"Look at the absolute horror." "The Backstreet Boys want to know too. Tell me why." 😂😂😂 I COMPLETELY agree with you! The publisher just wants the readers to buy new books to match. It's an insult to the readers.
@@PetrikLeo I 100% understand and 100% agree. It's not being nit-picky at all. It just feels so frustrating because the reasoning behind it is non-existent
“The Backstreet Boys say why” this line is perfect 🤣 this is an absolute horror, and why I’m always hesitant to buy the physical copies of unfinished series.
Absolutely agree with you on this. I'll never forget when the cover was revealed for a A Dance with Dragons and I realized it wouldn't match the rest of my set of A Song of Ice and Fire books...unless I went back and bought the entire set over with new covers. It feels like such a scam against readers when this kind of thing happens mid-series, ESPECIALLY in an instance like Speaking Bones where they had everything right there, and it's the last book. The font is right! We're talking about tiny changes in formatting. There's no way that slipped through all the different layers of book creation without someone noticing it. The rant is well-warranted, and I'm sorry you and countless other readers have to deal with this.
There were so many gems in this video "What even is the point of this?!" "The Backstreet Boys want to know." "You know who are humans too? We are!" This made my day 🤣
I wholeheartedly agree with Salty Petrik! This is why I hesitate buying physical books now until every book in a series is released and I can check. Sad that it's gotten to that stage now. It's also annoying when the books are different sizes 🤦♀️
Absolutely not ridiculous to be upset or annoyed about this. We’re not just readers, but collectors of the books and especially the ones we love. It’s nice to have them on display when they match and look good.
US manga publishers between 2000-2010 were constantly doing this. 15 volumes in and they’d change their logo design and placement 😡 Also negative shout out to the publishers of Vivien Chien’s Noodle Shop Mysteries who recently issued book 8 taller and wider than the rest of the series. So frustrating!!!
That is so annoying. And not gonna lie, it's why I don't collect many manga in physical volumes too now. On top of being pricey, sometimes they can't even get their sizes right! 😅
Hi Petrik, 100% agree with you, I have a high functional OCD and things like that are very annoying, why are publishers like that? is it on purpose, negligence, lack of communication, lack of materials? I don't know but for me it feels as disregard for the consumer, change in the spines, fonts, sizes (I use balsa wood sheets to level books with this problem in my book shelves), tone colors to name just a few are problems that shouldn't exist, specially in the digital era when you can view, fix and modify the design way before you send it to print.
Yup. I feel like when this happens, or NEED to happen, the publisher or someone must address this so the consumer will know. It feels like we're duped without any information as to why this situation happened. So infuriating!
“Now look at this absolute horror! What the hell is this? This is so stupid. This is so dumb. There is absolutely no logic to make this design look this ugly.”-Petrik. Well said. I completely agree with you. Obviously the designers are not book collectors and do not even understand the idea of displaying book collections.
This is why I say, if they want to do something like this, it's better for them to mention and be upfront about the reason first. It's just annoying and infuriating to see it in the final product with no reason whatsoever!
I didn't look at it that way before. But dammit, you might be right. So stupid and annoying of them, though! And imo, ineffective but I have no proof. xD
Don’t look for a conspiracy here. The author of the first 3 books’ cover design changed and with him they lost the rights to use the same layout since it was his intellectual property. Copyright reasons.
@@danielbujdos Alright, I just did my research. The cover designer for the first three books is Michael McCartney. However, I can't find any data on who did the cover design for Speaking Bones. But, if they indeed change the cover designer, then you might be on point here that copyright is indeed the problem!
@@danielbujdos I've been wondering if something like this might be the case. However, it seems incredible that you would lose the right to put the author above the title. I wonder if anyone who works within the publishing industry has publicly confirmed this sort of restriction. I suppose most consumers won't care, but I would almost prefer that they all look different from each other than to have one seem like it's from a different series.
Well said, Petrik! 👏 I agree with you 100%! I no longer buy physical series books until the entire series is available with cohesive cover designs that look like they belong together. Your Backstreet Boys comment made me laugh. 😄
I completely empathize. Coming from someone who doesn’t have easy access to fantasy books, i often find myself with a mishmash, a mix between paperbacks and hardbacks, and sometime US and UK editions. For Dandelion dynasty, GoK is US paperback, WoS US Hardback, and the last two are the UK Trade Paperbacks with completely different cover design. So I’m always grateful when they all match. Find something else to complain about, that was cathartic to watch.
Thank you, Michel! I never like having a mishmash of copies. That's why I try my best to always do my research etc and get myself a matching edition. But when something like this happens, in a series I'm following, it's disappointing. I mean, they want us to support new authors as they release each book, and that's what I'm doing, but this happened? Yikes.
You are right. This seems to be the management problems at the publishers. There is a person who made the error but then someone who approved it before it went into mass print.
This video is not pointless at all, you are absolutely correct. It's particularly annoying because it's thoughtless: the designers had one job. They had one job to design the covers and spines and checking the new cover against the previous ones to make sure they match shouldn't have been too hard. Publishers can't get their head screwed on right: what about when they change the design for paperbacks and the next hardcover matches the new paperback design and not the original hardcover? That's something that never made sense to me. I get changing the art if through a market study they determined the original art didn't hit it right with the audience. But to leave readers with completely mismatched sets shouldn't be the right option. Whenever you have a moment, check The Diviners series on GR (US covers): you'll see the full horror show. All the covers are so damned different it looks like the publisher ran out of shits to give. The Sun Eater's covers are gorgeous. My favorite is the fourth one but I agree the second is amazing.
Thank you, Cillian! It's always baffling when this happens. All they need to do is supposedly copy-paste the available format of the previous three books, how hard could they be? I could actually ask someone to do it now and I would get the result I want. The cover art for The Kingdoms of Death is my second favorite cover art in the series so far! So stunning! :)
"The Backstreet Boys want to know about this, too. Tell me why!" Great one! Had me laugh out loud. And I gotta agree, I also enjoy salty Petrik but I also feel sorry for you Petrik! So far I only own The Grace of Kings on Kindle and have not even started it. But would I own these books physically it would also pain me every time I look at them.
I was WAITING for this video 😭 I considered buying the beautiful American hardbacks to have two copies of one of my favorite series…but now….I mean wtf
It is typical for all publisher around the world. But it's already good enough when it is possible to order a book in the same design style. I have tree book from this series. 1. Russian edition, hardcover, no dist jacket. 2. US edition, paperback. 3. UK edition, hardcover. They look great on a shelf next to each other.
My best guess, based on my experience working in a permanently under-resourced corporate publishing environment and without having tried to research this instance in particular, is that the approval of these covers got handed off to people who weren't previously involved, and either: 1) nobody thought/bothered to check they were visually consistent with the first two previous books (this is a scenario that happens way more than you think it would, especially with turnover and print deadlines) OR 2) someone DID pick up on this but the issue was discovered after the printer proofs/files were already approved and the print run scheduled, and there wasn't enough time to make changes without pushing out the release date. With print-on-demand, you can easily swap out the files in a matter of hours, but that's not the case with offset printing, which requires a longer lead time to set up as the printing plates have to be created. Plus, offset printers usually have scheduled dates to produce the print run. So if you miss the agreed cut-off, not only do you have to get the printing plates made up again, you also need to wait for the next available slot in their production schedule, and ever since COVID hit, printers have been backed up thanks to paper shortages, etc. Unless there's a miracle, the publisher would have no choice but to push back release dates for distribution into bookstores, then would have to rebook all of the book launch events and publicity, etc, which basically means pushing back release dates isn't really a commercially viable option. So if this was the situation, the publisher would've just went "oh crap, welp" and gone with it, betting on there being enough reader demand thanks to the book being the last in series to sell out that first print run. I would bet if/when that first print run sells out, the cover will be redone and made more consistent with the others in a second print run. Granted, this is probably not the worst example that's out there, since they at least went with an offset printer. When Fonda Lee's Jade City hardcovers sold out, her publisher decided, for some bizarre reason, to go with IngramSpark's print-on-demand hard covers instead of ordering a second print run from an offset printer. (They probably didn't go through the IngramSpark platform that self pub authors use, but I would recognize that hardcover finish from Ingram anywhere). They didn't even go with the jacketed case laminate edition but picked one of the digital cloth formats. It was truly bizarre decision-making.
I think number case number 1 is more likely here. Someone pointed out another possibility could be copyrights issue caused by a change in cover designer. It's weird, though, if it's true... This is why I always say, it's mandatory for publishers to say something when something like this is going to happen to at least minimize reader's uproar! And I know the Orbit edition you mention for Jade City, that was so bizarre indeed.
@@PetrikLeo It's true that there's an interaction between contract law and copyright law when it comes to book covers and cover art (Creative Law Center has a great write up on this point). And it's also not uncommon for the cover design and layout to be done and contracted separately from the cover art itself. The Priory of the Orange Tree is a good example of this-the cover art/illustration is by Ivan Belikov, but the art direction and cover design is by David Mann. But here's what makes me skeptical that this happened due to copyright issues: Assuming the cover design wasn't completed in-house by an employee of Saga Press (in which case, the typical employment contract would mean all rights belong to Saga Press), there's always the option to: a) hire the same cover designer for the fourth book; or b) licence the cover design (e.g. layout, composition, etc) from the cover designer for the fourth book; or c) buy the rights to the cover design from the cover designer These aren't difficult or costly things to do (and I mean costly in a relative sense, of what I'd guess the title P&L would look like for the last two books in this series), or unreasonable requests if you have a good working relationship with the cover designer. Hence why I think the only plausible reasons that these things weren't done is that they were overlooked or they ran out of time before the print deadline. I can't think of anything else that would make sense!
"the backstreet boys want to know too" 😂😂😂😂😂 that's hilarious. But I completely agree, it's unacceptable and shows how little the publishers care about their customers, especially when it's such an illogical change like the dandelion dynasty. Saga press really should address this. You make great points, I myself am very particular about which physical copies and covers I buy, because I'm spending my money on these books and keeping them on the limited space of my shelf, so I want to make the right decision for my purchase, but this just sucks because as the customer you can't do anything about it and its also so unfair for the authors 🤦🏽♀️
It’s so frustrating when publishers put current cover “trends” over consistency. I would much rather buy books that match than books that are more “eye catching”
Completely agree with you. How difficult is it to make a matching set,it's like the publishers doesn't care about the readers.With the fourth Dandelion book,the only explanation I have is that they didn't bother to watch how the spines of the previous books look like. At the Sun Eater books,the spines don't match,the first one has the author name a bit smaller but it's not so bad after all,unlike Dandelion Dynasty.I haven't bought Ken Liu's books yet,I will wait a bit,maybe they will change the spine of the last book like how is already happened with the first two US Edition of the Stormlight books.
Thank you! It's so frustrating. It could be an honest mistake, but at the same it didn't feel like it, too. 😅 For Sun Eater, yeah the design changed a bit but it's not too big in comparison to the Dandelion Dynasty. Let's see whether they will rerelease the first 3 books with a new hardcover or maybe Speaking Bones with a matching design someday!
Oh my gosh! I’m with you that this is so frustrating! And you are so kind in all of your videos, so for you to post a rant…. That being said, you had so many good zingers and one liners. So funny. While I don’t want you to feel the need to rant, any time you post a rant I will be watching.
I feel your pain. In the 4-book series by R. Scott Bakker of the Aspect-Emperor, books 1,2and 4 are published by Overlook Press and those three books all are the same size and general design. However, book 3 is published by Orbit and is bigger and different colors and design. What the heck - why?
Wow, you're right, Benja. I just checked, and apparently, the ONLY available book 3 for Aspect-Emperor that is published by Overlook Press is a hardcover edition which is unavailable now! :/
Oh man, yes. This. This whole month I've getting books that mess with my bookshelf harmony (Into the Narrowdark by Tad Williams being one of them..grrr). Drives me crazy. I hate it so much. I understand some of them - authors changing publisher, contractual things, etc. But there is a special place in hell for anyone those deciding to change them FOR NO FREAKING REASON. The switching positions of the author name and the title thing should come with prison time, as far as I am concerned. I haven't gotten Speaking Bones yet but now I am pre-pissed off.
Yeahhh, I haven't even read The Last King of Osten Ard, but I bought The Witchwood Crown and Empire of Grass hardcover because I love the cover art by Michael Whelan so much. The change in cover artist hurt so much.... :( And yeah, I agree with you. Those who change cover design with no freaking reason deserve punishment. This is also why, I think if publishers want to do something like this, they better mention why rather than go radio silent and leave their readers angry.
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Whoever published The Expanse did the same thing - sometimes the author is at the top of the spine, sometimes the title. My Stormlight Archive spines don't match - three of the titles are horizontal, and one is vertical... this drives me crazy.
The original editions of the first two books of the Stormlight Archive are vertical. But the newer printings now of 1&2 have them horizontal to match 3&4
Yeah! I know what you mean. For The Expanse, they switched the title and author for the US edition starting from the 4th book after the author got so popular. While for Stormlight, they started doing it since Oathbringer because they thought the new design is better. 🙃 They've rereleased the new hardcover with a matching design, but feels like a ploy so we buy them twice.
@@PetrikLeo Yay Tor haha. The problem with that, though, is if you order online, you don't know what you'll get. I ordered the first 3 books the same time from Amazon and got the mismatched words of Radiance! But as a collector, if I see the correct spine in a book store I'll definitely buy a second copy just so they match!
I agree 100% I've also seen series where not only the cover art changes, but the physical size of the book changes. We need to write to publishers about these things. I've gone almost exclusively eBook, so it's not an issue for me. Then if I want hard copy, I'll go with the specialty publishers who produce jaw-dropping sets.
Thank you! I know what you mean. That seems to be the safest option for satisfaction, even if it's expensive to get the gorgeous set from specialty publisher!
That Backstreet boys comment got me 😂🤣 I agree with you though. I hate it when publishers do this. The Broken Binding are looking into how many people might be interested in a "midnight" edition of their Dandelion Dynasty release due to the huge demand their original printing had and they're changing the colors so the first buyers don't lose exclusivity. I for one don't care about that, just some pretty and - most importantly - matching books. Fingers crossed I can get those 😁
You took the words out of my mouth. Why???! This makes ZERO sense and is so perfectly awful that it’s almost like they’re laughing at us. 🙈 Especially by adding salt to the wound with the naked hardcovers.
The Backstreet Boys wanna know “why” 😂😂 This is what I noticed for Gemmell books. The last 3-4 in Drenai had pictures of real people as opposed to the previous ones being paintings.
It’s like the got to the end of one of their biggest epic series and gave up on the design department like the cover art works because it is cohesive but the design of the spines and then the naked book is just one big they gave up
@@mikesbookreviews ooff that one is bad. I know what you mean. Orbit in the past is not the same as Orbit now. Btw, any plan on First Law related content on your channel? I remember you mentioned planning something along the line of it. Just know I'll be up for it if you have something on mind! 😄
This is a series I've put on my reading list thanks to your videos. I hate when publishers make random unnecessary changes mid series that only serve to ruin your shelves. There's absolutely no reason to do this, just keep the old format 🙄
The series is definitely worth the read despite this travesty going on with the design, so at least there's that! Seriously, though, just keep the old format. How hard can it be!?
Interesting. Thanks for sharing, Petrik. I recently owned these fantasy books that it called "Legends of Ravens" and they are part of this series. The covers looks so beautiful and that's the reason I got them, but I found those aren't original covers for them and the original covers looks bad. The original covers shown silhouettes of the main characters with different colors, but the new covers shown each characters on every books and the artworks looks so beautiful. I am glad the author has changed artists. 🙂
Thank you, Shelli! Yeah, that's why I mentioned the example of Sun Eater in this video. I think, if done correctly and carefully, cover change might even work for the better like in the case of Sun Eater! :)
I feel you Petrik! They did this exact thing (infact even worse) with Sabaa Tahir's Ember in the Ashes series. Finding out that book 3/4 won't match 1/2 was my first real heartbreak. Also I bought His dark Materials trilogy from Amazon and the first book never showed up and now I have books 2 and 3 in one design and edition and no book 1 AND it's not available anymore on Amazon so 💀
"DO BETTER" I'm with you on that. I felt like that when I read the Expanse series. They changed the spines around after book 3. Makes you just want to go down there and smack soneone 🙄
Yeah, The Expanse was the first time I saw this kind of thing happen. In the case of The Expanse, I heard it was because the author became so popular during the time book 3 was released that they switched the positions! Annoying, though!
You think Ken Liu has it bad at Saga Press? Imagine collecting Brian Lee Durfee's books in hardcover format only to find out The Lonesome Crown is only available in paperback. I'm so glad I gave up on hunting The Forgetting Moon hardcover and bought the paperbacks. Dodged a pricy bullet there. It's beyond my comprehension why they change the art style all the time. I'm now collecting series called Legie by two Czech authors (in native language) that's released by small Czech publisher and the spines are slowly creating image of the space ship characters travel in and they match perfectly. This is a small publisher. Why then Saga Press or Tor who have infinitely more money to spend on book design do this? There is only one possibility. They don't give a shit about consistency and never did.
I know about Brian Lee Durfee, too. He has talked about it plenty of times. I'm glad I got the books in paperback since the beginning. My edition now matches. At least Brian doesnt have any design or cover change. I'll say both of them have their own bad disadvantages here. Saga Press and Tor are notorious for changing cover design or cover art, and it's baffling because they are big publishers. 🙃
I agree. This kinda thing makes me just want to box up the books and not display them at all. Also love the sun eater art and really think you should bump the series up on your TBR. Worth it. Also need more salty rant videos and a spoiler review of Dreadgod.
Thank you, Tyler! Glad you agree with me. The current plan is to start Sun Eater at the end of the year. The latest will be early next year! We'll see depending on my schedule! 😁
I collect a lot of books as well Petrik and I am right with you on this one. It is so frustrating that publishers do this. Book Collectors then have to rely on second party companies like Juniper Books to get replacement jackets for their books.
I'm glad you understand my feeling on this, friend! It's so annoying that we have to rely on Juniper Books and other companies to make sure our copies have the same matching design! :/
Sins Of The Publishers Movie covers Promo stickers that aren't stickers but are printed on the book Size changes miseries Layout changes miseries Not keeping books in print
I'm sure you already know but people that preordered all UK paperbacks also got screwed with different sizes for books 1 & 2 vs books 3 & 4 :( I have the wait for 2023 if I want the matching-sized editions of the full set.
I bought The Grace of Kings and Wall of Storms last month and got similarly pissed off when I realized that the paperback editions will no longer (apparently) come in the black design, but in the silky-pink color scheme. 😩 Though I did hear that there is a chance that they release the paperback editions in black, but that it'll take a bit longer. I'm not holding my breath on that one and might decide on getting The Veiled Throne and Speaking bones in hardcover just because of the color. Not sure yet. 🤔
Ah yeah, the past UK edition for The Grace of Kings and The Wall of Storms doesn't have a continuation in design and cover art as they've changed it to the new edition. Who knows whether Head of Zeus will release the paperback in black or not, I don't think so, though.
When I first started my series I found a good artist and told him that all the books in The More Than Human Universe had to be in the same style. The drawings are all different but if you put them beside each other you would automatically know that they are from the same series.
Oh man, you are so justified in your saltiness, Petrik. This is one of the reasons I have a hard time with series, but wow, this is irksome to the highest degree. I think I'd want the UK paperback edition of the series should I start collecting them.
Yeah, to have this happened at the LAST book of the seried is insanely infuriating. I think you should get the new UK paperback though. They have a matching design, and the series is honestly amazing!
I agree. The first example was a change in layout and there was no reason for it. If people knew that then they would have gone with the eroupe version or kept it as a ebook. It feels wrong they would do this to their customers. Tad Williams book would make me just buy the ebook. Hopefully Grim Oak will do that series justice.
Exactly! I definitely will read Into the Narrowdark in ebook. No way I'm buying the physical book even though I own Witchwood Crown and Empire of Grass in hardcover already! I can't afford the Grim Oak Press book, unfortunately!
I love that I found your channel a while back. Give us more salty Petrik, he’s absolutely brilliant! 😂 but I understand your frustration. I refuse to buy non-matching covers. I usually wait a bit to see if any book box will do a matching set (or The Broken Binding, they’re killing it with their sub). If not, I just wait until the e-books drop below 5€ 🙈they always match in e-format 😅
Thank you, Sofied! Hahaha glad you love watching salty Petrik! I will try to not flood my channel with salty content, though. 🤣 Also, I agree with your decision to buy ebooks! At least we can't go wrong with their format there!
The US paperback of the veiled throne doesn't match the first two either (they got rid of the shorter cover) and I had to assume it was some kind of supply chain issue and they changed suppliers, but man, part of me wishes I started this series after the new UK editions were released so that I could at least have a full set 😭 I've just resorted to reading the last two on my eReader
I didn't know that regarding the US paperback, Tammie. This is so annoying. Like, this is such an amazing series by an underrated author already. Why make it so difficult to get a physical copy (both US and UK) with a matching design for the series!
I feel your pain. I will never buy books in a series until all the books in a series are available to avoid such a situation. Next level worse scenario I think, is when the physical size and or font used for the book changes mid series.
It is so frustrating. I love buying books and supporting author. But not when I'm betrayed like this... changes in physical size and font is super annoying, too!
Hey Petrik - couldn’t agree more! I’ll also note that my copies of grace of kings and Wall of storms have the built in lace string bookmark but the other two books don’t. So frustrating!!!
I have to say, i have the same pet peeve. It's also one of the reasons I refused to buy the UK hardbacks. I managed to track down the broken binding edition so I don't need to bother you anymore for your set! 😋
I understand your concerns... the British paperback version and concepts are so much better and if I recall the art on the spines connect. I just order the ebook version for speaking bones and ordered the physical version on Amazon. However, my bigger concern series in not getting as much as much notice as other modern fantasy books in general. It is my favorite modern fantasy book of all time as well even though I have not finished speaking bones yet but so far so good. I wish it would get more notice like Stormlight Archive and the Green bone saga in Pop culture as someone who had read a lot of books, it deserves more attention in the book tube community and beyond American fantasy pop culture.
I'm only two books in the series so far, and it certainly has become one of my favorite series of all time. I think this year, at least on booktube, The Dandelion Dynasty is gaining traction with readers. I hope this will continue because the series is truly amazing! :)
I agree i want consistency in my books, this happened to me recently when i decided to replace an entire series due to mismatched covers and despite them all being brand new printings the first books spine was a different layout to the other 3 books. the other annoyance i find is size differences (height) i have series which were released in a larger book size but then the latest versions are in smaller formats so i now have to find out if a larger version exists of a book or replace the older books in a series to match the height of the newer books..
Consistency in book design and book cover, especially when they look good, is one of the things that make physical books more satisfying to own. It's so annoying when something like this, or different heights across a series, happened! :/
I really would like an explanation as to why they do this! Do they not save a template of the first book to follow for future books?! And when books in series are different sizes...how do they just make a book in a completely different size!? It makes no sense to me and especially when I go out of my way to make sure I can get the editions that match the most, its so frustrating that no one at the publisher even checks that, or if they do, they don't care to fix it
EXACTLY, Sarah! I completely agree with you. In this case, they already have the template for the previous three books! It's so crazy to have it different like this at the end of the series! :/
Waited 1/2 year to get The Return of the Thief in paperback so my editions of The Queen's Thief series match but thankfully, these books at least completely match without even the smallest change. The first three books were originally published with different cover art but changed in 2017, though to be honest, with more than 20 years between book 1 and 6 of that series, it isn't that surprising. Anyway, a series I recently finished and one I absolutely love. If there's one YA series you'd enjoy in the entire world it would be this one. Gen is one of my favourite protagonists of all time and feels like the love child of Kuni and Locke😅, the writing style is magnificent and the world building very intricate. Can only recommend.
I know that series! Glad you manage to dodge a bullet with that one. I think this one has a bit of a different situation as the last book came out 20 years after the first book. It's insanely hard to keep a cover design and cover art to be done in the same style for that long. I have the series on my radar, too. I look forward to reading it someday! Gen as the love child of Kuni and Locke sounds awesome! :D
The series' physical copy design is a real mess. The series has been getting some great publicity but I refuse to spend any more money on it. I even got a signed copy of the UK Speaking Bones hardcover before finding out that book 1 & 2 won't be reprinted with the same art. The Broken Binding is allegedly releasing a reprint (with slightly different art) of the UK version for the whole series. Although I've bought most of The Broken Binding's special editions of late I don't think I'll be giving it a second look with this. As a side note, although the Sun Eater series has amazing artwork throughout despite the artist change Empire of Silence US (UK design is pretty bad IMO) is basically unobtainable under $100 as the print was quite small. DAW it seems has little interest in a reprint even though Christopher Ruocchio as been requesting it for years. Very frustrating!
I know what you mean! It's REALLY difficult to get a hardcover of Empire of Silence US edition now. As you said, the UK edition for this one seems so inferior in comparison, and it's such a shame it's practically impossible to get DAW Books to reprint the first book in hardcover! :/
One of your bibliospren here, and I feel exactly the same way on this. Love your channel! Great content! Maybe you will read one of my books one day, but not a must. I love your channel no matter what! I will be upgrading my support soon.
Thank you so much, Michael! For the kind words and support. Either I forgot or I didn't know you have books out, sorry for that, but I'll look into them! 😊
I never get tired of watching this! Coping mechanism: I wrap all my physical copies where the covers annoy me with gift wrapping paper! 😂 P.S. The Navigator's Children cover (out now) is much better than Into the Narrowdark imo but still not Whelan level...yeah. 😔
Hahaha! Thank you, Paromita! Yeah, I'm not a fan of the new cover art for The Osten Ard saga. Whelan could've created something so much more epic and beautiful. 🙃 That's a good idea, too!
Other than enjoying Salty Petrik coming back out for a video, I do think it's valuable to highlight that series may change art, look and even style partway through and we should watch for that if having matching books is important to us. So perhaps there IS a small purpose beyond venting!
Thank you! I guess that's true, Joshua! And as proven in this video, it is entirely possible to change cover art mid-series and to have it work as well, as rare as it is... xD
I feel bad for you and for all Ken Liu's effort. At least The Broken Binding ones match. Even they dissapointed me just a little bit with the minuscule front size for the SE of "Daughter of Redwinter", but I will gift it to a friend with a better vision.
Thank you so much, my friend! The Broken Binding ones is the only one with a matching design. Unfortunate that we won't have one with the US cover art, though...
I hate looking at my collection of these on my bookshelf!! Saga needs to give us new book covers. I loved the Back Street Boys reference. Thanks for validating how I felt about these mismatched covers! Love your content.
This hurts my soul!! I ordered the penguin editions of all 10 Malazan paperbacks, and the last 3 were bigger than the rest for no apparent reason. It bothered me so much that I sold them as quick as I could lol. I agree with some of the other comments here... thank you for bringing this to the light. Maybe they will get it together eventually.
For me, Toll The Hounds and Dust Of Dreams were larger than the others. BUT MY COPY OF THE CRIPPLED GOD IS THE NORMAL SMALLER SIZE! I can't be bothered to change it now. It's hard enough to find these books at good prices as it is.
It hurts my soul, too, Erik! I wish it didn't happen, but it did! 🥲 For Malazan, I almost went for the Bantam edition but resorted to Tor Books mass market paperback just because I want to collect the series with a matching design! 😄
Salty Petrik is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT CORRECT. Publishers troll us constantly with size changes, cover changes, font changes, etc. We are open to small changes, but this sort of mess could be avoided!!!
This is one of the many reasons why I don't bother buying hardcovers as they come out, and rather wait for paperbacks. One of the few plusses to hardcovers (for people like me who hate the reading experience of hardcovers) is how they look on the shelf. If even that isn't going to be guaranteed, I might as well save the money.
Thank you so much, Angela! I have the eARC of Into the Narrowdark already. I'm not willing to spend my money on the physical copy even though I own the first two books in hardcover already.
Couldn’t agree with you more! I own the hardcovers and cringe when I see them. On another note, I preordered The Lonesome Crown in paperback, even though I have the prior two books in hardcover. Completely understand things happen in publishing and want to support Brian Lee Durfee.
Yeah! That's what we do. We support authors we care for. And that's why it gets even more annoying when things like this happen all the time. I own The Forgetting Moon and The Blackest Heart in paperback, but still wish he would get a hardcover for the last book in his series! :')
That first example, that's a crime. You should look into suing. Even the tiny designs on the spine seem to be different sizes. The fact that the books are so 'close' to being the same makes it even worse. It was right THERE. Except for the last one, hope is lost for that one. I also don't think that is a mistake, that's got to be deliberate. It might seem petty to some, but I really hate it when they change design, even if they want to improve. You know the German term of "verschlimmbessern"? I think sometimes it fits. You set out to make something better, but end up making it worse. The cover art of the last series is super pretty! The worst I've ever owned was a 4-book-series. Unfortunately, they were not quadruplets, but two sets of fraternal twins. All different colors. The first and third book matched in size and font. However, the second and fourth book were taller and wider than them by about 2cm in height. The pain doesn't end there. The logo of the publisher was either missing or on different places. The title and the author's name on the spine? At least a set of twins, I guess. They face different directions. Yeah. I thought I just mismatched different copies by mistake, but as far as I know that's how they got published. Oh, and design-wise? First three books looked like old books, but the last one is a gravestone. 💀
Yeah, I'm definitely not happy with the changes done towards Speaking Bones. It was annoying already in The Veiled Throne, but the cover design changed in Speaking Bones is disastrous. The example you mentioned sounds insanely infuriating, too! Sorry you have to deal with that! :/
I’ll do one better. I just started reading the dandelion dynasty so I ordered the new paperback ….. it has one of those stupid permanent stickers on the cover 😡😡😡😡. I understand changes from hardcover to paperback but why must we have the sticker permanently on the cover. As much as I hate them as well I would rather have a sticker I can remove 😠😞
Preach! One of my biggest pet peeves. Anyone who collects collected editions of DC Comics knows this pain as well. DC literally screws up the spines of every collected editions they publish. They always look like crap on the shelf and it drives us collectors crazy.
It is one of my pet peeves, too. And it's crazy how this practice is still repeated to this day. Some people have pointed out the same thing regarding DC and other comics. Kinda glad I'm not collecting them now... xD
Late on my comments...but yes, I do agree. I also have Ken Liu's Dandelion Dynasty series and we have the same opinion as well. I'm not even sure why the publishers are doing this sometimes. Why can't they just be consistent with their format for one series/duology/trilogy and then shift it for the others X_X
@@PetrikLeo ummmm. Just you wait. Well since you don't have hardcovers you won't care. The paperbacks "should" be okay. But. Anyway.........hardcovers.....😞
@@B.LEE.DbrianleedurfeeREVIEWS wait, what's going on? There won't be any hardcover!? I have the signed paperbacks from you in perfect condition. I treasure them! Also, it would be great if you could come to my channel in November or December after I read Lonesome Crown! 😊
@@B.LEE.DbrianleedurfeeREVIEWS let them know! It's not only just me, there has been plenty of viral tweets regarding this specific spine change on Speaking Bones on Twitter. And Saga Press never commented on any of them it's infuriating. I do believe this is one of those cases where things would benefit from the publisher explaining why it happened rather than being dead silence. As you said, physical books are work of art. We understand that cover change is unavoidable sometimes, but that spine change is simply ridiculous. Arghhhh, it sucks that Lonesome Crown won't be getting a hardcover! 🥲 Such a badass cover art, too! I'm thankful you at least manage to get Richard Anderson to do your cover art, though!
I agree with every word you said. I’m infuriated that I cannot have a matching set of the Dandelion Dynasty books. My copies are Head of Zeus so I’m screwed too. If Broken Binding had been smart they would have released a MUCH larger run. I’ve been emailing with Juniper Books about having a set of custom covers made. Do you want me to let you know what we come up with?