Trade vs. Mass Market
10-01-02, 12:32 AM
#2
DVD Talk Hero
Size.
Mass market paperbacks are all of a uniform size: 4" x 7". They're the paperback books you buy in grocery stores and Wal-Marts. Star Trek novels, romance novels, some paperback originals.
Trade paperbacks are generally larger (though some, like Coupland's "Life Without God" are smaller, like a Gideon Bible). Generally printed on better paper (though some are on newsprint) and have sturdier binding. Examples of these would be the large-sized "Left Behind" paperbacks, all of Thomas Pyncon's paperback novels, and most of the "guide" books for TV shows and movies. They're also more expensive than mass market paperbacks.
Mass market paperbacks are all of a uniform size: 4" x 7". They're the paperback books you buy in grocery stores and Wal-Marts. Star Trek novels, romance novels, some paperback originals.
Trade paperbacks are generally larger (though some, like Coupland's "Life Without God" are smaller, like a Gideon Bible). Generally printed on better paper (though some are on newsprint) and have sturdier binding. Examples of these would be the large-sized "Left Behind" paperbacks, all of Thomas Pyncon's paperback novels, and most of the "guide" books for TV shows and movies. They're also more expensive than mass market paperbacks.
10-01-02, 07:07 PM
#4
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There's also a difference in the return policies.
Mass market paperbacks can be "stripped" for returns: if a bookstore orders 1,000 copies of Big Hit Novel and only 10 sell, then the owner can rip off the *covers only* of the remaining 900, trash the rest of the book, send them back to the publisher, and get a full refund for those 900 books.
If those 1000 books were trade paperbacks, they're treated like hardcovers: the whole book has to be shipped back in order for the bookstore to get its money back. Then the publisher can sell those books somewhere else.
Which is, in a nutshell, why you should never buy a "stripped book" in a used bookstore. The missing cover indicates that neither the publisher nor the author ever got any money for that book, whereas if you buy a used mass-market paperback with a cover, you can be assured that the author and publisher got their rightful money from the book's initial sale.
Mass market paperbacks can be "stripped" for returns: if a bookstore orders 1,000 copies of Big Hit Novel and only 10 sell, then the owner can rip off the *covers only* of the remaining 900, trash the rest of the book, send them back to the publisher, and get a full refund for those 900 books.
If those 1000 books were trade paperbacks, they're treated like hardcovers: the whole book has to be shipped back in order for the bookstore to get its money back. Then the publisher can sell those books somewhere else.
Which is, in a nutshell, why you should never buy a "stripped book" in a used bookstore. The missing cover indicates that neither the publisher nor the author ever got any money for that book, whereas if you buy a used mass-market paperback with a cover, you can be assured that the author and publisher got their rightful money from the book's initial sale.
10-07-02, 12:05 PM
#5
DVD Talk Reviewer Emeritus
Originally posted by ordway
Mass market paperbacks can be "stripped" for returns: if a bookstore orders 1,000 copies of Big Hit Novel and only 10 sell, then the owner can rip off the *covers only* of the remaining 900, trash the rest of the book, send them back to the publisher, and get a full refund for those 900 books.
Mass market paperbacks can be "stripped" for returns: if a bookstore orders 1,000 copies of Big Hit Novel and only 10 sell, then the owner can rip off the *covers only* of the remaining 900, trash the rest of the book, send them back to the publisher, and get a full refund for those 900 books.
