Paperback
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Paperback editions of books are issued when a publisher decides to release a book in a low-cost format. Cheap paper, glued bindings, and the lack of a hard cover contribute to the inherent low cost of paperbacks. Paperbacks can be the preferred medium when a book is not expected to be a major seller, or in other situations where the publisher wishes to release a book without putting forth a large investment. Examples include many novels, and newer editions or reprintings of older books.
Since hardcovers tend to have a larger profit margin, publishers must balance the profit to be made by selling fewer hardcovers against the potential profit to be made by selling many paperbacks with a smaller profit per unit. First editions of many modern books, especially genre fiction, are issued in paperback. Best-selling books, on the other hand, may maintain sales in hardcover for an extended period in order to reap the greater profits that the hardcovers provide.
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[edit] History
The 20th-century mass-market paperback format was pioneered by German publisher Albatross Books in 1931, but the experiment was cut short by the approach of World War 2. It was an immediate financial success in the United Kingdom in 1935, when Penguin Books adopted many of Albatross' innovations, including a conspicuous logo and color-coded covers for different genres. British publisher Allen Lane launched the Penguin Books imprint in 1935 with ten reprint titles, which began the paperback revolution in the English-language book market. Number one on Penguin's 1935 list was André Maurois' Ariel.Lane intended to produce inexpensive books. He purchased paperback rights from publishers, ordered large print runs (e.g., 20,000 copies—large for the time) to keep unit prices low, and looked to non-traditional book-selling retail locations. Booksellers were initially reluctant to buy his books, but when Woolworths placed a large order, the books sold extremely well. After that initial success, booksellers were no longer reluctant to stock paperbacks and the word "Penguin" became closely associated with the word "paperback".
In 1939, Robert de Graaf issued a similar line in the United States, partnering with Simon & Schuster to create the Pocket Books label. The term "pocket book" became synonymous with paperback in English-speaking North America. In Québec, the term "livre de poche" was used and is still in use today. De Graaf, like Lane, negotiated paperback rights from other publishers, and produced many runs. His practices contrasted with those of Lane by his adoption of illustrated covers aimed at the North American market. In order to reach an even broader market than Lane, he used distribution networks of newspapers and magazines, which had a lengthy history of being aimed (in format and distribution) at mass audiences. This was the beginning of mass-market paperbacks.
Because of its number-one position in what became a very long list of pocket editions, James Hilton's Lost Horizon is often cited as the first American paperback book. However, the first mass-market, pocket-sized, paperback book printed in the US was an edition of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, produced by Pocket Books as a proof-of-concept in late 1938, and sold in New York City. It is now very collectible.
[edit] Paperback originals
Many companies entered the paperback publishing field in the United States in the years after Pocket Books' inception, including Ace, Dell, Bantam, Avon and dozens of other smaller publishers. At first, paperbacks consisted entirely of reprints, but in 1950 Gold Medal Books began publishing original works in paperback.Roscoe Kent Fawcett wanted to establish a line of Fawcett paperbacks, and he felt original works would not be a violation of the contract. In order to test a loophole in the contract, Fawcett published two anthologies—The Best of True Magazine and What Today's Woman Should Know About Marriage and Sex—reprinting material from zoo magazines not previously published in books. When these books were successfully published, confirming Fawcett's loophole, he announced Gold Medal Books, a line of paperback originals. Sales soared, prompting Gold Medal editorial director Ralph Daigh to comment, "In the past six months we have produced 9,020,645 books, and people seem to like them very well." However, hardcover publishers resented Roscoe Fawcett's innovation, as evidenced by Doubleday's LeBaron R. Barker, who claimed that paperback originals could "undermine the whole structure of publishing."[2]
Genre categories began to emerge, and mass-market book covers reflected those categories. Mass-market paperbacks had an impact on slick and pulp magazines. The market for cheap magazines diminished when buyers began to buy cheap books instead. Authors also found themselves abandoning magazines and writing for the paperback market. The leading paperback publishers often hired experienced pulp magazine cover artists, including Rudolph Belarski and Earle K. Bergey, who helped create the look and feel of paperbacks and set an appealing visual standard that continues to this day. Scores of well-known authors were published in paperback, including Arthur Miller and John Steinbeck.
World War II brought both new technology and a wide readership of men and women now in the military or employed as shift workers; paperbacks were cheap, readily available, and easily carried. Furthermore, people found that restrictions on travel gave them time to read more paperbacks. Four-color printing and lamination developed for military maps made the paperback cover eye catching and kept ink from running as people handled the book. A revolving metal rack, designed to display a wide variety of paperbacks in a small space, found its way into drugstores, dimestores, and markets.
US paperbacks quickly entered the Canadian market. Canadian mass-market paperback initiatives in the 1940s included White Circle Books, a subsidiary of Collins (UK); it was fairly successful but was soon outstripped by the success of Harlequin which began in 1949 and, after a few years of publishing undistinguished novels, focused on the romance genre and became one of the world's largest publishers.
McClelland and Stewart entered the Canadian mass-market book trade in the early 1960s, with its "Canadian best seller library" series, at a time when Canadian literary culture was beginning to be popularized, and a call for a Canadian author identity was discussed by the Canadian people.
[edit] Types
Paperbacks include inexpensive mass-market paperbacks, in the standard "pocketbook" format. These are generally printed on low quality paper, which will discolor and disintegrate over a period of decades. More expensive "trade paperbacks" in larger formats are printed on quality paper such as acid-free paper.- "A Format" paperbacks are 110mm x 178mm (4.33" x 7.01") in size[3]
- "B Format" paperbacks are 130mm x 198mm (5.12" x 7.8")[3]
- "C Format" (trade paperbacks) are 135mm x 216mm (5.32" x 8.51").[3]
[edit] Mass-market paperback
A mass-market paperback is a small, usually non-illustrated, and inexpensive bookbinding format. They are commonly released after the hardback edition, and often sold in non-traditional bookselling locations such as airports, drug stores, and supermarkets, as well as in traditional bookstores. Many titles, especially in genre fiction, have their first editions in paperback and never receive a hardcover printing. This is particularly true of first novels by new authors.[4]Business practices by publishers and booksellers also differentiate mass-market paperbacks from hardbacks. When booksellers note that particular books are not selling, they may return them to the publisher for a refund or credit on future orders. However, in the case of mass-market paperbacks, this return usually means stripping the front cover, and returning only the cover for credit, while the remainder of the book is "pulped" (recycled). The copyright page often carries a warning that anyone who buys a book missing its front cover should assume that the publisher has received no payment and the author has received no royalties for that copy.
The mass-market paperbacks sold in airport newsstands have given rise to the vaguely defined literary genre of the "airport novel", bought by travelers to read during their potentially long hours of sitting and waiting. Mass-market paperbacks also have offered collections of comic strips and magazine cartoon series, such as Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy and Chon Day's Brother Sebastian.
[edit] Trade paperback
A trade paperback, sometimes referred to as a "trade paper edition" or just "trades", is a standard-sized or large-sized paperback book. If it is a softcover edition of a previous hardcover edition, and if published by the same publishing house as the hardcover, the text pages are normally identical to the text pages in the hardcover edition, and the book is essentially the same size as the hardcover edition. Significantly, the pagination is the same so that references to the text will be unchanged: this is particularly important for reviewers and scholars. The only difference is the soft binding; the quality of the paper is usually higher than that of a mass-market paperback.Trade paperbacks are typically priced less than hardcover books and higher than mass-market paperbacks. Virtually all advance copies sent for promotional and review purposes are issued in trade paperback format.
[edit] Trade paperback comics
Main article: Trade paperback (comics)
Trade paperbacks are often used to reprint several issues of a comic series in one volume, usually an important storyline or the entire series itself, and the name "trade paperback" has become synonymous with a collection of reprinted material. Graphic novels may also be printed in trade paperback form. Publishers sometimes release popular collections first in a hardback form, followed by a trade paperback months later. Examples include Marvel Comics' Secret War and DC Comics' Watchmen among many others.[edit] Major paperback publishers
- Ace Books
- Avon
- Ballantine Books
- Bantam
- Berkley Books
- DAW Books
- Dell Books
- Dover Publications
- Fawcett/Gold Medal
- HarperCollins
- Lancer Books
- Paperback Library
- Penguin Books
- Pocket Books
- Popular Library
- Pyramid Books
- Scholastic Corporation
- Vintage Books
- Black Library
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ See, for example, the Tauchnitz editions.
- ^ Crider. Bill. "Paperback Originals," The Mystery Readers Newsletter, 1971
- ^ a b c Wilson-Fletcher, Honor (2001-08-11). "Why Size Matters". The Guardian. Retrieved 2006-11-16.
- ^ Flint, Eric. "Column: Salvos Against Big Brother; article: 'The Economics of Writing'". In Jim Baen's Universe (e-zine) Eric Flint (ed.). Retrieved 2007-10-17. "Mother of Demons was published in September 1997, and it was only published in a mass-market paperback edition, as was the standard practice at the time for first novels."
[edit] Further reading
- Hancer, Kevin. (1990) Hancer's Price Guide to Paperback Books, Third Edition, Radnor, Pennsylvania: Wallace-Homestead Book Company. ISBN 0-87069-536-3
- Canja, Jeff. (2002) Collectible Paperback Books, Second Edition, East Lansing, MI: Glenmoor Publishing. ISBN 0-9673639-5-0
[edit] External links
 | Look up paperback, softcover, or softback in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
