Kelley Armstrong today gave her fans some fabulous news. Women of the Otherworld ends with her next novel “Thirteen“. But she has received permission from her publishers to make all hardcover books a collectors edition for “Thirteen, which will have bonus material. The bonus material will be very short story about Women of the Otherworld’s greatest heroine, the one who started it all “Elena”. Here is the post from Kelley herself.
Kelley Armstrong – Febuary 9, 2012
If you’ve followed publishing at all in the last couple of years, you know the industry has been grappling with the explosion of ebooks. What price should they be? If they’re more than the mass-market, that hardly seems fair. But if they’re significantly less than a hardcover, that doesn’t seem fair either. Maybe we can release them a few months after the hardcover, like pay-per-view release? But is that fair? How do you juggle the two readerships (print and e-book) without making either feel like they’re getting a raw deal?
There’s no easy answer. I do know, though, that as an author with hardcover releases, my readers often wonder at the price discrepancy between the hardcover and ebook. They want to support me by buying hardcover and they want the book for their shelf, but what “extra” are they getting to justify the price difference? Usually nothing except the physical copy. With the Otherworld finale, though, I saw an opportunity to add a little something Smiley After all, it is the last book. Let’s make that hardcover special.
After much negotiating, we’ve decided to make all Thirteen hardcovers a collector’s edition with bonus material. They’ll be priced the same as regular hardcovers, but the story will be “bookended” with the character who started it all–Elena. The hardcover will reprint the prologue from Bitten, along with a note from me about the genesis of the series. Then it will end with a brand new story about Elena and the Pack after Thirteen, along with yet another note from me, discussing the end of the series.
The Elena story is, of course, the big bonus. It’ll be called “From Russia, With Love” (yes, they let me keep that title Smiley ) It’s a hefty story (about 7500 words or 25 pg). I didn’t want to just write a little epilogue scene. Elena and the Pack deserve more, so I gave them an actual story.
That’s the plan, then. I’m thrilled that my publishers allowed me to do this and I hope readers will enjoy this little extra.
