A post from Shady Characters

It’s paperback publication day (again, sort of)!

The UK paperback edition of Shady Characters, as designed by Matthew Young.
The UK paperback edition of Shady Characters, as designed by Matthew Young.

In the spirit of being late for one’s own wedding, I present to you the UK paperback edition of Shady Characters, a mere fortnight after its actual publication!

The paperback is available now from Penguin, Amazon.co.uk (is it wrong of me to want to crack the “Typography” category’s top 5?), The Book Depository, and Waterstones.* The e-book, of course, is still available for your Kindle from Amazon and in ePub format at Waterstones.

Thanks go to Matthew Young for updating his hardcover design for the paperback edition (the color reproduction here really doesn’t do it justice — it’s a handsome book indeed), and to Mark Forsyth, Eric Johnson, Zoran Minderovic, Tim Nau, Jeff Norman, Bill Pollack, Patrick Reagh, Jeff Shay, and Liz B. Veronis for helping catch various errata. Thank you all!


To (belatedly) mark the release of the UK paperback edition of Shady Characters, here’s your chance to win of two free copies. I’ll happily post them to the two winners wherever they are in the world. To enter the competition, just do one of the following:

  • leave a comment on this post, making sure to supply a valid email address so that I can contact you in the event that you win
  • reply to, retweet, or mark as favourite the tweet announcing this contest, making sure to follow @shadychars so that I can send you a direct message in the event that you win. (Please don’t create multiple accounts or repeatedly reply to the message — Twitter may ban you as a result. One reply is fine!)
  • comment on or “like” the Facebook post announcing this contest, making sure to follow ShadyChars so that I can contact you in the event that you win. (Please don’t create multiple accounts or repeatedly comment on the message. One reply is fine!)

I’ll make a list of all unique commenters and tweeters in two weeks’ time and pick two names at random as the winners. The contest will close at noon GMT on Sunday 1st March 2015, so make sure you enter before then. Good luck!


Update: the competition is now closed. Thanks to all who entered! I’ll post the winners’ names later today.

*
Waterstones’ website is temporarily down, but, given that it’s such a nice day (up here in Scotland at least) why not wander along to your local bricks-and-mortar branch to pick up a copy? 

9 comments on “It’s paperback publication day (again, sort of)!

  1. Comment posted by Nancy Wu on

    Fantastic! I would love to win a copy, read and then post on my design blog. ;-D Wink wink nudge nudge!

  2. Comment posted by Zeissmann on

    Maybe I’ll win this time? I want your handsome book :)

    1. Comment posted by Heather Shumaker on

      I’m a sucker for great punctuation. I heard mention of your book via a hilarious podcast from MPR’s Radiolab entitled ‘Octothorpe’. I hope I win your book so I can send a copy to my beloved high school English/newspaper/drama/yearbook/composition teacher in northern Wisconsin. Thank you for being a pillar of hope for the minutiae of grammar & punctuation for our English language.

    2. Comment posted by Keith Houston on

      Hi all — thank you for the kind comments! I have my fingers crossed for you all. May the random number generator be with you.

    3. Comment posted by Deidra on

      @Heather! HA! Funny to see you here! Great minds think alike. I am sure my 7th Grade grammar teacher has long left this planet, but she was a stickler for good punctuation and verb agreement. She taught us how to diagram sentences and something I really liked doing.

  3. Comment posted by Adrian on

    shady Characters introduced me to the interrobang! Even though I read about it online, a printed copy would be sweet to have! :P

  4. Comment posted by Athel Cornish-Bowden on

    I fear here on the Mediterranean my local bricks-and-mortar store is unlikely to stock it, but I’ll look out for it next time I’m in London or Oxford.

  5. Comment posted by Deidra on

    I love punctuation. Saw this post on a old friend’s FB page who is a graphic designer and often creates typefaces.

    I hope the public library gets it soon!

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