This Friday 19th February, we’re trying something new. 

 

We’re putting a version of a book on sale that will only be available to people who buy direct from us. 

 

 

 

We’re going to print 500 copies printed of this gorgeous black-cover edition. And that's it - full stop. After this they won't be printed again.

 

200 of this 500 which will be kept aside for Galley Buddies and the other 300 are up for grabs here in our store.

 

Those are the facts. How about the reasons?

 

Mainly, we’re doing it because we hope it will be fun and  and we want to offer something special to our most loyal customers and the people who seek out our writers by coming to this website. It's also very important for our future, and our future support of talented writers like Adam. Direct sales make a huge difference for us. When we sell through bookshops, we often end up losing money, especially with our beloved (but expensive to produce!) first editions. 

 

We hope we are offering just good-looking, tactile, special books - but a chance to be part of our history, and, who knows, publishing history. Think of that first print-run of Ulysses (complete with 2000 typos, yes - but still!); think of those early editions from Hogarth Press, or, a little later on, Calder and Boyers, or Virago! What things of beauty! What treasures! What valuable things - both in terms of posterity and yes, in terms of simple cash. These books are investments and we want to have a personal connection to every book that goes out…

 

Also, there’s also the practical fact that our blackflaps appeal to a select (and very selective!) group of people. They are for the purists, the people who love books as objects, who just love the damn things like we do. So we thought we might as well gather them all in one place. Let’s see how it goes!  

 

Oh, and this blog post has been rather wrapped up in the physical object. We'll be talking a lot more about Adam soon. And about Feeding Time. Suffice to say, for now, that this book matters. It jumps. It's full of life and love and balls. It's got a lot of balls. We hope you'll love it.