What are the plans for the new, taller paperback size?

July 27, 2009 1:26 PM

What are the plans for the new, taller paperback size?

What are the plans for the new, taller paperback size?

Those of us purchasing paperbacks (not trades) have noted that a portion of these books are coming in a new format which is somewhat taller, but about as wide as they used to be.

A) What is this new, hateful format called? I thought it was *gag* "premium," but that seems to be Penguin-specific.

B) Is this format doing well enough to 1) supplant the original, 2) gamely stick around, or 3) be regarded as a failed experiment?

C) And what is the chance that books published in this format will eventually be published again in the non-hateful size? Obviously, the probability is only an educated guess, not a certainty.

Non-answers: Comments about e-books, PDFs, hardbacks, and those including "just go to the library."

posted by adipocere to media & arts (14 comments total)

It's likely they're changing the size of paperback books to accommodate more words on a page. More words = less paper = more trees keep growing and less cost for the company.

It's Green :)

Try to embrace the change. It's not like your stories have been altered.
posted by royalsong at 1:35 PM on July 27

Apparently, it's a boomer thing. The trade is indeed calling them premium size.
posted by jamaro at 1:45 PM on July 27

Wait what? I wondered about that too, but "more words on a page" saves paper? Even if the pages are themselves bigger?
posted by The Deej at 1:46 PM on July 27

A more recent article, from 2008, which discusses premium size and how its adoption remains mixed among publishers.
posted by jamaro at 1:52 PM on July 27

I'll just tell all of the shelving to "embrace the change" and it will all magically happen at no cost. Pffft. Hippies.

The print on those books is slightly larger. A larger font lowers words per page. Additionally, the margins are bigger. The space between the lines on the paper are bigger. These would tend to cancel out somewhat savings from a larger page. Hence, not-as-Green-as-you-thought. I'd like to find a paperback in both formats and actually weigh them, just to see. However, that is unrelated to my questions.
posted by adipocere at 1:56 PM on July 27 [1 favorite has favorites]

Try to embrace the change. It's not like your stories have been altered.

One hopes.
posted by applemeat at 1:58 PM on July 27

Here's a year-old article on it.

a) "premium" seems to have usage beyond Penguin.

b) You can see in the above-linked article that it's neither an obviously failed experiment, nor has it so set the world on fire that everyone is eagerly planning to switch. It'll just continue to be a publisher-by-publisher decision.

c) anyone's guess is as good as mine.

One of the reasons to stick to the standard mass-market paperback size was space on airport spinner-racks, or grocery store or drugstore racks. As those markets shrink, there's less perceived downside to new formats.
posted by Zed at 1:58 PM on July 27

I'm just curious, but have all your paperbacks have the same height so far? Because to me it looks like they come in several sizes. About 17.5 and 19.5 cm seem to be the most common among my books, but even within these groups there is a variance of up to .5cm.
posted by bjrn at 2:10 PM on July 27

I just read all the linked articles and here's what it comes down to: they charge more for these larger books by giving the perceived value of a larger book. All publishers asked, specifically in the Times piece, talked about making more from these larger books, IF they sell the same number of units.

Yes, boomer's eyes are part of it, and part of it is marketing in spinner racks, and part of it is that many young readers (per the article) don't like the feel of a more standard sized paperback.

But it's all about the Benjamins.
posted by arniec at 2:14 PM on July 27

In the off chance that this thread comes to the attention of publishers in the form of an informal survey: I like slightly larger type. I don't like trying to hold open one of these mutants with one hand.
posted by sageleaf at 2:17 PM on July 27

Books aren't selling well off the shelf. (I know of five local bookstores that have closed in the last 18 months) Anything to grab someone's eye is gold. Nothing like having your book stick up above the others to grab a potential buyers attention.

Is this recent? I've been buying the taller versions of books for years. (They're easier to hold and are often on better (higher contrast) paper than mass market paperbacks.
posted by Ookseer at 2:27 PM on July 27

Bjrn, this is partially a US-centric question. I get the impression that paperback sizes vary more in, say, Australia.

Aside from the trades and the hardbacks, my thousands of paperbacks tend to vary by a millimeter or two in height. I've seen some that were a quarter of an inch taller. This new proportion (which I have privately dubbed "tombstone" ) is quite a leap away from either stuff I used to find in bookstores for new books or used books.

My favorite local used bookstore is in something of a tizzy, as well. Their shelving (purchased from a previous owner) was handmade and fixed. It's also not friendly to the new size.

I guess it's off to hassle publishers one by one.
posted by adipocere at 2:33 PM on July 27

Huh. I never even thought about book size as being something that is researched and tracked! But I suppose all those short, thick, shiny-covered paperbacks are all the same size.
posted by radioamy at 3:51 PM on July 27

The Deej writes "Wait what? I wondered about that too, but 'more words on a page' saves paper? Even if the pages are themselves bigger?"

Everything else being equal a taller book will have fewer pages and therefor will have fewer square inches of paper total because you reduce the number of blank square inches allocated to top and bottom margins.
posted by Mitheral at 4:01 PM on July 27