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Originally Posted by Waylander
Thanks for that, you really helped me out. I wonder why all the publishers in the UK are moving away from mmpbs in favour of B format books? Most B formats cost the same as their smaller predecessors, and if they are more expensive, it's usually only £1-£2 more. I would have thought it would be the other way, as mmpbs are more portable and convenient. This strikes me as odd since one of the main shouting points of ereaders is that they are lighter, smaller and easier to hold. Any thoughts anyone?
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The bigger book can be thinner; it can have less pages. There is only so much pages you can put in a paperback before you start to risk breaking the back as soon as you reach something like the 25% point. The more pages you have, the more breakage you risk.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
It is a market positioning thing:
In the US, trade paperback has been increasingly used for original books that don't "merit" a hardcover release and mass market for reissues and "bargain" priced editions.
EBooks are quickly eating away the volume of the mmpb releases and there is a general expectation the bigger traditional publishers will be abandoning the smaller format "real-soon-now" as a way to move pbook buyers to the more expensive print formats. (Which are also losing sales volume to ebooks so their long term survival depends on consolidating pbook sales into two formats.)
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Yes. I think that at some point, the MMPB will be completely replaced by ebooks, and that people who really want to read a book on paper, will have to go with the bigger paperbacks. The people who want a book to keep, will go with the hardcover.