Mass Market Paperbacks

[bdub76]

Which apps do you get access to? I use have accounts with three different libraries in my area, between the three of them I get access to Hoopla, Overdrive/Libby, and Cloud Library. Cloud Library has Strange New Worlds: Asylum and Toward the Night, and Hoopla has collections of the SNW comic miniseries The Illyrian Enigma, and The Scorpius Run, and the collected edition of Alien Spotlight, which features Pike in one of it's issues, the individual issues and collection of Spock: Reflections which features Pike in #2, the collection of Discovery: Aftermath, the collection and individual issues of Captains' Log, which had a Pike issue, and the audiobook versions of TOS: Enterprise: The First Adventure, and DISC: The Enterprise War.

I use libby, overdrive, hoopla, and kanopy.

When I said Christopher Pike, I meant the writer.

Christopher Pike (author) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I wanted to get Midnight Club and some of his other stories to read since like the series on Netflix. My library cares none of his books on eBook.

 

[JD]

Oh, I've never heard of him.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Oh, I've never heard of him.

Working in a bookstore when he "burst on the scene" his name gave me a chuckle.

 

[bdub76]

Working in a book stor when he "burst on the scene" his name gave me a chuckle.

R.L. Stine still has an ongoing disagreement with him since his books are far more adult but are marketed to kids.

 

[James Swallow]

It looks like these are going away next year.

Now, it does look like the market has shrunk considerably, but when I was kid in school, these were my go to. I'd only get paperbacks or hardcovers when I was buying at a used book store.

The price point for mass market paperbacks is really affordable.

I also see a lot of TV adaptations as mass market paperbacks. And there are books that have only ever been published as mass market paperbacks.

Any idea as to the impact? What books will disappear forever?

Last Call for Mass Market Paperbacks

After years of steady sales declines, the format will largely disappear next year.

www.publishersweekly.com

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In Europe, MMPBs still have a decent(ish) market share in certain genres. It'll be interesting to see if publishers on my side of the pond follow this trend, or don't.
One thing I've learned is, publishing is an idiosyncratic industry...

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I've said this before (probably on this very thread), but given that I don't actually need revenue from my own writings, if all routes to getting them into printed and bound hardcopy editions (other than subsidy publication under a known vanity imprint) fail, I'd rather just put them out as PDFs, under (most likey) a Creative Commons license, than trust the e-book industry with them, and trust it not to decide some day to suppress them.

 

[bdub76]

In Europe, MMPBs still have a decent(ish) market share in certain genres. It'll be interesting to see if publishers on my side of the pond follow this trend, or don't.
One thing I've learned is, publishing is an idiosyncratic industry...

I'm curious what's going to happen since I see more MMPBs in some genres than others.

Of course, book buying doesn't always equate to book reading, and we're seeing far more pretty books from traditional publishers.

I am curious what happens.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

It was on in the background while I'm at the front counter, but, the Today Show just ran a story on how bookstores made a comeback in 2025.

 

[mb22]

Oh, I've never heard of him.

Christopher Pike (author) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Real name Kevin Christopher McFadden.

 

[Greg Cox]

Pike was a big, bestselling deal back in the day. Tor Books published his first adult novels, as I recall.

And, yes, I always thought of "The Menagerie" whenever his name came up at sales conferences!

 

[ace2k]

This is more of a question towards the authors who post here: are MMPBs not cheaper to produce than the trade paperback?

 

[Greg Cox]

This is more of a question towards the authors who post here: are MMPBs not cheaper to produce than the trade paperback?

It was the huge print runs that made MMPBs cheaper to produce, back when you could count on shipping tens of thousands of copies to drugstores, newstands, supermarkets, army bases, convenience stores, airports, bus stations, etc. (I remember being told once that there was no point in publishing a book in mass-market unless you could reasonably count on selling at least twenty thousand copies.)

The higher the print run, the lower the unit cost.

But that mass market is going away, and the whole strip-and-return business model was grossly inefficient at the best of times . . . .

 

[Procutus]

But that mass market is going away, and the whole strip-and-return business model was grossly inefficient at the best of times . . . .

I was working at Waldenbooks when I first learned of how MMs were returned, and I cringed when my boss started ripping covers off.

The upside was, it resulted in a lot of free reading at a time when the Missus and I didn't have a lot of extra money.

 

[bdub76]

I was working at Waldenbooks when I first learned of how MMs were returned, and I cringed when my boss started ripping covers off.

The upside was, it resulted in a lot of free reading at a time when the Missus and I didn't have a lot of extra money.

Curious about the reason for ripping off the covers. I remember buying some coverless books as a kid at my local newspaper back when I had a paper route. Sometimes when I get Adobe Editions from the library they come across with no covers digitally. It's odd.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Curious about the reason for ripping off the covers. I remember buying some coverless books as a kid at my local newspaper back when I had a paper route. Sometimes when I get Adobe Editions from the library they come across with no covers digitally. It's odd.

I always assumed it was cheaper to send back the covers than entire books.

 

[Procutus]

^

That.

The cover's had the prices and you could return 200 covers for credit for less than what it would cost to physically package up and return the whole book by mail or UPS. It made sense, but as a person who tooks care of their books, hardcover or paperback, it took some getting used to.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I was working at Waldenbooks when I first learned of how MMs were returned, and I cringed when my boss started ripping covers off.

Yes. I'd cringe, too. The mere thought of destroying or vandalizing a book, even that book which I will not name in a public forum, almost makes me physically ill.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I remember working at the store and stripping ( as it was called) paperbacks with one of my associates. A lady walks up and is a bit taken aback. She says, "Why are you doing that, books are you friends!" My associate, who was stripping some Romance books. responded. "No, these books are not my friends" and then pointed to some SF books "those books are my friends."

 

[bdub76]

^

That.

The cover's had the prices and you could return 200 covers for credit for less than what it would cost to physically package up and return the whole book by mail or UPS. It made sense, but as a person who tooks care of their books, hardcover or paperback, it took some getting used to.

Odd that they would offer returns at all.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Odd that they would offer returns at all.

Why wouldn't they? Many manufacturers offer product returns from retailers. Usually for credit.