(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

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Is that a new trend? In general fiction, I can't recall a time when new authors weren't released in hardcover first, with paperbacks coming a year or two later once the publishers felt they'd captured all the hard-cover buyers they could.

[strigine.livejournal.com]

I mostly read sf/f, and there an author usually is released in mmpb for the first few books. It's a big deal when they finally get a hardcover release.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm only just noticing it, but it seems to be increasing to me, and the booksellers I was discussing it with yesterday seemed to concur. It might be that we're aware of more of the prepublication marketing now, with more of it happening online, and that that's contributing. But I'm used to first release being PB, either mass market or trade, for an unknown author's first book or three, and then they start getting HB releases if they're selling well. I can think of numerous examples, including some where the first books are now being released in HB, as the series has really taken off.

[strigine.livejournal.com]

Any particular examples of new-author-HB, just out of curiosity? I haven't noticed it myself, but I'm not super on top of the genre. (besides being more focused on finding ebooks, these days)

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Blake Charlton's _Spellwright_, came out this week. Paolo Bacigalupi's _The Wind-Up Girl_. (He had previously published some short stories, I think, but it was his first novel.) Ken Scholes, _Lamentation_. (Again, some published short fiction, enough for a small-press collection, but first novel.) Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin, _The Unincorporated Man_. Kristin Cashore, _Graceling_. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, _Beautiful Creatures_. Cindy Pon, _Silver Phoenix_. I'm sure there have been many more that didn't catch my interest enough for me to remember they were HC firsts.

[esprix.livejournal.com]

Wow, I hope that's not the case. I invest in so few hardbacks anymore, I'd never invest for an unknown quantity.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

It's certainly not universal, but it seems to be happening more often than it used to.

[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.

[allaboutm-e.livejournal.com]

I don't think it is happening more often, and can think of lots of mass market and trade paperback debuts. Plus, libraries traditionally have been more likely to buy hardcovers for collections. YMMV.

[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.

[jwoliver.livejournal.com]

A lot of the books you mentioned are YA, and a lot of YA is released in hardcover. Also YA hardcovers usually have a lower price point than adult.

As for the adult titles you list, Scholes won the Writer's of the Future Gold award, and I imagine that went a long way toward the publisher deciding to have him a 5 book deal from the get go and a lot of push. Bacigalupi's book was Nightshade's big push for the year, so I can see the reason to put it out in hardcover. The only one I questioned was Unincorporated Man. It was a risk. On the other hand, it probably get a bit of a push as well from the company's marketing department.

I believe that you are seeing more hardcovers. Part of it is to get these new releases up onto the tables with the other new releases and draw people back into the sections to check out the other titles. There's a stigma to walking back into a genre section, and if you can lure them with a bit of bait, then cool. Yeah, it sounds devious, but the publishers and all are running a business and trying to make a couple of bucks to rub together.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

A lot of the books you mentioned are YA

Well, 3 out of 7, and that was just a quick top-of-my-head list based on who I've read, seen at signings, or otherwise seen a lot of publicity for. The first 4 are adult market.

[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.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Well, you would certainly have a more accurate view of the field than I do. I've been under the perhaps-mistaken belief that even when the retail market got a PB, there was often a library-market HB available through specialty distributors.

What it comes down to is that I would have bought Spellwright yesterday if it were a PB, but I'm not willing to commit to the HB for an unknown author.

[allaboutm-e.livejournal.com]

I suspect it may just be a number of authors of interest to you have been released in hardcover lately? You know, like when you get a new car and all at once the road seems to be filled with the same cars?

Also, some publishers, including Tor, are also debuting some authors in simultaneous trade paperback and hardcover. But not for Blake's debut.

[jwoliver.livejournal.com]

Just a subjective definition of "a lot." I get your point though.

Another reason to put books out in hardcover is the various bookstores' bestseller lists. The hardcover list tends to to be the creme de la creme that gets preferential placing in store as well as media coverage. If you can break the top 10, it becomes a lot easier to sell an author. Of course, this is not likely happen to a first time authors, but you have to start somewhere.

[(Anonymous)]

I think what you're seeing is the gradual decline of the paperback.

Why release in HC? Easy: HC's carry higher prices, provide better margins, and have a longer shelf life.

And you can publish less copies of an HC and still make money. I heard stories not long back about mass market PBs with press runs of 15,000, which I found hard to believe. I'd think a more likely minimum number would be 50,000 or double that.

PBs have a tough hurdle to jump. On airport newsstands, for example, the average shelf life of a PB is about two weeks. If it doesn't sell in that period, it's removed to make room for a new release and stripped and returned for credit. It's not much better in larger outlets or actual bookstores, and most PBs don't get reordered unless they fly off the shelves.

There are an assortment of costs people don't think about in discussions like this, that are there regardless of the form in which the book is issued. There is a cost to acquire the rights to publish the book, in the form of an advance. There is the time of the editor who acquires the book, and the editor who does the line edits (which may not be the same person). There is copy editing and proofreading to get the manuscript into publishable condition, the cost of cover art and cover design, the cost of interior design, typesetting and markup, and a share of the allocated overhead of the publishing house that cannot be directly attributed to a particular book. All of these costs are incurred before the book is actually published, and will be the same regardless of whether the book is released in HB, PB, or ebook edition.

One question is what percentage of the total cost manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution is. One editor I know claims 10%, but I think he's low by a factor of at least two. Regardless, in the context of the total cost to publish a book, producing a hardcover isn't that much more expensive than producing a paperback. And as mentioned, they command higher prices, have better margins, have a longer shelf life, and you don't have to print and sell as many to make money on the book.

In addition, more people have the money and can buy hardcovers. Baen Books credits the "Baen Free Library" with driving their transition from a struggling mass market PB house to a thriving hardcover publisher with a 70% sell through rate. The Free Library promotes authors. People download one or more ebooks by an author from the Free Library, decide they like they like the author, and buy the author's new one in hardcover when it comes out. They don't wait for the PB. they want to read the book badly enough that they'll pay for a hardcover instead of waiting a year for the PB.

Baen is an SF/Fantasy specialty publisher, but I think they're not the only one trying to trade up. Paperbacks are a brutally competitive segment of the market where it's very hard to make money. No surprise more publishers are going HC for new books. If it tanks, they haven't lost that much more, and if it sells, they make a lot more money than on a corresponding PB.
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Dennis