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Join NOW!The goal of the paperback is therefore to reposition a book, capture a wider audience, or target a new market. We give books a second chance. In an essay at Lit Hub, Linda Huang, a graphic designer at Vintage & Anchor Books, talks about the differences between hardcovers and paperbacks, and her process for designing the […]
...moreOver at Jezebel, Kelly Faircloth shares a fantastic long form piece on the rise of the Harlequin romance novel, and how the brand became synonymous with a wildly lucrative if critically dismissed genre. From the original formula for woman-centered, alpha-male page turners to Harlequin’s relentless advertising tactics to the question of exactly how much sex […]
...more“Gutenberg may have invented the movable-type printing press,” but the father of the paperback is a different man: Aldus Manutius. As reported in the New York Times, an exhibition opened at the Grolier Club in Manhattan this week to commemorate the 500th year anniversary of his death.
...moreEven after spending so much time, effort and money on getting the dust jacket just right, most publishers go back to the drawing board to design the paperback version. That always seems to me like a waste of hard-won brand awareness, but I’m told most books don’t sell well enough to establish any brand awareness… […]
...moreFor the New Yorker, Louis Menand explores how the 1939 launch of Pocket Books “transformed the culture of reading.” The mass-market paperback line was one of the first to be sold at newsstands, a method of distribution that made pulp novels available to those without access to bookstores.
...moreWith America gripped by the Great Depression, booksellers found that $2.75 put hardcover books out of reach for most readers. (A movie ticket then cost just 20 cents.) In 1939, with a full-page ad in the New York Times and ten titles, Robert de Graff changed the industry with the introduction of 25-cent paperback books. […]
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Like that whiskey bottle, a compelling package can make you want things you don’t.
...more“Why are they still bothering with paperbacks?” This came from a coffee-shop acquaintance when he heard my book was soon to come out in paperback, nine months after its hardcover release. “Anyone who wants it half price already bought it on ebook, or Amazon.” At The Millions, Nicole Bernier writes about the point of the paperback. […]
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