waiting to read for years, the sequel to one of the finest 40k books ever written, by one of the most popular authors writing for BL…and in twelve months the special edition has sold fewer than 2,000 copies? That’s bonkers.

That’s supply and demand! It’s the same with Dan Abnett’s The Warmaster, which came out to great fanfare in December 2017…in a replica ammo crate, with a load of extra bits and pieces, for £85. Out of 2,500 copies it’s still showing up on the BL website with a ‘Fewer than 1,000 copies left’ note on it. Okay, so selling 1.5k copies of a £40 or £85 book obviously does net BL a decent amount of money, but it’s clear that special editions are not selling as well as BL would hope any more. After all, the whole point of releasing something ‘exclusive’ like a special edition is to cap the supply below the level of demand, in order to get it to sell out. That’s not often happening anymore, or at least not immediately – just take a look at any of the Exclusives sections on the BL site and you’ll see plenty of special editions still available.

That just feels like a real shame to me, and I find it hard to believe that the reason for the lower sales is anything other than an overabundance of special editions. Whether fans are getting priced out because they can’t afford all those £40 books, or getting fed up with them not feeling special anymore (or any other reason), I just don’t feel like BL have got the balance right at the moment. I’m a huge fan of BL, and always will be, so I want them to get this right. I don’t want this post to feel like an endless stream of criticism – I really WANT to get back to a point where I’m excited about getting hold of special editions again, to add a little splash of something extra to my collection.

So what’s the solution, then? Well, I don’t know. It seems to me that BL are going down the path of releasing increasing numbers of special editions to compensate for the relative underperformance of each one, sales-wise, but that doesn’t feel like a good solution to me. Not to mention the concern that the first book in a series will be released in special edition and then subsequent books won’t, which has been the case so far with the Fabius Bile, Horusian Wars and Dark Imperium series. Presumably that’s because the first book didn’t sell well enough, which is fair enough, and I appreciate that the nature of publishing means that it’s often not possible to know about these things in advance. Now that fans have wised up to what’s happening, though, it’s just another reason to be wary of buying a special edition if it’s the first in a series.

I just can’t see the current strategy leading to a situation where we – the fans – get genuinely excited about special editions again. I can see there’s also a temptation to make ‘bigger and better’ special editions complete with swanky boxes and extra gubbins, but I think that’s dangerous too. Look at The Warmaster – it’s too expensive, and the extra bits and pieces are nice but not what’s important. We’re BOOK fans, after all. Give us beautiful BOOKS, not boxes that won’t fit on the shelf properly. Don’t even get me started on Limited Editions coming out months before standard editions, as that just feels like holding fans to ransom.

I can just about cope with the Primarchs series, partly because a three month wait isn’t that bad and partly because it was clear up front that there would be (at least) eighteen of them, and there was no way I could justify spending £720 on eighteen Limited Edition short novels. I was disappointed when David Annandale’s Neferata: Mortarch of Blood came out in Limited Edition and there was no communication from BL about when the standard version would be released. As it was, that was a three month gap as well, but it really should have been made clear in advance. At Black Library Live earlier in the year there was talk of upcoming books being released in Limited Edition SIX MONTHS before the standard edition comes out, and I simply don’t agree with that. What’s the point, other than to pressure the most dedicated (or weak-willed) fans into paying more than they really want to?

I’m obviously not involved in BL’s decision-making process, and I don’t have sales data to base decisions on, but it seems to me that BL could do with thinking about sustainability. I understand the desire to sell more expensive versions of books, as it’s a good way of front-loading the life cycle of each book with some extra sales, and I also get that simply reducing the number available (from 2,000 down to 1,000, for example) isn’t necessarily the answer. There’s a vigorous secondary market for special editions (and often normal hardbacks, too) which sees them regularly change hands for ridiculous sums, none of which reaches BL, so it’s sensible to try and make sure as much money flows to the publisher and authors as possible. Surely it’s important to think longer term as well, though?

The Primarchs series is about halfway through now, so we know that there are going to be Limited Editions for each of the remaining novels – that’s not going to change, and nor should it at this point. If the Heresy has taught us anything it’s that fans value consistency across a series! There’s an opportunity, however, to pull back a little on the frequency at which other special editions are released, and to improve the communication about what each edition contains, when they’re going to be released and what’s going to happen next.

If I knew that there was going to be a beautiful special edition made available roughly every couple of months, that I had the choice of getting that or going for the standard edition at the point of release, that I could find out in advance exactly what extras it might include, then chances are I’d plan ahead and make sure I could buy all of them. I might even buy both editions – the special edition to read in the comfort of my home and the standard to take with me on the train into work every day. If that all meant I could say with confidence that each book in a series would have the same style and format, all the better! Equally, if I knew that only the first book would get the special treatment, I’d still be able to make an informed decision.

Would all of that contribute to greater demand for the books which do get special editions, and generate enough sales to compensate for fewer special editions being released? I don’t know. Nobody knows. Ultimately, however, the way I see special editions is that they should be about making money for the publisher and the authors, sure, but they should also be about looking after the most dedicated fans. Maybe that’s a bit naive of me, I don’t know. I do think that something needs to be done, however, if BL want to avoid finding themselves in a position where they lose the trust and confidence of their customers. I REALLY don’t want that to happen. I want to be able to look at upcoming Black Library releases and feel excited again, and I genuinely hope that happens!

I appreciate this is a total first world problem, and ultimately I can just speak with my wallet and stop buying special editions if necessary (which I’d be really sad to do). It’s been on my mind for a while, however, so I wanted to put some thoughts down and see where that gets me. Writing this has taken me WAY longer than I expected, and generated a load of thoughts and ideas which didn’t fit into this post, and which I might at some point put down in a separate article. Whatever happens, I hope all of the Black Library authors keep writing great stories, as in the end I’m still going to keep buying them in one format or another!

I’d be interested to know what you think about this – are there too many special editions? Are they too expensive, or too fancy? Do you disagree, and wish there were even more? Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments section below, or by finding me on Facebook or Twitter.