Okay so dark romance special editions are everywhere right now, none of them list a price until you’re already at checkout, and we have thoughts.
This week alone we’ve got Debbie Cassidy’s Wicked Onyx shipping with stenciled edges and custom map artwork for its dark academy setting, and Rina Kent’s Tempting Venom, book three in her Vipers series, going full limited deluxe with foiling, printed edges, and exclusive art (The Bookish Bulletin). Shanora Williams’ Mayhem and the Mortal is getting its own collector’s edition built around “dark magic, deadly secrets, and collector appeal” (The Bookish Bulletin). These are gorgeous. Nobody is arguing they’re not gorgeous.
Here’s the thing though. Collectors buy these because they hold display value, sell out fast, and basically become impossible to find later, which is the exact case the collecting community makes for why they’re worth it (The Bookish Bulletin). That’s a real argument. It’s also the exact argument that gets used to justify literally any limited print run. Scarcity isn’t the same thing as quality, and a gorgeous object still needs a book worth rereading underneath it.
We’ve said before we’ll buy sprayed edges every time, and we stand by that, but stenciled edges, foiling, and a fancy map insert are a different math than “the whole cover art changed for the deluxe version.” A map and pretty foiling on a book we were already going to buy is a treat. A special edition where the collector appeal is doing more work than the blurb is a trap, and it happens more than the special editions crowd wants to admit.
So here’s our actual rule. If you’d buy the regular edition of that book anyway, upgrade to the special edition, go for it, you’ve earned the treat. If the special edition packaging is the only reason you’re buying a book you weren’t already sold on, that’s a flag, not a feature.
Tell us where your line is. We know some of you have genuinely regretted a deluxe purchase, come argue with us about it in the comments.
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