An explanation of the publishing schedule

Dear Readers,

You might notice in the Amazon ratings that there are some books rated down because of the fact that the cartoons contained within the book are reprinted from other books. Most people seem to understand the difference between the Scrapbooks and the Treasuries, but it can be a little confusing. For those who don’t: Scrapbooks are the first release in book form of the strips that ran in the newspaper. They typically carry roughly nine months worth of strips. Treasuries often are either “best of” compilations from previous books, or a straight compilation of the previous two Scrapbooks. When we first became aware of this confusion, we had the publisher add a line listing the books that were compiled in that Treasury.

Because the cost of printing color Sundays in Scrapbooks was prohibitive to the price target, the publisher created Treasuries where the expense could be managed better. So, in the vast majority of our list, Scrapbooks are all black and white, and the Treasuries contain color. Several times we’ve added material to the Treasuries that isn’t in any of the Scrapbooks. It becomes a little more complicated now because the cost of color printing the interiors has lowered. Now we can include color Sunday strips in the Scrapbooks as well. We will indicate in our guide.

Many people just buy the Treasuries because they want to avoid duplication. Some buy only the Scrapbooks for the same reason. Others buy both because they don’t want to miss anything. This guide is to help you decide which books you’d rather have in your collection or to give as gifts.

There is a third type of collection book now. We call it a “theme” book. They are collections of strips based around a particular subject. The first is The Day Phonics Kicked In: Baby Blues Goes Back To School. The book is a collection of strips based around the subject of school and learning. There will be others from time to time. You will be able to tell them by the fact that they don’t ever say Scrapbook or Treasury on the cover.

We hope this explanation helps with your purchasing decisions and clears up most of your questions.
 
Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott