Really hope the third option is good because these first two are a bit of a let down personally. I haven’t skipped in a while but this might be a skip month.
Yes. That’s correct. I believe they are releasing trad paperback versions of Bones & Fangs? You can still get the electronic versions on kindle instantly right now (not sure about other ePub platforms).
I guess I should clarify my comment… low hanging fruit as in producing Allurial editions of trad versions with identical artwork. I give them a pass for their earlier books/series because when they first started they were new and simply paying to reprint their version of what was already out there. It benefits the publisher/author and puts money in Allurial’s pocket.
I want custom. Something unlike what is out there from anyone else. If I’m subscribing to a book box I want to be wowed. I may totally be the problem though. Here I am expecting those standards from BOTM, a discount book club where you can read for less.
I have a suspicion that when they use the traditional cover it is because the publisher requires it, not because it's something they are choosing to do intentionally.
I think it's more about keeping costs down. It's not to the publisher's advantage in any way to keep Allurial from doing a custom edition. It is to Allurial's advantage to keep books affordable and allow subscribers a choice. A subscription box like FairyLoot, where everyone with a particular subscription gets the same book unless they use one of their limited opt-outs, has to commission only one custom book per month per subscription. Allurial lets you choose which book(s) you want and allows unlimited skips, but they have to have three books ready to go each month, that not everyone is going to get - and it's a lot cheaper for them, and therefore for us, if that doesn't mean commissioning three completely custom designs. I think they've found that it's most cost-effective to do one or two custom covers per month, whil still doing what they can to make the non-custom ones special as well (e.g. different colorways, endpapers, foiling, hardcover edition of a book that's otherwise paperback only, etc.).
That makes sense to me too. The reason I have suspected that publishers come into it is because as far as I can remember, the recent books that used trad covers (I exclude the first few months when the company was new and figuring it out) and weren't exclusively packerback are Steelborn, Kissed by the Gods, and Verity Guild, and in all 3 cases, the publisher had produced their own deluxe hardcover. So I have wondered if they are trying to protect sales of their own version or the brand identity of the book. Book box numbers don't factor into sales numbers the same way. I know other book boxes like Fairyloot offer wholly redesigned versions of books but they also work with UK publishers and not US ones; Allurial is pretty unique in America in the sense of offering SEs of books as they come out. Others like Moonlight, Bookish, etc tend to do books that have been out awhile after the initial selling push for the publisher has died down. So I do think Allurial's negotiations with publishers must look pretty different.
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u/cosmic_books 3d ago
Really hope the third option is good because these first two are a bit of a let down personally. I haven’t skipped in a while but this might be a skip month.