Black Library News & Rumours Thread III, that awkward third title.

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**reds8n**

http://www.blacklibrary.com/Blog/a-guide-to-limited-time-editions.html

White Scars book is now available.

**BrookM**

I'm surprised (and chuffed) I could place the order in less than ten minutes without any sort of hitch or trouble for once!

Roll on November!

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, they did it. Those fethers finally did it. The witches.

If you’ve already got your copy of the new-look White Dwarf, you’ll know that this November, things are changing for the Horus Heresy.

Starting with Graham McNeill’s Angel Exterminatus, we will be releasing a collector’s edition of every Horus Heresy book three months before the official release.

These deluxe tomes really stand out from the traditional paperbacks and are a must-have for every Horus Heresy fan.

Firstly, these collector’s editions will be in a new hardback format, with the full cover art printed underneath the dust jacket.

Secondly, they will each contain brand new artwork panels by Karl Richardson, who illustrated the Lone Wolves graphic novel among many other amazing titles. These will show lead characters and key scenes from the novels, adding a whole new level of detail to your Horus Heresy experience.

Thirdly, each of these will now include an exclusive afterword from the author that provides a unique insight into their feelings and thoughts on the story, and the process they underwent in writing the book. A peek behind the curtain, if you will.

What’s more, these editions will only be available from blacklibrary.com and your local Games Workshop Hobby Centre as part of our new Games Workshop Exclusive range. This will also include brand new novellas like Flesh of Cretacia from Andy Smillie, but more on that next week.

We will also be releasing the entire back catalogue of Horus Heresy novels in this new format to allow you to complete your collection. These will be exclusively available on blacklibrary.com. Make sure you sign up to the newsletter so we can let you know all of the release details as they come.

Bah I say, I had hoped that the Horus Heresy would be spared this sort of needless bs but alas. Well, at least the softcovers are three months away instead of a whole year as with the other hardcovers they usually release..

**narked**

Yup, 'cos offering a way of getting books 3 months prior to release with extras is exactly what I'd call "bs"...

Seen a couple of examples of the books coming in this format, they look gorgeous. Looking forward to getting my hands on Angel Exterminatus next month

**Just Dave**

Urgh... Really?

Spoilers will be everywhere from now on.

**kronk**

The October White Dwarf says that the old HH books will be getting the hardback treatment, as well.

**Pacific**

Well, I guess it was only a matter of time considering the money that the series is already making, and they started copying stuff done by the comic book industry for years. This way you get the money from the hardcore fraternity who will gladly hand over their first-born to get an early copy, and the softback still goes to the New York times best sellers list.

Little bit annoyed, but I'm still a few books behind in the series so I guess for the 'semi-hardcore' fans it won't matter that much. In the meantime though, anyone got an amusing motivational poster featuring a fat cow being milked?

**reds8n**

Yeah, not too impressed with this myself, still guess it's "only" a three month wait ....

Apparently the paperbacks aren't delayed, it's these versions are early ....

....

.....

.. well..... YMMV here I guess.

They do indeed look lovely, or at least the mock up of Betrayer looked good as do the shots from the others. The entire range will be redone in this format -- £20 each IIRC -- so if you're really obsessive about getting a collection that matches you can buy the books you've already bought again ! ... hooray..?!

Anyway Picked up the new/forthcoming Garro audiobook, Great Betrayal ToL book by the always pleasant Mr. Nick Kyme, Siege of Castellax by Mr. Clint Lee Werner -- which I've been looking forwards to immensely -- anthology book and "Sword of Caledor" by Mr. William King.. all of which I'm very happy to have.

Brief chats with a few authors -- Josh Reynolds is a sound bloke indeed, Mr. DBC was as droll as ever... all good.

For the next year or so we should be seeing either a new/redone HH book or a space marines battles book . There's a wicked sounding Fleshtearers one by Mr. Andy Smillie dealing with Amit and the founding of the chapter during the 2nd Founding, sounds most promising indeed. Kick ass cover too.

**Alpharius**

Pacific wrote:
Well, I guess it was only a matter of time considering the money that the series is already making, and they started copying stuff done by the comic book industry for years. This way you get the money from the hardcore fraternity who will gladly hand over their first-born to get an early copy, and the softback still goes to the New York times best sellers list.

Little bit annoyed, but I'm still a few books behind in the series so I guess for the 'semi-hardcore' fans it won't matter that much. In the meantime though, anyone got an amusing motivational poster featuring a fat cow being milked?

Luckily for now, I think the 'hard cover' treatment is only for reprints of older Horus Heresy books, right?

**kronk**

Alpharius wrote:
Pacific wrote:
Well, I guess it was only a matter of time considering the money that the series is already making, and they started copying stuff done by the comic book industry for years. This way you get the money from the hardcore fraternity who will gladly hand over their first-born to get an early copy, and the softback still goes to the New York times best sellers list.

Little bit annoyed, but I'm still a few books behind in the series so I guess for the 'semi-hardcore' fans it won't matter that much. In the meantime though, anyone got an amusing motivational poster featuring a fat cow being milked?

Luckily for now, I think the 'hard cover' treatment is only for reprints of older Horus Heresy books, right?

The White Dwarf says the Angel Exterminatus book will be hardback and will start this process.

Starting with Graham McNeill’s Angel Exterminatus, we will be releasing a collector’s edition of every Horus Heresy book three months before the official release.

**Kanluwen**

No.

They are apparently all(new and old) going to be printed in a hardcover format first, with the paperback versions coming three months later.

No skin off my back. I can wait for paperback.

**Pilau Rice**

My poor wallet and book shelf

I am a sucker for pictures you see

**Just Dave**

Pilau Rice wrote:
My poor wallet and book shelf

I am a sucker for pictures you see

You're not supposed to colour them in, mate.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

reds8n wrote:
Yeah, not too impressed with this myself, still guess it's "only" a three month wait ....

Apparently the paperbacks aren't delayed, it's these versions are early ....

.... .....

.. well..... YMMV here I guess.

It could be they had some printed in the UK at a higher cost to sell at gamesday

and the majority are being printed in China and will show up off the boat eventually

**BrookM**

Found this on another forum:

I don't want to revive a somewhat dead thread, but I have some news from Games Day (A day late but what the hell, work comes first) and I have some info from the mouths of the authors. Dan Abnett is going to be returning to the Ghosts next year, and there will be another information book regarding the Sabbat World crusades. With the release of the Ravenor Vs Eisenhorn series, the Ghosts have been pushed back to a schedule of every other year. He shall also be returning to the Fantasy world with Darkblade sometime either next year or 2014.

Nick Kyme is working on another trilogy for the Salamander Space Marines. The stories in the upcoming Tome of Fire book (It's a good book from what I've read) are a bridge between the first trilogy and the next. He also has a coming Horus Heresy story.

You might have already heard, but A-D-B is working on a Sister's of Battle novel for a release date of next year, might be late 2013.

AD-B doing Sisters of Battle? Colour me surprised.

**Alpharius**

Ugh!

Hardcover first is a straight money grab, but so be it.

I think this will lead me to buying fewer HH books in the long run.

Once out in hardcover, we'll get the reviews. Bad books that don't add anything to the story will now be skipped.

If I knew how bad BATTLE FOR THE ABYSS was, I don't think I would have bought it...

**kronk**

Alph, why do you have an Italian flag?

**Kanluwen**

He likely traveled for work.

**KamikazeCanuck**

I don't know what I'm going to do about these hardcovers. I didn't mind for Gaunts Ghosts because they rarely come out but there's tons of HH books. Maybe this will be what stops me buying them all on the first day so I can get the shiny gold version as well.

**Alpharius**

kronk wrote:Alph, why do you have an Italian flag?

Well, interesting story...

Kanluwen wrote:He likely traveled for work.

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Watch closely and it might look like a Swiss flag tomorrow night, an Austrian one the next day, and then a German one the day after that!

More on topic - both ForgeWorld and Black Library are starting to do 'not cool'/money grab things these days.

I guess Pappa GW is paying more attention now?

**BrookM**

Hasn't BL been like that for ages now? By "promoting" an author that does really well into the hardback territories, as with AD-B, who hit that milestone pretty swiftly.

**reds8n**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
reds8n wrote:
Yeah, not too impressed with this myself, still guess it's "only" a three month wait ....

Apparently the paperbacks aren't delayed, it's these versions are early ....

.... .....

.. well..... YMMV here I guess.

It could be they had some printed in the UK at a higher cost to sell at gamesday

and the majority are being printed in China and will show up off the boat eventually

err... You've lost me a little bit.

They weren't selling the new format HH books at GD UK at all, to the best of my knowledge. They had a few mock ups of what betrayer will look like -- it hasn't actually been 100% written yet .

Angel Exterminatus will be the first release in this format in November, with the softback version following 3 months later.

**Pacific**

Alpharius wrote:
Ugh!

Hardcover first is a straight money grab, but so be it.

I think this will lead me to buying fewer HH books in the long run.

Once out in hardcover, we'll get the reviews. Bad books that don't add anything to the story will now be skipped.

If I knew how bad BATTLE FOR THE ABYSS was, I don't think I would have bought it...

I did think the same thing! Although, perversely I quite enjoyed the books that got generally slated (BftA, Deliverance Lost and the 2nd DA book), while wishing I had never read 'The Primarchs'.

Although that's not an incentive after thinking about handing over a higher amount for the hardcover

Cool I have a different flag for the next couple of weeks as well Alph

Shame you can't log-in from a plane, otherwise I would try and get the flag of some unknown Chinese mountain state as I flew over it.

**Pilau Rice**

Just Dave wrote:
Pilau Rice wrote:
My poor wallet and book shelf

I am a sucker for pictures you see

You're not supposed to colour them in, mate.

Not sure where you get yours from Dave, but the Black Library ones I buy are from a store and not photocopied, so no, I don't need to colour them in

**Pacific**

It's the only ones that he can get after the denizens living in the trapdoor have eaten the original copies?

**Temujin**

The three month business is weird. They could have a one week window and all of the collector types would snap them up. With three months overall sales will take a dive thanks to:
people hearing bad reviews
people reading spoilers and losing interest
pirate copies floating around while they wait for the paperback
people like me who don't take kindly to being messed around and will just give Black Library the middle finger

You're supposed to offer something extra if you want to charge a premium, not punish everyone and charge extra to avoid the penalty. The cardboard and pictures fall into the former, but 3 month delays are just silly. I'll buy another Black Library book when they change their minds.

**Bulkoth**

What are the odds that the errors in the hardbacks actually get fixed for the softbacks and we get our first BL book with little/no errors?

**BrookM**

Fat chance of that happening.

**Pilau Rice**

Bulkoth wrote:
What are the odds that the errors in the hardbacks actually get fixed for the softbacks and we get our first BL book with little/no errors?

Outcast Dead would be a much shorter read

**Alpharius**

BrookM wrote:
Fat chance of that happening.

Have to agree - no real chance of that happening.

It would be nice if it did though, and a nice way to make up for alienating the core group of fans who have made this series the success that it is!

**Kanluwen**

Huh?

We're waiting an extra three months if we're not buying the hardbacks. That's not exactly "alienating the core group of fans", Alph...

Also: Enjoy Switzerland!