Tracking and comparing limited editions in one place

What do you folks think about this Compare Editions view? I'm comparing variants of Suntup's "The Dragon Masters & The Last Castle". The idea is simple: instead of jumping between publisher pages and creating spreadsheets manually, you can easily compare editions side by side in one place.

You can try it here https://lazybookcollector.com/book/627188-the-dragon-masters-the-last-castle-van...

The site also lets you:
* filter books by features collectors actually care about such as binding, letterpress, limitation type, and more
* track general sale dates for upcoming releases, so you don't miss anything
* add releases to your calendar

Current coverage includes Folio Society, Subterranean Press, Grim Oak Press, Suntup Editions, Beehive Books, and Dragonsteel, among others.

It isn’t a fine-press-only site, but I do plan to track all active fine presses with generally available releases. The focus is on publicly available editions, not subscriber-only, rights-based, or otherwise restricted access.

Hope you find it useful.

That's quite nice! I like that you can toggle the full list and only the differences, it's a handy bonus. Good work!

>2 Shadekeep: Thanks for taking the time to try it and post your feedback!

I like it for the visual learners and maybe especially for those really new to purchasing fine press--I think it will make it easier to learn terms and maybe memorize the different papers and other details...

>3 megaumi: My pleasure. I build web apps both as a career and a hobby, and I love taxonomies and data. Can I ask, what web framework are you building this in? I'm guessing one of the Javascript-based ones like Node or React, but I could be a number of different ones (or even home-grown).

>5 Shadekeep: A colleague then :) This is built on Django. I'm not very good with Javascript, so I defer Javascript to coding agents. It only uses some lightweight Javascript libraries, no frameworks.

>6 megaumi: Ah, that's a good one too! Part of that whole family that usually includes Drupal and Laravel. Nice choice, seems to work admirably for your project.

You can now sign up for new edition/restock alerts by publisher. Just in the last couple of days there were some Suntup restocks.

Demo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNkwXflVrSY
Website - https://lazybookcollector.com/

Great site!

Do you have any plans to allow collectors themselves to add publications to the database? It seems to me an impediment sites like this run into is linear listing growth from the outset, which could be addressed by engaging users in that process, while also making the “My Shelves” section much more comprehensive. Maybe a function where info is submitted pending your approval.

I imagine the answer is more complicated than the question but suspect it could take the site to a new level.

Regardless it’s very cool.

>9 greenwald1: Thanks a lot! I'm glad you liked it!

So, the function to submit info for approval already exists - https://lazybookcollector.com/submit-a-book/

So far nobody has submitted anything though :) But I agree with you, at some point it will be the best way to grow the database meaningfully.

Right now I'm mostly struggling with finding ways to let people know about the site. Most venues forbid self-promo, even if the tool is genuinely useful.

>10 megaumi: I don’t know how I missed that, maybe I’ll be your first submitter :)

Have you posted the site info on the various large FB collecting groups? There’s thousands of collectors there.

Edit: people have posted about other self-run book-related sites there with no problem. Just be direct that it’s your site. To cover all your bases you may want to message the admin first, but like I said it hasn’t been a problem for others.

>11 greenwald1: That would be great!

I posted in some groups, but, for example, the Fans of the Folio Society group forbids self-promo. If you happen to mention it in any groups you're active in, a recommendation from a fellow collector always carries more weight.

>12 megaumi: I can do that

I’m pretty sure that it’s been allowed in some of the multi-publisher groups like:

Signed. Limited. Awesome.

Small Press Limited Book Collectors

Fine Press Books Buy/Sell/Trade

Each has thousands of members, active and you’ll see lots of Subterranean, Suntup, Arion etc type listings. Not so much FS though.

>13 greenwald1: That would really help, and you'd have my eternal gratitude :)

Apparently I tried to join "Signed. Limited. Awesome.", and I even remember answering their questions, but my request is still pending.
I did post in "Small Press Limited Book Collectors" some time ago, but the site had fewer features then and people didn't seem very interested.
Didn't try the last one.

Thanks for the suggestions!

>14 megaumi: I have same issue with "Signed. Limited. Awesome." group. My request is still pending.

>15 DeviousMouse: Ah, so it's not just me then :)

I've added Conversation Tree Press to the website - https://lazybookcollector.com/publishers/conversation-tree-press/

I love this.

My only nit would be to separate "signed by" into author and other categories (e.g. illustrator, forward, editor)

>18 memeweaver: Thanks for the feedback! Would you like to see that information on the book detail page, or would you like to be able to filter books signed by author/illustrator/etc separately? Right now you can filter by specific signer name, but not by role.

And if you have any other suggestions, I'm always happy to hear them.

>19 megaumi: I think to maybe parenthise non-author signings as signed (illustrator) . Not sure about case where it's author & illustrator signing. Sometimes it's obvious as the author is deceased.

>20 memeweaver: Thanks, I'll think about how to do this best. I think at some point I'll need to add more flexible signature tracking, right now it doesn't distibguish between hand-signed/stamped/booplates and so on. But in the book details page in Production Details section you can usually see what kind of a signature it is and by whom.

I've added MidWorld Press - https://lazybookcollector.com/publishers/midworld-press/

>22 megaumi:

Midworld Press are really nice. Thanks for adding them, too. Do you have SST Publishing and Anderida? The latter also sell regular editions (signed or with other extras), but also have their own special editions.

>23 SF-72: Thanks for the suggestions! I'll add them eventually. Could you point me at Anderida's own special editions?

>24 megaumi:

You can find them under the deluxe editions category on their website. They also list Lord of the Rings there, which isn't their own, but everything else is.

https://www.anderidabooks.co.uk/products/category/122/~/~/Deluxe-Editions

>25 SF-72: Interesting, so these are theirs too?

https://www.anderidabooks.co.uk/product/2800/CHILDREN-OF-MEMORY-Deluxe-Signed-Nu...
https://www.anderidabooks.co.uk/product/2806/CHILDREN-OF-TIME-RUIN-MEMORY-STRIFE...
https://www.anderidabooks.co.uk/product/2901/SHROUD-Signed-Numbered-Deluxe-Limit...
https://www.anderidabooks.co.uk/product/2790/THE-DOORS-OF-EDEN-Signed-Numbered-D...
https://www.anderidabooks.co.uk/product/2814/THE-FINAL-ARCHITECTURE-TRILOGY-Shar...
https://www.anderidabooks.co.uk/product/2900/ROSEHOUSE-Deluxe-Limited-Edition

There's no indication there at all they are not just sold by Anderida.

>26 megaumi: The books published by Anderida are released under the imprint Planet 9 Press.

Those are the only examples I've found online:

https://www.anderidabooks.co.uk/product/2775/THE-EMBERS-OF-WAR-TRILOGY-Signed-De...
https://www.anderidabooks.co.uk/product/2781/THE-EMBERS-OF-WAR-TRILOGY-Deluxe-Le...

>26 megaumi:

Yes, these are their deluxe editions. (Which doesn't mean that they're the general publisher, they work with the publisher to get to do a special edition they way I understand it.) They've got a whole collection of Tchaikovsky novels, several of which you linked to. (A lot of others are sold out to my knowledge.) Basically, when it's a deluxe binding in cloth, acid-free paper (Munken, from what I've seen) and smyth-sewn, it's usually theirs. If you get their newsletter they also inform you about everything they do and it's the best way to get on their waitlists for their deluxe editions. They also have some really good deluxe editions of Ruocchio (again not to be confused with the regular signed first editions they also sell), which come with a few more bells and whistles, and I really enjoyed their Edward Ashtons, which also have some pigment foiling on the covers. Generally, their editions are a bit simpler than those of others in that they rarely do illustrations, but the overall quality is really good. I also prefer cloth-binding over (faux or real) leather, so I like what they're doing there.

>28 SF-72: Thanks for all the info! I've signed up for their newsletter now.

>27 Clem32: Right, that's what they publish themselves. Thanks!

>29 megaumi:

One more thing that's worth knowing is that their prices are lower when you buy books early on. Once they get rarer and sequels become available, their prices can rise quite considerably.

>31 SF-72: That's good to know!

I've seen you post in some of the collector groups about your website previously. Seems to be coming along nicely!

Would love to see you add Curious King, Centipede Press, Amaranthine Books, No Reply Press, and Earthling at some point.

>33 Extrasolarian: Thanks for the suggestions! Working on Curious King right now :)