If more publishers put out books that look like they had some effort put into them, I would buy more books. I mean, I love my paperbacks (because they get all beaten up and wrinkly and that shows how much I love them), but...really, one is really the same as the next (design can be nicer on some, etc, but a paperback is pretty much a paperback).
I've got two books that Sigler (shaddup, I know I mentioned him in the other post, but he's relevant to a lot of this stuff) self-pubbed (Crown didn't want this particular series). There's an e-book copy, an audiobook for sale, a podiobook for free, and the hardcover copies (limited runs).
The hardcover copies are beautiful. They're high-grade paper, excellently bound, awesome dust jackets, and each have a 12-page colour insert (like a little in-universe magazine).
Even fanboying aside, these are two of my favourite books, just by how they're put together. I mean, I know there's that small press (if they still exist, I cannot remember the name of them) that puts out prestige-uber-awesome copies of like Gaiman and the like, but they're extra-uber-expensive and you'd feel guilty reading them, they're more like shelf-only copies.
If, on the other hand, I could walk out and pay $34.95 for a hardcover edition of Neverwhere that had, like a 12-page insert of "A Walking Tour of London Below" with photomanips/illustrations of the various parts, I would throw down my money in an instant.
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I've got two books that Sigler (shaddup, I know I mentioned him in the other post, but he's relevant to a lot of this stuff) self-pubbed (Crown didn't want this particular series). There's an e-book copy, an audiobook for sale, a podiobook for free, and the hardcover copies (limited runs).
The hardcover copies are beautiful. They're high-grade paper, excellently bound, awesome dust jackets, and each have a 12-page colour insert (like a little in-universe magazine).
Even fanboying aside, these are two of my favourite books, just by how they're put together. I mean, I know there's that small press (if they still exist, I cannot remember the name of them) that puts out prestige-uber-awesome copies of like Gaiman and the like, but they're extra-uber-expensive and you'd feel guilty reading them, they're more like shelf-only copies.
If, on the other hand, I could walk out and pay $34.95 for a hardcover edition of Neverwhere that had, like a 12-page insert of "A Walking Tour of London Below" with photomanips/illustrations of the various parts, I would throw down my money in an instant.