[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Trade paperbacks have just always seemed to me to be extra-large paperbacks, with no good reason to be that way except to justify larger costs. Since they also don't fit my (paperback-dominated) shelves well, I tend to avoid them like the plague.

Trade PBs exist for a simple reason: hardcovers are too expensive. They sell because people want the larger format, but don't want to pay the price of a hardcover. If these things didn't sell, publishers wouldn't issue them.

Like Harry, I like being able to save space, and if I could replace my shelves of books with e-books, I would. I can think of people in places that are far too cramped for luxuries like bookshelves (much less books) who would agree.

Personally, I've been replacing mass market PBs with hardcovers. I'm a fan of things like the Science Fiction Book Club, who tends to re-issue what had been series in PB as HC anthology editions.

I also feel e-books should be priced less than print-based books, whatever the print book costs are... there may still be prep costs, but the costs of physical printing, storage and distribution are gone, and their price should reflect that. I think ALL paperback books should cost less than $5... and e-books should cost significantly less than that.

As mentioned, you will still have the cost to acquire and prepare the book. Physical printing and storage won't go away, unless the book is only issued in electronic form. Save for older stuff in the public domain like the stuff offered by Project Gutenberg and the like, that isn't very likely. And you still have distribution costs. There are servers where the electronic copies are stored, bandwidth costs for the internet connection, and salaries and fringes for the administrators.

You won't see mass market PBs at $5 or less. The cost structure won't permit it.

Unfortunately, as long as e-book fans are at the mercy of a publishing industry that fears change, struggles with its own decline and decay, and has given up caring about the interests of its customers, we will continue to see silly things like trade paperbacks and expensive e-books.

As mentioned above, trade PBs exist because they sell. You find them silly, but enough buyers don't to keep them being issued.

But yes, the publishing industry has a long way to go in understanding ebooks. I know one author who has books in electronic form and estimates he might have gotten a couple of hundred dollars on royalties from them. Unfortunately, his publisher was one of those who lacked a clue. Good luck on discovering his work was available electronically, and navigating the publisher's website to access and pay for it.
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Dennis