Small Press / Fine Press Editions

I spam other threads with announcements from small presses that I get newsletters and updates from, so rather than constantly trying to find a thread for that specific title, genre, or author I thought I'd just make a thread that can be used for this type of content.

There are a few primary small presses that I purchase from and follow. They're each unique in the selection of books they offer, printing methods, binding methods, target audience and price points. Really try to only focus on books that are meaningful to me although there are people out there chasing every release from every publisher. Honestly it is a pretty insane community. If anyone has questions, I can try to offer my point-of-view on buying. Will also maybe add a post discussing differences in materials, printing, binding, artwork, and other considerations that drive pricing.

Most books are released in 3 states (sometimes only two, very rarely there is a Roman Numeral version that is more expensive than Lettered):

• Artist Edition / Standard - Usually a limited number in production, may not be singed or numbered. Still high-quality printing, higher than standard hardbacks. Some publishers include slip cases and dust jackets in their standard editions.
• Signed / Numbered - Usually a much smaller printing run in the 150 - 200 range. Copies are signed by author (where available) or maybe artist, could be multi-signed. Higher quality printing than Standard. Better paper, better end boards, nicer slipcase.
• Lettered - Typically limited to 26 copies available. Extremely high quality of printing. These can range in the $2000 - $3000 range. It'd have to be a damn meaningful book for me to care about Lettered.

A few of the companies in my rotation are below and I'll try and list a few examples of their selection but can't list them all.

• Subterranean Press (Subterranean Press) [Fantasy / SciFi] - They've been around for quite a while, founded in 1995 and continuously publishing since. SubPress was my first foray into small presses with their release of the Malazan Book of the Fallen fantasy series.
  
• Grim Oak Press (Grim Oak Press) [Mostly Fantasy] - Started in 2011. Their big runs currently are Dresden Files, some John Gwynne, and the recently did a Name of the Wind if you're into that stuff.
  • Magicians
  • Dresden Files
  • Summer Tree
  • Shannara
  • Mark Lawrence
  • Peter V. Brett
    
• Suntup Editions (Suntup Editions - Finely Crafted Limited Editions) [Classics / Modern Lit] - Suntup does way more with classic novels and much less targeted Fantasy and/or SciFi. Tresure Island, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, American Gods, Boy's Life. They have a very long list. Their editions are all really really nice, but their selection is pretty hit or miss depending on how much you like classic lit.
  • Where Late the Sweet Bird Sings
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
  • Black Phone
  • Of Mice and Men
  • Life of Pi
    
• Curious King (Home - Curious King) [SciFi / Fantasy] - Newer press but have some very very nice books. Have a really gorgeous Joe Abercrombie First Law series that I'd love to get my hands on. I'll probably buy one of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy once they're shipping and on secondary market.
  • Hyperion
  • Ready Player One
  • Legend
  • Fifth Season
    
• Conversation Tree Press (Conversation Tree Press - Canadian Fine Press Publisher) [Mix] - CTP does a really good variety of books, not simply focusing on Fantasy or SciFi. I have their Treasure Island bound in real hardwood. Solaris on preorder, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, Foundation. They also release "Short Stops" that are short stories I've posted some pictures of in the Books You Just Read thread.
  • Faun by Joe Hill
  • House on the Borderlands
  • Flowers for Algernon
  • Peter Pan
    
• Amaranthine Books (Amaranthine Books | Fine Press Publisher) - Don't actually own anything from them but they have an interesting selection. Pretty sure they stopped publishing briefly to open up more in-house capabilities and are now back up and running.
  • 2001
  • Catch-22
  • Sherlock Holmes
  • Frankenstein
  • Dorian Gray
  • Dracula

There are a ton of others out there that I haven't listed. Fabelistick, Midworld, Chioptera (who are pretty awesome and do a ton of Horror stuff. Pretty niche but I have a few of their prints), etc...

What reminded me to do this is that Curious King just revealed pictures for their edition of Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, book 1 of Farseer. I have not read the series but understand there's a ton of hype surrounding it and people are going gaga. The shots look really nice.

This is the "Standard" edition, as noted above. They say it also includes 11 interior full color artwork pieces. Don't think we have shots of the Limited or Numbered yet.

Suntup just announced their edition of Ratman’s Notebooks. I’m not familiar with this other than it being the basis for the movie Willard. Book is supposed to be pretty good and was selected based on request from fans. Pretty cool they took that feedback and made it happen.

They have pictures of the other two editions but not pricing. Since it is shorter hopefully they’ll be less expensive too. There’s also a real nice video of the paper making process used for the Lettered version. Not sure if Vimeo embeds work


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Conversation Tree Press is releasing an edition of Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay:


I started reading this last week just to see what it is about. Have heard it floated around fantasy discussions for a while but never read anything by Kay. Only about 10-12% in and it is okay so far, nothing earth shattering up to that point. Seems well written enough. It is based or inspired by Italian renaissance.

The books look nice enough buy I'm not going to bother getting one. Plenty will be available on the secondary market if the book ends up blowing me away.

Void said:

I know I read it years ago on the insistence of a friend, but I can't remember a single thing about it except that I was trying to figure out how to tell the guy that one of his favorite books ever was just sorta meh.

Click to expand...

I haven’t figured out yet if the flaming gay prince guy is a protagonist or antagonist yet (guessing “an”) but the main guy has already bagged one chick and lots of talk about breasts. I can almost see it as one of those fantasy books that women like bc it has sex and flower’s and a little romance. But I’m WAY generalizing there and being cruel lol

On a related note, for the Robin Hobb Assassin's Apprentice release I did perhaps (probably) stupidly commit to the Lettered edition. This is kind of a speculative play, but it will be a large commitment to the whole series and maintaining rights as new books are released. I can resell the ones I don't want for likely an even trade and then see what the full Farseer Trilogy goes for at the end of ~3 years. I'm not too beat up about it because Curious King releases have really been right up my alley and nothing coming up from the other presses really has my attention. So, if I'm picking and choosing where to commit, having Lettered rights at CK may not be the worst. There were only 2 copies available at release day and I was lucky to be fast enough to order 1 of 2.

• Letterpress printed on Mohawk Superfine Eggshell 118 gsm paper
• Book boards covered in tan deer leather
• Handmade enclosure out of wenge with 6-layer laser cut inset design on cover and 3-layer design on spine
• Interior tray lined with brown suedel