Hugh Howey

Bestselling author of Wool and other books. Currently sailing around the world.

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The Ugly Edition

I spent ten minutes fiddling with colors until I hit one that induced a gag. And then I knew I had the right color of orange-brown for this ugly edition of DUST.

I didn’t want to do this at all. I mean, look at the cover art Jason Smith from Random House came up with. That would be his three covers over there on the sidebar, and they are drop-dead gorgeous. But there are a handful of readers who have the ugly editions of WOOL and SHIFT, and they wanted an ugly edition of DUST to accompany them. A lesson here on being careful what you wish for.

The way I’m handling this one is a bit different. With the last two books, the ugly edition was all you could get for a period of time, and then I made the cover purty. This edition is so ugly, I don’t want people to accidentally get their hands on it through Amazon or a bookstore, so it’ll only be available through me directly. And probably for only as long as I can stomach to look at the thing. Again, this is just for those of you crazy enough to own nasty when you could just as easily own sublime. I highly recommend NOT getting this edition. The Random House covers are spectacular to behold. Trust me.

If you already ordered the other edition when what you wanted was this one, you can shoot me an email to make the switch. Or give the pretty one to someone you like and order one of these for someone you hate.

Sign my book to:

39 replies to “The Ugly Edition”

Hugh I am so happy you decided to go with this design for the last book.
When I pre-ordered from the site, I mentioned in the comments section I wished for a matching cover.
THANK YOU!
And I will also buy a copy of the purty cover too, just so Mr. Smith won’t feel left out.
Can’t wait for this to arrive on my doorstep!

It is getting hard to keep track…I think I have pre ordered a hard cover copy from the UK, an e copy for my kindle, a nice signed copy and an ugly signed copy. How many more copies will you trick me into buying before the book actually comes out? It is going to come out, isn’t it?

Darn it! I certainly want a nasty DUST to match my nasty SHIFT (too late to get a nasty WOOL), but I just spent what little money I had on something else.

Hopefully, something will shake before the 17th of next month. Getting nasty is a good thing. :D

Maybe I should do a second edition of the Ugly Wool and mark “SECOND EDITION: NOT COLLECTIBLE” on the cover, so those with the original don’t feel slighted.

By Post Author

Hugh,
That would be great. Just like the others above have said, I missed out on the “Ugly” wool cover. I have the Ugly Shift, and ordered the Ugly Dust, and would love to have the matching Ugly Wool. I have a hardback of Wool, but it just doesn’t mesh with the others.

I Love It! I have a yellow one waiting for your signature when you’re watching the Red Sox beat the Orioles.

I object to being considered crazy just because I want my set to match. I will say the color is pretty awful, but hey. The matched set is more important. So, thank you for doing this.

You know, if enough people want a different color, I’m open to that. It hasn’t gone to print yet. I could go with a more ruddier red, so you have three more primary colors: Yellow, Blue, Red.

By Post Author

Well, now that you say I shouldn’t have it, I want it more. This reverse psychology stuff isn’t funny! Seriously, though, I do appreciate this ugly cover. It’s fitting, memorable, and it would stick out at the bookstore. I’m also a huge fan of your work. I’ve been telling my family and friends to read your books and I shamelessly add that I bought your WOOL Omnibus edition when there used to be 500-something comments on Amazon, and now there’s over 5700! Trying to sell how much of a BIG DEAL you are. It’s like being present at someone’s birth…sort of.

This ugly print is the only print fans can really love!

Thanks for printing it, you will be fast out of first prints i think ^^

Regards from Germany, Torben

P.S.: Ordered 2 btw hahaha… one ugly book to look at for reach of my eyes!

I totaly HATE that dedikated kindlereaders never get covers.
I had to hack mine and make coverpics myself to get the cover of the book i’m reading.. And do i all over when I read another (Can’t have cover not matching what I’m reading)
On the upside I can get both covers :-D

Got my ugly ordered to complete my ugly set. Thanks for maintaining the level of ugly that you began. I’ll pick up the purty one maybe next time you’re doing a book tour around here.

Hi,
First I would like to say Your stories are amazing. I read everyday and tend to go through a lot of books but your stories I regret getting to the end. It semms I savor every bit if you will:)
Keep up the great work, You are at the top of the chain in my opinion:)
My question is, Is it possible to get an ugly copy of wool somewhere? I have shift and soon dust but would like to complete “the ugly set”. I also have every other edition of your books out there including kindle:) With the exception of the self published wool stories 1-5 which are way out of my price range. any info would help and thank you so much for all the great stories you have invented:)
huge fan,
Simon Cormier

I would (of course) take a second edition, if its also really small printrun… So i would say, DO IT – MollyFyde can wait ^^^^

But if someone out there wants to sell his/her first edition atomic design, please feel free to contact me, i will pay much!

“Every apocalypse comes to an end.”. That strap line alone makes this a great cover!

Congrats on finishing the Silo series!

Did you ever run out of the “ugly” Shift version? I ordered that signed version but never got it. I’ll complete the set with this signed version but I want to wait to order to see if I can get Shift too.

I actually like this cover better. It feels more like the series.

I know the Random House one is “better” but I don’t care.

I have a NOOK and have seen no way to pre-order at B&N. Will Dust be available for NOOK on the same date? With any cover. I’m not picky. :)

B&N won’t let us do pre-orders for self-pubbed books. They require you to hit “publish” and just wait a day or two. So I’m going to publish a day early (the 16th) and hope to nail the timing. Could be a day late on Nook. :(

By Post Author

Thanks! If it’s a day late, I will manage.. but I sure hope it’s on time since the 17th is my birthday! Still, once I start reading, I will lose sleep again because I can’t put these books down until I can’t keep my eyes open any longer.

The “Wool” series of your books are the first of yours I have read, but they won’t be the last, that’s for sure!

Man these books have been the best thing I’ve read in a very very long time. Just have to say kudos to you my friend. I just received my copy of Dust today from Amazon pre-order, and can’t wait to get into it. I never knew about the “ugly” versions but was a little surprised that the copy of Dust that I received looks almost faked. The copies of Wool and Shift that I have are both very professionally printed Randomhouse art versions and the printing was sharp and concise. So I was surprised when the cover art on Dust looks very pixelated and almost looks like I printed it on my ink jet printer.

I ain’t complaining man, I love this series to death, but I was curious if anyone else has seen this with their copies from Amazon?

(I was going to mention it in the reviews on Amazon, but I didn’t want to in any way deter anyone from buying these amazing books.)

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