Where can I still buy Sarah J Maas merch from a small business?

I've been reading the comments. "I miss small shop designs." "Merch made by actual fans." "Where's my Throne of Glass and Crescent City?" I read every one of them, and not from the outside. This is our community, and it's been a really hard thing to watch.

Most of the small shops that made Sarah J Maas merch aren't making it anymore. These were our people. They reread the books to get one tiny detail right, sat up at night drawing a character they couldn't stop thinking about, and cared about these worlds the way we care about anything we love. So many of them are gone now, and there aren't many of us left.

What's on the shelves instead

A lot of what's replaced them is big-brand product, made at a scale where nobody had to read the books to make it. Some of it is a book cover printed on a blanket and called a day. I'm sorry, but that's not made by someone who loves the story.

We can tell the difference. That's what every one of those comments is saying, and it isn't a small thing. Honestly, it feels like grief for something we built ourselves.

We're still here

I wanted to say it plainly, because so many of us are asking. Caffeine and Curses is still here, and we're still officially licensed with Sarah J Maas for Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses and Crescent City.

And I'll be honest about what that takes, because it matters. A licence isn't something you get once and keep forever. It's a real commitment, every year, and it has to hold. Most small shops couldn't carry that, and I understand why. It's a lot. I'm still small too. But I made the commitment, I've held it, and I'm going to keep holding it, because I'm not ready to let these worlds go.

Her copyright line is on every one of our product pages, and she's paid on every single sale. It's her world. I've never once taken for granted that she lets us make things in it.

What caring about it actually looks like

I started drawing because the merch I could find didn't match how I felt about these books. That's still how it works. Every line, every colour palette, every shape, every font is me working through what I felt about a character or a world, bit by bit. It takes me so long to figure out. I call it my therapy. It's cheaper than the real one, anyway.

When I'm making a collection I need a fresh read or a reread, and I can't read anything else until it's done. Last time I worked it out, a design was taking me around 22 hours, and that's before the research and the colour palettes. On Starfall, every tiny brick was drawn by me, and every line is there for a reason, so whoever's wearing it keeps finding their favourite bits hiding in there.

That's the part you can't fake. A cover printed on a blanket doesn't have it.

If you're looking for us

Everything lives on our website: Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses and Crescent City. All three. Manon included, obviously. In the US, you'll also find our Sarah J Maas designs in Books-A-Million stores.

To the bookshops who've said they miss ordering this kind of thing for their customers: you still can, through our wholesale page.

And whichever small shop you find, make sure it's really them. Our designs get copied, sometimes before we've even released them. Look for "officially licensed" and the author's copyright line, and do a quick search before you buy so you know you've found the original artist.

Thank you for still looking for us. We're still here, and I'm still drawing.

Tracy x

Still rereading Kingdom of Ash like it won't wreck me this time. It always does.