Harper Lee's heirs kill mass market paperback of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by rkomar

I still buy paper books, and the woman who runs the scifi/mystery bookstore nearby said that many of the MMPB releases are getting very short and small, if they exist at all.

.

Uh-huh.
"If they exist at all."

Between ebooks eating into massmarket volume and publishers wanting to shift readers to the higher margin trade paperback, the format has been withering for years. To the extent that the AAP got tired of reporting big double digit drops in sales and stopped reporting mass market numbers separately.

Massmarket is headed back to its roots as a windowed reprint format for big sellers. The day of the mmpb original is ending. It's not all just tradpub money-grubbing, though; We are partly to blame for moving to digital.

I won't mourn the loss: the quality of the things has been declining for ages.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

We are partly to blame for moving to digital.

It is also a way to justify higher ebook prices for books that never get printed in MMPB. They can still try to sell them for the cheapest paper book price and make more money, at least per unit not overall. Hey, the ebook is same price as trade paper back, so don't complain.

Next thing? Trade paperbacks will start to decline in quality without getting cheaper.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

It is also a way to justify higher ebook prices for books that never get printed in MMPB. They can still try to sell them for the cheapest paper book price and make more money, at least per unit not overall. Hey, the ebook is same price as trade paper back, so don't complain.

Next thing? Trade paperbacks will start to decline in quality without getting cheaper.

Probably. And the more the degrade the print experience, the better ebooks will look.

Sooner or later print *will* go away as a mass distribution medium.
It makes perfect sense that the phaseout begin at the low end with the format with the lowest margins for publishers and lowest royalties for authors.
Same thing happened with vinyl: the 45's were the first to go.

Print sales have been declining across all format all century long, since before commercial ebooks hit the mainstream. And the big publishers have been trying to push people away from paperbacks since they bought out the paperback houses in the 50's and 60's and started jacking up the prices. (It's been documented right here at Mobileread.)

It didn't start now and it sure isn't going to stop now.

[murg]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Next thing? Trade paperbacks will start to decline in quality without getting cheaper.

My guess is that the trade paperbacks will start shrinking in physical size.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Next thing? Trade paperbacks will start to decline in quality without getting cheaper.

Trade paperbacks are already of poor quality for an outrageous price. They are an odd shape and they don't feel good to hold.

[harriska2]

The rat is barred from our household for just such a reason. Is there a thumbs down or fu button somewhere?

Originally Posted by Catlady

If I ruled the world, copyrights would need to be renewed for a modest fee every 28 years or so, so the Mouse could stay under copyright forever, but most materials would fall into the public domain once heirs stopped caring because the material was no longer profitable.