One of the advantages of making Weightless Fireworks exclusive to Unbound subscribers is that it has given us the freedom to create a cover without the need for many of the bits and bobs that are essential if you intend to sell your book in bookshops. Such as, for example, words.

This book doesn't need a blurb as we are not trying to sell it to anyone. A short, pithy biography of the author isn't required either. I am trying to persuade Unbound that we don't need even need a barcode. The front and back covers, and the flappy bits, will be almost completely free of text. And I am delighted.

However, I don't want this little volume of haiku getting lost on your bookshelves, so there will be a bit of writing on the spine, along with the Unbound logo and a seemingly random number*.

Here is how the cover looks when it is all spread out.

Those buff/grey areas are the flaps. Nice big ones. Nothing wrong with big flaps. Hope you like them too. They'll wrap around the boards of the hardback. No decision yet on what colour cloth we'll use or whether or not there'll be anything debossed or picked out in foil on the boards themselves, but watch this space. Unless I decide to surprise you.

I love what Vaughan Oliver, with able assistance from Rory Stiff, has come up with. I wanted something different, something unusual, something that isn't obviously a book of poetry. I am thrilled that we have been able to break some rules and leave off barcodes and RRPs and blurby sales pitch and all that stuff. We are left with something curious, both pretty and slightly unsettling.

And we'll be producing a very limited number of high quality art prints of the cover, signed by Vaughan and me, so if you want one you can always upgrade your pledge. Don't feel obliged, though, you've already done more than enough to ensure this book gets made.

*Each book published by Unbound has its own number. The first book they published was 1, the second was 2, and so on. I think mine will be somewhere between 150 and 200 depending on when it goes to print.