The Right(s) Stuff

Damn, it’s been awhile since I wrote anything here… But you didn’t come here for excuses, you came here for news!

Well, the good news is that while writing here might have slacked, we sure haven’t. And while it has been a hard year for everyone, we somehow managed to develop a new title which is now officially in preproduction. Unfortunately, I can’t reveal anything about it here yet (I might drop a subtle clue, though), but the topic of this post is still closely related to the new title.

Buckle up, we’re going in!

Brave New World

After a lot of thought, we’ve decided to introduce the so-called “matching rights” system for our titles. This obviously meant that we had to determine some ground rules so that it would make sense in the future as well. That is why we decided to start with a clean slate – the system will go active with our next title, so that Jekyll & Hyde (which was limited, but not numbered) and Dracula (which was numbered, but in both editions) do not complicate things. But the most important thing is that we will have lettered and numbered editions from now onwards – 26 and 260 copies respectively. We thought about this for months and concluded that these numbers suit us just fine, where lettered is bound by the alphabet, and numbered run is ten times larger than the lettered.

Numbers Game

Numbered editions are something that we introduced with Dracula, but Dracula numeration for both editions was inspired by details from the story itself. We thought about continuing that tradition with other books, but not only would that be nigh impossible, even more importantly, it would be contrived. It would also make the “rights” system a complete mess for higher numbers. Hence, the aforementioned predetermined print runs.

But not all numbered editions are created equal and so we also wanted to determine what it will mean for us. Numbered edition(s) will be, at least as we see it, the ultimate edition of the book that comes in its own slipcase. Nothing will be taken away from the book during the development, because we don’t want to create the ultimate book (lettered) and then dumb it down for the numbered edition. Instead, we want to go the opposite route – create the ultimate book (numbered) and then see what we can add to create something that surpasses the boundaries of the book while being within the creative concept.

I mean…

Know Your ABCs

Which brings us to the coveted lettered edition(s). The main inspiration came from Dracula – Scholomance Edition, where the book remained almost the same, with just a few additional details, but those additional features were still based on the story itself.

We would like to do something similar for all our lettered editions; to surpass the boundaries of the book and create something remarkable which also, consequently, shows what we can do when imagination goes wild. It’s going to be tough to do that with every book, but I am convinced we can pull a rabbit out of the hat every time and that we’re not digging a hole for ourselves. Besides, it wouldn’t be interesting if it weren’t challenging, at least to me.

In any case, the focus would still be on the book, but the additional features would elevate it to another level.

And wondrous!

Rules of Engagement

The system we came up with is relatively simple, as can be seen here. Essentially, it will be in place going from our next title onward. We plan to do one book at a time, so there won’t be overlaps, and we hope to increase the number of published books to two per year as soon as possible (hopefully even more later on).

Once you purchase the book, you are registered with its designation. Should you want to sell it with matching rights, you’ll have to notify us via this form and the buyer needs to do the same via this form, so we can have two-factor verification of the matching rights and designations transfer. Of course, once you hold a right to a designation, every next title you’ll get a head start to purchase your designation before it becomes available to the public.

We also thought a lot about the danger of resellers snatching up copies and reselling them for a higher price. We even thought about “policing” the resales, but that sounds like a job in and of itself, while also being a very slippery territory for mistakes. Hopefully (and maybe naively), we’re not that much of a target to resellers yet, so only (or at least mostly) our true customers will grab the rights for the letters and numbers, and hold them forever, and live happily ever after. A publisher can dream!

That’s it!

Or, at least, that’s it for now. We’re still rethinking the whole system, trying to find and close any loopholes, while also trying to keep it simple. If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to drop us an email or just use our contact form.

But what about the next title? Not even a hint? Well, maaaybe I dropped a hint up there somewhere. Maybe there are even some misdirections there as well? Who knows! But if you can’t find the hint, don’t sweat it, more hints coming soon!

About the author

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