Bootlegs or Just Poorly Done Amazon Print-on-demand?

May 1, 2022

The following titles have had some interesting reprints lately:

• The Eyes of Darkness
• The Key to Midnight
• The Servants of Twilight
• The Voice of the Night

When the first two of them were released I that these were bootleg editions that someone who wasn’t authorized to sell these editions for the following reasons:

• There is no cover price listed on the books.
• The copyright pages are woefully incomplete.
• They contain no statement of printing.
• There is a print-on-demand barcode on the last page.
• The publisher is listed as “Independently Published”.
• The Also By Dean Koontz page on The Voice of the Night lists “The Darkest Evening of the Yea”, a pretty significant typo.

But as more of them have been released, I’m starting to reconsider the bootleg status of these editions for these reasons:

• Now that there are four, you’d think someone would have noticed by now and put a stop to it.
• The cover art on The Voice of the Night and The Eyes of Darkness both match the cover art for obviously legitimately released audiobook editions (Eyes forthcoming) from Brilliance Audio. I can’t imagine someone also bootlegging the art without someone noticing.

So, that’s where I stand on this issue right now. I’ll post updates if/when more information becomes available and/or additional evidence becomes available.