Friday, December 16, 2005

"Upperbacks" - A New Publishing Format

From Nancy Alcorn:

"Upperback" - this is a new publishing format term to me. It is/will be appearing over the next five years .... Tailored to baby boomers, better quality and slightly larger print than pbks, and cheaper (about $9.95 each) than trade pbks.

Nancy found this:

Upperbacks: now the Brits want them too

The new trend towards larger size paperbacks that's slowly taking over mass-market outfits here in the US is spreading across the pond, according to an article in Reuters UK. The first publisher on board is Headline, which will introduce the "upperback" mass market version of Faye Kellerman's STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS in January:
"We think the new format looks different enough to be appealing," said Kerr MacRae, deputy managing editor at Headline, which is owned by French media group Lagardere. They're easier to read the way the text is reset."

Headline plans to keep the cover price of its bigger-format thrillers the same as it is on smaller ones. "The short answer on how we'll make it profitable is that we'll need to sell more of them," said MacRae, who this week is at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the publishing industry's largest annual event.

"It's marginal cost," he added, "and we think retailers are excited about it."



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