Publishing Format
By Jerry D. Simmons | August 29th, 2006 | 1 Comment » (Click to add yours!)
With major trade publishers manuscripts are first published in hardcover because the major reviewers around the country will generally, not always, only review hardcover books. These folks seldom write a book review about any publication other than a hardcover. Of course not all books are published first as hardcovers, there are original trade paperbacks and original mass-market paperbacks, which means this is the first format in which they have been published as a book.
After a book is distributed in a hardcover edition, depending on the success or sales of that format, the next step is often as a trade paperback. This doesn’t mean all books go from hardcover to trade paper; some go straight to mass-market paper and skip the trade edition altogether. It depends on the category and whether the publisher feels a hardcover is better suited to trade or mass-market editions. It also depends on revenues and whether or not the company feels they can generate enough billing as a trade paper to delay the mass-market edition.
Fiction often lends itself to mass-market rather than trade paper. Of course, as is always the case in publishing, this is not a hard and fast rule. Many fiction titles go from hardcover to trade, but as a general rule, the market for a fiction title is much greater in a mass-market edition rather than a trade paper, or even hardcover, depending on the category. Some books will forever remain a hardcover and never manage to make it to trade or mass-market paper because sales indicated the book be put to rest. Unless the publisher is forced to recoup some investment in a title, if the hardcover edition fails miserably in the marketplace that usually spells the end. There will be no trade or mass-market paper for that book.
These are general rules and of course, as with all subjects relating to publishing, including book marketing, every book is different and that is why it’s important to know something about the marketplace and how it works.
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