So what’s it take for you to buy hardcover books from an author?  I ask because Scott Lynch’s third Gentleman Bastards book, The Republic of Thieves, just finally finally finally came out in paperback, and the jerk’s announced that volume 4 is going to be somehow coming out later in 2014.

I do not think I’m going to be able to wait for the fourth book to hit paperback, and splitting the series after a trilogy appeals to the obsessive-compulsive book nerd in me, so I  will be promoting Mr. Lynch to “buy in hardcover,” at least for the Gentleman Bastards books, as soon as #4 comes out.  Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid books also just made the leap– Shattered was the first book released in hardcover, and I bought it immediately.

Do you have a rule for when you’ll buy a fiction author in paperback vs. hardback?  How patient are you about waiting for paperbacks from authors you like?