Bring back paperbacks!

I don’t know if it’s just the Borders I go to or if it’s an industry wide phenomenon, but it seems that the paperbacks (i.e. smaller mass market size) are disappearing, and being replaced by trade paperbacks. This is especially annoying when I want to buy a classic or standard work of fiction, which is the first thing I’d expect to be in a convenient portable and inexpensive size. I often read when traveling, and prefer the smaller size, and even at home I have a large collection of books and need the extra space. I grew up with $2 books and even the mass markets are $8 now, I don’t see the point in having to pay $12-$17 without a hard cover unless it’s a large work like a reference or a book with pictures. Is this some sort of scam to eek out some extra cash from consumers or do trades really sell better?

My Borders has many, many, many more paperbacks than trades. My wife prefers trades to paperbacks and I find them hard to find. What I have found annoying is the new paperbacks that are coming out that are a couple of inches taller and thinner than traditional paperbacks.

The old standard paper back fit perfect in VHS tape cabinets. That was my cheap book storage for getting a lot in a small space. Once the books got above $3 I stopped buying them new and waited until they showed up in a used book store. Once the used book store sold them for $3 and up I stopped buying them and only borrowed.

A lot of the time, a trade paperback is essentially the hardcover book with a cheaper cover on it: the pages are the same. That means:
[ul]
[li]there’s no extra typesetting, print setup, etc. costs involved, unlike mass-market PBs[/li][li]the trade PB version can come out sooner than the MM one and help the publisher gauge the market for the mass version[/li][li]the type and margins are larger than in a mass-market paperback, which matters to some people; it’s a middle ground (in both physical quality and in price) between the HB and the MMPB.[/li][/ul]I like MMPBs best, too. I’m allergic to dust and finally invested in bookshelves with glass doors this year (I’ve been intending to get them since 1997). They’re from Ikea, so they’re pretty cheap as bookshelves go, but definitely not free. In figuring out how many of them I needed for my existing library, I realized that a “hidden cost” of every book I buy is how much shelf space it needs. I buy about 90% used books and those as cheaply as possible, so that shelf space turns out to be a significant proportion of the overall cost to me. These are my favorites ever in that respect.

What’s even worse is the price creep among mass-market paperbacks; Stephen King’s recent Duma Key mass-market paperback is $9.99.

I have noticed this trend, and have a theory that it follows the aging of the baby boomers (me being a tail end BB): our eyes are getting worse. Being that the baby boomers have been a formidable market presence since they became consumers, it follows that as their eyes have started to get worse (requiring reading glasses, bifocals, etc.), consumable print - books - have followed to make them more marketable.
I can still read old, smaller paperbacks without reading glasses, but I do confess to trades being easier to read. And have even started buying more hardbacks for the same reason (and because you can find them real cheap at library bookstores and swap meets).

Haha. Hahaha. I laugh at your ten dollar books.

Try $15 for a cheap-ass no-name author, $20-25 for a standard paperback and anywhere up to $30 for a trade paperback.*

I’ve found over here in Borders that trades are most often out for about the first couple of months, then once they’ve sold their initial run of trades they switch over to the smaller paperbacks. So if I’m patient enough (which is rare, given we’re chronically out of books to read in this house), I’ll wait for the smaller paperback to come out.
[ETA]* And this was back when the AUD was nearly at parity with the USD, so exchange rates had nothing to do with it.

I admit to preferring the trades as well. In my experience, they hold up so much better than the MMPBs.

When I was a child, The Hobbit in paperback cost $.65! Now there isn’t even a cent key on my computatation device to express that thought!

As soon as I discovered Quality Paperback Book Club, I shifted to trade paperbacks when possible. I much prefer the larger and, in my experience, more durable format.

I still recall the 25c paperback (around 1950). Then they became 35c and now they are 30 times that. There’s been a lot of inflation, but not by a factor of 30 or 40.

I think I paid like $5.00 for a hardback edition of On The Road; I paid less than that for My Confession in hardback, IIRC. I do remember the $0.25 and $0.35 paperbacks; that was one factor that got me into reading in a big way. Seems like yesterday and it has to be 45+ years ago.

I remember 25 years ago, looking at the back of paperbacks and seeing the price “RRP US$3.99” and thinking “I just paid $17 for this! What the hell???”

Likewise here. I also like the size/format difference, plus they’re more conveniently-sized for slipping into my bag for taking along on the train as reading material.

I prefer the trades as well. My aging boomer eyes appreciate the larger typeface and there is the “cool” factor to consider. :slight_smile:

I can remember paying $.25 and less for Scholastic books when I was a kid. Today they are $3 and $4 each! I was shocked when I saw a friend’s recent Scholastic order.

And the worst part is that I can’t even get a decent deal via Amazon anymore, because of shipping charges. So it might be a $10 book on Amazon, add 30% for the exchange rate, and then another $10 to ship it out out here, and it’s $23 and a 2-4 week wait for a book I can buy from my local Angus & Robertson for $25. :mad:

Don’t forget to figure in the extra cost of printing the books upside down :wink:

Hmm. I’ve had more trade paperbacks fall apart on me than mass market.

Have you tried Barnes & Noble.com? I don’t know what their shipping is like, but I know my mum swears by buying from them when she & her husband buy books. I don’t think she’s been to a book store in years…

Nah, there was a big push in the 90s for all school children to learn to read “Right Way Up”, so they don’t have to print 'em special for us any more :wink:

Barnes & Noble’s shipping fees are actually more expensive than Amazon, if that’s possible. B&N charge USD$7.49 shipping per order + USD$5.49 per book.

It does NOT cost USD$12.98 to ship a book to Australia via Standard Airmail. We’re just getting shafted, and it annoys me.

I use Fishpond.com.au who are about the same price as Amazon, but charge in Australian Dollars and do free shipping for orders over $50, which brings the price down a wee bit. I’ve been very pleased with them so far.

Fairy nuff. I never have used B&N, just repeating what mum said.

I’ll have a look at Fishpond, though. I don’t buy books from Amazon for the shipping cost reasons you’ve mentioned, so it’ll be nice to have another source for books.

Also if they charge in AUD, that’ll be more helpful. I’m sick of my bank having a shit fit and charging me fees for currency conversion when I buy O/S.