I was browsing in Borders yesterday and noticed Stephen King's "Wolves of Calla" new in paperback. But it looked funny -- it was the width of a regular paperback, but with the height of a hardcover.



I didn't think much of it -- King has been known to try funny/unusual stuff with his releases. Then I saw another new release (some mystery -- I forget the title) with the same format. I don't get this packaging. These suckers are just going to be a pain in the ass to store. They're too tall to fit on your PB shelves, but put them with the HC and trades and they're so narrow that you won't be able to see title on the spine when in a row with other books. Plus, it just looks unwieldy. For centuries, we've had books that had a certain set proportion. Why start fiddling with that now? I know its a minor issue, but I couldn't help wonder "What are they thinking?"

I noticed this as well when I saw this at the drugstore the other day. Looks odd for sure.

It's something various publishers have been test marketing for quite a while. Only on select titles at this point. Note the cover price is also $2 higher than a traditional mass market pb.

I've been getting these for a while now from Simon & Schuster. They're not as tall as the standard hardcover, but they're bigger than a typical mass market pb. The main selling point, as I understand it, is the larger size of the type. The thinking is, as the average age of readers increases (most books are bought by older people), the larger font will be more popular with the hard-of-seeing.

I think they're doing them so they can jack the price up by a couple of dollars.

If they're taller, wouldn't they be slightly thinner as well? My guess is that sellers can now cram more copies on their shelves.

Although they're taller, they also have bigger type. So they should be approximately the same number of pages. Considering that the type in many paperbacks is rather small, this might prove an improvement for some readers. (I've got a few of them, although I haven't read 'em. The type does look easier on the eyes, though.)

I'm a fan of the newer large-format paperbacks. I don't think I could ever go back to the small paperback format that was so ubiquitous ten to twenty years ago.

noticed that when i picked up Wolves Of Calla..i prefer paperbacks for a reason..size..if its not broke dont fix i say

The publishers thank you. Trade paperbacks cost the same to produce as mass-market, yet they can mark them up 50-100%.

What's your source on this?

BINGO!!!

We have a winner.

I'm in a MLS (master of library science) program and we had a guest speaker who works for a very famous publisher who gave us lots of interesting information like this.