Special Editions!

I am a bibliophile. I love not only to read great books, but to own great books. Even better, to own great editions of great books.

Personally, my favorite small press publisher as far as the quality of the work goes has to be the Folio Society. Their editions are high quality, stunning, full of special features, and available. Some of their works get quite costly, especially for non-limited editions. They do have plenty of affordable titles worth your time though. The primary issue with FS is two-fold... A) they are UK based and it takes a while and costs not an insignificant amount to get anything shipped to the US. B) while they do publish a solid amount of sci-fi and fantasy, they are mostly focused on more "traditional" literary classics. This isn't a negative for the company, it just means there is a limited amount of books they produce that interest me.

Subterranean Press is a close 2nd. The primary advantage of Sub Press is that they exclusively publish the genres I am most drawn to; thus, they make a lot of books that I like. Sub Press produces some very nice editions, and they are almost all limited editions, which makes their value go way up. The downside here is the number of titles they have produced that I would love to own, but will never purchase, is quite high. The books are reasonably priced (for the most part) if you are lucky enough to buy directly from Sub Press. However... it is ridiculously expensive to buy any of their more popular titles on the open market (eBay, ABE books, etc.), and they make very small numbers of some popular titles. Plus, they reserve first dibs on new titles for customers who have already purchased the earlier volumes, so if you don't get in the gate right away, you'll never get in. This is especially problematic as some of their titles are not bought by fans who want the books for themselves, but are poached by people who simply know they can resell them for a massive profit. Also, while the Sub Press editions are lovely in their own right (they have high quality material, binding, and artwork), to the casual eye, they still look like normal hardcovers. I love the cloth, velvet, etc. binding and slipcases that come with FS editions because the showmanship of such editions stands out on a bookshelf. Sub Press editions are great to read, but less impressive on a shelf.

Easton Press also does a solid volume of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. This time, leatherbound. The leatherbound direction is a great look for some, and I very much appreciate the quality and craftsmanship. The downside for me is that the covers very rarely depict the novel they contain in a satisfactory way. This is not EP's fault as much as a problem with a leather cover. You can only emboss/engrave so much detail, and sometimes the effort doesn't look that impressive. Other times, they've opted for a geometric pattern, but usually one that has nothing to do with the text. Some books (i.e. LOTR) may have enough symbolic imagery that allow for effective minimalist covers, but many do not. Also, the EP books start pricey.

I would also like to mention Juniper Press. The issue with Juniper is that the editions of the book you are getting have nothing special. In fact, it's often a 2nd hand copy. Juniper doesn't make special edition books, just special covers. But boy do I love their covers when it comes to series. Juniper specializes in producing dust jackets that create a single image across multiple spines when arranged properly. So a series like the Wheel of Time has a 15 dust jackets that create a single, coherent design. Gorgeous. There are only a few sets they offer that really interested me, and it can get pricey when all you are getting is covers, but they do great work. You can also work with them to create custom covers and designs, but fair warning that this starts very pricey right out the gate.

There are numerous other fine press companies, most of whom are much smaller though, and produce an extremely limited number of books (i.e. Suntup Press). Others don't do any books that pique my interest. And some larger presses make "special" editions that look nice, but aren't really much of a step up from the standard in terms of quality.