Sunday 19 April 2020

Physical ponyfic books

I currently only possess one dead-tree book of ponyfic (Cold in Gardez's Completely Safe Stories) but what with the current situation, I'm considering buying a couple more. The snag is that not all the options are affordable and practical for those of us living in the UK. Lulu is by far the easiest, but even some of their books are a pain as (using criteria I can't work out) some are only shipped from the US while others are printed over here.

For example, take iisaw's The Celestia Code. The paperback and casewrap versions ship from over here, the hardcover from over there. The latter adds significantly to both cost and postage time, even before you factor in the slower service Lulu is providing at the moment. There's even division between paperbacks: Chris's The Purloined Pony ships from the US, GhostOfHeraclitus's anthology of three Civil Service stories from the UK.

Prices on Lulu are all over the place anyway, with similarly-sized paperbacks costing anything from £4 to £15 before shipping, regardless of whether they contain illustrations, but I imagine that at least is because of authorial decisions. Put it together with everything else, though, and it makes some dead-tree ponyfic vastly more expensive than other dead-tree ponyfic. I'm not in a position to ignore cost entirely when making my choices, sadly.

Anyway, if (and right now it is an if) I get around to ordering any books at all, I'll let you know what I chose. I'm using this list to browse; it may well not be complete, but it's the best thing I've found so far.

4 comments:

  1. This post reminds me that I have a huge stack of books behind me that I need to read, and it's been two years since I started Background Pony. ._.

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    1. I have solved that particular problem by not starting Background Pony. :D

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  2. I can send you a hardback set of the books for the cost of postage. (I have a few extras lying around.) That said, the postage is still high... something like US$70, if I recall correctly.

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    1. Very kind of you to offer, but I'll have to politely decline. Finances are so uncertain right now that I can't justify Transatlantic postage costs. That doesn't mean I won't be buying that paperback of The Celestia Code at some point, of course...

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