The Wonderful World of Black Library Limited Editions

Updated 16/03/13 to include latest releases

 
I hope to do a number of pieces on various aspects of the Games Workshop publishing arms; this is number one, looking at the rise of the phenomenally successful although financial contentions Limited Editions from Black Library.

Black Library has produced an increasing number of limited edition books over the years. These can be divided up into three categories: novellas, anthologies and chapbooks. The Novellas are all hardcover with a high production quality, almost always signed and numbered containing a bookmark ribbon and some form of internal art pages and are usually 128 pages long. Anthologies are hardback, unsigned 128 pages long, with a lower production value and all contain six short stories from Warhammer and 40k almost always including a Horus Heresy and a Time of Legends short story. The Chapbooks are always softback and without a spine, never signed and usually only 32 pages long. These chapbooks are all tie-ins to either UK Games Days or Black Library Live! events

Limited Edition Novellas
Traitor's Gorge - Lee, Mike (2013)
1000 copies, numbered hardback, 128 pages, £30

 An event exclusive i.e. only available for purchase at events where Black Library is in attendance. First available at Black Library Live! 2013 (02/02/13) and also to be available at future events (until they're all gone). Part of the Space Marines Battles series (like Catechism of Hate). Includes four pages of internal art by Sam Lamont. Interestingly this is unsigned.


Mephiston: Lord of Death - Annandale, David (Jan 2013)
2434 copies, Signed and numbered hardback with Slipcase, Chapbook & artwork card, 128 pages, £35

Bills itself as the first in the "Lords of the Space Marines" series. The finest Limited Edition Black library have produced in my opinion, with a slipcase, A5 art postcard of the cover art, pull out artwork included in the Novella and a hard-copy of the eShort "Eclipse of Hope - David Annandale (Jul 2012)" in chapbook format; this not signed however. 

Old Soldiers Never Die – Mitchell, Sandy (Nov 2012)

500 copies, Signed and hand numbered hardback, 128 pages, £30

Featuring Commissar Cain. Sold signed exclusively at the 2012 Black Library Weekender (3-4/11/12) and nowhere else. Includes full page internal Black & White art by Wayne England. Possibly one of the rarest Black Library books as I really doubt that all 500 were sold at the event at £30 each. Haven’t really seen a large number for resale either, although those that do seem to fetch around £70 (now I want one!).  

Brotherhood of the Storm – Wraight, Chris (Sept 2012)

5764 copies, Signed and numbered hardback, 128 pages, £30

The latest limited edition on general sale was a Horus Heresy one, focusing on the White Scars. A limited edition novella with a difference, instead of a fixed number there was a limited time to order this, between the 21^st and 28^th of September, this meant that the odd number of 5764 being printed and signed. Despite the sale window and a “no one excluded” mentality, copies of Brotherhood of the Storm still sell for above retail almost every time, though not as high as the earlier, more limited releases.

Unkindness of Ravens – Mann, George (May 2012)

3000 copies, Signed and numbered hardback, 128 pages, £30

This was a non Horus heresy 40k novella focusing on Raven Guard. It also included an illustrated short story version of the previously released audio drama Hellion Rain. It has a really striking near black cover with the spine printed in black, making it quite hard to read, but it’s a nice effect.

Catechism of Hate – Thorpe, Gav (Jan 2012)

1500 copies, Signed and numbered hardback, 128 pages, £30

The so called eight entries in the “Space Marine Battles” series was this novella. I’m sure there was a little bit of consternation among fans and customers at the idea of releasing a ltd ed. Battles novella as this series has not exactly been famous for its great writing, although BL probably pitched it right with a 1500 printing instead of 3000 which almost certainly wouldn’t have sold out (see The Bloody Handed). people bought this though, and a lot quicker than the bloody handed although if I remember rightly It did take a few days to sell them all.

Aurelian Gold Edition – Dembski-Bowden, Aaron, (Oct 2011)

3000 copies, Signed and numbered hardback, 128 pages, £30

Aurelian Silver Edition – Dembski-Bowden, Aaron (Oct 2011)

3000 copies, Hardback, 128 pages, £20

The Saga of Aurelian. After HH fans saw how fast Promethean sun sold out the combined weight of people frantically hitting F5 when Aurelian went on sale crashed the Black Library website and resulted in them postponing the sale from the 12^th September to the 17^th October and deciding to release the original signed numbered copies as a “Gold Edition” and another 3000 as a “Silver Edition” unsigned and un-numbered and without the internal art pages. Black Library Havent done a limited run of a Horus Heresy novella since, choosing instead to sell over a period of one week for Brotherhood of the Storm which sold 5764 copies, almost double the 3000 print run for Promethean Sun and the original plan for Aurelian. 

Promethean Sun – Kyme, Nick (May 2011)

3000 copies, Signed and numbered hardback, 128 pages, £30

Now you see it now you don’t pretty much sums up the release of Promethean Sun. I seem to remember this was sold out within a day and at one point they de-listed it while they actually counted up the orders to make sure they hadn’t oversold it. There was much grumbling about this although it doesn’t really compare to what happened with Aurelian.

The Bloody Handed – Thrope, Gav (Dec 2010)

1000 copies, Signed and numbered hardback with chapbook, 128 pages, £30

Includes a printed copy of the audio drama Aenarion – Thorpe, Gav (Dec 2010) in chapbook format

The third BL limited edition was a WHFB foray which I remember sat on the BL website for at least a couple of weeks before “selling out”, even with only 1000 copies. If you compare this to the furore over the Horus Heresy novellas it really does show how much more popular 40k and the HH in particular is over plain old Warhammer. 

Daenyathos – Couter, Ben (Aug 2010)

 1000 copies, Signed and numbered hardback, 128 pages, £30

This is getting before my time, or at least before I caught the Warhammer/40k fiction bug; but as expected, this and the other limited edition books released in 2010 and earlier are much rarer than those more recent due to the increase in the size of the print runs for later printings. This was also before the demand seemed to skyrocket, no doubt due to the marrying of Horus heresy and Limited Edition.

Iron Warrior – McNeill, Graham (Apr 2010)

 1000 copies, Signed and numbered hardback, 96 pages, £30

The first limited edition novella and probably when Black Library discovered they were on to a gold mine (and so did resellers)

Anthologies

Black Library Weekender Volume 1 – Various Authors (Nov 2012)

Black Library Weekender Volume 2 – Various Authors (Nov 2012)

Event exclusive hardbacks, 128 pages, £12 each

These two collections contained six short stories with a Horus Heresy story in each as well as six additional Warhammer 40k and four Warhammer stories. These were an absolute one off it seems only being available to attendees of the (first) Black Library Weekender in November 2012. Purchased separately at the Weekender (2012) and only available this event. These routinely trade for £30+ on ebay. I heard a rumor that all of these that weren't sold went to be pulped, though I can't remember the source

Games Day Anthology 2012/13 – Various Authors (Sep 2012)

3000 copies, Hardback, 128 pages, £12

Unlike the Black library weekender anthologies, the surplus games day ones are sold online so those of us who don’t want to, can’t afford or just can’t make it to games day get the chance to own and read a copy without resorting to the re-seller market.

Games Day Anthology 2011/12 – Various Authors (Jul 2011)

3000 copies, Hardback, 128 pages, £12

For the UK (and possibly other countries), GW & BL shifted from providing games day chapbooks to an anthology style in 2011. These were priced at a very modest £12 for a limited edition, although they do lack the nice production values of the novellas, notably the paper feels quite cheap and thin. It remains to be seen whether games day 2013 produces the same Anthology format.

Chapbooks

Chapbooks were released for UK Games Days from 2008 up until 2010 and are still released at each Black library Live! Event from the first in 2009 to 2012 and one has been announced for 2013 as well. I believe all of the Live! ones have been freebees thrown in with the ticket price of admission while the Games Day ones were availible to purchase at the event. Both types were also sold by Black Library online for £5 (although this went up to £6 for the latest one and will no doubt remain at that price). At re-sale, all of these tend to command at least double the retail price, with the older ones rising to three times retail.

Black Library Live! 2013 Chapbook - Abnett, Da & Nik Vincent (Mar 2013)
750 copies, Softback, back to back, 32 pages, £6.50
"A Ghost Return" and "The Fissure". A Gaunt's Ghosts and an Iron Snakes short story, both linked to each other. Printed "back to back" meaning you read one story from oneside and turn the book over to read the other. only 750 copies, 250 less than last year.


Eclipse of Hope - David Annandale (Jan 2013)
2434 copies, Softback, 32 pages, included with Mephiston: Lord of Death - Annandale, David (Jan 2013)

Initially published as an eShort in July 2012 this was included as a printed copy for the first and probably only time as part of the Mephiston: Lord of Death Limited time novella. It is unsigned


Games Day France 2012 Horus Heresy Chapbook - Kyme, Nick & Graham McNeill (Nov 2012)
1500 copies, Softback, 32 pages?, 7.50 euros (£6)

"Les Portes De Terra" and "Kryptos". That's "The Gates of Terra" to non french speakers. Printed for Gamees Day France 2012 this has a french translation of "Kryptos" originally published as an eShort in English and "The Gates of Terra" which is currently unpublished in English


Games Day Germany 2012 Horus Heresy Chapbook - Thorpe, Gav (Aug 2012
1500 copies, Softback, 32 pages?, unknown price (7.50 euroes?)

"Die Toten Zu Ehren" In English: "To Honour the Dead" or "The Honored Dead" Not yet published in English I believe.

Black Library Live! 2012 Chapbook – Chambers, Andy & Sarah Cawkwell (March 2012)

1000 copies, Softback, 32 pages, £6

“Bellathonis and the Shadow King” and “Reaper” Considering that there are only 450 tickets on sale for the Black Library Live! event this year, it’s somewhat amusing to note the increase in the size of the print run of the “event exclusive chapbook”, now Black Library are in the habit of printing twice the number required to give one free to all attendees of the event.

Black Library Live! 2011 Chapbook – Sanders, Rob & Graham McNeill (March 2011)

750 copies, Softback, 32 pages, £5

“Necessary Evil” and “Deathmasque”

Aenarion – Thorpe, Gav (Dec 2010)

1000 copies, unknown if signed (unlikely), Softback, included with The Bloody Handed

This chapbook is a printed version of the audio drama Aenarion and was bundled with The Bloody Handed. In an amusing cock up, the BL team completely forgot to mention that this was included when the Bloody Handed was released for sale!

Bloodline – Swallow, James (Sep 2010)

1500 copies, Softback, 32 pages, £5

The last Games Day UK exclusive chapbook, being replaced by the Games Day Anthologies for subsequent years

Black Library Live! 2010 Chapbook – Kyme, Nick & Chris Wraight (Feb 2010)

500, Softback, 64 pages, £5

“The Burning” and “Feast of Horrors”

Traitors Gambit: Games Day 2009 chapbook – Mitchell, Sandy (Oct 2009)

Unknown Numbers (1200-1500), Softback, 32 pages, £5

A Commissar Cain short story

Black Library Live! 2009 chapbook – Dembski-Bowden, Aaron & Gav Thorpe (Apr 2009)

500 copies, Softback, 32 pages, £5

“Shadow Knight” and “The Dark Path” The first Black Library Live! event chapbook, held in 2009 and the start of something which I think is really good – the interaction of the publisher with its fans in a great way.

Iron Star: Games Day 2008 chapbook – Abnett, Dan (Sep 2008)

1200 copies, Softback, 32 pages, £5

A short story in the Gaunt’s Ghosts series.

The Horus Heresy Chapbook – McNeill, Graham & Dan Abnett (Sep 2007)

And here we are, all the way back to the first chapbook games workshop ever released ( I think) containing the Dark King and The Lightning Tower, both short stories from the Horus Heresy Series. This was put out just over one year after Horus rising was released, but by this time there were already five Horus Heresy novels published!

Interestingly there are at least a few other event exclusive publications that do not appear to have any sort of desirability to fans or collectors. I have a copy of “The Black Library UK Games Day 2008 Free Sampler” somewhere, a 64 page sneak preview which has extracts from Horus Heresy: Mechanicum and five other BL books. perhaps because it was given out free to a few thousand Games Day attendees or perhaps because it doesn’t include any unique material this goes for peanuts online despite not appearing very often.

I also suspect that there are some books that could fall into the category of limited edition or event exclusive that I have never heard of, at least yet. Most likely it is possible that there have been even exclusives given away at Games Days prior to 2007 but I just don’t know for the moment.  

Trends in releases

	Novella	Chapbook	Anthology	Total
2012	4	1 (3#)	3	7 (9#)
2011	3	1	1	5
2010	3	2(3*)		5(6*)
2009		2		2
2008		1		1
2007		1		1

#the additional chapbooks are the France and Germany Games Day Chapbooks
*the additional chapbook is Aenerion, bundled with The Bloody Handed

In basic terms this demonstrates an increase year on year in the number of releases with a steady release of 3 novellas per year (four in 2012) and an increase in anthologies replacing chapbooks as event exclusive tie-ins. However information can be lost in the figures: for example if you count Aurelian Gold and Silver as the same release then the 2011 total drops to 4 with only 2 ltd ed. novellas. Also two of the 2012 anthologies were not sold online, Weekender anthologies vol. 1 & 2, nor was Old Soldiers Never Die, the Weekender exclusive Limited Edition Novella, although how this would affect your perception of the figures is debatable.

Looking forward into 2013 there was talk at the Black Library Weekender of four limited edition novellas for this year, none of which have been revealed (Mephiston: Lord of Death, Jan 2013) as well as the Horus Heresy graphic novel in a limited edition format. I am slightly worried that with the general trend off price rises that the Novellas will be going up in price to perhaps £35 each, fingers crossed this isn’t going to be the case though.    



Edit 17/03/13: Thanks to Piotr "Emeryt" Jaworski in the comments for filling in some information for me.