Quality Control

When we received our advance copy of the new J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide in September we found two of the three volumes hard to remove from the slipcase. It seems that too much glue was used in making the box, and perhaps also that the books were put into the slipcase before the liner glue had dried. As a result, when we took the books out of the case one of the dust-jackets had lining paper stuck to it (which we were able to remove), while another jacket lost some of the paper surface of its leading edges, stuck to the liner.

We notified HarperCollins of this problem at once, and their staff have since inspected warehouse copies of the boxed set. Finding some with the same problem, HarperCollins have had new jackets printed and manually replaced them. This naturally caused a delay in shipping some of the boxed sets. The issue with the box liner doesn’t apply to copies to be sold separately, of course, and those are still on schedule to be released on 30 November. The ebook version will also be published on that date.

At the same time, however, HarperCollins have received orders for the boxed set far beyond the number they had predicted, and have taken the new Companion and Guide back to press. They have also received an order from the Folio Society for copies to sell to its members. This is all good news for us, but another cause of shipping delay. We’re told that Amazon are now waiting for HarperCollins to confirm when it will have more copies in stock before changing the status it lists, which is currently for dispatching within two to four weeks.