Cassandra Clare gives rundown of special editions of ‘Lord of Shadows’
Cassandra Clare’s Lord of Shadows, which is the sequel to her bestselling novel Lady Midnight, is published in exactly two months so now is the perfect time to share what fans are going to get when they buy a first edition. There are so many different special editions so we’ve made an overview for the US editions of Lord of Shadows. Make sure to also scroll to this end of the post to read about the UK editions.
First of all, there are going to be thirty new runes in every first edition:
The Barnes & Noble edition will have an exclusive scene with Emma and Julian on Blackfriars Bridge (oh my heart).
Then there’s the Target edition which is going to have a beautiful map of Alicante (Lady Midnight did have a map of Los Angeles).
If you buy the Costco edition, you will get this stunning piece of art. Curtesy by Cassandra Jean of course.
Cassie summed everything up in a post on her tumblr and by the Angel, we want every single edition!
Lord of Shadows is published on May 23 and we can’t wait!
ETA: Will the UK hardback special limited edition have the thirty new runes? Cassie has the answer:
“Yes, it should have them, and will be decorated on the outside with the parabatai rune.”
UPDATE
You can now preorder the UK hardback special limited edition on Waterstones.com.
Here’s everything you need to know about this edition:
A limited edition hardback of Lord of Shadows, exclusive to Waterstones. Every copy will be hand-stamped with a rune that incorporates Cassandra Clare’s signature and include a deleted scene featuring Emma and Julian and an exclusive map from the Shadowhunters world. There is a print run of only two thousand copies of this deluxe hardback.
Your delivery options are:
£2.75 2nd class postage or £3.75 1st class in the UK.
£9.00 for Western Europe (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland) and £12.50 for the rest of the world.
UK readers can also collect their preordered book from their local Waterstones.
Which edition are you going to buy?
TMI Source 
I feel like Clare is kind of copying Sarah J. Maas’s publishing style in that she’s releasing multiple editions. Maas is the only one who has ever done it for first editions and it seems now like Clare has picked it up and wants to hop onto that bandwagon.
…you know that she started doing different first editions of her books AGES ago, right?
When she did it for the first time, Sarah J. Maas wasn’t even a published author.
Cassandra Clare isn’t publishing these editions, it’s her publisher or rather the retailers. They want to sell special editions.
Throne of Glass was first published in August 2012 whereas City of Fallen Angels was published in April 2011 when the “City of Fallen Angels treatment” (= different editions) was introduced. It’s really common in the publishing world.
Hi Rosie!
I think you might be a little confused about publishing and how it works!
First, authors aren’t the ones who determine whether multiple first editions are printed, because authors cannot force bookstores to do all the work of carrying special editions — having them created, ordering them, separating them from ordinary editions. We don’t have that kind of power. Accounts (Costco, Target, B&N) ASK authors for special content if they want to make their editions stand out, and we provide it, usually, when requested.
I’ve been doing multiple special first editions for years. The first time I did it was for City of Fallen Angels, which had a letter from Jace to Clary in the back of the B&N edition in 2011, a year before Throne of Glass (which I think is Maas’ first book?) was published in August 2012. Every single Shadowhunter book of mine since then has had multiple first editions. Here’s the link to the description of the multiple special first editions of Clockwork Prince. (2011)
https://tmisource.com/2011/12/05/clockwork-prince-first-editions-with-special-content/
City of Lost Souls: (2012)
https://tmisource.com/2012/03/11/city-of-lost-souls-special-editions/
And here’s one for Clockwork Princess. (2013)
Lady Midnight:
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/ss-lines-special-lady-midnight-editions-retailers-323786
Neither SJM nor I are the first authors to have done this. Lauren Kate, Becca Fitzpatrick, Rick Riordan, and countless others have done multiple first editions/special editions for various bookstores. Though Sarah Maas came to doing multiple first editions after I did, not before, this isn’t a bandwagon she was jumping on either. It’s common publishing practice and has been for decades. Authors of adult books do it as well, for instance:
https://www.rtbookreviews.com/blog/86702/author-qa-christina-lauren-plus-special-announcement
“Grab your special Target edition featuring Not Joe’s story here.”
Hope that clears this up for you!
Cassandra Clare
Where can I find the limited special edition that matches Let Midnight in the UK?
We don’t know yet. Follow TMI Source on Twitter and check our page so you won’t miss it. I’m also eager to get the UK hardcover.
Double checking. Would the UK special hardback that matches lady midnight also have the 30 runes or am I wrong
Great question! I added it to the post and asked Cassie: “Yes, it should have them, and will be decorated on the outside with the parabatai rune.”
Waterstones haven’t got the coloured edges up for pre-order yet (I got the Lady Midnight version last year) I would assume they’d also have the limited edition of LoS as well as they did for LM last year? Nothing up for pre-order yet. I rrrrreeeeeeaaaaallllyyyyyy want both!! I do like the fact that we’re getting special editions here in the UK, a lot of American authors that I like don’t often do that. My shelves are starting to be very full of multiple editions of the Shadowhunter books!!!! 🙂
Hi Cat (*waves to another Cat*)! I agree, I also think that Waterstones is going to sell the limited edition. I’m definitely going to tweet about it when we have more information.
(Can’t believe I’m joining this small thread of Cats.) Do you think we’ll be able to pre-order the hardcover online from Waterstones then? Last year I was still living in The Netherlands so I ordered it from the German Amazon (you don’t have to pay for the delivery), but it took a week to arrive which isn’t something I’d look forward to again. I wish I could just pre-order it from the UK Amazon, but they only do paperback and Kindle…
We’re less than two months away from the publishing date so I’m hoping we’ll get some information soon!
I hope we’ll be able to order it from Waterstones. As soon as I know more I’ll tweet about it (@TMI_SOURCE).
Fingers crossed that postage to countries outside of the UK won’t be too expensive.
I originally preordered it from Amazon, but after hearing about this, I cancelled it and I’m going to Barnes and Noble this weekend to preorder it from there.
Will there be a place we can buy a signed copy??
Books of Wonder is always selling signed copies.
wait so if i get the b&n special; edition will it have the new runes or is that a different copy im a smig confussed
You’ll have the runes and the short story.
Waterstones have the limited edition hardback up!
https://www.waterstones.com/book/lord-of-shadows-limited-edition/cassandra-clare/9781471165269
It’s £2.75 second class postage and £3.75 first class in the UK, that’s where I am. Don’t know about international. Thought I’d let you all know 🙂
Thank you for the info, Cat! 🙂
I tweeted about it and I’ll also edit this post to include the link.
You’re welcome! I’ve been obsessively checking Waterstones for it for the last few days! Now I just need the sprayed coloured edges edition to come up for pre-order!
Sooo I have a question. I was browsing the books a million website and it says their edition will have an exclusive poster. Do you guys know what that art is? Here’s the link
https://m.booksamillion.com/p/BAM-Lord-Shadows/Cassandra-Clare/9781534409576
No idea, sorry. Have you asked them? I’m sure they are on social media.
Not yet, buy it I will =)
I assume that it’s Cassandra Jean’s Emma art.
Just to make sure, since Cassandra Clare said that all first editions will include the new runes can we assume that they’ll be included in the hardback special editon from Waterstones as well? I’m asking because the official description on their website doesn’t mention, so I am a bit confused
The answer (yes) is at the bottom of the article.
I just got mine today, and they are not in there… 😦
Oh no, what edition did you buy?
I ordered a copy of the Waterstones hardback special edition specifically because it would have the deleted scene map, and runes. It has the other things, but no runes 😦 It also doesn’t have a dust jacket, which surprised me lol
Oh, I’m sorry. I know that the official Shadowhunter Books twitter has been tweeting the runes for a couple of days now so you can check them there.
The Lady Midnight hardcover also didn’t have a dust jacket. If there’s going to a specific hardcover edition for Queen of Air and Darkness, I’ll try to remember to mention this.
I just got my copy today, and the new runes are not in it… 😦
Where can you buy the Costco Edition?
Costco.
Where can you buy the first editions in Australia? I just found a first edition of Lady Midnight yesterday by luck but don’t think ill have the same luck with Lord of Shadows
If you preorder the book you will be getting a first edition. Try Dymocks or any other bookshop.
Will there be another story of Jace, Clary, Isabelle, Simon, and Alec in the back as there was in lady midnight? If so, which edition?
There is no further bonus content, only the extras mentioned in the article.
My UK Waterstones Lord of Shadows didn’t have the new runes (yes it was the special edition with the parabatai rune cover). Really disappointed, I was really looking forward to them! Don’t know why CC said they would be there when they weren’t – I would have grabbed an American copy if I’d known.
Cassie was told that the runes would be in the book, that’s why she told us.
You can check the official Shadowhunter Books twitter @ShadowhunterBks, they have been posting the runes for the past two weeks now.