"Look at the absolute horror." "The Backstreet Boys want to know too. Tell me why." 😂😂😂 I COMPLETELY agree with you! The publisher just wants the readers to buy new books to match. It's an insult to the readers.

As a collector, I hate seeing things like this. But I LOVE salty Petrik!

"The Backstreet Boys wants to know about this. Tell me why" is the greatest thing you have ever said as far as I'm concerned

No bigger betrayal exists on BookTube.

“The Backstreet Boys say why” this line is perfect 🤣 this is an absolute horror, and why I’m always hesitant to buy the physical copies of unfinished series.

"Why? Why?" I think that sums it up perfectly. I feel your frustration!

Absolutely agree with you on this. I'll never forget when the cover was revealed for a A Dance with Dragons and I realized it wouldn't match the rest of my set of A Song of Ice and Fire books...unless I went back and bought the entire set over with new covers. It feels like such a scam against readers when this kind of thing happens mid-series, ESPECIALLY in an instance like Speaking Bones where they had everything right there, and it's the last book. The font is right! We're talking about tiny changes in formatting. There's no way that slipped through all the different layers of book creation without someone noticing it. The rant is well-warranted, and I'm sorry you and countless other readers have to deal with this.

SOUND👏OFF👏PETRIK👏 This is something all of us readers/collectors hate! Thank you for dragging this travesty into the open!

Absolutely not ridiculous to be upset or annoyed about this. We’re not just readers, but collectors of the books and especially the ones we love. It’s nice to have them on display when they match and look good.

I wholeheartedly agree with Salty Petrik! This is why I hesitate buying physical books now until every book in a series is released and I can check. Sad that it's gotten to that stage now. It's also annoying when the books are different sizes 🤦‍♀️​

It’s a conspiracy. They want us to have mismatched series so when they come out with their special editions we’ll buy them to have matching copies.

Absolutely deserving of a rant - hate it when they do this!

5:09 "Look at this absolute horror". I couldn't have said it better myself

“Now look at this absolute horror! What the hell is this? This is so stupid. This is so dumb. There is absolutely no logic to make this design look this ugly.”-Petrik. Well said. I completely agree with you. Obviously the designers are not book collectors and do not even understand the idea of displaying book collections.

“OH MY GOD LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL CHAOTIC AND MISMATCHED COPIES I LOVE THEM!” I died 😂😂😂

As someone who has worked as a professional content editor for years, I totally understand your rant. This stuff also drives me crazy!

US manga publishers between 2000-2010 were constantly doing this. 15 volumes in and they’d change their logo design and placement 😡 Also negative shout out to the publishers of Vivien Chien’s Noodle Shop Mysteries who recently issued book 8 taller and wider than the rest of the series. So frustrating!!!

"oh wow look at these beautifully chaotic and mismatched things" lmfao Preach, Petrik. Maybe if we all complain enough they'll rerelease it.

There were so many gems in this video "What even is the point of this?!" "The Backstreet Boys want to know." "You know who are humans too? We are!" This made my day 🤣

It’s so frustrating when publishers put current cover “trends” over consistency. I would much rather buy books that match than books that are more “eye catching”

Well said, Petrik! 👏 I agree with you 100%! I no longer buy physical series books until the entire series is available with cohesive cover designs that look like they belong together. Your Backstreet Boys comment made me laugh. 😄

unconsciously, you have an OCD once you jump into this hobby.

"The Backstreet Boys want to know about this, too. Tell me why!" Great one! Had me laugh out loud. And I gotta agree, I also enjoy salty Petrik but I also feel sorry for you Petrik! So far I only own The Grace of Kings on Kindle and have not even started it. But would I own these books physically it would also pain me every time I look at them.

I order a trade paperback and get multiple sized books. What the hell? I feel your pain, Petrik!

You are not alone in your frustration. At least the books are the same size which is not always the case.

Oh my gosh! I’m with you that this is so frustrating! And you are so kind in all of your videos, so for you to post a rant…. That being said, you had so many good zingers and one liners. So funny. While I don’t want you to feel the need to rant, any time you post a rant I will be watching.

Salty Patrick is always a lot of fun ☺️🌈🦋

I love that I found your channel a while back. Give us more salty Petrik, he’s absolutely brilliant! 😂 but I understand your frustration. I refuse to buy non-matching covers. I usually wait a bit to see if any book box will do a matching set (or The Broken Binding, they’re killing it with their sub). If not, I just wait until the e-books drop below 5€ 🙈they always match in e-format 😅

You are right. This seems to be the management problems at the publishers. There is a person who made the error but then someone who approved it before it went into mass print.

I completely agree. Another one that I can think of are the spines of the Expanse series.

I was WAITING for this video 😭 I considered buying the beautiful American hardbacks to have two copies of one of my favorite series…but now….I mean wtf

Hi Petrik, 100% agree with you, I have a high functional OCD and things like that are very annoying, why are publishers like that? is it on purpose, negligence, lack of communication, lack of materials? I don't know but for me it feels as disregard for the consumer, change in the spines, fonts, sizes (I use balsa wood sheets to level books with this problem in my book shelves), tone colors to name just a few are problems that shouldn't exist, specially in the digital era when you can view, fix and modify the design way before you send it to print.

I hate looking at my collection of these on my bookshelf!! Saga needs to give us new book covers. I loved the Back Street Boys reference. Thanks for validating how I felt about these mismatched covers! Love your content.

Hey Petrik - couldn’t agree more! I’ll also note that my copies of grace of kings and Wall of storms have the built in lace string bookmark but the other two books don’t. So frustrating!!!

I agree. This kinda thing makes me just want to box up the books and not display them at all. Also love the sun eater art and really think you should bump the series up on your TBR. Worth it. Also need more salty rant videos and a spoiler review of Dreadgod.

You are so right this is incredibly annoying!!! It doesn't seem that hard to keep it uniform haha. Great video!!! 100% agree!!!

I sympathize with your frustration and share the same issues with OCD. That said, your rant had me I stitches despite your intended seriousness.

I completely empathize. Coming from someone who doesn’t have easy access to fantasy books, i often find myself with a mishmash, a mix between paperbacks and hardbacks, and sometime US and UK editions. For Dandelion dynasty, GoK is US paperback, WoS US Hardback, and the last two are the UK Trade Paperbacks with completely different cover design. So I’m always grateful when they all match. Find something else to complain about, that was cathartic to watch.

This video is not pointless at all, you are absolutely correct. It's particularly annoying because it's thoughtless: the designers had one job. They had one job to design the covers and spines and checking the new cover against the previous ones to make sure they match shouldn't have been too hard. Publishers can't get their head screwed on right: what about when they change the design for paperbacks and the next hardcover matches the new paperback design and not the original hardcover? That's something that never made sense to me. I get changing the art if through a market study they determined the original art didn't hit it right with the audience. But to leave readers with completely mismatched sets shouldn't be the right option. Whenever you have a moment, check The Diviners series on GR (US covers): you'll see the full horror show. All the covers are so damned different it looks like the publisher ran out of shits to give. The Sun Eater's covers are gorgeous. My favorite is the fourth one but I agree the second is amazing.

This is a series I've put on my reading list thanks to your videos. I hate when publishers make random unnecessary changes mid series that only serve to ruin your shelves. There's absolutely no reason to do this, just keep the old format 🙄

I absolutely and wholeheartedly agree with you! As a collector myself it grinds my gears to see publishers do this.

My best guess, based on my experience working in a permanently under-resourced corporate publishing environment and without having tried to research this instance in particular, is that the approval of these covers got handed off to people who weren't previously involved, and either: 1) nobody thought/bothered to check they were visually consistent with the first two previous books (this is a scenario that happens way more than you think it would, especially with turnover and print deadlines) OR 2) someone DID pick up on this but the issue was discovered after the printer proofs/files were already approved and the print run scheduled, and there wasn't enough time to make changes without pushing out the release date. With print-on-demand, you can easily swap out the files in a matter of hours, but that's not the case with offset printing, which requires a longer lead time to set up as the printing plates have to be created. Plus, offset printers usually have scheduled dates to produce the print run. So if you miss the agreed cut-off, not only do you have to get the printing plates made up again, you also need to wait for the next available slot in their production schedule, and ever since COVID hit, printers have been backed up thanks to paper shortages, etc. Unless there's a miracle, the publisher would have no choice but to push back release dates for distribution into bookstores, then would have to rebook all of the book launch events and publicity, etc, which basically means pushing back release dates isn't really a commercially viable option. So if this was the situation, the publisher would've just went "oh crap, welp" and gone with it, betting on there being enough reader demand thanks to the book being the last in series to sell out that first print run. I would bet if/when that first print run sells out, the cover will be redone and made more consistent with the others in a second print run. Granted, this is probably not the worst example that's out there, since they at least went with an offset printer. When Fonda Lee's Jade City hardcovers sold out, her publisher decided, for some bizarre reason, to go with IngramSpark's print-on-demand hard covers instead of ordering a second print run from an offset printer. (They probably didn't go through the IngramSpark platform that self pub authors use, but I would recognize that hardcover finish from Ingram anywhere). They didn't even go with the jacketed case laminate edition but picked one of the digital cloth formats. It was truly bizarre decision-making.

One of your bibliospren here, and I feel exactly the same way on this. Love your channel! Great content! Maybe you will read one of my books one day, but not a must. I love your channel no matter what! I will be upgrading my support soon.

“What the hell is this? This is so stupid. This is so dumb.” Petrik, that was so funny. But I understand your pain!

This was so funny 😂. Love it Petrik and totally agree! Especially when they’re keeping things pretty much the same (eg similar illustration) but decide to put everything in different places just because… At least give us the matching spines!

So frustrating. HAHAHA TELL ME WHYYYYY - I laughed out loud at that, so funny. Salty Petrik is the best. I feel your pain, my friend!

It is typical for all publisher around the world. But it's already good enough when it is possible to order a book in the same design style. I have tree book from this series. 1. Russian edition, hardcover, no dist jacket. 2. US edition, paperback. 3. UK edition, hardcover. They look great on a shelf next to each other.

Changes in cover art drive me crazy! Also, changes in book size also drives me nuts.

I has been waiting for this since your Instagram story. Irate Petrik, you are all of us

Thank you Salty Petrik! I feel the same way.

Completely agree with you. How difficult is it to make a matching set,it's like the publishers doesn't care about the readers.With the fourth Dandelion book,the only explanation I have is that they didn't bother to watch how the spines of the previous books look like. At the Sun Eater books,the spines don't match,the first one has the author name a bit smaller but it's not so bad after all,unlike Dandelion Dynasty.I haven't bought Ken Liu's books yet,I will wait a bit,maybe they will change the spine of the last book like how is already happened with the first two US Edition of the Stormlight books.

I collect a lot of books as well Petrik and I am right with you on this one. It is so frustrating that publishers do this. Book Collectors then have to rely on second party companies like Juniper Books to get replacement jackets for their books.

I have to say, i have the same pet peeve. It's also one of the reasons I refused to buy the UK hardbacks. I managed to track down the broken binding edition so I don't need to bother you anymore for your set! 😋

I understand your concerns... the British paperback version and concepts are so much better and if I recall the art on the spines connect. I just order the ebook version for speaking bones and ordered the physical version on Amazon. However, my bigger concern series in not getting as much as much notice as other modern fantasy books in general. It is my favorite modern fantasy book of all time as well even though I have not finished speaking bones yet but so far so good. I wish it would get more notice like Stormlight Archive and the Green bone saga in Pop culture as someone who had read a lot of books, it deserves more attention in the book tube community and beyond American fantasy pop culture.

I absolutely feel the same! I feel your pain 100%!

🎶I never wanna hear you say, no matching sets🎶

100% agree!!! Great to get a new appearance from salty Petrik

Interesting. Thanks for sharing, Petrik. I recently owned these fantasy books that it called "Legends of Ravens" and they are part of this series. The covers looks so beautiful and that's the reason I got them, but I found those aren't original covers for them and the original covers looks bad. The original covers shown silhouettes of the main characters with different colors, but the new covers shown each characters on every books and the artworks looks so beautiful. I am glad the author has changed artists. 🙂

I’m with you Petrik. This is so incredibly frustrating.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Whoever published The Expanse did the same thing - sometimes the author is at the top of the spine, sometimes the title. My Stormlight Archive spines don't match - three of the titles are horizontal, and one is vertical... this drives me crazy.

I agree 100% I've also seen series where not only the cover art changes, but the physical size of the book changes. We need to write to publishers about these things. I've gone almost exclusively eBook, so it's not an issue for me. Then if I want hard copy, I'll go with the specialty publishers who produce jaw-dropping sets.

Oh man, you are so justified in your saltiness, Petrik. This is one of the reasons I have a hard time with series, but wow, this is irksome to the highest degree. I think I'd want the UK paperback edition of the series should I start collecting them.

I agree i want consistency in my books, this happened to me recently when i decided to replace an entire series due to mismatched covers and despite them all being brand new printings the first books spine was a different layout to the other 3 books. the other annoyance i find is size differences (height) i have series which were released in a larger book size but then the latest versions are in smaller formats so i now have to find out if a larger version exists of a book or replace the older books in a series to match the height of the newer books..

Glad I decided to read this series on Kindle lol. Although now I am kicking myself for not jumping on the Broken Binding set last year. I love the bright color art more than the original designs, and that seems to be the only way to get a matching hardcover set.

Salty Petrik is awesome! I am waiting for delivery of my pre-order of Into the Narrowdark and I am still salty about the artist change.

When I first started my series I found a good artist and told him that all the books in The More Than Human Universe had to be in the same style. The drawings are all different but if you put them beside each other you would automatically know that they are from the same series.

Sins Of The Publishers Movie covers Promo stickers that aren't stickers but are printed on the book Size changes miseries Layout changes miseries Not keeping books in print

That thumbnail 😂👌🏾 the slow reveal of each cover. Someone should share this with Simon & Schuster

I agree. The first example was a change in layout and there was no reason for it. If people knew that then they would have gone with the eroupe version or kept it as a ebook. It feels wrong they would do this to their customers. Tad Williams book would make me just buy the ebook. Hopefully Grim Oak will do that series justice.

Other than enjoying Salty Petrik coming back out for a video, I do think it's valuable to highlight that series may change art, look and even style partway through and we should watch for that if having matching books is important to us. So perhaps there IS a small purpose beyond venting!

That Backstreet boys comment got me 😂🤣 I agree with you though. I hate it when publishers do this. The Broken Binding are looking into how many people might be interested in a "midnight" edition of their Dandelion Dynasty release due to the huge demand their original printing had and they're changing the colors so the first buyers don't lose exclusivity. I for one don't care about that, just some pretty and - most importantly - matching books. Fingers crossed I can get those 😁

This is amazing. Love this rant! There is no excuse for this.

The only thing I can see is that they want you to buy them ALL OVER AGAIN once there is a new release with better matching covers.

I feel you Petrik! They did this exact thing (infact even worse) with Sabaa Tahir's Ember in the Ashes series. Finding out that book 3/4 won't match 1/2 was my first real heartbreak. Also I bought His dark Materials trilogy from Amazon and the first book never showed up and now I have books 2 and 3 in one design and edition and no book 1 AND it's not available anymore on Amazon so 💀

"the backstreet boys want to know too" 😂😂😂😂😂 that's hilarious. But I completely agree, it's unacceptable and shows how little the publishers care about their customers, especially when it's such an illogical change like the dandelion dynasty. Saga press really should address this. You make great points, I myself am very particular about which physical copies and covers I buy, because I'm spending my money on these books and keeping them on the limited space of my shelf, so I want to make the right decision for my purchase, but this just sucks because as the customer you can't do anything about it and its also so unfair for the authors 🤦🏽‍♀️

This hurts my soul!! I ordered the penguin editions of all 10 Malazan paperbacks, and the last 3 were bigger than the rest for no apparent reason. It bothered me so much that I sold them as quick as I could lol. I agree with some of the other comments here... thank you for bringing this to the light. Maybe they will get it together eventually.

Couldn’t agree with you more! I own the hardcovers and cringe when I see them. On another note, I preordered The Lonesome Crown in paperback, even though I have the prior two books in hardcover. Completely understand things happen in publishing and want to support Brian Lee Durfee.

I never get tired of watching this! Coping mechanism: I wrap all my physical copies where the covers annoy me with gift wrapping paper! 😂 P.S. The Navigator's Children cover (out now) is much better than Into the Narrowdark imo but still not Whelan level...yeah. 😔

Brilliant dismantling of these design issues 🤣

Wow I can't believe saga press allowed for these design errors! This video's thumbnail is a mood lol

Great, now that Backstreet Boys songs will be stuck in my head all day lol but great video Petrik! This is also a major pet peeve of mine

📚 You are spot on here, Petrik. I did not disagree with anything you said. I felt your frustration, and though I laughed at the horror of the situation as you carefully presented it, I am so, so frustrated. But thanks for explaining what happened to the UK paperback designs, because I got properly stiffed by that change 🤬 If Orbit can get all ten books of “The Expanse” done right, other professionals can too. This is slapdash and clearly has not been properly reviewed. So thumbs up for Salty Petrik!

I agree, this is so annoying! I've got a few series on my bookshelves that are like that.

Hi 👋 I totally understand ur vent video! I don’t like wen authors or publisher always changing covers 😐😐😐 this really annoys me...... 😐😐..... I’m currently reading Deadhouse gate by Steven Erikson so far really enjoying my read. Happy reading to you!! 😊🦋🎬🎥📖

As a graphic designer, reader and collector there is NO reason to change the layout template of the first three books. This really sucks!!!

I love the new 'salty' Petrik. 🤣🤣 Awesome content as usual bro.

I’m desperately waiting for the reprint of Empire of Silence in hardcover. My collection feels so incomplete without it !!

You tell'em Petrik~!!!!!

Hey Petrik 🔥📚 Love your book content.

On an only somewhat related note, you should absolutely read Sun Eater. It’s magnificent.

Yes. This.

Omg.This is the strongest attack on a spiritual level :))

Waited 1/2 year to get The Return of the Thief in paperback so my editions of The Queen's Thief series match but thankfully, these books at least completely match without even the smallest change. The first three books were originally published with different cover art but changed in 2017, though to be honest, with more than 20 years between book 1 and 6 of that series, it isn't that surprising. Anyway, a series I recently finished and one I absolutely love. If there's one YA series you'd enjoy in the entire world it would be this one. Gen is one of my favourite protagonists of all time and feels like the love child of Kuni and Locke😅, the writing style is magnificent and the world building very intricate. Can only recommend.

You took the words out of my mouth. Why???! This makes ZERO sense and is so perfectly awful that it’s almost like they’re laughing at us. 🙈 Especially by adding salt to the wound with the naked hardcovers.

"DO BETTER" I'm with you on that. I felt like that when I read the Expanse series. They changed the spines around after book 3. Makes you just want to go down there and smack soneone 🙄

Hah. I was contemplating whether do the same font color on book 2. Almost decided to go with the same, and this rant really endorses that lol. Guess the same color it is!

I’m reading the ebooks and the font style in the books seem to have changed after wall of storms. They were perfect in the 1st 2 books

I’ll do one better. I just started reading the dandelion dynasty so I ordered the new paperback ….. it has one of those stupid permanent stickers on the cover 😡😡😡😡. I understand changes from hardcover to paperback but why must we have the sticker permanently on the cover. As much as I hate them as well I would rather have a sticker I can remove 😠😞

I am so glad I have the UK paperback edition of the dandelion dynasty. I would sell the books otherwise

"The Backstreet Boys want to know about this too" 🤣😂🤣😂