Buying physical books

[Ganders]

Hi, 

I'm very confused. How do you actually buy physical copies of books these days? Specifically Heresy and Siege books.

I admit I haven't used the Black Library website for a while but it just seems to be audio or ebooks. 

I see the new GW site sells books but not the Horus Heresy setting it seems. 

(My search started because I was wondering if part two of the end and the death was in hardback yet.)

[Malkydel]

So, for a good few years now the BL site has been e-book and audiobook only.

 

There are currently a limited number of Heresy paperbacks on the site. There are seperate buying areas for the Siege, as well, including the first five novels in paperback and one of the novellas and one of the later books as hardbacks.

 

You can also search by author.

 

What I would do is go to Fiction from Black Library on the new site. Then Explore Fiction. Then use the filters to look for the relevant series or setting you want to look for.

[Ganders]

Thanks for the info. I looked at the siege books on the black library site and it all seemed to be ebook or audio. How are people actually buying physical books? 

Do you mean the new Warhammer site? When I eventually find the black library section in the mess that is the new Warhammer site it only seems to show me 40k books with a filter system that doesn't let me unselect 40k.

I can only assume I'm missing something somewhere.

 

[Mechanicus Tech-Support]

Main source for actually buying them from GW is when a new book gets released for pre-order or when they reprint any of the old HH books.

 

Outside of GW your best bet is physical GW stores (mine has some HH novels but not all, so its a bit hit or miss) and used bookstores

[WrathOfTheLion]

If you click 'Shop' -> 'Fiction from Black Library' -> 'Explore Fiction', it gives you all the books. Then, under 'Filters', you can select Siege of Terra.

 

On the new Warhammer site, for clarity.

Edited January 11 by WrathOfTheLion

[Ganders]

Thanks for all the replies, makes a lot more sense now and I was able to find what I was looking for.

[DukeLeto69]

If GW make it increasingly hard to but paper books direct from them, then I go elsewhere (though those routes are reducing too)

[DarkChaplain]

Honestly, you just don't anymore. Unless the book goes up for general release in paperback via Amazon, B&N or whichever general retailer of your choice, you're most likely out of luck unless you pay scalpers or get lucky jumping on the preorder minutes before it's supposed to be live and hours before it's advertised as on sale by GW themselves.

 

They don't want the general audience to buy print anymore. Unless it's overpriced limited editions they know will sell out within minutes despite the pricing. Print on launch is, at best, an obligation they still carry on their backs to pay lip service, but it's clear that they want to sell digital first and foremost.

[TheArtilleryman]

This whole thing is infuriating. I was collecting the Horus Heresy books in physical format and have about fifteen, but since GW stopped printing them I’ve had no choice but to stop because they are going for upwards of forty quid for a crappy used paperback.

 

Why they've done this is a mystery because surely they’d sell loads. Yes I know ebooks have a ridiculous profit margin but I’m sure there would be demand for printed copies. Absolutely ridiculous.

 

Edited January 14 by TheArtilleryman

[Felix Antipodes]

It has been GW’s game plan for a while now that ebooks are their preferred delivery method.  ‘Buy the ebook’ is their standard reply when you complain about no physical copy of ‘x’ available.

Unfortunately for them (and us) there is a large minority/majority, depending on who you ask, that prefer dead trees and find that answer unpalatable.

[TheArtilleryman]

3 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

It has been GW’s game plan for a while now that ebooks are their preferred delivery method.  ‘Buy the ebook’ is their standard reply when you complain about no physical copy of ‘x’ available.

Unfortunately for them (and us) there is a large minority/majority, depending on who you ask, that prefer dead trees and find that answer unpalatable.

What makes this really silly is these books are going to be predominantly read by a fan base built over decades around the collection and hoarding of physical things. This is the very basis of the IP that the books are inspired by. Therefore to not print them is, I think, counterproductive. There are clearly people willing to pay silly prices for them or the scalpers wouldn’t be able to charge this much, so GW is missing out on income they could be receiving instead.  
 

They could even do a print on demand service, like Amazon does for self-published books, and avoid having a large stock of certain titles that they can’t shift, if this is what they are worried about.

Edited January 14 by TheArtilleryman

[WrathOfTheLion]

They do a periodic printing of the HH books in hardback on a made to order basis, like once or twice a year with somewhere around 5-10 available each time.

 

I figure they'll probably announce another round at the BL weekender? I'd have to go back and see if there's any correlation with previous times they did it.

 

Here's an example from the past: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/02/26/black-library-fill-the-gaps-in-your-horus-heresy-collection-with-the-latest-print-on-demand/

 

So if that was in February 2022, I'd expect another round announced in like a month or so. Or maybe if they did them all, they'll go back in for another cycle through them.

 

Adding some other artifacts of that from the past:

• 2019 (Heralds of the Siege, Descent of Angels, Legion, Battle for the Abyss, Mechanicum, Tales of Heresy)
• 2020 (Fear to Tread, Shadows of Treachery, Betrayer, Angel Exterminatus, Mark of Calth)
• 2021 (Legacies of Betrayal, Deathfire, War Without End, Pharos, Eye of Terra)
• 2022 (February) (The Master of Mankind, Garro, Shattered Legions, The Crimson King, Tallarn)
• 2022 (May) (Ruinstorm, Old Earth, The Burden of Loyalty, Wolfsbane, Born of Flame)
• 2022 (September) (Slaves to Darkness, Heralds of the Siege, Titandeath, The Buried Dagger)

 

I don't want to spend more time trying to find old articles, so that's as far as I'm going to dig.

Edited January 15 by WrathOfTheLion

[theSpirea]

This is full HH reprint. BL doesn't really do much outside of that. Currently running Gaunt's Ghosts and Ciaphas Cain

 

[Cactus]

@WrathOfTheLion I think the MTO hardbacks were a one-off. They haven't done any more since reaching the last book in 2022. I missed one batch in summer 2019 and don't expect to get  another chance.

[jasicarose75]

 

Honestly, you just don't anymore. Unless the book goes up for general release in paperback via Amazon, B&N or whichever general retailer of your choice, you're most likely out of luck unless you pay scalpers or get lucky jumping on the preorder minutes before it's supposed to be live and hours before it's advertised as on sale by GW themselves.

 

They don't want the general audience to buy print anymore. Unless it's overpriced limited editions they know will sell out within minutes despite the pricing. Print on launch is, at best, an obligation they still carry on their backs to pay lip service, but it's clear that they want to sell digital first and foremost.

I used to buy physical books with pleasure, enjoying the process of choosing and reading each of them. I liked to feel the book in my hands, turn the pages and mark my favorite moments. But the world moves on and now I listen only to audiobooks. Also, I used to write everything myself for university, now I pay for essay, I use https://ca.papersowl.com/pay-for-essay for this. If such opportunities have appeared, then why not use them? As a result, audiobooks allow me to save time and not be tied to physical media.

If I need something, I buy it on Amazon.

Edited September 1 by jasicarose75