Pyr Readies Release of Mass Market Volumes
Pyr, an imprint of Prometheus Books, who until now has been publishing books in hardback and trade paperback formats, will soon publish several of their titles in mass market format.
Here’s the kicker: rather than the standard “pocket” size mass-market paperbacks, they will be publishing the taller “premium” mmpb format.
From their press release:
Pyr, a science fiction and fantasy imprint of Prometheus Books, will publish Crossover: A Cassandra Kresnov Novel in the premium mass market paperback format, with dimensions of 4-1/8 inches x 7-3/8 inches and priced at $9.98. Premium mass market paperbacks are taller than the traditional premium mass market size, allowing for improved readability and cover image area. Crossover, by Australian author Joel Shepherd, was previously published in trade paperback in August 2006.The Cassandra Kresnov novels Breakaway and Killswitch will follow at the same price and format, to be published in June and July 2009 respectively.
This format is not new; I personally first stumbled across it two years ago and learned through Andrew Wheeler that they are sometimes referred to as “upperbacks”. Pyr’s decision to do this is a good one, I think, because:
- To my knowledge, this taller format mmpb has been reserved for mystery and romance books. Pyr is leading the way here by becoming the first sf/f publisher to produce books in this format.
- The new format will give them a little more visibility when placed next to other books. This is good because Pyr publishes some high-quality stuff that deserves more attention.
- Some folks are only interested in mass-market formats, which means Pyr has had limited reach with them.
What will also help get these books noticed are those damn sexy covers.
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The covers are very nice. I’ve also seen this “upperback” format used for technothriller.
Me, I don’t like the new format. It makes it harder to store/shelve with other paperbacks. I feel like they’re wasting resources/increasing the price (or expense, if you prefer) with the new format (which adds little, if anything, to the reading experience).
And…to be honest, I’m cutting way back on paperbacks to begin with. I’d rather spend the equivalent amount on a DRM-free, multi-format eBook. It has gotten to the point where if I’m not familiar with the author and I can’t buy a eBook, I don’t bother with the paperback. Or, if it is a series and has been kind of “bleh” in quality, I won’t buy the paperback if there’s no eBook.
Funny thing…a couple of years ago I read articles about how the paperback market was dead, had imploded, was going supernova…but people keep pumping them out.
For a while there, I though Pyr was going out of business since they hadn’t updated their online catalog.
A message to all publishers out there thinking about this format — I WILL NOT BUY IT !!
It doesn’t fit in the bookstore shelves, either, so any copy you find is beat to hell. It doesn’t fit on my shelves at home, so I have no place to store it, except on a special “misfit books” shelf. It takes aup just about as much space as a hardback, so I might as well buy a used hardback.
This is a dumb format. Please kill it.
I don’t like them either. They are awkward to hold and they think they are cool.
I admit, I am perplexed at the comments about size. Awkward to hold? They get beat-up on store shelves? A traditional mass market paperback is 4-1/8 x 6-3/4. The premium mass market is the same width but 5/8 of an inch taller. That’s it. In fact, both sizes fit on the same mass market “spinners” in stores that use them for display. How does that tiny bit of extra height make the book awkward to hold or unwieldy? They “take up just about as much space as a hardback”? Not really. A hardcover is 6 x 9 inches–in both width and height, there’s a greater difference between hardcover and mass market format than there is between the two mass market sizes.
The point that’s getting lost in this odd parsing of how 5/8 of an inch impacts shelving and holding is that Pyr is now offering a format with a lower price point–something to be appreciated in this economy. We are offering readers the opportunity to sample a new book for 9.98 rather than 15.98. We could have opted to stay out of the mass market format completely–it’s a big investment to make as an independent publisher with a boutique imprint.
As Lou Anders noted at http://pyrsf.blogspot.com “As a publisher who has never done mass market before, it’s actually a price drop for us of about $5 to $15.98 off our trade paperbacks and hardcovers. The parent company is an independently-owned mid-sized publisher (a rarity these days), not a big multinational conglomerate, so getting into mass market is a risky move. Mass markets have an incredibly low profit margin and an incredibly high rate of return – stores take them in great quantities and return them in same. And unlike trades, where you get the whole book back and can resell it, mass’s are torn up. So one bad move can really hurt a smaller publisher. The premium format gives us a little more margin of safety while taking this (big for us) step. It also allows us to continue to showcase the great artwork that we’ve been known for, and – as SFSignal points out – that extra [5/8 of an inch] will help our books stand out while allowing them to fit into the mmpb racks in stores, getting them more shelf exposure as they do so.”
Jill Maxick
Prometheus Books
The last Sword of Truth novel has been released in this format, IIRC, so these won’t be the first SF&F titles.
At the independent bookstore where I work part-time (to support my book habit), we do not use mmpb racks. We use bookcases. Space is limited, so in order to stock as wide a variety of SF&F as I can, I have adjusted the shelves so that I can get the maximum number of mass market books on the bookcases. That “negligible” 5/8″ is a major stumbling block. In order to shelve such books with other mass market books I will not be able to stock 1 full shelf of books (probably 40 books) per bookcase. I will probably have to stock such books on the half of a bookcase where I shelve the hard covers and trade paperbacks.
Hard cover books and trade paperbacks do not sell as well as mmpbs, so I can sympathize with Pyr’s desire to attract the mmpb buying market; I just wish it were with the regular size mmpb. The few larger size that I’ve played with didn’t seem to be as easy to hold open with one hand, not to mention what it would do my shelving at home.
Tanya