In Waterstones yesterday I saw a double book. Very confusing. It was a combination of Mark Gatiss’ first two Lucifer Box novels. Looks like a normal book but when you turn it over to look at the back there is there is the front cover of another book.  So it has two fronts instead of a back. Took me a while to find out where the price is.A good idea and good value, but I have the first book already. Now I am reluctant to get the second book, knowing that it only costs a couple of quid less than the double book – but I also wouldn’t want the double book because its a waste to spend the extra couple of quid on something I already have.
Last night on Amazon I spotted another double book. I was looking for Black Swan and you can either buy it for £6.29 or get it combined with Fooled By Randomness by the same author for £7.99.
Is this double book thing a new trend? How many of them are there? Looks like a good thing for catching up with an author. It can be a bit daunting when you read a book you like and see that the author has written another dozen or so that you might want to read.
They are good value but even we have trouble finding the price/barcode. Its really just a twist on omnibus editions – most of the Tom Holts are available like that as are the first three Dexter novels.
I’ve seen this with some SF fiction, I have one or two double-novella books (can’t remember what they are and am in Rugby to house hunt at the moment so can’t scan the shelves), where the stories are by different authors.
It is good for the novella form, because they are too long to put into short story compilations, and too short to put out as a single volume.
I have a few compilation books (Tom Holt, as it happens, is one of them) although I haven’t seen these upside-down types before, except on an old 80s poetry book – Seething Wells and Attila the Stockbroker.
I guess that book publishers, like the other entertainment media, are hunting around for new formats or twists.