I actually just recently found out that this is done, simply because stores hate Amazon. So, for example, let’s say the publisher sets up the sale for B&N, but B&N can be like “Yeah, we’ll sell your book; if you give us an exclusive edition.” Because the enticing “bonus chapters” will encourage fans to buy from these specific book stores rather than Amazon. This is usually never the author’s fault and only involves the publisher and the sellers.
If you want to know what’s in these bonus chapter w/o buying or borrowing or reading it illegally, if your series has a wiki fan page, sometimes therr is a summary of the bonus chapters on there.
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Yea I figured it was mostly the publishers doing but I think SJM is large enough that she could probably stop this from happening if she really wanted to. She is one of the top bestselling fantasy authors and no publisher would want her to go elsewhere or piss her off so she might go elsewhere. It just screams cash grab to me and taking advantage of the readers. If they would publish these on the author/publisher’s website like 6mos after release I would totally be fine with it but they don’t. Especially with SJM her editions sell out so quick so you basically have to preorder them all once they are announced to get everything. It just really rubs me the wrong way. And let’s be real these publishers could easily tell the bookstores they can’t do that or give them all the same content. It’s not like the booksellers aren’t going to stock one of the most popular authors and even if they didn’t most sales probably come from Amazon and maybe 1 of those bookstores. I could see using it as a preorder incentive but all content should be the same no matter where you buy from and then they could release the content for free or even for $1 or $2 months after release. The book doesn’t even come out for a while yet they have all this material they refuse to put in all the copies to get you to buy 5 of the same exact book. They could even compile all these bonus chapters since ACOSF and CC and put them out as a collection there have been enough from SJM alone to fill a novella already.
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I agree 100%. Many book buyers do not have the budget or the room on their shelves for multiple copies of the same book.
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When an author’s books are all paperbacks and you’re hooked and love them and have everything they ever wrote, and suddenly their publisher decides their newest books should release in hardcover when none of their other books were hardcovers, and now they mismatch (Emily Henry, Christina Lauren)
Also, when publishers change a book series cover after mid series, but refuse to release the first book with the new design in hardcover. So my first book is hardcover old design, second book is hardcover new design, and if I want both to be new design the first has to be paperback? Make it make sense, or at the very least, offer an option to buy the new design as a dust jacket only to fix my first book. I would legit pay $3-5 to fix my first hardcover instead of having a mismatched set.
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Oh my gosh yes! A lot of times I’ll read series on my kindle until the author has completed them all before I buy copies for my shelf. That way I can find a copy that I like the most.
This pet peeve is rather different. I’ll read the opening chapters on bookishfirst.com and I’ll get really excited. Then I realize the book is part of a series. I’m old and getting older every minute. My apartment is limited in space. My bank account isn’t large. So I’m sparing about the books I buy and read.
Learning that a book is the beginning of a series makes me groan. I don’t have time or money to set aside to buy or read the followup books in a series. It’s why I don’t get into “Outlander”, “Game of Thrones” or “The Hunger Games”, et al. It was all I could do to read the Bridgerton series. I have a whole bunch of Terry Pratchett Discworld books I’ve yet to attack!
Does anybody else get frustrated with this literary gambit?
Yes! I don’t buy books often but it drives me nuts when series aren’t the same size. I love series but I hate when they get too long. At some point, it turns from a good series to a bad money-maker.
Too many books available to read to re-purchase a book. I read it once and unless it is VERY special I will not read it again. I have few authors though that I will re-read like Amor Towles and Matt Haig.
What I STILL DESPISE is the round stickers on the front of books promoting a book club or percentage off.
I do not like the big stickers that proclaim someone chose a book for a “book club.” And I definitely do not like the covers that have the sticker-design printed as part of the book jacket itself.
Oh god the fake stickers, just bought a new book all yellow and black cover (Argylle) then that stupid red fake sticker, spent a tired half a minute trying to peel off before I realised…
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Trigger warnings at the beginning of the book. That’s why we have the blurb. It tells you what the story and plotline are. If it seems the least bit disturbing, you can pass by the book for something else. If you find the book offensive or the least bit unnerving after you start reading it, you can close the cover and pick something else.
Trigger warnings are offensive because they treat adult readers as if they were little children who must be shielded from topics like death, rape, slavery, brutality, etc. These subjects can be horrifying, yes. But life is filled with them and novels can, in their way, can prepare us for the actuality without subjecting us to actual physical danger.
I think of trigger warnings as a particularly American faux pas. We’ve become such a sensitive nation of politically correct, timorous fools. Imagine if J.K. Rowling’s famous Harry Potter books were re-released today in the United States according to some nervous woke Karen’s worries that it might scar her delicate little tots for life. It would come with trigger warnings like this:
“Beware! These books contain mentions of slavery, the undead, the deliberate endangerment of children, bullying, violence, murder, racism, classism, vandalism, dictatorship, attempted genocide, blackmail and incest. Read at your own risk!”
Spare me from trigger warnings printed in books. I’m a big girl. I can decide for myself what books I want to read without the unnecessary verbiage.