Paw Prints

Possibly Paw Prints is Brown Barn's print fulfiller. Online vendors sometimes list the printer rather than the name of the publisher, since they may order or receive books directly from the printer.

I also see that Paw Prints produces ARCs. Maybe Brown Barn did ARCs of your book and sent them out to reviewers, and these are now being sold as used online.

- Victoria

Paw Prints is a company which seems to work with the original publisher to produce "library edition" hardcovers of books which are not normally available in (affordable) hardcovers. There are other groups out there also producing library bound editions, one called Sagebrush and one called Turtleback, which I've ran across.

Below are a couple messages from the Usagi Yojimbo Dojo Forum, another forum where the topic was discussed.

Jet_Jaguar said:

Stan Sakai said:

I have been seeing more "library edition" from another company. I don't think these are licensed through DH, and I don't know if they have to be licensed. These are more inexpensive hardcovers. I don't think they have a dust jacket like the DH and Fantagraphics ones have. Anyone know about these? Someone on the Boards brought these to my attention.

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That might have been me. I got a HC edition of Mother of Mountains around January of this year pretty inexpensively through Alibris or another online retailer that seemed a little unusual since it didn't have a Dark Horse logo anywhere on the cover. Also, I noticed that the ISBN on the cover doesn't match either of the ISBNs on the title page. It seems like a paperback edition put inside of a hard cover since it doesn't signed tip-in plate or anything like that. Here are a few pictures:
<oversized photos snipped>

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Stan Sakai said:

SHAMSKI said:

Good info guys, mystery solved. Shouldn't Stan be getting a cut from these ?

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Actually, I do. The way I understand how these library editions or library binding go (and I could be wrong here) is that the company buys trade paperbacks at the wholesale price (from which I get my royalties). They then reprint the cover on cardboard, or whatever stock they use, then bind the new cover onto the trade paperback. Libraries or readers get a more durable book for little more than the price of the paperback.
There are marked differences with these hardcovers and DH's: The DH ones use a cloth bound cover with a foil-embossed image on the front. It also has a dust jacket. The backcovers of the dust jacket has a drawing, rather than the copy the trade collection has. The interiors have endpapers drawn especially for the volume, as well as a signed/numbered tip-in sheet with an original sketch. There is also a new drawing printed on the tip-in, usually a watercolor painting.

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I don't know if they actually "work" with the original publisher or author, but maybe with the distributors?

They buy large quantities of the paperback editions of various books, both mass market and trade, and rebind them with a more durable hard cover. Basically converting paperbacks into hardcovers.

I would guess that it was something initially started as a service for libraries and which is slowly working it's way into the general marketplace through the technical convenience of on-line sales outlets.

I just recently bought a pair of their books, and the interior of the book is identical to the trade paperback edition, with absolutely no changes on the indica page suggesting that it is a differant edition from that published by the original publisher.

The only acknowledgement for Paw Prints is a logo on the back cover next to the new bar code / ISBN. And the original publisher's name does not appear on the outside of the book anymore.

(I actually ran across this topic thread while running a google search to try and find a web-site for Paw Prints)

Sorry for a stupid question what does OP stand for?

CaoPaux said:

That Paw Prints is definitely "legit", but I'd think the OP's publisher would know if she was working with them to produce a hardcover edition.

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As Victoria said, Paw Prints is often used as a printer by a large number of small presses. It is sometimes listed as a publisher when computer systems automatically upload book details (previously noted with Wings and Whiskey Creek Press books).