Ligandil wrote:

Has HC issued some kind of public apologetic statement?

No, and I wouldn't really expect them to. It definitely does seem these aren't just a small number of isolated cases though, and I imagine many copies have problems that no one has noticed as yet.

Rotolito certainly ain't no LEGO.

I've been keeping a mental count of reported issues on various social media, and I've noted somewhere in the 40-50 range. Out of 10,000+ copies printed, that's a defect rate of about 0.5%. Even with many copies not having been opened yet, thats 9,000+ very happy customers given that the book is selling out through almost all channels, vs perhaps a hundred or two who have gotten defective copies.

Those 9000+ people aren't going around social media posting tons of pictures and getting lots of traction, though I do of course see lots of them. The people posting positively rather than negatively are somewhere around 10-to-1 from my personal experience.

I also note that the three volume trade HoMe edition also had reported issues, with some signatures bound upside down, etc. Other manufacturing defects in other editions (and non-Tolkien books) get noted every now and then at a fairly continuous dribble. Even going back to GA&U days, with slipped type and mis-bound signatures, this is a never-ending issue that will never go away. This new edition of LotR is incredibly popular, getting a lot of interest, and people are looking at it very closely.

The publisher (and the retailers) are responding to all complaints for this edition. I feel very badly for all of the people who got defective copies (I am one of them), but they are being addressed as best as everyone can.

I do hope that HC learns from this, and the printer either improves their process or a better printer is found. But by almost any measure, this edition is a resounding success. Quality complaints are perfectly valid and should be aired (and fixed) but I don't want anyone coming away with the impression that this is a dud with widespread quality issues, as I am not seeing it that way from what I am monitoring online.

Urulókë wrote:

I've been keeping a mental count of reported issues on various social media, and I've noted somewhere in the 40-50 range. Out of 10,000+ copies printed, that's a defect rate of about 0.5%. Even with many copies not having been opened yet, thats 9,000+ very happy customers given that the book is selling out through almost all channels, vs perhaps a hundred or two who have gotten defective copies.

I think the total number of bad copies will be much higher. Many will have been purchased for Christmas gifts, many will simply still be in shrink-wrap because people are weird. I've never seen this number of reports of defective copies of a Tolkien book, especially with such a diverse range of problems.

If you get a decent copy, it isn't a dud (rubbish paper aside - I looked at my old Unwin Hyman trade single volume last night: significantly thinner page block with more opaque and white paper on the oldie), but the chances of getting a dud would appear to be abnormally high.

My point is that perhaps "abnormally high" is misleading because of the absolute numbers we are talking about here. There are a lot more copies of this edition than previous deluxe editions, by a factor of around 10. Am I seeing 10x more reports of defects than I did in prior editions? Yes. That doesn't feel abnormal to me, is all I am saying.

(I'm handwaving a bit on these numbers, of course).

I do think they could have done better. I have the German trade edition in hand showing that it is possible, and at pretty much the same price point as the UK trade. Hopefully HC will learn, but given how well this edition is selling, I don't think the right message is coming through clearly. I am glad that people are reporting what they find, as that's the only way to get HC to hear and hopefully make improvements on going forward.

I agree with you that if looking at the actual percentage of copies with issues the number is small. And as you pointed out those people with issues are going to be more vocal about it online as opposed to the ones who got a good copy and just put it on the shelf and we never hear from them.
However because those with defects are more vocal that’s pretty bad PR for HarperCollins as people see lots of images of defective books, which is unfortunate because as you pointed out the actual numbers are small.

I wonder if HC kind of bit off more than they could chew with the size of the print run of this kind of book. Or if it’s simply pandemic related and not being able to monitor the process more closely. I know that the HoME three volume set of a few years ago was printed in GB, so it was a different printer who had issues that time around.

Urulókë wrote:

My point is that perhaps "abnormally high" is misleading because of the absolute numbers we are talking about here. There are a lot more copies of this edition than previous deluxe editions, by a factor of around 10. Am I seeing 10x more reports of defects than I did in prior editions? Yes. That doesn't feel abnormal to me, is all I am saying.

I'm not sure we are talking a factor of 10, but equally I don't know how many they printed? Do we think it was more than 10,000? I didn't read of too many (any?) problems with the recent Unfinished Tales Deluxe other than the wrong laid in page being included in some copies, IIRC. That was a 4,000 copy edition. Most of the other deluxe editions have been 2000 - 2,500 and other than the Kullervo abomination, the first prints didn't seem to have too many reports of problems (save for FCL having the misaligned stamp -- but I thought that was fairly minor, tbh).

For me this definitely *seems* worse than can be explained by the absolute numbers being higher. I'm getting the feeling that this paper has caused them problems in their process.

Ithildin asked me to buy a copy from a Great Read to forward on to Germany and he very wisely asked me to open the box before sending it and check the book.

Very glad that I did as it is a lot easier to return it from the UK than Germany.

I spoke to the Customer Service team at A Great Read and asked them to reserve a 1st Impression copy to replace it but to please open it before posting and check that it has no problems.

They found this to be an unusual request but I don't want another 'dud' being sent.

I think the problem may be with the paper, on my copy the paper does not stick to the other pages, but this one it does and that is what I think is causing the problems in the cutting machines.

Though it really is unacceptable for the printers not to notice this sort of error before binding and packing for dispatch.

That one gets the aware for being the ugliest misbind yet! It has to be some issue with the paper handling having gone wrong. Would love to understand what the root cause of these problems is.

Yeah that’s hideous when opened to that page.

Question - how does it look when the book is closed?

I do agree that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg with these reports.

You don't see it when the book is closed. I also suspect that the printer has automated just about everything from the printing of the pages, cutting the pages, gilding and binding.

People are probably only checking when the book is put into the cardboard boxes for shipping and you would not see the issues at that point as the books are wrapped in plastic.