Books can be purchased direct from the Cryptic Plumage Press website. Paperback orders are fulfilled by Bookvault and ebooks are available for immediate download.

Books can also be purchased from various retailers, including Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Booktopia, DriveThruFiction, Indigo, itch.io, and Kobo.

Paperbacks can be stocked or special ordered by bookstores (a nice option if you'd like to support a local business). They are also available to librarians.

Paperbacks ordered direct through Cryptic Plumage Press's Payhip store are printed and shipped by Bookvault. At the time of purchase, you will be asked to choose from available shipping methods (for example, media mail versus ground shipment).

Bookvault is based in the United Kingdom and also uses local printers in the United States, Canada, and Australia. If you are shipping to a different country, there may be additional charges for international delivery, tariffs, and so forth.

It is possible that a different retailer (such as your country's iteration of Amazon) may be a more cost-effective option than ordering direct from the press's website. In that case, you are absolutely encouraged to shop elsewhere and spend the money you saved on more books!

That is very unfortunate, but misprints do happen.

Bookvault has a process for reporting defective products, which must be initiated 7 days after receipt of the order. Please also use the contact form on this site to let the press know there was an issue so we can also follow up with Bookvault.

Whether you're sent a freshly-printed copy, an on-hand copy from the press's office, or a refund, we'll make sure the problem is resolved.

Yes, Cryptic Plumage Press books are discounted for trade customers purchasing via wholesale distributors (e.g. Ingram in the United States). Note that by default the press does not accept returns on these orders.

The press's direct sales are focused on end customers (readers) rather than booksellers. But if you are interested in making a bulk purchase or stocking a small number of books on a limited returns or consignment basis, please send an email via the contact form.

They can be! Cryptic Plumage Press books are included in OverDrive, used by many libraries for digital collection management, and paperbacks may also be purchased for library circulation.

Most libraries accept patron requests (even though they might not be able to fulfill them all). If you'd like to see a book on the shelves, put in a request with your local librarians.

Cryptic Plumage Press ebooks are available as EPUB and PDF files. These formats are standard and you should be able to read them on a personal computer, tablet, smartphone, or e-reader.

Payhip has some helpful tips for getting files onto different devices. You can also sideload files using a cable (old fashioned but vaguely satisfying).

If you'd like to experiment with sideloading, you can download a free ebook as a test.

When you buy a book, you should own that book. Digital rights management (DRM) is a pain for readers and not much of a deterrent to piracy. Cryptic Plumage Press does not apply any DRM to files sold directly to readers and, whenever it is an option, vendors are asked to provide DRM-free files.

So-called AI has no place in the arts (or, frankly, any other field). Large language models and generative AI software are not used in any Cryptic Plumage Press books, covers or marketing materials, nor in the research and drafting phases.

This stuff is bad. Data centers are an environmental disaster; the rush to jam AI into everything makes products worse and de-skills workers and students; labor, along with some of the worst environmental impacts, is often outsourced to vulnerable communities; the models were built using stolen data; and the resulting output is called "slop" for a reason.

(It is worth noting that there are a lot of interesting machine learning applications and fields of study that don't fall under the umbrella of "so-called AI." They shouldn't be tarred with the same brush as OpenAI's ChatGPT and DALL-E, Anthropic's Claude, Google's Gemini, SpaceXAI's Grok, Stability AI's Stable Diffusion, Microsoft's Copilot, Midjourney, and the like. But it's those so-called AI products and companies that people are thinking of when they ask about AI in writing and visual art, and they exemplify the sort of thing the press absolutely rejects.)

At this time, there are no plans to produce audiobooks. It would involve hiring voice actors and taking on additional production expenses. While audiobook editions are a nice option to offer readers, the budget just isn't available.

That said, the editions that we do sell should be accessible. Readers can take advantage of ebooks' text-to-speech functionality.

No, Cryptic Plumage Press is not open to manuscript submissions or unsolicited artist portfolios. (This is unlikely to change and any submissions will be deleted unread.)

If you want to support Cryptic Plumage Press—or any independent publisher—you can buy the books. But "support" isn't just a matter of a transaction. Rate the books, write reviews, and recommend them to friends who might enjoy them. Talk about your favorite reads on social media. Request books from your library. (Libraries are great! People get to read even if money is tight...and then other library patrons get the chance to discover the book.)