I just returned from another -must get away from my naughty child before I go crazy and break many things- trip to Barnes & Noble and as I'm perusing the shelves I notice mostly trade paperbacks. On this trip I actively searched out titles that I wanted in mass market paperback and found very few. I'm wondering is it the genre I mostly read (historical fiction)? I never seem to have trouble finding MMPBs in the fantasy or mystery section. I appreciate the beautiful covers on the trade size historicals as much as anyone but I tend to buy a lot of books and that of course requires a lot of shelf space, space I no longer have because I own so dern many books! I would love to be able to buy mass markets because they are smaller and take up less room. Why is it that there aren't more available?? If the publishers are worried about losing out on money by making the less expensive MMPBs they certainly wouldn't from me. I would probably buy just as much monetarily as when I bought the trade size ones and be very happy that I could get more for my money. Just a thought/gripe.....
Also does anyone else have any used bookstores in their area that operate on consignment? There is one here called Booked for the Season http://www.bookedfortheseason.com/ that has two locations nearby, both of which I love to visit. You trade in your books and they sell them for you and you get up to 40% of the sale placed in your account to use as store credit. I have yet to trade anything in there since I unload most of the books I've read on PBS but I like the concept and I'm sure I will eventually. They even have a tab on there for if you are interested in opening your own store. If we were planning on staying here in Michigan I would probably talk to hubby about opening one. Since we are not, I guess I will have to hold off on my dream of a profession where I am surrounded by books all day long. Unless they have this kind of thing in NY.....
I actually don't care to read MMPB's as they're a bit unwieldy, especially the door-stopper size. I have two local used book stores that will give credit in trade of paperbacks and one has the most delightful floor to ceiling section of romances. Karla would be in seventh heaven.
ReplyDeleteWe have one in Richmond, it's the Book Rack. They take 50% of the cover price and give it to you for store credit. I think it's 50%...anyway, they don't take MMPBs for the most part. But the do sell romance novels by the pound, which I think is HI-LARIOUS.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great question about what the trigger is that cause a publisher to choose a MMPB vs a trade paperback. There must be some threshold for expected sales, and clearly most MMPBs fall into some sort of genre fiction category, but I wonder where the line is.
ReplyDeleteAlso, very interesting about the idea of consignment - hadn't heard of that before, but I think it's a wonderful idea!
Most books here are released into trade paperback as opposed to hardcover. They are my preferred size of book!
ReplyDeleteMisfit-I can see where some of the 1,000 pg historicals would be a bit much for a MMPB. It doesn't really bother me though unless they have to resort to microscopic print.
ReplyDeleteJane-50% is generous! They have one in Holland that sells books for 1/2 the cover price. I found some older jean plaidy books there that I got for 75 cents each because the cover price was only $1.50 when they were released.
Greg- It hought it might have had something to do with the popularity of the genre since so many MMPBs are romance/mystery/fantasy and those are all very popular but then historicals are pretty popular too. Maybe just not enough though..
Marg-I would prefer trade size too if space were not the issue. Unfortunately I think getting the publishing industry to switch from trades to MMPBs would actually be easier than curbing my spending habits when it comes to books and that is the only other idea I can come up with to solve the space issue :)