For the Love of Books

Why I love a hardback special edition (and why I ended up making my own)

I love books. Don’t you? I assume that’s why you’re reading this, which is a relief to me as I probably don’t need to try too hard to convince you how bloody amazing a book can be.

To be clear, I’m no format snob. I read eBooks and paperbacks. Audiobooks are awesome too, the way they can transform a story into a performance, so that even if it’s raining or you’re driving, and you can’t hold an actual book, you can still experience a story. It all counts, and it all has it’s place in the world.

But there’s one thing I love above all else: a hardback special edition. If the Christmas lunch is the royalty of all lunches, then the hardback special edition is the same for books. I have plenty of them, but the strange thing is, I don’t think I’ve read any of them. I mostly read the paperback versions of the same story instead. I stuff it in my bag when I commute to work, pulling it out on the train, smoothing out the folded corners or frayed edges of the pages and I’ll consume it. That’s what it’s for. That’s why it’s printed on cheaper paper, with cheaper ink. It’s what pulp fiction was all about. We read, then we pass it on for somebody else to do the same. Or we recycle it so a new story can be printed on it’s repurposed parts.

Special edition hardbacks are different though. They’re not there to be opened and creased and stuffed in bags. (Although you can if you want to. Hey, it’s your book!) They exist in this world as beautiful things. To be gifted, to be fawned over, to be displayed on a bookshelf and lovingly looked at.

For me, a hardback special edition is something I buy only for my most favourite of stories. A story that will never leave me. It encases the whole experience of that story for me like nothing else can.

Why I made my own

When I finished writing my folk-horror novella Mask of the Hare, I knew I wanted a version of it that felt like an object, something for those precious, wonderful people who loved it, and wanted more. Something physical you could keep on the bookshelf and take out just to look at the cover or the inside art.

So, I set about making my own (with a lot of trial and error!)

The special edition hardback has:

• A full wraparound dust jacket featuring my hand-cut lino print of the hare

• My pencil and ink drawings of the protagonist Tamsin in the inside flaps and the first and last pages

• A protection sigil as a repeated pattern on the end papers.

• Red foil on the cover

• A red ribbon bookmark

(I did consider the all important sprayed edges, but as it’s a novella, there wasn’t quite enough page real estate on this one, but maybe I’ll include it in a future book!)

Every piece of art in it was made by hand. For a story about old witchcraft and a hand-carved mask, it felt right that the book itself should be made the same way, with a little bit of me pressed into it (symbolically, not literally you’ll be pleased to hear). It was a labour of love.

(If you’re an indie author wondering how I actually put it together, I wrote a step-by-step guide on my blog here)

As I said before, when I buy a hardback special edition, it encases the experience of reading a story.

For me, creating this hardback special edition of one of my own books encases my experience of writing this story. A reminder for myself that I can do this, despite how difficult and overwhelming it feels sometimes.

The hardback is a signed, limited run, and it’s only available from my website, but even if no-one else gets a copy, even if it’s destined only to be on my bookshelf and no-one else’s, then that’s fine by me. The book, the story and my experience of bringing a new piece of literature into the world has its own special edition, and no-one can take that away from me.

Alex

Mask of the Hare: A Folk-Horror Novella is out now in paperback and ebook from all the usual places. The signed special edition hardback is available now only at www.darkfellwrites.com