Black Library News & Rumour thread. LE Art of the HH book. p.129.

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Hulksmash**

Good lord. $30 per individual book. Bundle saves you $8.....

Well, that makes that easy I guess.

**foostick**

To be fair it's consistent with the price when they were released, I was foolishly hoping for a bigger discount.

I've got everything in Hardback from Angel Exterminatus onwards, might have been tempted to get all the others over time but I can't afford £100 before Christmas.

**Knockagh**

I would have loved to get all the series in hardback but since they pulled the rest getting the first 5 doesn’t make a lot of sense

**MajorWesJanson**

I still wait for the Legacy (proper) format books for the HH, but I may get the Hardback for Titandeath. It's about titans, and Guy Haley wrote it.

**reds8n**

Knockagh wrote:
I would have loved to get all the series in hardback but since they pulled the rest getting the first 5 doesn’t make a lot of sense

Just to clarify : this is the initial POD -- they're going to do all the HH books this way.

**phillv85**

I like the idea of this as I've never read anything from the Heresy, but I'm not sure I can be doing with stumping up £100 every time GW fancy printing some more books, and only having a 2 week span to do it in. I might just have to live with paperbacks or 2nd hand copies if I do decide to get into the HH.

**Knockagh**

reds8n wrote:
Knockagh wrote:
I would have loved to get all the series in hardback but since they pulled the rest getting the first 5 doesn’t make a lot of sense

Just to clarify : this is the initial POD -- they're going to do all the HH books this way.

I did not know that! Thanks

Automatically Appended Next Post:

phillv85 wrote:
I like the idea of this as I've never read anything from the Heresy, but I'm not sure I can be doing with stumping up £100 every time GW fancy printing some more books, and only having a 2 week span to do it in. I might just have to live with paperbacks or 2nd hand copies if I do decide to get into the HH.

I agree the two week window makes budgeting nearly impossible.

**Mysterio**

Are the "Primarchs" books going to remain hardcover only, or will they eventually get a softcover release too?

**BrookM**

They have been released as softbacks over time.

**Knockagh**

Another unannounced limited edition released today... emperors spears from ADB.
It’s not a regular one though it’s a bells and smells box set at an eye watering £85.
I love my limited eds but will give this a pass. Not the right style and too expensive

**BrookM**

Same here, still have some money to spend for the Holidays, but not €120,-

Shame really, as he's great at writing Space Marines and I've been itching for this one after all the teasing he did across social media.

Any word on when a more normal edition will drop?

**ImAGeek**

BrookM wrote:
Same here, still have some money to spend for the Holidays, but not €120,-

Shame really, as he's great at writing Space Marines and I've been itching for this one after all the teasing he did across social media.

Any word on when a more normal edition will drop?

6 months from this one.

**farmersboy**

£85? You're having a laugh, I bet it's not even got a real leather cover.

Yea gods, who buys these things?

**BrookM**

ImAGeek wrote:
BrookM wrote:
Same here, still have some money to spend for the Holidays, but not €120,-

Shame really, as he's great at writing Space Marines and I've been itching for this one after all the teasing he did across social media.

Any word on when a more normal edition will drop?

6 months from this one.

Well, at least with that price tag we don't have to worry about spoilers too much..

**Looky Likey**

farmersboy wrote:
£85? You're having a laugh, I bet it's not even got a real leather cover.

Yea gods, who buys these things?

I find it telling that its a limited edition of 1500, they haven't been able to shift all of the ultimate edition of the last Gaunt's book (2500 copies printed), there is still around 1000 left out of 2500. Black Legion was 2000 copies, still over 500 left.

6 months for the standard hardback, then a good few months more before the trade paperback. Think I'll be skipping this unless it gets rave reviews and I end up picking up the standard hardback.

**BrookM**

I know I'll be picking up the standard hardback for sure, €22,- is in my opinion a much more reasonable price for their hardbacks than €30,- or higher they used to maintain back then.

**reds8n**

Finished the last of the novellas last night.

Not a bad one amongst them IMO. All offered something different and there's a few of the characters I'd be interested in seeing again in another book.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/11/28/the-warhammer-adventures-continue/

Unless you’ve been living in the depths of the underhive, you’ve probably heard about Warhammer Adventures – a new range of Black Library books for younger readers. Aimed at ages 8 and up, there are two series of these innovative new takes on the worlds of Warhammer: Warhammer 40,000 Warped Galaxies and Warhammer Age of Sigmar Realm Quest. Both are launching in February 2019 in paperback, eBook and audiobook formats – the latter read by some extremely capable actors!

While we’ve been building up to the release of Attack of the Necron and City of Lifestone, the first books in the series, authors Cavan Scott and Tom Huddlestone have been hard at work on not only the second pair of stories in the Warhammer Adventures series but the third as well – and we are delighted to announce their titles!

In the grim darkness of the far future, Zelia and her friends will continue their adventures as they face horror in the Claws of the Genestealer.

Here’s the description, direct from Black Library:

Having crash-landed on a remote ice planet, Zelia Lor and her friends Talen, Mekki and the super-intelligent alien-ape Fleapit must do whatever they can to survive. A distress beacon offers some hope of rescue, but what else lurks in the ice and snow, watching them with hungry eyes…?

We caught up with Warped Galaxies author Cavan Scott to ask him what readers can expect from this second book in the series:

Cavan: What can you expect from Claws of the Genestealer? Let’s see… Scary monsters. Narrow escapes. A spooky spaceship. Daring rescues. A member of the team out-of-action. Ancient evil. Danger from below.

Following that, the 41st Millennium’s youngest heroes will be facing off against a very different alien threat in the third Warped Galaxies book, Secrets of the Tau. Here’s the lowdown:

Journeying to the bustling spaceport of Hinterland after being saved from certain death by a dubious Rogue Trader, Zelia, Talen and Mekki continue their quest to reach the Emperor’s Seat. But much here is not what it seems. Alone in a strange place and surrounded by aliens, who can they really trust and what are the secrets of the Tau?

Claws of the Genestealer will be coming your way in spring 2019, with Secrets of the Tau arriving in the summer.
Landing alongside the two new Warped Galaxies books will be the next pair of Realm Quest stories, written by Tom Huddlestone.

Book 2 is called Lair of the Skaven, and here’s what the heroes will be facing:

When their master, Vertigan, is kidnapped, Elio and his friends are determined to try to rescue him. Using a powerful artefact, they forge a magical doorway into a forbidding underground world teeming with Skaven ratmen! Hopelessly outnumbered, Elio, Kiri, Alish, Thanis and Kaspar must use all of their cunning if they are to find Vertigan and escape alive…

Can Elio and company find their way out of the Skaven labyrinth and back to safety? And even if they do, what will they face next? The answer can be found in book 3 of the Realm Quest series, Forest of the Ancients:

As Elio lies stricken under a powerful curse, the only way his friends Thanis, Alish, Kiri and Kaspar can cure him is to venture into the Forest of the Ancients. Rumour tells of a race of healers who dwell there, the mysterious tree-folk known as the Sylvaneth, but are they allies or enemies…?

You’ll be able to read these stories in Spring and Summer of 2019 – but first, you’ll be able to get your hands on book 1 of each series in February.

Until then, the Warhammer Adventures website has plenty of fun stuff to keep you busy, including games, quizzes and printable pages to design your own Warhammer Adventures characters. Best of all, there are exclusive previews of Attack of the Necron and City of Lifestone, in both eBook and MP3 audiobook format! Head over there now to download them and whet your appetite for the Warhammer Adventures to come.

**farmersboy**

Looky Likey wrote:
farmersboy wrote:
£85? You're having a laugh, I bet it's not even got a real leather cover.

Yea gods, who buys these things?
I find it telling that its a limited edition of 1500, they haven't been able to shift all of the ultimate edition of the last Gaunt's book (2500 copies printed), there is still around 1000 left out of 2500. Black Legion was 2000 copies, still over 500 left.

6 months for the standard hardback, then a good few months more before the trade paperback. Think I'll be skipping this unless it gets rave reviews and I end up picking up the standard hardback.

I gave up on The Warmaster after finally getting BL to confirm that unlike all the other Ghosts novels, it wouldn't be issued in MMPB. Kindle it was then, the only actual books I buy at the moment are the Heresy novels, MMPB of course, and that's a real test of patience.

Whoever came up with the idea of the awful Trade format paperback wants flogging...

**Mysterio**

It is, allegedly, the 'only' way for book sellers to make money on print books these days.

It might actually be 'the only way to make the most money', but we're stuck with it now, for many things that aren't going to have *huge* print runs especially.

**Looky Likey**

While I dislike the trade format, I don't see it as Black Library's fault, but the industry as a whole. I don't really like any paperbacks though, as the lower quality of paper used in them against a hard back means the paperback go "yellow" over time if you have them long enough.

**Yodhrin**

That's never bothered me tbh, I buy books to read not to look pretty. The problem with hardbacks is sticking with those means I can only read about 1/3 as many books. And while you can't blame BL for following the industry trend to releasing Trade format books, I think it is fair to blame them for ceasing to issue MMPB versions of long-running series that, realistically, have to be drawing to a close fairly soon(meaning it's not a huge commitment people are demanding of them, just that they finish what they sodding start). I think it's also fair to blame them for their exploitative release model where Trade are issued sometimes months after hardbacks, and MMPB months after that if they come at all - they know damn well they're cynically leveraging the fact that people don't want to have the plot of their favourite series spoiled in order to drive sales of the more expensive hardbacks(or to prompt people to buy twice; digital at release, paperback later for the shelf).

BL may not be the cause of the trends in the publishing industry, but they happily go along with them and have zero qualms about doing so in the most gratuitous and cynical way possible.

**BrookM**

Seeing as it's official fiction: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/11/30/the-three-armed-gunfightergw-homepage-post-3/

Should be a no-brainer as to who this one is about.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

It's about a squig, probably,

yes that's it a squig

**Knockagh**

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/siege-of-terra-the-solar-war-limited-edition-cs-2018

If I could put dramatic music alongside this I would! I’m in love.

**reds8n**

Does look lovely, but i think that's a bit too steep for me.

. ah well..

**AndrewGPaul**

Mysterio wrote:
It is, allegedly, the 'only' way for book sellers to make money on print books these days.

It might actually be 'the only way to make the most money', but we're stuck with it now, for many things that aren't going to have *huge* print runs especially.

From comment 21 (by the author) from this blog article on the fiction writing/publication workflow:
CMAP #2: How Books Are Made

Charles Stross wrote:
Perhaps I'm getting ahead of later posts, but what's the issue? As a consumer, I'm rather in favour of the lower price, and often resent the doubled retail price of trade paper copies

... The issue is the way that up to 60% of the print run end up being pulped!
The mass market paperback refers to a sales channel, not a particular size or shape of book. The book format associated with the mass market channel is the C format paperback.
Printing 30,000 C format paperbacks for mass market distribution at $8 and pulping 50% of them is clearly crazy when the logical alternative is to print 15,000 C format paperbacks for trade distribution at $8 and not pulp any of them.
The problem as I understand it is that US booksellers have been trained for eighty years to expect C-format paperbacks to be sold and accounted for as mass-market. To sell paperbacks via the trade channel, the publishers have to make them physically distinctive (bigger) and price them differently, lest the store clerks rip the covers off them and send them back for credit -- (and get pissed off at the publishers when they don't get it).
In the UK, the mass market distribution channel collapsed nearly two decades ago. All paperbacks are now sold on sale-or-return -- as "trade" books -- but you still see shelves stocked with C-format (small) paperbacks and sold pretty much as they were before; the buying public didn't notice the change when the mass market channel went away.

**Yodhrin**

Right, but, err, that doesn't explain why it's not an option to just print 15000 C-format books and send them out sold and accounted as Trade on sale or return. Except that they don't want to because Trade can be sold at a much, much larger markup than the actual increase in cost of production justifies.

I don't buy this "they might rip the covers off" thing at all, that would happen approximately once in an entire retail chain before the person who did it was fired and the company bombarded every store with multiple "don't do this or we fire you" memos.

**reds8n**

https://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/advent-2018-1-old-wounds-new-scars-eshort.html

1st of the advent stories.

**Mysterio**

Does look lovely, but i think that's a bit too steep for me.

. ah well..

Same here.

Doubly so as it is a John French product that features his mostest favoritest Legion too.

This blurb is bad enough as it is:

Terra now lies within the Warmaster’s sights, the Throneworld and the seat of his father’s rule. Horus’ desire is nothing less than the death of the Emperor of Mankind and the utter subjugation of the Imperium. He has become the ascendant vessel of Chaos, and amassed a terrible army with which to enact his will and vengeance. But the way to the Throne will be hard as the primarch Rogal Dorn, the Praetorian and protector of Terra, marshals the defences.

Imperial Fist Fan spank - dead ahead!!!

**BobtheInquisitor**

Charles Stross is talking about the British book industry. The US is very different, and US consumers have different expectations. Besides that, his explanation doesn't explain why the price needs to be doubled instead of just adjusted 10-25%. The expression springs to mind: "Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining."