The biggest thing, and actually the reason this post is coming into existence, is the dirty tricks publishers are now using to get our money. This has affected me directly as I've been reading the Codex Alera (very good by the way) series by Jim Butcher. Everyone knows that, in general, there are three types of printing sizes Mass Market (MM), Quality Paperback (QP), and Hardcover (CL)*. And generally the prices are as follows: MM $7.99, QP $14.99, and CL $24.99. There's some fluctuation depending on the genre as well as amount of pages--like Stephen Kings newest book Under the Dome which is retail $35.00 because it's a monster of a book--but on average that's about the price rundown. These prices are based on two factors: the materials used to print the book, essentially the MM's are cheaper because they're lower quality than that of the QP and CL, the other determinant factor is their size. MM's are 7 inches long by 4.5 inches wide; QP's are 8.3 inches long by 5.5 inches wide; and CL's are 9.3 inches long by 6.5 inches wide. Why have I told you all this random information? Well, my friends, it's because the publishing companies have decided to create another size, call it Mass Market, and charge two dollars more for it. Yes indeed, that's now $9.99 for your favorite books! That may not seem like much, but this new MM is 7.3 inches long and 4.5 inches wide and yet is still made from the same material as normal Mass Markets.
As you can see your two dollars goes to great use! If I'm going to pay more money I want better quality, not a larger size! The other thing that's retarded about this whole situation is the fact that these aren't meant to be in that larger size, so what do they do? They just change the spacing and the margins! A pretty dirty thing to do if you ask me. Most QP's actually have normal size fonts and spacings and so the book actually looks good, in these crappy things it annoys the hell out of you while you're reading because of all the extra room on the sides and between the lines! Lastly, but actually really important, is it completely destroys the look of your bookshelf. Sure maybe I have just a bit of OCD in me when it comes to books, but I like to have all the same editions otherwise it just irks me every time I look at my shelf. Yes that means if I buy a series starting with a hardcover I need to own the rest in hardcover. Even still, I don't know if this is Jim Butchers fault or if it was the publisher company who did this, but book number 5 is in this fucked up format.. why in gods name would you change the format of a SERIES on book FIVE?! At least they should offer up a normal sized MM for people like me, oh wait they can't BECAUSE NO ONE WILL BUY THE BIGGER ONE!
I haven't really written a ranty type blog in a while, it felt good. This one was particularly needed because of my recent reading of the Codex Alera books, but it has also been something that's always bugged me, especially about "popular fiction". It seems as though these publishers are doing this mainly with mystery/suspense books as well as sci-fi fantasy, which is even more sad because those are the ones I read more often! It also sucks because of the fact that generally popular fiction stuff like that are the only ones to go into MM, so if you just buy sci-fi/fantasy or mystery/suspense then you probably have a pretty sexy looking bookshelf, until now. I think perhaps I might send an emial or message to Jim Butcher, obviously a little less angry sounding, and ask if he knows whats up. Sometimes authors are as much of nerds about books as I am, maybe he has the same feeling, or he'll know if it'll ever come out as a true MM.
Anyway, two blogs in one day is pretty good for me, especially after so long without posting. I know I told everyone I was gonna do another Ry Recommends, it is coming, eventually, maybe I'll start throwing together a list of books to use. Ta ta for now.
*CL stands for Cloth which is what hardcover books were generally made from way back in the day. At least at borders they haven't bothered to change it to HC, but I've seen it done.
3 comments:
The price of hardcovers and trade paperbacks has increased in the last few years. Its largely due to increases in paper costs. I suspect the same is true about mass markets, and the size increase is to make the price increase not seem as big a deal. Honestly Im more annoyed by the size difference than the price increase. I would have rather eaten the $2 per book and been told honestly that its a price increase than the seemingly sneaky method of tricking me into thinking its due to book size.
I agree, honestly the 2 bucks isn't a big deal to me, but I HATE the way it looks on my shelf. I contacted Jim Butcher today to see what he had to say about it so we'll see what happens there. If indeed the price has jumped and they have to do the extra two dollars they need to either just up the price on normal MMs or change ALL the books to this larger format. Personally I don't want the latter, but at least all the new books would be a uniform size and with enough of them on the shelf it won't look too horrendous.
Haha, did you just say "sexy looking bookshelf?" Because that's funny.
Post a Comment