As regular ’Warp visitors may remember, a while back I mentioned that a price change was coming for our line of print titles, due to the ongoing global supply problem that reached the publishing shores in the form of higher costs caused by paper shortages. That, in turn, meant every publishing company had to increase its prices even on titles already in print—and that includes SWC and its backlist. Well, now that time has come.
So, here’s how things are shaking out, effective immediately:
The young adult novels Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 and Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 have shifted from $14.95 to $17.95 US and £14.95 UK, with European and Australian prices also adjusted. (We’ll also be adjusting the prices in our webstore shortly.)
And as a temporary measure, we’ve had to remove two titles from bookstore sales and distribution, and make them StarWarp Concepts exclusives, which means they’ll remain in print but be available only from our webstore and at the conventions attended by the SWC Crew (once we start getting back into those):
Author Richard C. White’s fantasy-adventure collection For a Few Gold Pieces More is the first involved. At over 400 pages, the book has become too expensive to produce for the bookstore market when you add together printing/paper costs and the retailer discount. However, plans are underway for a redesigned, lower-production-costs edition—same content, but fewer pages. Until then, the current print version will be available only from the SWC store.
The other title is The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, which features stories by yours truly and acclaimed writer Sholly Fisch (The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Madballs vs. Garbage Pail Kids), and art by Eliseu Gouveia (Lorelei: Sects and the City), comic legend Ernie Colon (Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld), and Elizabeth Watasin (Charm School). Due to the fact it’s a 52-page full-color comic, its printing costs have become just too high to maintain wider availability.
Of course, these changes don’t affect the prices or availability of the digital versions of the Pandora Zwieback books, or of Gold Pieces and the Pan Annual—those prices remain as is, and you’ll still be able to purchase and download them from online retailers (and from us, naturally).
We apologize for the bad news, but with prices going up everywhere, SWC has to change with the times if we want to stay in the publishing game—and we certainly do, considering the projects we have in the works!
More price changes to come. Stay tuned for further developments.
