Independent editions · South Africa
EDBooks finds books that have fallen out of print, out of fashion or out of reach — then edits, illustrates and prints them properly, in small runs, for the readers who still want them.
Nothing here is for sale yet. The first volume is edited, illustrated and set at 86 pages — but no print run has been proven and nothing has reached a real doorstep. Until it has, we won't take a cent from anyone.
Cover artwork — final print geometry pending
Why EDBooks
01 — Find
Some disappeared because the demand was too small for warehouse economics. Some are out of copyright but survive only as indifferent scans. Others are still protected and simply unavailable.
02 — Verify
Out of print does not mean out of copyright. We establish the rights position and pin the source text before a word is set. Where a work is still protected, we approach the holder — or we park it.
03 — Make
Properly edited, newly illustrated, set to a house standard, and printed in small runs or on demand. We would rather make fifty books people want than five hundred we hope they might.
The catalogue
One is a book. One is a direction we are building toward. One is a way in for you. We would rather label them honestly than pad a list to look bigger than we are.
A real book
E. M. Forster — and two companion stories
A curated three-story Forster volume, newly illustrated and newly introduced. Edited, set and proofed; waiting on a printer and a physical proof before anything can be ordered.
A direction, not a book
Stories that imagined the future before it arrived
The series the first book sits in. Short, uncanny, prescient works — written by people who saw it coming. What goes in it next depends on what readers tell us they would actually read.
A programme, not a book
The pipeline, not a product
You tell us about a book you cannot get. We investigate its bibliographic history, who holds the rights now, and whether an edition could work economically. Nominations are open to anyone.
The first book · In preparation
Forster wrote it in 1909: a civilisation living in separate underground cells, everything delivered, everyone connected through screens, nobody touching. Then the Machine develops a fault.
Read now, these stories resonate uncannily with a world shaped by networks, automation and life increasingly lived through systems. We have set all three as one curated volume rather than leaving them buried in a collected edition.
In this volume
What makes this edition
Original monochrome illustrations commissioned for the volume, a new introduction covering all three works, a note on the texts, an author note and an afterword. Body text is fully justified to a house typographic standard, with live typography throughout rather than flattened images.
The texts are set from a pinned, verified source and cross-checked against Project Gutenberg — so you know exactly what you are reading, which is more than most reprints will tell you.
Register interest
No payment, no account, no card. The price question is the one that actually helps — it isn't set yet, and what you say will move it.
We'll email you when there is something real to say about this edition, and not before.
Where we actually are
Small presses fail quietly and pretend otherwise. We would rather publish the state of things and let you judge.
This board changes as the work does. If you have registered interest, you will hear from us when the last two lines change — that is the only email we intend to send.
Lost books programme
There is a particular frustration in knowing a book exists, wanting it, and finding that no shop can order it and no publisher will admit to owning it. That gap is most of the reason we are here.
Tell us about a book you cannot get. We will find out whether it can legally and economically be brought back.
We investigate its bibliographic history, who holds the rights now, and whether an edition would work. If it can be done, we will try. If it can't, we will tell you why.
We read every nomination ourselves. If we take yours further, you will hear from us directly.
For booksellers and trade
You hear it across the counter every week: a title someone wants, that you cannot order, from a publisher who no longer prints it. That information is worth more than any market research we could buy.
Tell us what your customers keep asking for.
We are not looking to push stock at you. We are looking for a small number of shops whose judgement we can learn from — independents, second-hand and antiquarian dealers, museum and heritage shops, and specialist retailers where the subject genuinely matches the room.
We are keeping this list deliberately small, and we read every message ourselves.