Monday, September 14, 2026 – Orlando, Florida
Should The Jim Garraty Chronicles Get a Hardcover Edition?
It’s another humid early fall afternoon here in Central Florida — the kind where the air feels like warm syrup and the sky can’t decide whether it wants to stay sunny or break into a quick rain shower. Perfect weather for staying indoors and wrestling with publishing decisions.
And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.
Over the past few days, I started tinkering with the idea of creating a hardcover edition of The Jim Garraty Chronicles. Kindle Direct Publishing makes it possible — and technically, it costs me nothing to set up since it’s print‑on‑demand. But after getting halfway through the process, I hit pause. Not because it’s impossible, but because it’s…well…a headache.
The Three Big Roadblocks
1. The cover. Paperback covers and hardcover covers are not interchangeable. Hardcovers require a full‑wrap design, higher resolution, and precise margin calculations. It’s doable, but it’s fiddly, and I’m not a graphic designer. I can make something acceptable, but not something I’d call effortless.
2. The back cover copy. Formatting back cover text for a hardcover is its own special brand of frustration. Spacing, alignment, margins, barcode placement — all the tiny details that somehow take hours. I’ve done it before for Reunion: Coda, and while I survived, I didn’t exactly enjoy the experience.
3. The “Is it worth it?” question. A hardcover edition costs me nothing upfront, but it does cost time, energy, and attention. And I’m not sure whether readers actually want a hardcover version of the omnibus. The paperback and Kindle editions already exist, and they’re clean, corrected, and aligned with the updated series branding.
So before I dive back into the formatting trenches, I want to ask you — the people who read, collect, and care about these stories.
Would you be interested in a hardcover edition of The Jim Garraty Chronicles?
Hardcovers have a certain gravitas. They feel permanent. They sit on shelves like they belong there. But they’re also more expensive, and not everyone prefers them.
If you’re someone who would buy or gift a hardcover edition — or if you simply like having a “library edition” of a favorite story — I’d genuinely love to know. Your feedback will help me decide whether to push through the production process or leave the omnibus as an e‑book and paperback only.
Feel free to comment, participate in the poll, or send smoke signals. I’m listening.
A Certain Point of View, Too 
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