Everybody Wants the Red Edition by Matthew Petchinsky

Darian Voss never authorized the Red Edition.

That hasn't stopped everyone from wanting one.

When mysterious crimson copies of Darian's first novel begin appearing at underground auctions and private collections, scarcity transforms them into the most coveted books on Earth. Collectors offer fortunes. Readers become dangerously obsessed. Bookstores descend into chaos. Every attempt by Voss House to recall the unauthorized editions only drives their value-and Darian's rapidly expanding publishing empire-higher.

Investigative journalist Lena Orrow discovers something far more disturbing than counterfeiting. Readers report missing time, compulsive rereading, synchronized dreams of an impossible city, and creatures moving between printed letters. Beneath magnification, Darian encounters Syrakai, an elegant insectile Veyrathi capable of inhabiting the spaces within written language. The creature reveals that ordinary Dryackmine was merely the beginning. The concentrated phenomenon known as Redwake can make human minds increasingly receptive to something waiting beyond the page.

As corporations, investors, retailers, and desperate collectors turn supernatural horror into opportunity, Darian confronts an unbearable truth: nobody ever commanded him to expand.

They simply made expansion profitable.

And when Lena uncovers records spanning generations of publishers, she discovers Voss House has entered a competition that began long before Darian was born.