Black Prism Book Cover
by
Know what I hate? I hate it when my book covers don’t match. Turns out I hate it even more when MY book covers don’t match.
I thought maybe some of you hate that too, so the following has been in the works a while.
What am I talking about?
Orbit came out with this cover for The Black Prism: rugged dude, dangerous, looks good. But the continuation to this, replicating that feel for the next few books, didn’t work so well… so when it came time to release the trade paperback edition, Orbit went to this. Now THIS is great. Light, magic, and a hooded man. (A hooded man? Well, looks like I’m destined for hooded men. C’est la vie.)
So check this out… if you match up all the paperbacks, they look like this.
But… what if you’re one of those amazing fans I like so much who buys in hardcover? Granted, you get the book a year earlier, but… that one not-quite-matching cover…
Some people can just let something like that go. I, sadly, am not one of those people.
So I started talking with Orbit. Orbit is amazing. They really bend over backward to make cool stuff happen for fans and authors. They were totally willing to redesign and resize things from the trade paperback to look awesome on a hardcover. (Thanks, Orbit!) They are also, however, owned by a much larger conglomerate. A conglomerate that has rules.
So here’s what I can’t do: get a design, print out a bunch of covers at a professional printer, and send them to you at cost. I can’t sell them AT ALL… unless I buy the rights to the design, which would run me $12,000. Printing costs, over another $1,000; shipping, over another $1,000. (It’s $6.80/cover just to cover the cost of printing, shipping, and packaging the cover so it doesn’t get destroyed in the mail–without counting labor of redesign for the larger size or my assistant to pack them, track them, and go to the post office to send them.)
I love y’all, but I am so done with eating Ramen. And trying to just cover my costs at that rate would look like a huge cash grab because I simply don’t have the economies of scale that a publisher has. I want those of you who bought in hardcover early to get something nice, but it has to work for all of us, whether a lot of you are interested in getting that cover, or only a few.
But… Clever Brent is clever.
Since I’d never intended to make money on getting these to you, how about… we call it a promotional deal? We could do contests and stuff? And give them away free?
So. Orbit worked up the design—thanks Lauren and Alex and team! And I got some professionally printed on my own. Now, giveaways!
HOW DO I GET ME MY SHINY NEW COVER, WKS!!!!?
1) Book Tours. If you come to a signing I do, I’ll have a small number of these with me. Ask me if you want one. Covers are challenging to bring without denting, but I’ll do my best.
2) Skill Giveaways. Like a Limerick Contest, coming tomorrow! (What? Writing limericks is totally a skill!) Or our upcoming Halloween Photobomb Contest.
3) Other Giveaways, including random drawings for FB and Goodreads followers. (To be announced soon.) Pretty much, any time I do a giveaway, I’ll have the cover be an option until I run out.
4) Last, I’m opening a small Web Store soon. If you buy a hardcover of The Black Prism, I can sign it, and I’ll throw in the new cover for free. (More details to come!)
These, however, are the only ways you can get this cover for now.
So I probably should have given this up, but just look at this line up:
Ah, doesn’t it make you feel better inside?
Very pretty new cover – which I love, and will stalk FB and GoodReads….but, in all honesty, I’m not (too) much into covers – it’s what’s inside that matters to me 🙂
And yes, I have all 3 hardback first editions 🙂
**hugs**
Awesome! Can’t wait to have my covers be matchy matchy matchy! Just one question will you be selling any hardcover prints of the night angel trilogy in your small web store I loved those books and really would like to have them in hardcover!
Hey Matthew,
We can’t currently sell covers in the web store — but we can make them available through our giveaways/contests listed above. (Right now we’ve got a Limerick contest and a Photobomb contest!)
Keep an eye on Brent’s social media for further details on the web store!
(Edited to reflect that we can’t sell the covers right now!)
Amazing! Mismatched book covers drive me crazy. Love the new one. Thanks!
I really want that new cover. I hope it hits the webstore soon!
The Black Prism cover has been bugging me since The Broken Eye came out, one oddball and two siblings.. I hope I can get my hands on one of these! xD
I want matchy matchy… have wanted for so long… need matchy matchy.
Yes! Matchy matchy covers are the best. However, I still love my original HB cover. Hmm, so what to do, what to do? Perhaps buy another HB from the web store when it opens and have both (with a spare cover).
Yes, yes, both. Both is the correct way!
Lucky b*sterds. Is this available for international buyers? I’m crying out load right now. Been itching every time I see the three hardcovers lined up on my shelf. Differences in covers kill me, to tell you honestly.
Hey John,
We can’t sell the covers — as Brent mentioned, it would cost an enormous amount of money to buy the rights to the covers, which would make it very expensive to sell to Brent’s readers (and we’d be unlikely to recoup our costs).
So for now, we’ve come up with our limerick and Halloween contests and some other options — which are definitely open for international contestants!
Wow! That moulding looks awesome, good choice on wall colour too!
The cover looks great. I will buy the real books once our trip is over but sadly I have to buy everything as ebooks to save on space.
Speaking of books and buying… I’m waiting rather impatiently to continue the series…
Cheers and thanks for writing!
Gary
I am like-minded in that I too MUST have all my covers matching. It drives me nuts otherwise, almost like an inch under my skin that I can’t ignore or reach. Thank you for fixing it and delivering such amazing prose!
In Spain the first book from the light bringer series has a different size from the second and the
third books. If the make another version with the size for the second and the third books I will buy it because I love your books but they don’t make! Can you help us? I am sure a lot of people will buy this first book again with the same size as the others.
Thank you very much for all the amazing time I have passed reading your books.
Wait so, are you saying when your store opens, these new covers will be possible to buy? Or do I have to win a contest now?
We won’t be selling the covers in the web store — but you can get a cover through one of our giveaways or contests (limerick and Halloween Photobomb contests are open now).
We’ll be announcing more about the web store next week that may help answer your question, too. Keep an eye on the web page!
I didn’t realize how much it bothered me until you pointed it out! I’ll need to replace my cover now!
The 3 matchy covers flow real nicely.
Well eh artwork now matches but not the way the words are arranged.
If I buy a hardcover edition of the black prism can I still get the cover? I’m a little late on the post but it the fact they don’t match really bugs me.
Same. Except really late on this post.
I have been reading Brandon Sanderson recently and was looking for another good series to get into with a magic system. Seems like alot of people recommend this series! I love collecting the hardcovers of the books that I read as well. I thought this post was hilariously similar to how I feel about my collection. Any chance any of these covers are still available? I’m about 4 years too late…………………
I’m late to this party… but is the cover thing still a thing? Inconsistent covers really bug me.
Hi friends!
We are working on this project (getting new slipcovers to fans). Stay tuned…
Any updates on this? I really want that cover instead of the original with the man. Ugh.
Hey Dave,
Brent is having some ridiculous fights with lawyers over this; he’s going to try again this fall. We’ll keep everyone updated when there’s news.
Is there any chance that the dust jacket released this fall can fix this issue too?
https://twitter.com/ericpeters/status/792874468821508096
The front of the new cover looks so much better, but the spine of the original is a better match with the following books (placement of the word “Lightbringer” and the series number, size of author name, etc.). See this photo from Twitter, where you can see both versions’ spines alongside the rest of the series:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EI0QxAHWwAIV7Oz?format=jpg&name=medium
Ideally, I’d like to see the new dustjacket modified to match the spines of the other books so that they match both on the covers and on a shelf!
That’s our hope. Just gotta clear more legal hurdles.
We can’t guarantee that a new dust jacket will be released (ie, one that’s an update to the 2nd version), but we’re gonna try our best.
Are you still doing draws for the new cover? I am looking to replace all of my covers at the moment (except for the new one). After a couple of moves and a few reads they have gotten a bit dinged up. Any advice on where to find the rest of them (I’ve only just started looking)?
They are all amazing.
I’m “one of those” as well. Will set your books on the top shelf in my study where they belong. Unfortunately I cant until I have the first book in the proper cover.
I am super duper late to this game, having fallen in love with both Night Angel & Lightbringer thanks to Graphic Audio.
I only just read about this post about a corrected dust cover to match the art style and wish I discovered this series back in 2015 when it might still be obtainable.
I do hope that they would one day print out all the hardcovers again. I am having a bear of a time finding the first 3 books in hardcover and every book store I have called in the western states all tell me their distributor says it’s indefinitely out of stock 🙁
I would be buying all of them again if it is released. I want to save the hard copy for the bookcase and away from my toddler’s ever growing, ever reaching hands.
Hey there Michael,
The chances that hardcover editions of the Lightbringer books will be reissued are very slim to none.
The good news, though, is that the first book, THE BLACK PRISM, is available in Brent’s online store.
The less good news is that Brent’s online store is closed until late October 2021.
You can search for copies of THE BLINDING KNIFE & THE BROKEN EYE on Abebooks, Thriftbooks, Alibris, and Ebay. THE BLINDING KNIFE is the one likely to be hard to find and/or will be relatively expensive if you find one, but they’re out there.
Sorry, and best of luck!
Thanks!
I am excitedly keeping an eye on the online store!! You can bet that the moment it opens, I’ll be buying the black prism for sure! (and probably anything else I can get my hands on that my wife won’t bonk me over the head for)
I was lucky to get the blinding knife for about double the price but the broken eye is currently available as new in hardcover for 120 bucks which is… brutal.
When the store is open and I buy the black prism, will it potentially come w/ the jacket cover?
Man, now I want to re-listen to both Night Angel and Lightbringer all over again from the graphic audio versions I bought years back.
Yep, all copies of THE BLACK PRISM sold through Brent’s store will have the new, updated, perfectly matchy slipcover 🙂
We will absolutely let everyone know when it’s time for the Shopify store to open 🙂
Thanks!