23. What is the difference between "mass-market" and "trade" paperbacks? Why do some books come out in trade paperback instead of the more affordable mass-market format? What about A, B, and C format in Britain?
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This article is from the rec.arts.sf.written FAQ, by Evelyn C. Leeper evelynleeper@geocities.com with numerous contributions by others.
23. What is the difference between "mass-market" and "trade" paperbacks? Why do some books come out in trade paperback instead of the more affordable mass-market format? What about A, B, and C format in Britain?
What is the difference between trade paperback and mass market: the
channels of distribution. Trade paperbacks do not piggyback on the
ID system of periodical distribution.
("ID distribution" is book publishing jargon for "that part of the
periodical-distribution industry that puts cheap paperback books into
non-bookstore outlets, like the wire racks at grocery stores." It has
nothing to do with bookstores.)
How does size relate: It doesn't. The reason that a number of trade
paperbacks are oversized is that they are manufactured from the actual
sheets printed for the hardcover edition, but bound in paper wrappers.
Does being strippable make a difference: Yes. All mass market books are
strippable. Any book that is distributed through both mass market and
direct channels is strippable. [Strippable means that the retailer needs
to return only the cover for full credit; the rest of the book is
destroyed.]
Books that are distributed -only- though trade channels, be they hardcover
or soft cover, are usually sold on the basis of whole copy returns.
[Provided by Beth Meacham [bam@azstarnet.com] and Patrick Nielsen Hayden
[pnh@panix.com].]
As for why (more expensive) trade paperbacks instead of (cheaper) mass
market paperbacks:
To publish a mass-market paperback successfully, you need to sell
10,000 copies of a 25,000 run to succeed--*and* you need to do this in a
six- to eight-week period. Trade paperbacks can sell fewer, but even
more to the point, they don't have a time limit, since they are not
stripped by bookstores after six weeks. [culled from panels at
Boskone and elsewhere]
And on the British side:
"A format" is the same as a US mass market size. "B format" is bigger,
sort of like an Orb book. "C format" is yuppieback, excuse me, trade
paperback, the size of a hardback but with a soft cover. Any of these
may be trade, same definition here as there, but "C format" always
are.
[The above was provided by Jo Walton [Jo@kenjo.demon.co.uk].]
And now some additional commentary from me:
In the United States we have three basic "formats" for books: hardback,
trade paperback, and mass-market paperback.
Hardbacks (a.k.a. hardcovers) have stiff board covers under some
covering, often with an additional dust jacket. This covering used to
be cloth, so these are supposed listed as "Cloth" in ads and such.
They cost US$20 and up (give or take). The size varies, but most
novels are about 16cm by 20cm (6in by 8in) by whatever thickness the
length requires. Coffee-table books are even larger ones, usually with
lots of artwork and designed to be put on coffee tables (or perhaps
made into them).
Trade paperbacks have very thick paper covers, and paper similar to
hardcovers (actually often better, since they don't usually have the
ragged edges one sees these days on hardbacks). They are usually about
the same size as hardbacks, sightly shorter because the binding is done
differently, and without the added thickness of the covers. They cost
in the US$10 to US$25 range (generally novels are in the lower part of
that range, non-fiction in the upper). One feature several people have
mentioned is that in general they have the larger font of the hardback,
making them easier to read. There are also some trade paperbacks that
look exactly like mass-market paperbacks, but usually with better
quality paper/covers. You can tell they are trade paperbacks because
the copyright page will have a notice that they are not strippable.
Mass-market paperbacks have very thick paper covers, but cheaper paper
et al than trade paperbacks. They are usually about 10cm by 18cm (4in
by 7in) by whatever thickness, but there are also "large-trim"
mass-market paperbacks that are the same size as the standard trade
paperback. They are usually in the US$5 to US$9 range, but the
large-trim ones cost more. They are "strippable"--that is, bookstores
can rip off the front cover and return just that for full credit. They
are supposed to destroy the rest--not all do, and so some publishers
have/still do(?) require that they return the cover and the first ten
pages. In general the quality is poorer than trade paperbacks, with
glue that may give over after a few years, etc. Nowadays most, if not
all, mass-market paperbacks have a notice on the copyright page that if
you are buying a coverless copy, it is stolen property.
And a new wrinkle: according to Elaine Y. Fisher (elainef@airmail.net)
a "turtleback" is one of those paperback-turned-hardbacks that one
often sees in libraries, usually with the paperback color cover
laminated onto the front. One is now seeing this term on used-book
websites.
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