#illumicrate edition

[dragonsbooksandtea]

10/04/24

My most surprising read so far of 2024?

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

I was so surprised by this one! It was a Spin the Wheel pick from my “Need to read soon” wheel. I actually enjoyed this so much; it was fun, quirky, a little emotional. There was some plot twists that I wasn’t expecting, but it was also very predictable from the start of who was going to be the murderer. But actually getting there was fun and unexpected. I ended up giving this one a 4 stars, almost a 5 star rating.

My only gripe with it was that’s it’s listed as an Adult novel when it’s more of a New Adult, mostly YA vibes. The main character was very immature and content wise wasn’t very adult either in my personal opinion.

This version of the book is by @illumicrate from their January box Murder Mystery.

Have you read Voyager of the Damned?

[lacnunga]

Theres something about big booktoker/booktuber shelves that really heebies my jeebies

[thecooler]

Is this anything

[bookishlyvintage]

Prettiest Cover on my tbr ~

[asexualbookbird]

this post has changed my life went through my shelves and MOST OF my hardcovers are paperbacks in disguise including ALL of my special edition books (which admittedly is not a lot bc i dont usually care lol) which! is annoying because obviously they were more expensive!

i havent notcied a trend with these, except all of Tor hardcovers are definitely just a stack of paper mocked up fancy, but older books (this savage song) are just as likely to be bound like that as newer ones (painted devils) and adult vs ya makes no difference either

i dont know what im going to do with this information BUT ITS INTERESTING

[booktineus]

[ninacarstairss]

THEY’RE HERE AND THEY’RE SO BEAUTIFUL 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

[theliterarymess]

Treated myself with my hanukkah money 😍

Transparent dust jackets are the moment

[islanddads]

let’s go meet tj klune??

[greaseonmymouth]

my copy of A Power Unbound (Illumicrate edition) arrived today and so I am going to ramble about 💫book production💫 and ✨special finishes✨!

(in case this breaks containment, I work in publishing though not for Freya Marske's publisher nor Illumicrate, and I have been terminally online in fandom and writing spaces for 20+ years)

when I heard about Marske's book deal it was both through tumblr and professional channels, and since I already liked her fanfiction I decided to Watch Out For Interesting Things, because I wanted to see how tradpub was going to treat a fandom-originated author - not the first one in tradpub by any means, but one I knew writes unabashedly queer stories and I wanted to see how that would play out in a world that had only just started making mainstream queer media

so, book 1, A Marvellous Light. I preordered the Waterstones special edition because there was a Waterstones special edition and I hadn't expected there to be

the finishes on this book are:

wibalin case (or arlin, or any other imitation bookcloth paper, brand is irrelevant) with matt varnish

title printed on spine

dustjacket with matt lamination, spot uv and embossing

sprayed edges in one colour (pantone or imitation pantone - this is different from 4 colour)

this is very neat and a bit splashy, but not so splashy as to break the budget - this is a reasonable amount of splashy for a debut author that the publisher is planning to push hard/has expectations to sell well. I personally expected this to sell really well also, for multiple reasons I won't get into here, and that as a result we'd get more fun finishes on the next book in the series

so, book 2, A Restless Truth, the Waterstones special edition which i again pre-ordered

everything about this book screams 'book 1 did really well so let's RAMP UP THE FANCY we can afford it now!

the finishes on this book are:

wibalin case

title printed on spine

dustjacket with matt lamination, spot uv, embossing, and foil

sprayed edges in one colour and a digitally printed fore edge in 4 colour

two more expensive finishes added! the retail price on this was £2 more than for AML, which let me tell you, those extra finishes do not cost that much lmao, at least not at the printers my company works with, but 2022 saw prices go up everywhere. so ehh fair's fair.

and this brings us to book 3, A Power Unbound, which didn't get a Waterstones special edition which I was upset about for SO LONG because a) I wanted one to match my existing set even if the two editions didn't match to begin with as the finishes were different and b) I was worried this was a sign that book 2 hadn't performed as well (or just not performed to the publisher's expectations, which is not the same) and the publisher wouldn't justify the cost of doing another special edition - considering book 2 was sapphic that was a real worry as historically they don't sell as well as gay books. but book 3 got an Illumicrate edition instead

without writing an essay, in simple terms there's no difference between a Waterstones special edition, an independent bookshop special edition (not covered by this post) or an Illumicrate (or other boxes) special edition as they all have extra finishes and they all TCM, meaning sales are registered and counted towards bestseller lists. however there is a perceived difference for many consumers that Illumicrate editions are specialer than Waterstones or indie because they are exclusive (so are Waterstones and indie), and often are only available through mystery subscription boxes (you don't know which book or items are in the box, only the theme) or semi-transparent boxes (title is known, possibly some of the finishes, none of the items) or through single purchases of a limited nature (finishes often not revealed), which this one is.

so to sum up, the Illumicrate edition is functionally the same, but it has a different status, and perceived higher value, attached to it. considering the RRP was £23 for the Illumicrate edition but only £18.99 for ART and £16.99 for AML, this adds to the perceived higher value/status. With me so far?

the finishes on this book are:

matt lamination case (cheaper than wibalin), however printed in 4 colour

dustjacket made of some kind of plastic (I can't tell from touch which kind), which, at the printers my company works with, costs about 10-15%, of what a dustjacket of say 125gsm coated paper with matt lamination finish would cost

title digitally printed on the dustjacket

no spot uv, no embossing, no foil

sprayed edges in one colour with a digitally printed fore edge in 4 colour

does this look cool as fuck though? yes. does it look expensive? not if you know how books are made and what they cost to make. I expect this was cheaper to print than ART because dropping foil, spot UV and embossing alone is a huge saving. and ngl I was expecting the same kind of finishes on APU as for ART, perhaps with all 3 edges digitally sprayed instead of just the fore edge, perhaps with the title foiled on the spine instead of printed on. maybe it would even have endbands. so to open the parcel to see this instead was a delight, because it's different. you can see the case underneath the dust jacket! you get a fun 3D effect with the plastic overlay!

I'm not saying that the Illumicrate edition is cheap garbage, the point I'm making is manifold:

moving away from Waterstones special edition to Illumicrate special edition will make a lot of consumers thing this book is The Shit

the Illumicrate edition indeeds Looks like The Shit

you don't always need expensive finishes to wind up with a Cool end result

in conclusion: Illumicrate call me I want to talk business

man I do wish my copy of AML had a cooler fore edge though so they could all match

[thetimetraveler24]

Blacked out, woke up $200 poorer, and there’s an e-mail from Illumicrate confirming a purchase for the Percy Jackson box set? 🤔

[bookishintherain]

“Delilah Bard had a way of finding trouble.”

[supratoyota-catboy]

they came!

[someonelookingpraediti]

Special Editions

The Stolen Heir Illumicrate Edition

Holly Black's latest Fairie story follows on from The Folk of the Air, set about a decade later. This book has been hugely anticipated, and I've got to say, it absolutely lives up to the expectations!

The Waterstones edition (and I believe the B&N edition too) is just the usual black cover. Illumicrate and FairyLoot are also doing special editions, and the Illumicrate one is the first to drop!

The dust jacket is really interesting. It's a great design, but weirdly, there's no title on the front, only on the spine! The spine does look really good lined up with the rest of the series though.

The hardcase is gorgeous, and along with the dust jacket, it matches the set that Illumicrate produced for The Folk of the Air series. Unfortunately, this was back in 2019, so it was before my Illumicrate time. I'd love to get my hands on a set!

The sprayed edges are pretty good, although they're quite simple. They look especially great with the hardcase. Matchy matchy.

The big decision was whether or not to leave the jacket on when shelving it. Honestly, they both look great, and I wish I could display them both at the same time. I think I'm probably going to go with jacket on.

The endpapers are absolutely stunning. They're both the same, and they feature Oak and Suren, in the classic "kiss to fool the guards" pose. I absolutely love these!

This is a really nice special edition, and definitely worth the money.

[bookishlyvintage]

Coffee & Currently Reading

[bridgertonallday]

I did it. I pre-ordered the special hardcover edition of the Bridgerton book series by Julia Quinn. It's SO pretty!!!! Happy that they're doing a re-print since I missed out last time.