Waiting For the Paperback? Good Luck. 41
U.S. publishers are increasingly abandoning paperback editions of nonfiction books, eliminating a traditional second chance for authors to reach readers with lower-priced versions of their work. New adult nonfiction paperback titles plummeted 42% between 2019 and 2024 [non-paywalled source] to under 40,000, while hardcover titles fell just 9% during the same period, according to Bowker Books in Print.
"It's profoundly demoralizing that a book that might have taken four years to write and was published with such promise is done after five months," Dan Conaway, a senior literary agent with Writers House, told WSJ. The shift reflects changing consumer habits, the rise of digital formats, and market realities where Amazon sometimes prices hardcovers below paperbacks. Barnes & Noble now promotes just one nonfiction paperback monthly.
"It's profoundly demoralizing that a book that might have taken four years to write and was published with such promise is done after five months," Dan Conaway, a senior literary agent with Writers House, told WSJ. The shift reflects changing consumer habits, the rise of digital formats, and market realities where Amazon sometimes prices hardcovers below paperbacks. Barnes & Noble now promotes just one nonfiction paperback monthly.
Unlimited (Score:1)
I wait until in comes out on Kindle Unlimited, then borrow it for free.
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I get it from my local library - on Kindle, for free.
Kindle prices are inflated though, at least after the first few months. Really, digital formats should be filling/replacing the traditional "paperback" role.
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Anecdotally, the US publishing industry leaks like a sieve. A friend published a textbook. It was never sold as an e-book, but within six weeks of release, a bit-perfect copy of the PDF that went from the publisher to the printer appeared at LibGen. Really bit perfect: all of the high-res images for the covers, the font files for the obscure fonts she chose, and so forth were included.
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If I really like the work, I buy it anyway. If the author can’t pay rent, there’s a little chance you’re going to see a sequel.
Re: Unlimited (Score:2)
Unlimited is chatGPT? "There does not exist a paperback of this movie. Please create one. Use other paperback to movie comparisons and make the paperback a more rich story with more background information that was not able to be fit into the movie."
Really? (Score:1)
Re:Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
Considering I've only ever heard of one of those three, and O'Reilly isn't exactly a world power publisher, I'd guess they really don't represent overall market trends.
Niche markets have always existed, and always will. But they only pay the rent for a handful of people.
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FWIW I think Manning is superior to O'Reilly in pretty much every way these days. They have some great authors and the physical quality of the books is drastically better than O'Reilly, who seems to have made it their singular goal to create the shittiest quality books possible. The paper, the binding, and the printing are utterly unacceptable, especially considering the price they're charging.
Plus, Manning gives you a free PDF version of any physical book you buy. That alone wins them my business, and t
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O'Reilly certainly prices their books like hardcovers.
(Can't say I've bought one in 10-15 years though)
Re: Really? (Score:3)
Re: Really? (Score:3)
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I even used to meet my weed dealer there. Damn I miss the 90s.
Best era for comedy and music that is still trending today. Everyone misses the 90's even if they weren't there.
"Waiting for my money?" (Score:2)
Waiting For the Paperback? Good Luck.
Waiting for my money? Good luck.
Age (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Age (Score:4, Funny)
If only there was some technology that allowed people to easily scale the size of text larger and smaller at will. Too bad. Such a thing is clearly impossible.
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I used to visit a book club forum I stopped visiting because it became apparent to me no one there was actually interesting in fiction or discussing it and they were mostly talking about the concept of reading that fiction and treating it as their image and most swore by hardcopy while I heavily favor reading on my phone, a foldable, because it's more convenient, customizable, and allows one to carry a limitless amount of fiction on one's person at all time.
They were constantly taking pictures of new arriva
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He's confused. Large print is a distinct market segment.
> If only there was some technology that allowed people to easily scale the size of text
Yeah, but a large percentage of the people who need large print at this point, are too old to be comfortable with recent technologies. Bear in mind, infants are really good at learning but don't know anything, and then as they get older those tables slowly get turned around. Elderly p
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The weight of an e-reader like Kindle is much easier on these old joints than a heavy hardback or holding a paperback's pages open. A kindle holder makes it even less work. A book a day keeps the mind active.
But the younger generation not reading much at all other than tag lines and short pithy comments certainly doesn't help any. Their attention span doesn't even reach to full length videos very often.
Re:Age (Score:4, Informative)
And this is the biggest, most useful, aspect of E-readers. The ability to adjust the font size. What may be fine during the day might be a little too small in the evening right before bed or maybe smaller font requires you to wear readers, wear a little bit bigger font you can read with your regular eyes. This again makes it easier to read in bed so that you do not have to worry about falling asleep with glasses on.
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And this is the biggest, most useful, aspect of E-readers. The ability to adjust the font size.
I think different people get different things out of eReaders. I mean, yeah, being able to adjust font sizes is useful/nice for me, I won’t deny. Then again the ability to take multiple books with me on trips is also super nice. Having my books on my phone as well so if I end up running an unexpected errand I have something to read is super super nice. Getting to the end of a book and buying the next one is a major game changer.
I’m old. I remember when getting to the end of the book ment
Re: Age (Score:2)
Most popular books have (or used to have) three editions. Hardcover, big soft-cover, little soft-cover. I'm not sure which of those is called "trade paperback" so I didn't use the term :)
The bigger paperbacks have the larger print, and a middle price.
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What you called big soft-cover are likely trade paperbacks. The small ones are generally the mass market releases.
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Those older generations eyesight is beginning to fail and they find that the larger print in full size, hardcover books is easier to read than the smaller print of paperbacks, even before they need glasses. Also the older generations are more likely to be able to afford hard cover books.
At my age, I can't read print even in hardcover form. It's all e-books for me now.
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The hardback market has, for about a century now, mostly been driven by collectors (people who, for various reasons, want to keep the book long term) and to some extent libraries (who want to be able to lend the same copy to at least a couple dozen people over the course of several years).
People who just want to read the book once, used to either borrow it, or get the paperback. Now they mostly either borrow it, or buy or rent an el
Bad News (Score:5, Insightful)
I prefer paperbacks just because they're more compact, so this kind of sucks, but then again I'm more likely to shop at used book stores than anywhere else.
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If you want to keep it long term and refer back to it from time to time (reference), or keep it on your shelf for appearances (display), or even keep it to read again every year or two (favorite book), the hardback starts to make more sense.
Books intended for young children, are a whole separate category, with their own set of considerations. Paperbacks never really caught on there in the first place, for practi
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The trade market paperbacks are hardly any more compact than the hardbacks, and the binding is a LOT worse.
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I'd unilaterally prefer a mass-market paperback to a trade paperback, to be honest. I want to hold it comfortably in my hand. After all, I'm likely only going to read it once, then keep it for reference.
They can last forever, if you take care of them. I just finished "The Gods Themselves" by Isaac Asimov, a 50-year-old mass market paperback I picked up at a thrift store, and it's still in very good condition. Smells amazing too. I'm sure they don't make them like the used to, though.
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Most all of my old paperbacks (mass market) have become almost unreadable from the browning of the acid paper. My old hardbound textbooks (60+ years) are still in good shape. I would say great shape, but they weren't in that condition when I bought them used for class, sometime fourth or fifth hand, Current paperbacks are usually of such low quality, that I don't bother with them, and the hardbound books aren't a whole lot better. Although it has some drawbacks, I do love my Kobo reader.
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Really, do you store them outside? I have lots of paperbacks from the 90s and early 2000s that are yellowed but perfectly readable.
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Does it matter? (Score:3)
E-books are often linked to Print On Demand services, so if readers want a physical copy they can get one.
What this really means is no impulse purchases from bookstore shelves, because there won't be a 'display model' there to see while browsing.
Re: Does it matter? (Score:1)
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No, I didn't, but I'm going to look for it now.
I've been looking for a Canadian publisher, but it's tough to beat Amazon's reach, easy of publishing, and royalty rates.
Re: Nonfiction is not what you think it is (Score:2)
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It is, however, certainly not the only non-fiction that is published, and not everyone runs in those circles.
Usually it's the hardcover that's the bargain (Score:2)
Usually it's the hardcover that's the bargain while they are still on the New York Times Bestseller List.
Then, a year later, the paperback would come out and cost a few dollars more than the book cost as a hardcover just one year before.
I guess the Kindle and Nook have changed everything.