21 May Two weeks to go: how do I get a copy of The Box of Demons?

The Box of Demons will finally open two weeks today, on June 4th. After I posted yesterday’s time lapse video of me and Chris Riddell signing the first print run, I started to get a few questions about how people could ensure they got their hands on a signed copy of the special edition hardback, so I thought I’d recap on the best way to go about it.

The Box of Demons is being released as a Special Edition for Independent Bookshop Week, which this year is 20th – 27th June. This means the book will only be available from your local independent bookshop.

Where is my local independent bookshop?

I hope you have the good fortune to have a local independent bookshop on your high street, because they’re brilliant and automatically make a place up to 17.6% nicer (this is a scientific fact, and in no way a number I just made up). However, not everyone is so lucky. For example, the area of the North Wales coast where the book is set is one place which is a bit starved for indie bookshops. So if you need help locating your local emporium, the best place to try is the Independent Bookshop Week website, which has a handy bookshop finder. If you contact your local in good time, they should be able to ensure you get a signed special edition. (We signed all of the first print run, so if you want one of the first 2,000, the sooner the better.)

What if there isn’t an independent bookshop near me?

If you want to do both me and the bookshops a favour, the best way of getting a copy is to contact the shops directly. They get to pay their bills, and since independent bookshops do such a great job of spreading buzz about new books, having people call in or phone or email asking about The Box of Demons will certainly help me. But if you don’t have an independent bookshop near you, or can’t get to one, fear not. Hive is a website which allows you to order books online. Wow, you are no doubt thinking, isn’t that quite an old idea? How is that different to Amazon, or Waterstones?  Well, read on, I’m about to tell you.

The thing with Hive – and the reason The Box of Demons is available there – is a percentage of the profits go to your local independent bookshop. Before you order, you can even nominate a local bookshop to be the beneficiary, so if you have a surfeit or deficit of bookshops near you, you can chose where your money goes. You can even collect the book from certain stores if you’re not able to be home when the postman comes.

So if you can’t make it to a shop, follow this link to pre-order on Hive. They’ll be drawing from the same stock as the indies, so again if you go quick you’ll be able to get the signed special edition.

Happy shopping!