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| Hearsay: |
He does? More like Stephen King loves that you’re unquestioning enough in your love of the book as an object to get fleeced for $200 for his signature. I just love how some PR flack came up with the idea of King and Scribner teaming up to fight to save the book as an object and laid it down over the reality of King and Scribner ripping the shirts off the backs of loyal fans.
Stephen King and his long-time publisher intend to sell 1,500 copies of a signed, limited edition of his upcoming “Under the Dome” to his most fervent collectors at $200 a pop.
“We’re doing this to generate additional revenue,” says Susan Moldow, publisher of Simon & Schuster’s Scribner imprint. “We used to have a regular business of signed first edition mysteries, but we stopped because there wasn’t an additional mark-up.”
There will be this time: Presuming all 1,500 sell out, the print run will generate $300,000, to be divvied up between Mr. King and Scribner. Ms. Moldow declined to elaborate on the profit split, saying, “We have a unique joint venture with Steve, the terms of which we don’t disclose. But he does well.”
She said the book will be available shortly for pre-ordering from Simon & Schuster’s Web site, as well as a site operated by Mr. King.
“This is fighting back against the disappearance of the book as an object,” she adds.
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July 30th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Hell, I love books as objects, and I even like me some Stephen King. But $200 is way too expensive, especially if that’s all the “object” you get.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:35 am
I’m a little of two minds on this topic.
$200 for JUST a signed edition IS a little steep, but I’m holding off on judgement until there are more details available. I’ve gone pretty willingly into the ltd ed world for books I adore, but there’s been at least a sense of value added for the money. The Hill House edition of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, for example, is not only a beautiful, signed, slipcased limited edition, it was also a re-edit of the novel (the Author’s Preferred edition, the book equivalent of a Director’s Cut), a BEAUTIFUL edition, and it came with a reader’s copy of the book (trade paperback, so one didn’t need to mess up the Ltd), and a bound edition of Gaiman’s Good Omens script, which had never been produced, or printed. Similarly, the forthcoming Ltd edition of John Crowley’s Little, Big is going to be fully illustrated, include extra material, and a lengthy essay by Harold Bloom. If the King edition is similarly value-added, I don’t have a problem with it.
(And before anyone brings it up, yes, I’ve got a signed limited edition novella/essay/story available now, but the perceived bias actually runs in the reverse order than one might expect: it was my fondness for the Limited editions I had purchased that won me over to the idea of doing one myself, not the reverse…)
July 30th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I think editions such as Robert Weirsema described are worth the extra bucks you have to put out. (says she, who is not a stalker, but is a big fan of RW, and who has ordered said signed limited edition novella/essay/story) I think that signed versions have the most personal value if you actually asked the author to sign it. But, i’m very happy (or will be happy, once i’ve received it) with the signed extra value version.
July 30th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Here’s a good publishing strategy: publish in trade, with a small run of signed hardcovers for the serious fan. Anyone who wants to read the book is undeterred by price (since trade paper is less expensive) and fans can spend the $50 to get a signed “first,” perhaps with additional stuff thrown in. Powell’s Books’ Indiespensable program achieves something similar, and it’s fairly popular. people will pay for value.