Finding special editions of books
Hi booklovers! I am working on a new thing and I’d love your advice ツ
Specifically, I’m working on a new list of upcoming (or available) special editions of books that anyone can buy. For a long time I’ve maintained a compendium of books with sprayed or stencilled edge treatments, but over the past year I found it was getting overrun with book club editions that were only available to people who subscribed to these clubs – making the list more exclusive than I’d ever anticipated.
I also get asked a lot where I find out about my “fancy” books (which helps me take advantage of preorder discounts and avoid paying a premium to flippers). This information comes from a lot of different sources, so I thought compiling it all into a list for you would be the most useful service I could provide here.
The list isn’t finished yet, but I’m at a stage where I’d love some feedback so I thought I’d make it public anyway. Is this list useful to anyone? Should I keep going with it, or is the information easily accessible/collated elsewhere? Does the structure and layout make sense to you?
Thanks so much for any suggestions.
Daisy x
28 Comments
Eric Sandroni · 9 June 2024 at 7:35 am
Thanks for the list. I was looking for something like this!
Daisy · 10 June 2024 at 7:55 am
Thanks – always so glad to hear it’s useful!
zylstra · 9 January 2022 at 1:33 pm
…so where is the list about finding out about fancy books?…
Daisy · 10 January 2022 at 10:12 am
Obviously I need to update this page to make the link more obvious (I think I’ll add a button)! In the meantime, this is the page with all the upcoming special editions: https://beautifulbooks.info/finding-fancy-books/special-editions/ – hope there’s something there to interest you 🙂
Kristina · 9 January 2022 at 6:12 am
Are there options for some of these special/beautiful books in America? Shipping from the UK is quite a lot. Thanks!
Daisy · 10 January 2022 at 10:06 am
Hi Kristina – sprayed page edges are particularly popular in the UK, which is why you see a lot of these books coming from a UK source. I have huge shipping issues too (being based in Australia), but I can say that bulk orders from Waterstones make the shipping way more affordable, because after the first couple of books, it is only a pound or two for each additional title. In the US, exclusive titles are often put out by Barnes & Noble (you can search on this page for B&N) but they are more likely to have special designs on the case under the dust jacket, or bonus material. You can also search the page for Amazon or Book Depository links because the Collector’s Editions and other fancy publications are usually available from US direct as well. Good luck!
Kristina · 18 January 2022 at 4:21 am
Daisy,
Thank you so much for your response! I contacted Waterstones and I asked if I bought several books and some were preorder if they would all ship out with the preorder or not. She said that the in stock books would ship immediately and the pre-order books would ship out when available for only 1 pound. This definitely made it worth it to me! I appreciate all the information you provide, you are a treasure!
Cady · 13 December 2021 at 10:46 am
Thank you for this list, it’s super helpful! As you were discussing above, it would be helpful to know which books are new to your list so someone doesn’t have to read through the whole list each time. Having a newsletter with updates is a great idea if something like a searchable and sortable database is too complicated.
Daisy · 10 January 2022 at 9:52 am
Thanks for taking the time to comment! I am trialling out marking new additions for a couple of weeks with a special symbol (that you can just search the page for). And yes, I’ll be bringing back the newsletter which will highlight some of the best ones 🙂
Ross Allen · 5 November 2021 at 1:13 pm
I would really appreciate a list as you have described, I only have a small library but I like to make sure they are all high quality and beautiful editions, your posts/videos always help!
Daisy · 6 November 2021 at 2:01 pm
Check out the ones I have listed here – I update it every week or two with new editions as well 🙂 https://beautifulbooks.info/finding-fancy-books/special-editions/
Angharad · 1 October 2021 at 11:43 pm
Yes, this would be incredibly useful, thank you!!
Mitali · 21 September 2021 at 9:31 pm
You are a wonderful book collector/lover.
Daisy · 27 September 2021 at 8:34 am
Aw, thanks 💕
Selina · 20 September 2021 at 9:08 am
This would be extremely useful. Thank you!
Feriel · 13 September 2021 at 1:54 am
This is awesome so please continue ! I’m from France. I love collector’s editions but I have hard time finding them before their sold out if I’m aware of their existence in the first place lol
Daisy · 14 September 2021 at 3:02 pm
Thanks so much for commenting- you’re exactly the sort of person I’m hoping this list will help 💕 it’s hard keeping up with new editions and so frustrating to find out about them only after they’ve sold out!
Gabe · 10 September 2021 at 9:00 am
Please do continue to compile the list…it would be most helpful. Thank you for sharing!
Daisy · 14 September 2021 at 3:15 pm
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment, I will keep going with regular updates 💕
Eirini · 18 September 2021 at 6:44 am
I have honestly no suggestions. I just wanted to leave a comment to let you know that THANK YOU for putting all this together. It is super useful!!
After going through it I went to waterstones and placed a 9 book order xD
I can imagine it took a lot of effort but please do not give up!
Thank you again!!
Daisy · 19 September 2021 at 4:12 pm
Thanks so much ❤️! Appreciate the feedback, I’ll keep it going 😃
Eirini · 26 September 2021 at 6:08 am
I actually have a suggestion!
I am not sure if that is feasable or worth it (work wise)
But it would be nice to be able to mark what you update each time such as one does not need to go through the whole list every time. If a filter would be too complicated maybe a sign like a small giff with ‘new’ or ‘updated’ like a symbol basically. Not sure what you think about that 🙂
Daisy · 27 September 2021 at 8:33 am
Thanks! That’s a good idea – I’d love to add a filter but I think my site is a bit too basic for that. I could try a “new” symbol though – I update a couple of times a week, so how long do you think would it make sense to leave the symbol up for?
Daisy · 27 September 2021 at 8:36 am
The other thing I was thinking of was bringing back my newsletter more regularly – I could also include recent additions there? (Always welcome feedback from readers on what’s useful ツ)
Talia Gabbai · 7 September 2021 at 3:59 am
I love these lists, i original only searched for sprayed edges, but I found great books in your new list, so i will probably keep checking this new list now. Thanks!
Daisy · 8 September 2021 at 11:40 pm
Thanks! That’s really helpful, appreciate you taking time to comment 💕
Francis · 6 September 2021 at 12:22 pm
Awesome – it’s really helpful to have all this in one place – please do keep it up! ❤️ (I like the fantasy and sci fi titles the best.)
Rachel · 11 October 2021 at 8:12 am
Absolutely keep the list, I love helpful sites like this.