Just received the first two books of my subscription. They look great. But I was wondering: Why trade paper instead of mass market?
Peace,
Lance
Thanks, Lance, and welcome aboard! The issue of trade paper versus mass market is simple economics—as it turns out, in order to make mass market books feasible, you have to print waaaay more (thousands and thousands) than would make sense for Planet Stories at this point. Fortunately, though, I actually prefer the trade paper size, as I think it lends a nice weight (both physical and psychological) to the novels.
(Got any Bradbury in the pipeline?)
Not as of yet, but he's certainly someone we'd be interested in if we could make it happen...
Other than the obvious size difference, what distinguishes trade paperback from mass market?
Other than the obvious size difference, what distinguishes trade paperback from mass market?
Price, paper quality, distribution methods.
Other than the obvious size difference, what distinguishes trade paperback from mass market?
Blue Tyson's right. In order to make mass market books profitable, you have to print a LOT of them.
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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The pages are bigger, so you can print more words in fewer pages.
Trade paperbacks also tend to be slightly more expensive, which makes it somewhat easier for publishers to break even on books.
But only somewhat, sad to say.
Lastly, it is more affordable to print trade paperbacks at smaller quantities, whereas you pretty much need to print 10,000 or more copies of a mass market paperback to get the per unit cost low enough to make them worthwhile and reasonably profitable.