Ebayers take note!

[rolanni]

Unbound and uncut first edition of I Dare, printed by Meisha Merlin in 2002. Starting bid $25; auction runs for seven days, starting NOW

Comments

[hakuen]

I Dare! Yay, that's my favorite. ♥ *jumps on it*

Curious Type

[bookmobiler.livejournal.com]

I note that unlike previous auctions you didn't include the caveat about the copyright remaining with the authors.
Is that because the first signature contains the original copyright notice?
Although I vaguely recall something being mentioned about MM not properly handling issues of copyright.
Another question, were these signatures intended for the hardbound or trade edition. You did say first edition, but are all first editions necessarily hardbound?

Re: Curious Type

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Meisha Merlin books had the same form-factor for hardcover and for trade paper. They ordered the total print run and would later assign so many to be hard-bound, based on pre-orders. You'll recall (or perhaps not) that MM hardcovers tarried about a week behind the trades -- that's because they had to go to another jobber to be cased. The trades were bound at the same plant that did the printing.

In the case of the copyright remaining with the authors -- we're selling a book; it just happens to be unbound. The copyright notice is in the book; our names are on every other page. I suppose somebody could white-out all of that and print in their name, in an effort to pass the work off as theirs, but -- really.

[laurajunderwood.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's SO cool.

Alas, by the time my novel came out, MM had changed printers. I didn't get anything so neat in the Haul.

Laura J. Underwood

[drammar.livejournal.com]

Might the authors be willing to scribble their signatures across (one of) the signatures?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Well, see...Aside scrawling our signatures across the "Praise for the Liaden Universe" page, or signing a sheet of paper to be "bound in" as we say, should the winner of the auction go ahead and have the book cut, trimmed, and bound -- there's no place to sign it. The book is uncut, so we can't get to the title or to the half-title, where there would be room to sign.

[drammar.livejournal.com]

One would think that I would realize (after 20 years in the printing business) that the title page usually doesn't end up in the most accessible place in the sig. *sigh* Although I was to a large degree making a poor pun about signatures on signatures.

If I were to be fortunate enough to win this I probably would get it leather bound at some point, although I would ask the authors' permission.

And a big hurrah for Theo's placement on the WSJ best seller list!

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

If I were to be fortunate enough to win this I probably would get it leather bound at some point, although I would ask the authors' permission.

It's a nice thought, but I don't think you need our permission to bind your own book.