Last November I dropped my novel THE FAILED CITIES as a self-published ebook. It has sold better than I ever could have hoped.

Still, from the moment I announced the ebook I’ve been getting tweets, e-mails, and Facebook static along the lines of the following…

I have yet to please that final cross-section of fiction fans. I’ve locked down the audiophiles. I’ve appeased the ereader fetishists. But the good, old-fashioned lovers of cloth and wood grain-scented paper books?

They still haven’t experienced The Failed Cities.

You asked. I answered.

On May 17th, 2013, British publisher The House of Murky Depths will release my novel THE FAILED CITIES in a phantasmagorical limited hardcover edition.

It is the first time for THE FAILED CITIES in print. It is the first time for THE FAILED CITIES in hardcover. It is the first time THE FAILED CITIES has broken free of the digital and been made flesh.

And it’s going to be beautiful flesh.

I have a long and cherished history with Terry Martin and The House of Murky Depths, beginning way back when Terry first published Murky Depths as a fiction and comics quarterly. I was an editor for the ‘zine, and from the first issue I saw that Terry had a gift for packaging original and innovative content in the highest quality presentation. Murky Depths, the quarterly, was one of the best all-around magazines I’d ever seen.

Terry has transformed that magazine into The House of Murky Depths, one of my absolute favorite specialty publishers in the entire damn world. For years Terry and his crew have been creating the most beautifully and fully produced novels, anthologies, comics, and graphic novels out there. I own half-a-dozen of their books and comics myself. They’ve teamed with top-flight storytellers like postcyberpunk maestro Richard Calder and World and British Fantasy Award winning author Lavie Tidhar, and artists like veteran sci-fi cover creator Vincent Chong, Neil Struthers, and Luke Cooper.

I wanted this book to be amazing. I wanted it to kick the shit out of every Subterranean Press hardcover I own. I wanted it to be your favorite thing on your shelf.

Terry and Murky Depths have committed to producing that book.

This beautifully bound edition is going to feature custom endpapers, a dust jacket with Scott Pond returning to expand his original ebook cover, and Terry is also signing on a slew of insanely talented artists to create original character illustrations and artwork just for this edition. The design and construction behind every aspect of this thing will be art.

It will also include all of the extra content from the definitive edition ebook I released myself. You’ll get all of the extra stories, the novella, and the commentary.

Each copy will be individually signed and numbered by yours truly.

Our goal is to create a book you will love to read, and a collectible you’ll love to own.

THE FAILED CITIES will be available for pre-order beginning on March 12th. Terry and I are still brainstorming on exclusive incentives and extras that will ONLY be included for those who pre-order the book. There will be more info on that as it solidifies.

I would really love to see the whole run sell out when it goes up for pre-order. It would mean a great deal to me, and Terry would feel a lot better about signing on for this bloodbath of a mission, too.

So please come out on March 12th and pre-order your copy of THE FAILED CITIES.

When I rule the world you’ll be able to put your kids through college selling that shit on ebay. I promise.