Remember back when I announced that the Hint Fiction anthology was getting a second printing? Well that second printing it out now -- has probably been out for awhile -- but I just happened to see some of the copies last week at AWP. And there are changes. Nothing too major -- just a few typos corrected on the copyright page -- but there is a difference with the cover. Here's the cover of the first printing:
Now here's the cover of the second printing:
Despite the obvious contract in color (and why the colors are different is beyond me; the actual printed books are the same color), notice any differences?
The wording of the first story, "Monster Love," is different. You see, the second printing's version is the preferred wording, at least on my end. We -- the publisher, the designer, myself -- had gone back and forth on the story. I didn't care for the personification of heart. I also didn't care for the "hairy fist" part, thinking it was too much for a story already titled "Monster Love." So I asked for the simpler version; the publisher agreed and everything was set to go with that version ... except somehow the wrong files got sent and the first version -- the "hairy fist" version -- was what was printed. But Norton, being the class act that they are, promised to change it for any future reprintings, and they did.
So what's the point? Well if the anthology continues to do well and gets reprinted again and again, that first edition with the "hairy fist" cover could be considered, in some circles, a collector's item. Just sayin'.