Oh, this Mr Crepsley / Steve meme is so wrong... yet so true!!! It made me laugh and wince at the same time. It was shared with me by a fan called Lacey, over on the Darren Shan Discussions Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/839821919370288 Thanks for sharing it, Lacey -- though I suspect blood's going to boil in the veins of many Mr Crepsley fans!!!

A quick follow-up to yesterday's post about the Archibald Lox paperbacks. Confusingly, there are TWO versions of the paperback of Volume 1: The Missing Princess listed on Amazon, and one is more expensive than the other. Basically, the editions are exactly the same, but the cheaper one is printed by Amazon, wheras the more expensive one is printed by a company called IngramSparks.

Long story short -- if you're going to buy the paperback Volume, buy the cheaper one!!

For those who want more information, here's the longer story...

When you self-publish a book through Amazon, you have the choice of making it exclusive to Amazon, or available through other sellers too. The problem with making it more widely available is that it drives the cost of the book up by several dollars.

The way around that is to publish two versions -- one exclusive to Amazon, and another through a company like Ingram Sparks which will distribute it to any other bookseller who wants to list it on their site. The Ingram Sparks edition will be more expensive -- because those other booksellers have to be able to take a cut of the cost price -- but it means you can sell the Amazon edition at a lower price.

Since I'm always trying to give you guys as much of a bargain as possible, I went for the two editions option. Now, the thing is, as far as I was aware, the Ingrams edition wouldn't show on the Amazon stores -- but at the moment it IS on there, which is confusing people. I can't see any way of removing it, short of de-listing the book at Ingrams, so it seems we'll just have to live with the bit of confusion.

Anyway, if you're searching for the Volume 1 paperback on Amazon, make sure you buy the Amazon version -- it's the one that will also list the Kindle edition, as you can see in this photo:

NOT the one that also lists a hardback edition, as you can see in this photo:

And before anyone asks -- yes, there IS a hardback edition, but the official release date is October 31st, to allow me time to order up a copy and check to make sure that everything is OK with it.

I'll be providing direct buying links for the hardback when it officially goes on sale at the end of the month. In the meantime, if you want direct buying links for the paperback edition (the CORRECT one!) see my blog post yesterday, by clicking here: https://www.darrenshan.com/news/article/archibald-lox-paperbacks1