(no subject)

[nolly]

Dear Publishers:

What's with this hardcover debut for new authors trend? Hardcover pricing is a lot to risk on an unknown quantity. More than once, the pre-release publicity for a new author's first book has intrigued me, but when I find that the book is a hardcover, I pass. If you're lucky, by the time the softcover comes out, I remember and I'm still inteerested, but you've lost a year or so of potential buzz generation by then.

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

Ditto YA/MG, where a significant portion of the market is released in hc as a matter of course. I see pb releases most frequently in adult SF/fantasy/romance, I think.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I don't think that was true when I was a kid, though I do see it today, at least in genre. It seems silly, too; kids are less able to afford HBs than adults.

[janni.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, hardcovers are pretty much a requirement to get many books into libraries, where kids can read them for free, and they last longer their in hc too.

There's a couple kids' book writers who were working in the 80s in my critique group, and I believe their books routinely came out in hc first, and only in pb if they did well. The books did stay on the shelves longer overall, though, so those pbs may have been more noticeable.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

What I remember seeing was PBs in the bookstore/at the book fair and in the flyers-at-school book clubs, "library binding" hardbacks at the library, and sometimes a dustjacketless printed-cover hardback through order-from-home book clubs. It may simply be that my local store didn't carry YA in HB, or that I just didn't pay attention because I couldn't afford it, and now I don't remember it. Even now, though, I sometimes see separate ISBNs for library and retail bindings.

[janni.livejournal.com]

The book fairs are kind of their own thing, distribution-wise, and separate editions are often printed for them -- I've seen books come out in pb there before the publisher otherwise produces a pb edition.

I really think hc first isn't new in many genres -- I do remember more adult SF/fantasy books coming out in pb first a decade or two ago, and this is still the norm in romance. Don't know about mystery. But in YA/MG and picture books hc first has long been the norm for decades, and -- if my bookstore grazing is any indication -- in both literary and mainstream adult as well.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

HC first for established authors, sure, but I'm less used to seeing it for debut novels in the adult market. Maybe I just haven't been paying attention.