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HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It’s topical not only because the trade paperback of ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS comes out tomorrow--see how cool?-- but there's a whole sea change about paperbacks right now that's pretty interesting.
There used to be two kinds of paperbacks: a trade, which is about the size of a hardcover book, and the mass market, the kind you could fit in your back pocket or in your purse or in the glove compartment. If you took in it your beach bag and got sand in it, or if it got dropped into the bathtub, you really didn’t care. They were kind of… disposable.
All of my books have come out first in hardcover and e-book and audio, and then additionally in trade paperback size, and then a year after the initial publication of the hardcover, in mass market paperback. (See? ARC, hardcover, trade PB, MMPB, and audio CD.)
But no more. No more mass market paperbacks. Done and over, and extinct. So they say.
So weird! You could buy them, though, in grocery stores and drugstores, too, and they were perfect impulse buys. I completely remember gasping with delight when I saw my books in the CVS, and in Star Market. It just made them seem like real books. And like I was a real author.
But after you read them, then what? I just found my battered mass market of In Cold Blood-- you can see I’d tried to use tape to keep the cover on, and failed. But I do love this book, and it is a permanent fixture around here.
It’s hard to donate paperbacks, because they are so battered so easily. And it’s hard to throw them away because, well, they’re books. And how could I throw away this shelf in my house:
or this one:
or this one?
ANYWAY. It’s not going to matter anymore, because as I said, they’re not going to make them anymore.
Tell me what you’ve heard are the reasons, but I heard that during the pandemic the paper costs went way up, and the administrative cost to make them and ship them from China went way up, and they were not cost-effective, and people were using Kindle instead.
So as a result, the big distributors decided they weren’t going to distribute them anymore. And as a result of that the publishers decided they weren’t going to print them anymore.
What do you think about that? Will it change your life? Will it change your reading? Will it change your buying habits? Do you have any mass market paperbacks that you will never part with?
HALLIE EPHRON: I’m sure it’s a business decision on the part of publishers. Pumping out an ebook costs so much less (no paper, no printing, no shipping and warehousing…) And I get it – over time I’ve become much more likely to download an ebook than buy a hard copy. Still I miss that mass market size – a book I could tuck in my pocket and then leave behind in my hotel room for the next lucky visitor. Buy in the airport and finish by wheels-down.
LUCY BURDETTE: I have a fondness for mass market paperbacks because my first eight books came out in that format. However, I understand this is a totally financial decision. I’ve learned to step back when the publishing gurus say something is gone because before you know it, it will be back again! Personally, I find them hard to read because the type is so small. But I get it that books have gotten so expensive that it’s hard for people to fit hard covers and big paperbacks into the budget.
RHYS BOWEN: My early books came out as MM paperbacks a year after the hardcover but switched to trade paperbacks around ten years ago.. I think mm paperbacks fell out of favor because the type is too small for older readers, also because it’s harder to hold them open without their falling to pieces. Personally I choose e-books over trade paperbacks. And if I’m buying it’s the hardcover. Not that much more expensive and looks better on the shelf.
My Lake Union books come out in all formats on the same day. Strange but true.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: My books have only been trade and hardcover for a long time, but the early ones were hardcover and then mass market. But I think e-books now fill the mass market budget category and I suppose it makes sense for the publishers to discontinue the format. I’ve held on to some mass markets over the years, many of them out of print and irreplaceable, but when I’ve tried to read them the pages are yellowed and the print is too small. Maybe they will now be valuable to collectors?
Personally, I read in all formats, hardcover, trade, e-books, audio books, but I especially love trade paper. Still easy to carry around, but I don’t have to worry about leaving my Kindle–or worse, my iPad–somewhere!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: So many paperbacks! I still have them on shelves, in the attic, in boxes in the back of closets. I just can’t seem to make myself throw them away.
I agree that the “affordable, and I don’t want to invest in a ‘good’ book” market’s been taken over by ebooks, but they will never replace the joy of spending hours in Owl Used Books lovingly going over each and every title to come up with five for one dollar. Not to mention the thrill of finding something interesting left behind by a traveller at a B and B, hotel room, or airport lounge. Ah, well. Tempus fugit, I guess.
JENN McKINLAY: Mass Market Paperbacks were all I read in high school and college because the price was right and the portability unbeatable. Alas, that print is so dinky, I much prefer trade or hardcover now. I was a heavy e-book reader for a decade but I’m so burnt out from screens that I just want a book to read.
HANK: AND if YOU want a book to read: BREAKING NEWS: the winner of the very first Jungle Red Quarterly Giveaway is Diane W! Diane@W**********.com Diane, email me at hank@hankphillippiryan.com and send me your address–and SEVEN books will come your way!
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Now, Reds and Readers, what do you think about mass market paperbacks? Are there any that you will never give up? Will this decision change your life? (And one lucky commenter will get a MMPB of my thriller HER PERFECT LIFE! See? It's now a collector's item!)
I suppose the reasons for eliminating mass market paperbacks make sense, but it makes me sad anyway . . . it's sad to see any book go away. I always struggled a bit to read them because of the print size, but having a book in your hands was always special. I don't guess not having them will change my life in any significant way, but I'm not giving up any of them that currently reside on my bookshelves!
ReplyDeleteYes, they were a real part of our lives...and I agree, these days, the print is tiny...xx
DeleteI am sad to see them go. I have way too many books and they take up enough space as it is. I have hardcover and trade paperbacks, but I like the convenience of the smaller mass market books. I don't mind leaving them for someone else to enjoy or to give them away. The other books are so much more expensive. Yes I have kindles, but It is a but I really find it more convenient to read a paper book.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that doesn't make sense is their saying they stopped making mass market books because paper got expensive. The trade books are bigger and use more paper. Maybe the figured we would switch to e-books since they fit a similar price point.
Exactly, Patricia! How does that save paper? Like so many things, this makes no sense.
DeleteWell, I suppose because all the paper that was used for the MMPBs won't be used at all anymore. They'll just use the paper needed for the hardcovers, which they will continue, the the trades. But the MMPBs were the least cost effective.
DeleteI have that exact version of A Ring of Endless Light! I also struggle with the smaller font, but still have hundreds of these on my shelves.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it fun that the books are so recognizable?
DeleteNo way will I give up my pb Madeleine L'Engles!
DeleteI have hundreds of mass market paperbacks. Some from the 1960s, priced 75 cents (like Julia, I collected them from used bookstores and thrift shops). Agatha Christie, Dick Francis, Sue Grafton, Rex Stout, Susan Howatch, and many, many more. I built a special 6' high shelf for about half of them about 40 years ago. The nine shelves are short and shallow and the unit fits behind a door. Now it's under the stairs in the basement "library." I don't use an e-reader but I do listen to audiobooks, so I guess I'm part of the decline in buying the paper copies. (Selden)
ReplyDeleteOh, what a wonderful collection! WOW. Classics!
DeleteI have all the Agatha Christies in paperback on my shelf
DeleteEbooks can't take the place of small paperbacks in one important way, you can't lend an ebook. You could let someone use your Kindle, and Irwin frequently reads books on mine, but I can't share it easily with friends. In fact, I never have.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I travel with paper books and hardcovers are heavier to pack. Yes, I do bring my Kindle, and my new one is much more reliable than my old one, but electronics can play tricks on you and paper books don't.
I do have many MM paperbacks on our shelves. Most notably, the complete Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Series which has been read at least a dozen times.
Yes on the playing tricks Judy! I used to travel for a week with 6 or 7 books. John finally convinced me to get a kindle. On the first day of the trip (I think we were in Hungary,) a quarter of the screen turned to gobbledegook. I had to borrow whatever anyone else wasn't reading. Total disaster!!
DeleteWell, that may be true of Kindle ebooks, but I used to lend my mom my Nook ebooks (from Barnes & Noble) all the time.
DeleteI love reading both, but the kindle, although efficient and wonderful , has quirks like needing to be charged, hard to see in sunlight, vulnerable to water and sand...
DeleteAnd on a book tour, I left my Kindle in the hotel room bed in St. Louis. Seems like that should be a song...
DeleteCongratulations to Diane for winning the giveaway! (Hank, after I entered I received your personal newsletter twice.)
ReplyDeleteI had to giveaway so many books in all the print formats when I moved I just couldn’t be very sentimental about it.
The mass market paperbacks are hard to hold and hard to see the tiny print, but the price point was great.
Yup, that's what would happen!
DeleteYes, I know all about the shift. About 2/3 of my own books released in mmpb, and most of those by my former Wicked Authors pals. I had two series in trade and two in first hardcover and then mmpb. Trade paperback is much easier to read, and its price is midway between mmpb and hardcover.
ReplyDeleteWe'll be putting the change to the test soon. Mid-series and mid-contract, my eighth Cozy Capers Book Group mystery, Murder at the Toy Soldier, releases in two weeks (yay!) in mmpb (and ebook and audio). The ninth book, Murder in the Lighthouse, comes out at the end of February - in trade paperback. I have at least two more books under contract in that series. Will the new format sell as well? Fingers crossed! My new Ruthie Drew series will also be in trade.
One reader’s vote for Cozy Capers in trade paperback. I’m a re-reader and the mass markets just don’t survive…”Cape Costumers” just may not make it to be read again this Halloween! Elisabeth
DeleteHow much does it cost the author to publish in various formats or is that only the discretion of the publisher? Which leads to the next question - why are all new books not published (from henceforth on) in all formats? I can see that an audio format may take longer to produce, but surely the paper and e-format could be released simultaneously.
DeleteThanks, Elisabeth! Margo, for authors with publisher contracts, it doesn't cost the author anything. We make increasingly more money per book with trade, hardcover, and ebook, in that order. My books always release in paper and ebook on the same day, and usually the audio version keeps up with that.
DeleteMargo, in traditional publishing, the author does not bear any of the cost of the production of the book. And often paper (HC or trade) and e are released simultaneously.
DeleteWhen I was younger I read mass market paperbacks, but when they exceeded 350 pages they were so difficult to keep open to read that I was quite excited when I started coming across trade paperbacks. I quite like that size, especially as my eyes mature and my arthritis in my hands flares up. First choice is still hardback and only read ebooks when that is the only format available at the library for a book that interests me. -- Victoria
ReplyDeleteEliminating small paper books won't have an impact, but I do wish they would lower the cost of e-books, trade books and hardcovers. Patricia makes a good point about the expense of paper but yet trade paperbacks use more than the small paperbacks.
ReplyDeleteAs Lucy says, so many things in publishing get declared defunct only to come back a few years later.
ReplyDeleteThe mass market paperback has been fading away for a while now. I can't remember the last time I read one. Yes, the print is too small. And yes, they don't stay open when I'm trying to read while eating lunch.
Just don't ask me to part with my massive mass paperback collection. Like Hank, I have quite a few that are held together with tape. And a few that have rubber bands around them to contain the pages that want to fall out.
I love the art work on the covers of my mass market paperbacks from the '80's and '90's. I search out old favorites just for the nostalgia factor. For my current reads, I much prefer the trade paperbacks, easier to hold and read and I can lend them to family and friends. Even though I have a Kindle (for downloading ebooks from Libby) and a Nook for purchased ebooks, I am now finding I much prefer reading and buying the physical copies.
ReplyDeleteMy very first reads by JRW authors were all mmpb and, of course, I won't part with those. Now, when I buy a physical rather than an e-book, I'll buy the trade version -- bigger and easier on the eyes. But you are all quite right about the memories held by mm books: Way back in 1998, my partner and I were on a cross-border car-camping trip, staying at Joshua Tree national park. We had a small car, no room for luxuries like boxes of books, so we scooped up the mm paperback thriller someone had left behind at the campsite and read it together. But I'm a faster reader than she is, so we sat side by side, book open between us on the picnic table, and I read ahead of her on one side of the page while she meandered her way through on the other. It wasn't terribly comfortable, but it did the job -- and man, do I remember that little reading experience. Though I have NO memory of the book itself.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I was part of the problem for the mmpb market, because most of my impulse purchase book buying these days is through special deals for my Kindle. I try quite a few new-to-me authors when I stumble across a $1.99 special. (I really appreciate my BookBub feed that highlights the daily specials.) Those are quite often my travel reading, as I usually travel with only the Kindle.
ReplyDeleteBut I am surprised no one has mentioned the concern that my sister expresses about the end of the mmpb era. She always says that she likes to read herself to sleep at night, and a hardback is so heavy to hold up in bed and so painful if it falls on your nose when you doze off! Sadly I know her days of being able to read for pleasure are numbered because of her worsening dementia, but surely there are other readers with the same concerns. Also, she is a big fan of cozy mysteries, and for a while they were so commonly published in mmpb that just looking for that format made it easy to search for them on the library shelves.
Susan, I, too, am addicted to BookBub specials, and have bought my $1.99 books than I will ever read. But I've also discovered many new and wonderful books that way.
DeleteI'm so sorry to hear about your sister's stuggles with dementia. Have you considered getting her set up to listen to audiobooks to fall asleep at night? I've had to give up reading myself to sleep because I have to use ointment in my eyes at night, but I've decided that listening to audio books is even better. I listen on my phone, and Audible has a timer. I'm sure other audio formats have something similar. Audiobook are especially good for re-listening to comforting favorites.
Mass Market Paperbacks are great. Everyone talks about how it is a financial reason that is killing off MMPBs and while I think it is right to say that, I think the reason is not what people say it is.
ReplyDeleteInstead, the publishers get 20 bucks for a TPB and 10 bucks for a MMPB. The publishers want more money. Plain and simple.
But here's the thing. At ten bucks, I could buy two books. At twenty bucks, I can buy one. So yes my reading purchases simply change because that's less money I have from what little money I have in the first place. So one author that I might have bought ends up getting screwed. And they have the publishing industry to blame for that.
The battered look of mass markets is simply the passage of time. And as much as they might not want to admit it, all books end up with general wear and tear regardless of what format they come in. And reading on e-books is no savior for books either if we suddenly lost electronics. Those with hundreds of books on their device would suddenly have a paperweight, no more.
And with the necessary turn for me towards reading more books from the library, even some authors who I always bought has become a thing of the past. Publishers may think they are "saving" the industry but it sure feels to me like they are just changing around the deck chairs on the Titanic by eliminating MMPBs.
I have lots of mass market paperbacks in my shelves, and am not much of an e-reader. I’ll be sad to see the format go. However, we who read books are unfortunately a shrinking part of our culture. I recommend a very disturbing piece in The Atlantic on this topic. Our attention is being hijacked and it’s changing our brains.
ReplyDeleteI’m in Chicago visiting my son and I actually talked to the woman next to me (miracle, no one chats anymore—most are watching screens). Anyway, we both were reading library books. And the woman across the aisle was reading a book too. Maybe we won’t go extinct.
Paperbacks were my window into the world in the ages after 18. Books that I could afford, enjoy, and buy a LOT! Easy to carry home, perfect browsing in the bookstore on Saturday afternoon, easy to trade – what other marks of perfection do you need? Then you could easily pack them in a box and trade out with someone else - happened all the time. It was later in my life that I discovered the larger paperbacks – but although easy to read (font size, but remember I still had eyes that worked in those days), but they were almost as much money as a hard cover – of which I have none – and awkward to hold. I liked the smaller size of the paperback.
ReplyDeleteNot in my lifetime, but in my kids, they could buy paperback text books – what a saving! I imagine it is all e-book now…
Audiobooks and e-books have been my saving grace to my lifetime of reading. It would take me forever and strip all the pleasure out of reading to have to read a paperback – even a big one. It would not happen. I no longer even attempt to read a book book.
So, keeping in mind that I am a baby-boomer and not a Gen X,Y,Z,Q, epsilon – whatever they are called today, I have no idea how they prefer to read. I know they will never have the pleasure of going into a book store (especially a mass market one – so many books – here!) and having so much to choose from – and going home with about 6 which you could carry in the brown paper bag and then just read.
My kids and their wives are in their late thirties, Margo, and they all read paper books. Bought new, from the library, from a Little Free Library they passed, from the Book Shack at their town dump, from a used bookstore. They also read on Kindle, but it makes me so happy to see them with actual books in their hands. Their kiddos are surrounded by books, too, and even the baby already loves being read to. There is hope!
DeleteNot paperbacks but just about as extinct – we are watching Gone (BBC). In episode 2, the assistant Home Support Officer is sitting on the chesterfield and taking notes with a pen (she clicked the top), and a flippy notepad, when my brain flashed to all these kids who no longer can read cursive writing. How will they be able to sit somewhere, take notes, and who will be able to read them? Will it all be clandestinely taped??? I worry about the albatross…
ReplyDeleteMargo, last year my sister-in-law hosted a baby shower for her daughter-in-law, a lovely young professional woman with an important job with a bank. I gave her a gift card, and wrote a note inside. She sat there holding it, looking puzzled, and I was nonplussed at her reaction, until her best friend next to me said, "Taylor can't read cursive." What??? How has this 30-something navigated life without that skill?
DeleteHold on to your mass market paperbacks, gang! Their value will be increasing exponentially over the coming years. Paperbacks that once cost ten cents or a quarter at used books stores now command a high price in the collectible market. I don't see that trend diminishing in the future.
ReplyDeleteI read ebooks on airplanes and trains, but otherwise prefer trade paperbacks. As others have noted, MM print is too small. I read mostly hardback library books.
ReplyDeleteWhile mm books are a little too small for me now, I had quite the collection as a kid as our closest “bookstore” was our little pharmacy in town. I loved perusing that shelf and remember buying a copy of Star Wars one day when I was around 10. I treasured that book for many years. I love to read and collect hardcovers of favorite series, I find trader paperbacks to be the easiest to read (and my preference for size and packability). I do own and use a Kindle. It is great for traveling but I always back 2 paperbacks just in case…
ReplyDeleteThe only books I keep are trade paperbacks and hardbacks, signed by the author. Haven’t read a mmpb in eons. And even if I have a print book, chances are also own the e book. So much easier to hold and read when you’re an old #%¥£ like me!
ReplyDeleteI do subscribe to Kindle Unlimited for $10 — or is it $15 — a month. You’d be amazed how many brand new books are published there at first! And I read 12-15 a month, Now one can ever preorder with that subscription. I do pay full price now and then, but it’s a pittance compared to what I used to spend.
My only exception for authors I know. Yes, that means all of you here plus a good many more. I do pay full price then. Even if I’ve been sent an ARC. I want to support my friends in their endeavors.
If my Kindle addiction leads to the demise of print, I apologize. After all, Gutenberg pretty much led to the demise of hand copied and illustrated by monks parchment editions of things like the Book of Kells!
When we moved seven years ago I transferred my favorite books to new shelves in the living room, with fiction on one side of the fireplace, and nonfiction on the other. When I was organizing the various series I realized that the first one or two in many of the series are MMPB, and it was much more difficult to shelve every volume together. That was when I first noticed the dwindling numbers of PBs.
ReplyDeleteStrolling around our local indie bookstore, Joseph-Beth, it is striking that a couple categories of fiction are still mostly PBs: cozy mysteries, romance, and science fiction. But the endcaps show that trade paperback is almost exclusively used for the new books.
Because of a couple age-related issues I have gone more and more towards ebooks, and rarely pick up a real book any more. MMPBs, in particular, made my arthritic hands ache. My mom with macular degeneration, bless her heart, reads every day, ebooks with the font almost as big as it can get. And now that my husband has figured out how to get ebooks from the library, he is finally also using Libby on one of my old ereaders. He resisted for a decade, but I finally convinced him--he spends half the day reading his phone already. At least the ereader has less need for eye-squinting.
But I agree with Jay; it's a load of baloney to say trade paperbacks are less expensive. For whom?
I worked in a bookstore in the early-mid 90s. I remember a manager told me publishers wanted the price of trade over 9.99 and to do away with mm. Took them 30 years but RIP.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young, I used to buy mass market paperbacks because they were the cheapest. But now, I can't remember when I bought my last one. If I buy a book, it's never the hardback, sometimes the trade paperback, but most often the book on Kindle. Since I have the Kindle app on my iPad, for which I bought a standup keyboard, it's easy to read it while I'm eating (breakfast and lunch) and, of course, I can adjust the font size as my eyes keep aging, even with glasses.
ReplyDeleteI used to love reading a "real" book from the library and was excited when one of my holds showed up. I still use the library. But I find that at this point I get most of my books from NetGalley (the thrill of reading books before they are published!), all of which are ebooks. I read a lot--maybe 150 books a year (more during the pandemic)--and it remains a highlight of my free time, so I go for what is easiest for me to read. I won't miss mass market paperbacks!.
I'm just happy that I saved many of those paperbacks to pull from the shelves if the power goes out! Or, just because they are easy access. Hmm, after reading this I think that I will be purchasing a few before they all disappear! I haven't been to a library book sale long time( since covid), but if I hear of one happening locally, I'm heading in!
ReplyDeleteHave not used Kindle and never will. There's nothing like holding a real book, hardcover (preferred) or paperback. Love to browse used book stores (will there be used Kindle stores?). I have collected many books and to look at them on the shelf is so rewarding.
ReplyDeleteIn the olden days mass market paperbacks were extremely reasonable and I use to buy them infrequently but loved them as they were the ones available. I do miss them but now I buy trade paperbacks and hardcover which I add to my bookshelves. I love to display them.
ReplyDeleteEvery sort of opinion has been written ahead of mine, hmm, but anyway. I’m on the side of kindle (for the print size says the boomer) and on that the Kindle Unlimited. When on the hunt for a new author, I often find a new one there first. So, for free (monthly 12$ - lots of free books for so little a fee) I can see if I like their style of writing and their imagination. Then I can follow them onto the Pay section of Amazon. I’m finding a few of my favs also being published in KU and snap them up immediately as I follow them so am informed of their availability. They don’t usually stay on KU, tho, except for a few. Many people have expressed their sadness that I have to use an e-reader, but I’m not!. I can still read a book and enjoy it. Just purchased an almost no weight e-reader pillow that is most helpful for painful thumbs from holding anything for too long. Lovely addition. I still find enjoyment in reading the trade size and sale on hardbacks but at the end of the book, my hands hurt and my eyes … well that’s a whine for another day. I am saddened by the lack of reading in the youngers. Sad they haven’t been taught to read cursive. But, now cursive is our own secret language. Kind of like hieroglyphics for the still breathing.
ReplyDeleteI love the mass markets. They're smaller so I can fit more on my shelf, and cheaper so I can buy that many more. I was so disappointed these were getting phased out. I'll still buy my favorite series in the larger trade size but they are less portable. And unlike a lot of my generation I'm not much for reading ebooks. I sometimes get some from NetGalley or Libby but I'm just not a fan of reading on computers/phone. Plus it's too easy to get deleted and some cost just as much as the paperback. Personally I don't really want to spend money on something digital and "not real."
ReplyDeleteWill this affect the books of authors who have only been published in PB? There are a number of authors who have never achieved the ‘big time’ of hard cover versions. If they are not well enough known their publishing options may become more limited..
ReplyDeleteThe smaller pbs gave many new authors an opportunity to be introduced to readers who may not have wanted to invest in a more expensive version.
I also don’t see the cost savings in having a book that is larger and needs different shelving to accommodate them. Look at large print books. The print is larger which means there are at least twice as many pages and the books are a lot heavier to hold.
The idea of this being the new standard and irreversible…how about LP’s vs CDs.
The mass paperbacks were a regular sight in my house when I was growing up since the bookstores published them and they were lighter weight and easy to carry in your purse. Now I buy trade paperbacks and enjoy their size. They are my favorites to bring on a trip and travel with.
ReplyDelete