![]() And also for series where the books are already written-that way the books can come out cheaply and in quick succession. Overall, that’s probably a good thing, especially for debut authors. I predict that if sales keep going the way they are 9-hardcovers down paperbacks down a bit, steady or, in some cases, climbing-we’re going to see a lot more paperback originals. 8 Book sales are down across the board in the USA. When a hc costs close to twice what a pb costs people are less likely to buy them-especially in the middle of a recession. However, you’ll only earn out faster if the hardcover sells. In fact, I think this is the only solid argument for going with a hardcover. That’s a huge difference and a big incentive for both publisher and author to want hardcover. If your hc retails for $17, you’d only have to sell 11,764 hardcovers. If the advance was $20,000 you’d have sell more than 33,333 copies to earn out. ![]() ![]() ![]() Let me show you the maths: Say you have a $10 pb, that’s 60c per copy. So pbs are a smaller percentage of a smaller amount of money, which means on average you have to sell three times as many to earn out. How much more? An average royalty for hardcover is 10%, and for paperback 6%. In order for a paperback to be profitable it has to sell vastly more copies than a hardcover book. Which leads me to the second reason publishers like hardcovers: the profit margin is higher. Readers got hooked-at which point the evil publisher switched to hardcover. 7 At US$10 or less the first books in these highly addictive series were cheap, attractively packaged, and there was a less-than-a-year wait for the next book in the series, which was also a cheap paperback. Off the top of my head I can think of two series that got a massive kick in the pants because they were paperback debuts: Scott’s Uglies series and Naomi Novik’s Temeraire books. I suspect this partly because that’s how I feel- after all I’m a blogger who sometimes reviews YA-but mostly because I’ve seen it in action.ĭebuting in paperback can be an enormous start to a series or a career. They just care whether they like it or not. They don’t think they’ll be sullied by its mere presence. They are not going to refuse to review a paperback original because it’s not prestigious enough. The majority of bloggers don’t care whether a book debuts in hardcover or paperback. There are so many online reviews I’ve lost track of them all. I’m convinced that the word of mouth has especially been pushed along by all the blog coverage 5 While HTDYF didn’t get much old media coverage, it was extremely widely reviewed in new media places. What HTDYF has had more than any of my other books is a smart publicity and marketing campaign 4 that has generated plenty of word of mouth. 2 I suspect (hope!) that HTDYF will do better in paperback. HTDYF has already outsold MorM in hardcover even though it’s been out for five months and MorM‘s been out for four years. ![]() Magic or Madness won awards, was shortlisted for others, had starred reviews, and was very widely reviewed in old media places and made lots of best book of the year lists. It’s won no awards, nor been shortlisted for any, and has made precious few best book of the year lists. It had very few reviews in old media venues. How To Ditch Your Fairy is my best selling book. Whereas there are blogs, whose reviews I respect and trust, reviewing YA before the books are even out. 1 And partly because there is such a long lag time for reviews of YA in old media. Partly this is because the book review section has been disappearing from newspapers all over the USA, just as newspapers have been disappearing. I believe that fewer and fewer buyers of books are paying attention to what old media reviewers say. I’m not convinced this is as true as it once was or that prestige is as important as people think it is. A paperback original goes into the world unheralded and unreviewed and thus disappears into oblivion. Many good reviews can lead to awards, and best book of the year listings, and lots of sales. Thus the hardcover is more prestigious because it generates more attention. When I first asked about it I was told that paperback originals don’t get reviewed. But here in the US of A there’s a huge emphasis on hardcovers. Recently I observed that back home in Australia, the vast majority of books are published in paperback. ![]()
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