It makes me feel more connected to the author. The sensory experience of reading is completely gone for me there. I do have to say though, I would buy the hardcover any day over an eBook that requires a portable reader such as Amazon’s Kindle. Some people aren’t as nice to their books as I am and I’ve gotten some back in terrible shape, either because the person is simply hard on their books or they have a small child with a crayon and set it down in the wrong spot, allowing said child access… If I remove the jacket to carry the book around, I’ve defeated the purpose). ![]() I can roll the pages a bit, thumb the edges of the page while I read, it’s easily transported and fits into my purse where a hardcover doesn’t, I have no book jacket to worry over tearing (because let’s face it, the book jacket is designed to keep the book itself pristine. One is of course, the expense, but another is that with the limited room I have, 2000 paperbacks take up much less space than their equivalent hardcovers. This is interesting and I didn’t fully understand how the decision is made but I have to say, I am not ordinarily a hardcover buyer, for several reasons. I know in my own experience, I’ve picked up books in each of these categories, and ended up putting them back down for a variety of aesthetic reasons that had nothing to do with price or size. I have to wonder how things like cover art and material quality (paper thickness, etc.) factor into this, as well. By examining recent history, this is not a nimble industry which makes it interesting for agents to navigate and thus why the BEA panel was so fascinating to attend. Publishing, traditionally, doesn’t work this way. I’m lobbying for a holistic approach to the question-rather than simply examining individual facets. If we are going to revolutionize the industry and move more to this format (which I’m certainly not opposed to), then let’s re-examine all the facets of it-including the marketing/pr, the print runs, the royalty structures, and gasp, even maybe the advances paid for works that will be pubbed in original trade pb. Now I think publishing is evolving because so much good new literary stuff is coming out in original trade pb and succeeding but yet, there are still these hesitations (as the failures loom greatly)-and for good reason. Forgo the higher price point and the stronger royalty percentages to satisfy reader desires (and if you do the math, authors earn less money with trade pb until the tipping point), or go for the hardcover, get more support and have a higher chance of earning out that advance (or the greater risk of failure if it doesn’t work). Do you go for hardcover with all the “prestige,” the marketing/pr backing and the reviews (but the higher price point-which lots of readers perceive as too high) or do you go for the trade pb? Right now there are still vestiges of reluctance to fully support an original trade pb in this realm. The trick is deciding about a debut in the literary realm. ![]() Lots of terrific women’s fiction and commercial mainstream projects are published as original trade pbs and work great. Trade paperback is the same size as a hardcover (for the most part) but simply has a soft cover rather than the hard (and a lower price point). An author can start in mass market and move “up” to trade or hardcover.įor those of you who are confused, mass market is the pocket size publication of a work. In fact, in these genres, it’s often a reverse process. Why? Because there are many genres where original trade or even mass market publication for a debut is widely acceptable and the issues of support really aren’t in question.įor example, publishing romance, thriller, and debuts in SF&F often happen in the mass market version without too many blinks of an eye. What’s playing on the iPod right now? ALL I WANT by Toad The Wet Sprocketīasically the conversation about whether to publish a debut in original trade pb versus hardcover relates to literary fiction or commercial literary fiction. I don’t think it’s actually possible to get ahead so a perpetual state of being behind is pretty much normal. ![]() Right now I’m just reading as I’m still a bit behind on client material and requested manuscripts.
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