*crosses fingers for a USS Kelvin novel*
2011 Lineup
- Thread starter Man of Steel
- Start date
*crosses fingers for a USS Kelvin novel*
But if you notice, there hasn't been a hardcover Trek in quite some time.
I'll be getting a lot of these!
Honestly? I have the hunch that Pocket couldn't afford Peter David for an original mass-market (I recall John Ordover saying as much a decade ago when Restoration came out and New Frontier shifted to hardcovers), but the economics are different enough on trades that, even though the book would sell less in trade, they could pay him more.
Well, consider that a Trade Paperback is twice the retail price of a MMPB, but even if production costs were double (which I doubt) that still leaves a much larger profit for the publisher. I've read that even if the trade sells significantly fewer copies than a MMPB, it's still as profitable because of the different dynamics of that market (like, unsold copies are returned to the publisher, instead of being stripped and thrown away -- the publisher can then send them to another retailer or sell them as remainders.)
Then, some months later, the book is reprinted in MMPB, and they get a second opportunity to sell a bunch of units. Apparently MMPB sales are not significantly impacted by the prior Trade Paper sales.
Of course I noticed. TPBs have become more economical for the publishers. The trend towards TPBs was happening in the wider SF market long before ST went that way. ST TPBs have essentially replaced ST hardcovers.
Ian, some of this is nonsense.
The publishing trend toward trades has been driven by the bookstores. They prefer the format over mass markets. It's a bigger sale, and a higher profit margin. They also happen to be more economical for publishers than mass market paperbacks; while trades sell less than a mass-market, the higher profit margin still produces more profit to the publisher.
However, hardcovers are not less economical for publishers than trade paperbacks. If anything, the profit margins on hardcovers are higher, simply because of the price point. Giving up on the hardcover simply doesn't make any financial sense; yes, the lower price point of the trade means that more people are likely to buy it, but the greater profit margin of the hardcover as compared to the trade would produce a greater financial windfall. And, of course, their would be a second whack at the consumer with the mass-market a year-plus down the road.
Yes, trades have replaced the hardcovers in Pocket's fiction publishing portfolio for Star Trek. (One oddity with Pocket is the reprinting of trades in mass-market. That's abnormal.)
Marco, for whatever reason, wasn't interested in the hardcover format (he only commissioned one -- Unity).
Margaret was, outside of the Shatner books, responsible only for Death in Winter. (I believe that Resistance was also commissioned originally as a hardcover, but I'm not clear on why it changed to mass-market.) Margaret's other attempt at a hardcover, the Crucible omnibus, was scuttled.
All other Star Trek hardcovers since the mid-90s originated with John Ordover.
A dust-jacketed hardcover is a prestige format; it has a psychological impact upon the buyer that this book is important. Del Rey continues with their best-selling Star Wars hardcovers. BBC Books has launched a line of Doctor Who hardcovers.
I hope that, someday, Pocket will take another shot at the hardcover market.
It may be abnormal, but I have seen it other places; Baen and Del Rey have reprinted some of their omnibuses originally released in trades as mass-market volumes. Tor's also done this with their Halo novels.
Heck, Tor sometimes releases the trade paperback and the mass-market simultaneously. Different audiences, different markets, different distribution channels. And we'll often do a small hardcover run as well, just for the libraries.
It works. When we published the movie tie-in edition of I AM LEGEND (with Will Smith on the cover), the mm and tpb editions both hit the NYT Bestseller List at the same time.
Meanwhile, Ace is now releasing my DC comics novelizations, which were originally published as trades, in mass-market. "52" comes out in January.
It's not abnormal. It's actually pretty common.
I wondered why the copy of "Halo: Evolutions" I got from the library was hardback, but I only ever saw trades in the wild.
Not in my experience. All the Jasper Fforde books, all the Gregory Maguire books, recent Larry Niven books, the "Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" novelization, the Kenneth Johnson "V" sequel original novel and the reprint of the first AC Crispin mini-series (with new ending by Johnson), and many, many Australian novels, seem to be coming out as trades, followed about a year later by MMPBs.
Actually I will be picking up Raptors Wing purely so it will fit nicely next to Kobayashi Maru on my bookshelf.
Maybe I'll read it sometime too.
Always looking forward to more Vanguard and Voyager, DTI intrigues me.
Cast No Shadow I wouldn't have even looked at if it didn't feature Vaughn.
Maybe I'll read it sometime too.
Always looking forward to more Vanguard and Voyager, DTI intrigues me.
Cast No Shadow I wouldn't have even looked at if it didn't feature Vaughn.
Fine. I'll concede that my observations are wrong. Maybe I need to get out of the non-fiction sections of the bookstores, where books almost never reach mass-market.
I don't know about these mysterious recent Larry Niven trade paperbacks, though. Are you talking about the Niven/Ed Lerner Ringworld prequels, published by TOR in hardcover? Is Australia getting the shaft?
It's also perfectly normal in the UK market.
I agree. Hardcovers have a special feel to them, but trades don't really IMO and they're just more awkward to hold. I'd enjoy more Trek hardcovers, but I'm not missing the price tag.
Acid-free paper, so the book stays the same color over the years.
I'd probably have waited if I'd know it would be re-released. It is a somewhat "bulky" book for bedtime reading.
And trades take up more shelf space. Not to mention they don't look right next to a Trek MM. Uneven.
