Possibility of Hardback special editions

A few of you have asked about Hardback special editions. It would be possible only at a great increase in cost, maybe 20-30 euro more than the softcover’s cover price. (but not this time around, as it would have to have been earlier in the process.) It would be a strictly limited edition of 25 copies only of a work. Who would actually buy this?

29 thoughts on “Possibility of Hardback special editions”

  1. Carl Cederstam-Barsk

    If Quality Chess really would make hardback-editions of the GM-repertoires in the future, I would seriously buy one, as long as no one beats me to it of course.

  2. Abramov Anjuhin

    Well I can not decide which Yusupov’s books to buy: either in German edition which includes top notch glossy paper with extremely good hardback, or English edition by Quality which is paperback and I don’t know what’s the quality of paper and editing.

    But if “Build if your chess” series would include hardbacks I would definitively buy them all right now, even I’m 2200 Elo strong.

    Since these books were credited with Boleslavsky award I don’t see a reason why you shouldn’t launch hardbacks. Please Jacob, don’t be “skimpy”!

    By the way, 25 copies is not enough, but 250 is a good number. I bought Karsten Muller’s book about Fischer in hardback, and there were only 500 copies for the whole world. The books were sold out in 1-3 days, and I’m the proud owner.

    At the end I contacted even Mr. Yusupov and I still can’t decide which edition to buy: German or English. But who can help me?

  3. The design is better in the English editions, the paper is equally good, but the German edition is hardback. We have corrected a few things in the English editions, but not many.

  4. I would buy the upcoming Gruenfeld and 1. e4 volumes in hardback.

    Btw what happened to the 2010 catalogue? I see two new covers but thats it.

  5. I would be interested in hard back as well for mulitple books, certainlyincluding the upcoming gruenfeld if that was one you were considering.

  6. Some time ago I asked this question and at that time Jacob replied that they have no intention for these. Definitely I would prefer to have hardback copies of GM Repertoire. My reasons are that hard covers keep the book body safe and next thing is that after some work with the books paperback edition covers start to look miserably. Another plus which I also would like to mention is that hard-back editions are more usable when looping through the pages (especially when one works on first 50 and last 50 pages and the book has about 500-600 pages as is GM Repertoire 2).

  7. Club Player in Houston, TX

    I suggest that the best candidate for hardback would be the future volumes 1 and 2 of “Karpov’s Strategic Wins.” For a precedent, just look at Igor Stohl’s two volumes of Kasparov’s games, which remain a complete success.

  8. Jacob,

    maybe you could use one book as a test balloon. Make it strictly pre-order, do not limit the number of units but add a fixed deadline. Of course include something in the fineprint which allows you to cancel the deal if it turns out to be commercially impossible. Even in that case you have at least a list of people to offer a good deal on the standard edition. 😉

    If the number of units is small enough you should also offer a free autograph upon request. This may add collector’s value, while signing 50 copies (or even 500) in bulk at 20 seconds a piece doesn’t take long.

  9. The thing I would do, as none of our books so far have been begging for a hardcover, is to hard a pre-order option for hardcovers for one or two of the coming books. If less than 10 order, I will refund the money, if more do, I will print a limited edition for those guys only, only available on this website – unless the shops are saying something else…

  10. Jacob Aagaard :
    The thing I would do, as none of our books so far have been begging for a hardcover, is to hard a pre-order option for hardcovers for one or two of the coming books.

    In that case you should provide us with more information than just the writer. In case of GM repertoire a table of contents and the choice of lines is necessary. I mean you can not expect people to preorder if they don’t know what they are buying. To give you an example if 1. e4 e5 volume of GM repertoire if it is built around Scotch let alone paying more for the hardcover.

  11. Correction: “To give you an example I won’t buy the 1. e4 e5 volume of GM repertoire if it is built around Scotch, let alone paying more for the hardcover.”

  12. Our webshop does not offer the chance of pre-orders of unknown titles, so your paranoia is a bit unfounded :-).

    Maybe we will give it a go with the Caro-Kann book. I am just thinking aloud, and as a number of people have asked for hardcover books, I am sharing.

  13. I would definitely be interested in hard cover copies of a lot of QC books, and a lot of your upcoming books. The Marin books, 1. e4 books, reprints of all the GM Rep books to date, and so on. In my opinion, the bigger and the more “epic” the book the more it makes sense. The Caro-Kann is an interesting choice. I don’t know how many club players actually want to play this line as their main defense to 1. e4, but maybe I’m just biased. I do think this limited edition hardcover idea is fantastic. I would definitely be interested in preordering hardcover editions of your books.

  14. sorry for OT, only a question about Marin’s “Learn from the Legends”: are there many differences between italian edition (Caissa, 2005) and the 2nd edition?

    for hardcovers im interested too in Yusupov’s “Build your chess” (for example a single volume with a better/optimized layout would be nice) or Marin’s “old” books (titles before the “opening tomes project”)
    thank you

  15. Alexei Lugovoi

    ***Experts vs. the Sicilian 2nd ed versus Dismantling the Sicilian***

    Who can comment which book is better when you take into account following:

    a) solidity/smooth interpolation of proposed lines in major systems

    – Quality book gives various and random lines while “Dismantling” gives Be3 against Najdorf and Scheveningen for ex.

    b) better explanation of key moves in big theoretical struggles

    – “Dismantling” seems to have better intros and a summary table at the end of each chapter

    c) unproportioned size of some chapter

    – how come that minor systems compete with the big ones in terms of devoted pages

    Jacob, can we get a REAL 21st CENTURY QUALITY CHESS BOOK FOR WHITE VS SICILIAN?

    I see that you don’t won’t to compete with GM Rep 1e4, but all the people don’t want to play “your repertoire against Sicilian”, but they certainly would play repertoire proposed by a strong masters crew which wrote Experts vs Sicilian.

    Think about it! Don’t let us down! Launch THE THIRD EDITION AND MAKE THE CHESS FLOOR BURN!!!

  16. I would only be able to do hardcover of future books, not past books.

    The italian edition is essentially the 2nd edition – only the English edition is a bit better proofread.

    No plans of a third edition of Experts vs., but we have a different idea along those lines.

  17. Jacob Aagaard :
    Our webshop does not offer the chance of pre-orders of unknown titles, so your paranoia is a bit unfounded.

    No I am serious. Take Ftacnik’s book for example, before preordering it I need to know his opening choices. Without that kind of information you should not expect people preordering opening books.

  18. anonymous coward

    I, like many others, appreciate all the updates. But seriously, guys, don’t waste your time responding to all the crazy requests / demands in the comments. It’s one thing to keep us up to date on publication dates, general ideas about what books will contain, etc. It’s another entirely to have to respond to demands for specific and exhaustive details re: opening choices in yet-to-be published books, or requests FOR THINGS IN CAPITAL LETTERS!

    Thanks for the books, the updates, the openness. Just remember that trolls are trolls and you don’t have to feed them.

  19. Hesam, you are still incorrect. It would not be available in Hardback pre-ordering before an excerpt is available…

  20. Jacob Aagaard :
    Hesam, you are still incorrect. It would not be available in Hardback pre-ordering before an excerpt is available…

    Oh, I see. In this case I am happy to be incorrect!

  21. I’m at the other extreme from the people requesting hardbacks – I would like to get the content in a .cbh file. I would happily pay as much as the regular book and there are no printing costs! I always put everything into .cbh for studying anyhow, so if I could get the content already in that format it would be a huge time saver for me.
    The primary reason I don’t buy a book is the time it will take to enter it, rather than the price. If I didn’t have to do that entering I would buy a LOT more books!

  22. Unfortunately you are alone Paul. People illegally download stuff; and they are not afraid of telling it to your face. So, having the entire book as pgn is not happening from us at this point.

  23. cbh versions would be great, but I see your point. It’s probably really too risky for a company without a fire & forget attitude on their products.

    There’s one scenario where it could make sense though:
    On back catalog titles which are about to go EOL because another print run wouldn’t make economic sense. Here direct sales (-> customers for future business!) for 5-10 EUR, Christmas bundles, “preorder A, get cbh-B for free”, and such kind of deals could extend a products lifecycle for a couple of months and create additional value for your company.
    In that case every sale is pure profit (minus, say, 50 cent transaction costs). Plus there would be the chance to use the .cbhs for marketing purposes.

  24. I would gladly purchase books in hardback format, especially GM Repertoire, game collections, and tournament books. Basically anything that will see heavy use for a long period of time I prefer in hardcover. For example my copy of Avrukh 2 already has a frayed, water damaged cover and will of course take even more heavy abuse after I drag it around to tournaments. My Avrukh looks like a dog tried to eat it…

  25. I just bought the hardback versions of volumes 2 & 3 of Marin’s English trilogy on a visit to the London Chess Centre, and see online now that the hardback version of volume 1 (which was not in the store) is sold out.

    Is there any chance it will be reissued in hardback (whether or not the content is updated)?

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