It’s with our heads hung low that we apologize for all of the delays surrounding Paper Egg. It’s been a crazy, busy summer, and now we’re headed into a huge fall thanks to Blake Butler’s Scorch Atlas. That said, we have to admit that Paper Egg isn’t a viable imprint for featherproof right now. We came to the realization that the great books we’ve found for Paper Egg need to reach the widest audience possible. And the best way to do that is through our regularly distributed catalog over at the mothership, featherproof books.

To that end, we’re pleased to tell you that The Awful Possibilities, an awesome book by Christian TeBordo will be featherproof’s spring book. We’re really excited about this twisted collection, and believe it should be read by as many people as possible, not limited to limited edition. We’ll be saying more about that one over at featherproof.

For those that have subscribed, we’re offering three exit routes.

1.) A full refund. Your money back, no questions asked. AM/PM yours to keep.

2.) The next two featherproof books, mailed to you next year, which would be Christian TeBordo’s The Awful Possibilities and Daddy’s by Lindsay Hunter.

3.) Any two current fiction titles in the featherproof catalog, plus some goodies. All mailed to you instantly.

We’ll be emailing those of you who have subscribed, but if you don’t hear from us, feel free to email us, and let us know your preference.

This poor egg. We tested it out, and now we’re hauling it back in to put back on a shelf and rethink for another day. Thanks for understanding.

To answer a few questions that have been rolling in: Your AM/PM will arrive shortly, if it hasn’t already. They just started shipping, and are getting out there on a trip-to-the-post-office-on-my-lunch-break basis. I promise, they’re a’coming, and will be all the sweeter once they arrive.

If you’re still not convinced, check out what the wise Keir Graff of Booklist had to say about our project on his must-read blog, Likely Stories:

“I like the way they think. It’s a fun idea that doesn’t demand that I change my definition of ‘book.’ And publishing could definitely use some ideas right about now.”

It’s been a blast, post-AWP, to see Amelia’s work getting out there and making readers giddy. Check out Blake Butler’s great review at <HTMLGIANT>, and Amelia’s distilled existence, told as part of Michael Kimball’s mesmerizing Postcard Life Stories.

We’re rolling.

And, we’re about to hit a nice, round number for our subscriber base, so the next person to sign up will get a bonus bonus book from my personal collection of bonus bonus books.

We plan on continually rolling out ridiculous promotions like this, because we own the company and no one can tell us not to. Hooray.

Our grand ol’ mothership, featherproof books, continues to publish our old-fashioned, in-bookstore list while Paper Egg takes to the mailways. Next up for the ‘proof is an incredible, collection of interlocked, mouth-watering short-short stories from the great Amelia Gray, AM/PM.

And check it out: The first 250 people who sign up for a subscription will receive a free copy of AM/PM to read and read while you wait for Christian’s book to arrive in October. Free! Amazing book! Free! And of course, it won’t count as one of the two books you receive per year in the mail.

We’ll have these books on hand for our AWP table, so this is actually our conference deal that we’re opening up online a little early. If you’ve already signed up for a subscription, expect a copy of the Gray papers in the mail to you as soon as it comes back from the printers.

For those of you who haven’t signed up yet, sign up! Free (incredible) book!

A little background: I’m lucky enough to hold off the bill collectors with my job as the editor of Time Out Chicago’s Books section. When Christian’s first novel, The Conviction and Subsequent Life of Savior Neck came across my desk in 2005, I was blown away. I had one of those nights where I didn’t fall asleep until a couple of hours before work, when the book was finally done. Since then, he’s followed it up with Better Ways of Being Dead (awesome) and We Go Liquid (amazing). So when we decided to launch Paper Egg, it was obvious to me that we should to start off right with a book from Christian. In fact, in some sense, Paper Egg was designed to publish Christian’s book. It’s brilliant, and strange, and the mammoth bookselling network is simply not suited for something like it. We’re hoping we are.

To read a great Ned Vizzini interview with Christian, go here, and one of his stories at La Petite Zine.

Those paypal links are acting up. Give us a moment. If you want to subscribe, send an e-mail to subscriptions[at]papereggbooks.com, and we’ll contact you as soon as they’re fixed.

The Great Paul Hornschemeier, he of the prodigious illustrative talents and author of numerous fantastic Fantagraphics books, will illustrate and design every edition of Paper Egg. As much as this little effort is something of a throwback, we wanted to embrace the old-school methods of having each Paper Egg contain similar design elements, so that as you line them up on your shelves year after year, they begin to amass a sort of group mind. To that end, Paul will work closely with featherproof design guru Zach Dodson to create our new line of books. And, of course, Paul will illustrate each Egg.

Really, we couldn’t have found a finer artist for the job, as Paul has done some incredible book design work in the past, and each of his own books—including Mother, Come Home and The Three Paradoxes—combines all that we love in art: a technician’s eye, an impish sense of humor, and enough melancholy mixed in that we can never quite set our compass right.

If you’re not acquainted with Paul’s work, please, please acquaint yourself.