How it works

The Grimoire is built around a monthly subscription box. You build a shelf of the series you're chasing, size your box, and each cycle we propose a box drawn from the top of your shelf — you review it, it locks, then it ships. Six beats:

• Build your shelf. Add every series you're chasing — your shelf is the well each month's box is drawn from, and you can add as many as you like.
• Pick your box size. One dial sets how many slots ship each month (your tier). You can change it whenever you like.
• We propose your box. Before your billing date, we build a box from the top of your shelf - never random filler - and email you to review it.
• You review it. During the review window you can swap volumes, remove lines, or cancel the box for the cycle. You hold the final word.
• It locks. Once you lock it — or the review deadline passes — the box is committed, and on your billing date you're charged for exactly that box: if it came up short of your tier, you pay the smaller amount, not your full tier. We then begin procuring and packing it.
• It ships. Your whole box ships together as a single parcel. If it mixes on-hand and distributor volumes, we wait for the distributor stock to arrive, then send everything at once. Boxes we already hold in full ship quickly once locked.

When you’re charged

We propose your box and open your review window before your billing date - so you always see and shape the box before you pay for it. On your billing date, Shopify charges you for the box you reviewed: your full tier price when it's full, or a smaller amount when it came up short. You're only charged for the volumes that ship.

You don't have to wait for the deadline - lock the box whenever you're happy with it. If you take no action by the review deadline and the box has at least one shippable volume, it locks as-is and ships - and you're only charged for what it contains. If nothing in the box can ship, it doesn't lock at all: you aren't charged for that cycle, and we work with you on what to do next.

Slots, slot-weights & tiers

A slot is one unit of your monthly subscription quota, and what a volume costs in slots follows from its retail price - so a bigger book takes more of your box, and you're never charged a full slot for a slim one. Slot costs go in half-slot steps: a short volume can cost half a slot, most cost one, a chunkier one costs one and a half or two, and a deluxe omnibus can cost three or more. Every volume's slot cost is shown on its page, so you can see what it will use before you add it to your shelf. Your box size (tier) sets your slot quota - 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 slots - and we fill up to that many weighted slots each cycle. Unused slots don't roll over: every cycle resets to your full quota.

In-order by default, out-of-order if you ask

By default we ship a series in order: we won't send you Volume n+1 of a run unless you already own Volume n (whether we shipped it or you told us you have it). If you'd rather receive later volumes while earlier ones are missing, you can mark a series as out-of-order.

A couple of stock rules follow from this: backordered volumes are never placed in a box (we order them ahead instead so a future box can ship complete), and if an earlier volume in a run is out of print, we'll flag it so you can decide how to proceed.

If we can't fill your box

Some months we can't fill every slot — a wanted run might be between volumes, or stock might be short. When a locked box uses fewer slots than your tier quota, your charge for that cycle drops to match what you actually received: the price of that tier when the box lands on a whole slot, or halfway between the tiers either side of it when the box lands on a half. Either way you pay the smaller amount rather than your full tier, and that applies whether you approved a partial box yourself or the deadline locked a short box for you.

If a cycle has nothing shippable at all, the box doesn't lock and you aren’t charged for that cycle. See the billing questions in our FAQ and shipping & returns for the details.