Trade Paperbacks: format of the future?

[greyhorse]

Have you noticed how common these things are getting? Somewhere in size between a regular paperback and a hard cover, these overweight paperbacks are permeating our bookstore shelves.

The first time these came to my attention was when I went to a book store to buy for a friend, a copy of Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age". I figured I’d buy another one because my copy was becoming too tattered to share. So there I was, slowly working my way along the familiar shelves when there it was; a blown up version of the book I was looking for. Like some re-creation made by a larger, alien species, the book was wrong on some fundamental level. Dumbstruck, I turned the object over in my hands, opening it to find the text too small in proportion to the oversized pages. What was most alarming about it was the price, set at almost twice the price of a regular paperback. Disappointed, and hoping to find a regular paperback at another store, I wandered the streets of downtown Toronto to no avail. Everywhere I went I was faced with this mockery of the compact beauty that was “The Diamond Ageâ€.

Over a year has passed since that day, and now a new trade paperback release of “The Diamond Age†is to be found in the stores. This one has a different, more upscale, artsy look to it, which I suppose is meant to justify the added cost of the book. They’ve got the text size right too, and the whole package is stylish and well balanced. Somehow I still can’t bring myself to buy it however. I’ve still yet to come to terms with having to pay twice what I previously paid, for what to me, is a cumbersome revision of a book I still cherish.

Several weeks ago I heard William Gibson’s “Pattern Recognition†had come out in paperback. I made the time therefore, to head downtown again, to buy it. I was more disappointed than surprised this time when I saw that trade paper backs are being released not only for bestsellers, but for a huge number of new releases, and by many different publishers. It seems that the trade paperback will be the format of the future, and for this I am saddened. If the public is not buying books now, I just can’t see it paying twice for the same privilege.

I did end up buying “Pattern Recognition†that day, which was also a tradepaperback, and was doubly disappointed because of the content, which I found neither particularly well written nor interesting. While in the past, this might have not been a great loss, this time I now have a shelf space eating block for which I had to pay close to twice the cost I was used to paying. Not good.

I talked this over with my sister who is currently studying to become a librarian, and she thinks trade paperbacks might be targeted for an aging reading population in need of larger print. While this could be partly true, it still doesn’t explain the increasing use of trade paperbacks in SF&F, which has a larger teenage reading population. What do you people think of trade paperbacks? Will they replace standard paperbacks, or will they die out?

 

[ray gower]

I think Trade Paperbacks and Print on Demand is a result of the reduction in book sales.

The cost of setting a press does not vary much between printing a couple of thousand books and tens of thousands, yet the cost has to be covered before a writer gets his cut.
With Science Fiction steadily becoming something of a minority sport (see the thread Is SF Becoming Ashamed of Itself) publishers aren't prepared to splash out on what could be a warehouse full of books that don't shift. So they are moving towards ways of producing small volumes quickly and cheaply.

But cheap is a relative term. Printing a 300 page book on a laser printer will easily cost £6, add another £2-3 for handling expenses and some more for the seller and it starts to become expensive. It is just cheaper than spending thousands setting a press.

The good side is that as the publishers start to get to grips with the idea of producing such small volumes, they should get better at it, so the books won't look so much like some school-kids year 9 project

 

[Tabitha]

When I think of trade paperbacks I think of collected issues of comics. You are talking about something different?

The books you are discussing sound like the softback-hardbacks that are available at the airport. Basically they are the hardback version (huge dimensions, large print), but with a soft cover, targeted at travellers who obviously don't want to haul very heavy books around. My main complaint with them is that they are usually the same price as the hardback, but it is also quite annoying when they are so huge they won't even fit into my bag for the journey to and from work.

 

[tschurter]

Actually, the reason for this is purely financial.

Mass market paperbacks are pretty much prescipted on price. There is a standard formula with the main variation being the number of pages - and hence the printing cost.

The "in-between", sometimes called "soft hardbacks" that are larger are now being used to entry a book instead of the traditional hardback because the cost is much less.

This means the selling price can be less than a hardback, but much higher than a mass market paperback; sales increase due to the reduced cost of the purchase price; and the publisher actually makes MORE per book due to the offset in cost compared to the quite expensive hardback.

End result: buyer pays less, more books sold, higher profit per book, much higher profit for publisher.

Like I said, its purely financially driven and will become more and more prevalent in the years to come.

 

[greyhorse]

Tabitha,

The trade paperbacks I'm referring to are around 15cm by 23cm, and are found in ordinary bookstores. They are midway in size between a hardcover and a regular paperback, and the prices are also somewhere in-between.

Tschurter,

I didn't go around studying the release schedules for the books I saw, so maybe I jumped the gun to my conclusion. However there were an alarming number of them; a lot more than the number of harcovers I am used to seeing on the shelves. At least the 2 cases I talked about above, these were released after the hardcovers were released, and no substitute regular paperback releases are available for them. This is what has me concerned.

 

[Dave]

Like Tabitha, I'm in the UK and I haven't come across these before. I'm sure they are available here, and what the US gets first usually quickly follows here.

They sound poor quality, but you say that the price is comparable to, or more, than normal paperbacks. I buy paperbacks to keep. Most I have read twice, if not more, and my collection looks good on my bookcases. It sounds like these would not look good at all. Or, are they better quality?

 

[greyhorse]

A lot of them just look like a blown up paperback, so while you don't get a reduction in quality, there isn't much to justifty the added cost. Some on the otherhand are much fancier than a regular paperback, and sport textured covers with artsy waxed finishes. The cover art work for "The Diamond Age" and "Pattern Recognition" also had an artsy bent, which may or may not have costed more to produce.

 

[BAYLOR]

Seems to be the increasing norm.

 

[Cathbad]

I actually like them better. Always thought the softs were too small.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Another vote for trade paperbacks here. IIRC, mass market paperbacks were created to fit into pockets - but, let's face it, that's not normally going to happen with many a thick fantasy or science fiction tome.

 

[MWagner]

Yeah, I've always preferred trade paperbacks to hardcovers (too heavy and expensive) and paperbacks (won't stay open with one hand at the kitchen table).

 

[Randy M.]

Another vote for trade pbs: I've put off reading some mass market pbs for years because of too small print and too tight lines for aging eyes. Then the trade tb comes along and it's a more comfortable read.


Randy M.