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Mass Market Blues
Dec. 7th, 2004 09:40 amWe have rain. Lots and lost of rain falling from the sky. It is also cold but not cold enough to snow making it really miserable weather today. I am hoping that it drops that 3 degrees to turn this into snow but I don’t think it is going to do that.
I was reading an article in Publishers Weekly about the demise or possibly reformatting the mass-market paperback. People are not buying them the way they use to. It seems that the trade paperback format with its slightly larger type is the format of preference for the reader of today. I can understand that. Many publishers, trying to keep their costs down, have made the type so small in paperbacks that someone with very good eyesight needs a magnifying glass to see it clearly.
Another selling point of the MM format was the low price point. Due to costs of paper and other higher cost to produce the books, the price of a MM is rising rapidly. Most now have a price point of $7.99 (US). A trade paperback is about $15.99 (US).
There are the deep discounts given on hardcover books these days by various retailers making the cost of the hardcover not much more than the MM version. The remainder market has taken a bite out too. Bestsellers come out in MM about the time that the hardcover is remaindered for about the same price as the paperback edition if not less. By remaindering their left over stock of the hardcover books, the publishers are making at least some of their costs back but it is hurting their MM sales.
The mass-market paperback is not dead yet. Many of the larger retailers like grocery and drug stores are set up to rack MM only. They don’t have the room or the fixtures to display anything but paperbacks and they don’t want to deal with the trade paperback format until the publishers make it a strippable format. {They have to just tear off the cover of the book and send it back to the distributor for credit rather than the whole book. They do the same thing for magazines.} Publishers still like the format for its longevity. Most authors will over time sell more mass-markets then hardcovers. Some publishers are experimenting with a slightly larger format with larger type and a slightly higher price ($10.00 rather than $7.99). Others are offering slightly older titles at a lower price. Something has to change for the survival of the mass market paperback. I hope that a solution can be found before someone does declare the format dead.
In more personal news, I did get the pictures up from Caroline’s 2nd birthday. They can be found at homepage.mac.com/kathodavid/PhotoAlbum19.html
I am grateful for possibilities even when the odds are against me.
I was reading an article in Publishers Weekly about the demise or possibly reformatting the mass-market paperback. People are not buying them the way they use to. It seems that the trade paperback format with its slightly larger type is the format of preference for the reader of today. I can understand that. Many publishers, trying to keep their costs down, have made the type so small in paperbacks that someone with very good eyesight needs a magnifying glass to see it clearly.
Another selling point of the MM format was the low price point. Due to costs of paper and other higher cost to produce the books, the price of a MM is rising rapidly. Most now have a price point of $7.99 (US). A trade paperback is about $15.99 (US).
There are the deep discounts given on hardcover books these days by various retailers making the cost of the hardcover not much more than the MM version. The remainder market has taken a bite out too. Bestsellers come out in MM about the time that the hardcover is remaindered for about the same price as the paperback edition if not less. By remaindering their left over stock of the hardcover books, the publishers are making at least some of their costs back but it is hurting their MM sales.
The mass-market paperback is not dead yet. Many of the larger retailers like grocery and drug stores are set up to rack MM only. They don’t have the room or the fixtures to display anything but paperbacks and they don’t want to deal with the trade paperback format until the publishers make it a strippable format. {They have to just tear off the cover of the book and send it back to the distributor for credit rather than the whole book. They do the same thing for magazines.} Publishers still like the format for its longevity. Most authors will over time sell more mass-markets then hardcovers. Some publishers are experimenting with a slightly larger format with larger type and a slightly higher price ($10.00 rather than $7.99). Others are offering slightly older titles at a lower price. Something has to change for the survival of the mass market paperback. I hope that a solution can be found before someone does declare the format dead.
In more personal news, I did get the pictures up from Caroline’s 2nd birthday. They can be found at homepage.mac.com/kathodavid/PhotoAlbum19.html
I am grateful for possibilities even when the odds are against me.
