I really wanted to say something stronger. 
$18 for a paperback? That’s apparently in print? What the heck are these guys pulling?
Has paperback books really sky rocketed to these prices? :eek: 
This is insane. No way in hell well I pay that much. I just ordered a used $2 copy of this book.
Has anyone seen other paperback books this expensive?
Given that a new hardcover of the same book is $10, that’s got to be a mistake.
… but you only need to sell one.
Or, they might not have any copies on hand, and expect to be able to purcahse one at a more reasonable price to send to anyone who buys from them. They might not get many sales, but with no investment in inventory they could list hundred of items.
That book doesn’t appear to be in print. A look at the publisher’s website confirms that.
That’s a new book (i.e., previously unsold) being sold by various book dealers on Amazon. Amazon sells it for the highest price, probably because they’ll just buy from one of the dealers and mark it up. Most likely, they’re selling to collectors, not readers.
Paperbacks are getting pretty outrageous. $8 or $9 is getting common.
I thought $18 had to be a mistake.
Or more likely, RealityChuck is right that Amazon is selling an out of print “new” book at a premium. It’s confusing because Amazon listed it like any other “in print” book.
Either way, a used copy is easily found for under $3.
Some publishers have moved to making paperbacks taller and thinner and charging outrageous prices for them. I’m a big Nora Roberts fan and her latest books (a series of 4) were printed this way and are $16 new. I wrote the publisher and asked why they did this and they said it is because the books are much more durable and last longer in this new style. Well, nuts to that! I want my $8 standard paperback! I will just wait and buy them used for $1.50 or new for $8 once they have been out for a year and hit the discount shelves now.
Those are trade paperbacks and they’ve been around for a couple of decades. Publishers and booksellers like them because they make more money on them, and the standard mass market paperback has been slowly phasing out for years. Readers like them because they are more durable.
I buy a lot of paperbacks from a local used store. A lot of the ones printed in the 1970’s have $1.75 original prices printed on the book covers. 1980’s paperbacks were under $4. They got up to $6 in the 1990’s.
Even $8 makes me a little ill for a paperback that will be read in 3 hours.
According to this inflation calculator, simply due to inflation, a book which cost $1.50 in 1972 would have cost $7.61 in 2009.
SOME readers like them. I haven’t found them to be noticeably more durable than mass market paperbacks. I HAVE found them to be more expensive and more unwieldy than MMPBs. At any given time, I have at least three paperbacks in my purse, and the extra size and weight does add up. I vastly prefer regular MMPBs, assuming that they’re made properly.
Trade PBs are just a method of phasing out MMPBs, IMO. I almost never buy trade PBs or HBs, not just because of the cost (though that’s a factor) but because of the space issue.
In fact, they are not. They are the same cheap shit covers and cheap shit paper that regular paperbacks have been for the last couple of decades. They don’t travel as well in a suitcase, and they don’t at all fit in a pocket. Publishers just think they can charge $5-8 more for them.
Quite frankly, they’re wrong. I’m working on rebuilding various new and old collections, and if I have to choose between a Ian Rankin paperback for 6.95 and a P. D. James trade for 12.00, which one am I going to buy?
As always, this comes with an exception. The University of Chicago Press is reprinting all of Richard Stark’s Parker novels in trade format for 14 bucks a shot. Grab 'em.
I buy a lot of trade paperbacks. (I read a lot of history which rarely comes out in mass market paperbacks.) So I’ve paid over ten dollars for paperbacks. Coincidentally, the cover price on a book I bought last week was $18.00 (but I only paid $9.00).
No they are not trade paperbacks, unless I don’t understand the definition (entirely possible). Trade PB’s are 5" x 7.75" and printed on better paper with better covers. The Nora Roberts type are 4 1/8" x 7.75" and have the the same covers and paper as regular MMPB’s but they cost several dollars more, bleh.
I love Christopher Moore, but hate that all of his books are trades, blech.
It’s not just the price difference; it’s also quite unwieldy to read with one hand.
I’m going to need to get a podium to hold the damn things if my wrists get any weaker from twisting and turning and tweaking the big-sized books.
Well, technically, “trade paperback” has nothing to do with the size, but rather returnability. A trade paperback is treated like a hardcover – it’s sent back to the publisher if the bookseller can’t sell it. The publisher can send it to another store or remainder it.
A mass market paperback has the front cover torn off (traditionally, but I suspect now it’s the back cover, since that has the bar code) and the rest is pulped (aka recycled).
There are trade paperbacks of mass market size, though they used to be pretty unusual (I seem to recall the Dragonlance books were mass-market-sized trades). I would expect that the Nora Roberts type are trade paperbacks, too.
In general, books are published in hardcover, then trade paperback then, if sales warrant it, in mass market. The markup for mass market is so low that the category is dying out.
As for being more durable – trade paperbacks are printed on acid-free paper, like hardcovers. Mass market paperbacks are not. Trades will thus last longer.
I’m 99% sure that the Nora Roberts books are not trade paperbacks. The paper feels exactly like MMPBs not like the trades I have. Next time you go to the supermarket pick one up and check it out.
This is going to drive me crazy, because I can’t think of the what the marketing name for them is.
However, in recent years a new type of mass-market paperback has appeared. It’s usually 7.4 x 4.3 inches and lists for $9.99, while standard mass market is 6.6 X 4.1 inches and lists for $7.99. (Both sizes and prices may vary, but that’s what I’ve seen.) Nora Roberts does have some books at 7.7 x 5, but oddly there was no list price on the cover.
Only the highest end of bestsellers are marketed this way, for no reason other than to gouge two extra bucks out of the fans who have to buy the books as they as they hit the supermarket racks.
There really is a special name for these, and it’s going to turn out to be something basic, like super-sized paperbacks, but I’ve searched and can’t find it.
The last time I flew, I stopped in the airport bookstore and decided to buy a copy of The Great Gatsby. I think it was $16.95. I was appalled. I checked more books…all in the 14-18 dollar range. I finally found something for around $8 that I wanted to buy, and got that. I figured it was just airport prices…though the prices were printed on the covers, not stickered. So when I got home, I went to Borders…same really high prices.
My own personal name for them is British paperbacks. Obviously this isn’t the real name for them but I based it on the fact that up until recently the only books I’d see that were published in that size were from the UK.
That’s nothing - here’s a used paperback that costs $700…
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=575311&highlight=paperback+mystery