Kindle girlies, sprayed edges, and bound fanfic
Collector culture in the age of eReaders
When I open TikTok, as someone who has tried to train the algorithm to only serve me book-related content, I will inevitably be met with a woman sitting with a stack of books in front of shelves of carefully curated novels, a kind of bookish inception. The books on these shelves tend to be their keepers, books they have loved so much they have embarked on a quest to own as many editions as possible. None of this is anything particularly new, except when you consider the fact that most of these readers are encountering these stories for the first time digitally, finding them in Kindle Unlimited or from the library and reading them on their eReaders.
These same BookTokers are also sharing videos about the cases they use for their Kindles, their favorite stickers, and even what pop sockets they’ve chosen. This video, about where to place the pop socket on your Kindle, has over 1 million views. This “ASMR Kindle Refresh” has nearly five hundred thousand. Many of their kindles are decorated wtih some variation of a sticker that says “This is my emotional support Kindle.”
The physical books, often described as shelf trophies, have become a commodity, leading to a surge in production of special editions and alternative covers, perhaps a logical outgrowth of the shift to cartoon covers. Books with cartoon covers get alt covers with a more grown-up style, and books without cartoon covers get alternative versions with illustrator art.
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A hallmark of these shelf trophies? Sprayed edges — colors and designs painted on the edges of the pages of paperback or hardcover books. These range from colorful to elaborate and are becoming more common. Per Google Trends, interest in sprayed edges first spiked in July 2023 and peaked in November 2023. But as my book conservator friends would like me to remind you, fore-edge painting was also a medieval manuscript trend.
TikTok is full of tutorials teaching readers how to spray their own edges, bringing a DIY element to the collecting.
Who is selling these special editions? Mostly exclusive book subscription boxes and online bookshops launched in recent years to cater to this audience. See Mystic Box, a subscription including “exclusive hardcover editions (you won’t find these covers elsewhere) of only dark, mafia, taboo, forbidden, or erotica books in the romance genre.” The price: $64.99.
Another vendor is Eternal Embers Book Shop, a subscription founded by three college students focused on special editions with foil and exclusive covers. “We like to feature a diverse array of tropes within the contemporary romance genre,” their website describes. “This includes new adult, taboo, reverse harem, angsty and many many more. Our Monthly box is focused more on contemporary romance, while ONYX. is exclusively dark romance, and Ethereal is exclusively romantasy/PNR. “ Their prices are similar to Mystic Box, and there are a dozen, if not more, similar competitors in the space.
Many of these readers are discovering books primarily through Kindle Unlimited, a subscription service through Amazon that costs $11.99 per month for essentially unlimited reads of books enrolled in the program. But when these readers find a book they love, they’ll pay a premium for their trophy.
This acquisitiveness even extends to fanfiction, where Etsy vendors sell bound editions of popular fics and live on the edge with copyright law. All the Young Dudes, a TikTok viral Harry Potter story about Sirius Black and Remus Lupin that is over 500,000 words long, can be bought it at least seven different artisan designed and bound 3-volume sets.
This much is clear: aesthetics play a significant role in book purchasing decisions for this new generation of super readers. A recent BookToker described her desire not to read the romantasy of the moment (Quicksilver by Callie Hart) because she was so put off by the cover. Readers in the comments shared that there was an alternative, less objectionable cover available. And in fact, a search on TikTok for how to get the alternate cover of Quicksilver turns up dozens of results.
Re-releases with new covers can help books retain or regain relevancy in the ever-shortening attention cycle fueled by BookTok. During the early years of indie publishing, colloquial advice was that authors needed to release a book every 90 days in order to appease Amazon’s algorithmic whims. Re-releasing older books with new packages is just another way to game the system without needing to write four books a year (although, of course, that would help).
Sierra Simone, author of early BookTok darling Priest, talks about re-releasing her books with discreet covers. Priest is a spicy and transgressive romance (published for the first time in 2015) about a 29 year old priest who breaks his vow of celibacy on the altar of his church and embarks on a love affair that will destroy his life. The discreet covers have flowers and text only, with nothing that could hint at the content within. Other, more representational covers, are also still available.
It seems to me that the discreet covers are for readers who have already read the series, or at the very least know enough to understand what to expect from the content inside.
This emphasis on shelf trophies has crept into traditional publishing as well. Sales of Fourth Wing in Spring 2023 were driven in part by a limited edition run of pages with sprayed edges. Casey McQuiston’s new novel, The Pairing, published by St. Martin’s Press, is a trade paperback with lavender sprayed edges and a quote: “Some things taste better together.” Just last week, a special edition hardcover edition of two Bridgerton books bound together, An Offer from a Gentleman and Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, hit the New York Times Bestseller list at number 9.
Imaginary Celebrity Book Club
This isn’t quite imaginary, but sticking to the subject of special editions…
Reese’s Book Club doesn’t necessarily have the power it once did, but I could see them getting a jolt if they hop on the special edition bandwagon. Beautifully designed hardcovers with sprayed edges and illustrated covers, signed by the author, with a letter in the front matter from Reese? Extremely gift-able and a magnet for social media coverage. Call me, Reese.
Up next week: Romantasy, or, why are dragons sexy now?
*Just a note to say that all links included in this newsletter are Amazon affiliate links and as an Amazon Associate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases. Since many of the books we’ll be discussing are indie-published, Amazon is often the best and only place to find them. Please purchase from your preferred independent bookstore when you can!
Lovely post! I totally agree with this blindly following Booktok trend instead of thinking clearly what we readers actually need. It’s totally fine to just read on your kindle and not buy a physical copy or even a limited edition. I have to say I did get influenced by it and wanted it buy physical copies of books that I already read and can be read on my iPad. There’s nothing wrong with buying physical copied but this trend of blindly buying books as ‘shelf trophies’ is certainly a very common trend on Booktok. I also enjoy the part of Sienna Simone’s ‘Priest’, to be honest I don’t like the old cover but I didn’t think think about these book covers don’t even imply the key elements in the books, that’s a lovely insight!! Happy reading📖💕
This is so fascinating. My 12-year-old daughter recently read a novel that she loved and couldn't stop talking about, which, of course, was music to my book-loving ears. But she talked almost as much, and even more passionately, about how much she hated the book cover (it was a paperback copy of The Silver Linings Playbook with pictures of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence). I thought she was just being her weird little self, but of course, as so often happens, when I think she's being weird she's actually evincing the TikTok zeitgeist. Thank you for explaining my tween, Alyssa!