Mass Market Paperback (1935 - ?) Part I

A recent NY Times article talks about the rapid drop in mass market paperback (MMP) sales in the US. Looking for more information I came across a 2011 study (Bookstats) of publishing trends from 2008 to 2010, a period when net sales revenue of MMP dropped 13.8 % to $1.28 billion and 16.8% to 319 million units. Net sales revenue is the publishers revenue net of discounts to booksellers and credits for returns and not sales to consumers which of course is at the book's list price.

The American Association of Publishers issues monthly sales reports. The latest October data show MMP sales revenue has dropped 34% in 2011 over 2010. This survey is from 80 publishers whereas the more comprehensive BookStats has data from 2000. But the 80 have sales of more than 50% of the market so the drop in 2011 is likely representative of the full market.

So MMP unit sales have dropped from 383 million in 2008 to 319 in 2010 and heading for 200 million in 2011. Hard not to agree that the MMP is rapidly being eclipsed by ebooks.

Here are a few of my favourite non-Canadian paperbacks.

Pelican S35 - 1939

Dell 270 - 1948

Avon 314 - 1951

Penguin 2591 - 1967

Export's News Stand Library US Series Part IX

Toronto's Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd published 28 books for the American market in 1949 and 1950. Export put dustjackets on 20 of the books. I've discussed 18 of them in previous posts. Here is one more plus a DJ example from an American publisher.

With three exceptions books in the US series were also published in the Canadian series. Of the 25 US issues, 24 had a date the same as or after the Canadian issue. Death Be My Destiny is the only exception with a January 1950 Canadian date and a November 1949 US date.

Paired with Death Be My Destiny is the only early paperback from Dell with a dust jacket. Note that the DJ is used to opposite effect. The Export DJ covers a more "sexed-up" cover while the Dell does the opposite. There is also a remarkable design similarity between the books.

News Stand Library 14A with DJ - November 1949

News Stand Library 14A with DJ back

News Stand Library 14A without DJ

News Stand Library 14A back

Dell D114 with DJ - 1952

Dell D114 with DJ back

Dell D114 without DJ

Dell D114 back

Hard Case Crime Part VII

The last Hard Case Crime volume (HCC-066) was published in mid 2010. Brett halliday's Murder Is My Business was first published in 1945 by Dodd, Mead. Soon after the first paperback edition was published by Dell Publishing Company in their famous "mapback" series.

Since HCC-066 the series has moved to a new publisher with four books coming out this fall, including the first HCC hard cover. 

Dell 184

Dell 184 back

HCC-066 - August 2010

HCC -066 back

Accountancy 101 Part I

In the non blog world I'm a Chartered Accountant (that's CPA to my many American fans). As a CA I've always been proud of our motto: "Two and two equals four but when you need a five call us."

There is no intersection between the subject of this blog and the world of accountants. I don't know of a single vintage Canadian paperback with an accountant as either the hero or villain. There is one classic American reprint with an accountant hero - David Dodge's It Ain't Hay, first published by Simon & Schuster as the last of a four book series. The 1946 Dell edition is famous for the cover and subject.

The hero is James Whitney (Whit), hard-boiled San Francisco Certified Public Accountant who becomes a reluctant detective when his partner George MacLeod is murdered in Death and Taxes (1941). Whit goes to Los Angeles to investigate a wool-broker’s son who is embezzling money from the family business and turns up a high stakes poker game run by a gang of professional card sharps in Shear the Black Sheep (1943). In Bullets for the Bridegroom (1944) Whit and Kitty MacLeod (George’s widow) go to Reno to get married and get caught between German spies and the undercover FBI agents who are trailing them. It gets personal for Whit in It Ain’t Hay (1946) when he receives a severe beating ordered by a drug smuggler, Barney Steele, who thinks Whit has double-crossed him. Whit risks everything—his friends, his marriage, his business, his life—in order to even the score with Steele.

Dell 270

Dell 270 back

The Way We Were Part I

In We're #1 I highlighted the number ones for three early American paperback publishers. Here I'll continue looking at the early publishers, showing an example and an update on where they are now.

Pocket Books, Inc. published its first 10 books on June 19, 1939. Today Pocket Books Mass Market and Pocket Star Books Mass Market are imprints in the Pocket Books division of the Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, a unit of Simon & Schuster, Inc., which is the publishing division of CBS Corporation. Simon & Schuster ranked sixteenth in the publishing world in 2006 with sales of € .64 billion.

Pocket 18 front and back (1st printing - September 1939)

Avon Book Company published its first 12 books on November 21, 1941. Today Avon Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, a subsidiary of News Corporation, controlled by Rupert Murdoch. HarperCollins ranked ninth in the publishing world in 2006 with sales of € 1.06 billion.

Avon 54 front and back (1944)

Pines Publications published its first titles of the Popular Library imprint in 1943. The Columbia Broadcasting System bought Popular in 1971 and it became a unit of the CBS/Education and Publishing Group. In 1977 CBS merged Popular with newly acquired Fawcett Publications to form Fawcett Books, Inc., a unit of CBS/Publishing Group. Popular Library’s publishing activity was substantially reduced and in 1982 Warner Books bought most of Popular’s assets and the imprint disappeared.

Popular Library 49 front and back (1945)

Dell Publishing Company sold its first ten books in early 1943. Today Dell Mass Market Paperback is an imprint of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., which is owned by Bertelsmann AG. Random House ranked fifth in the publishing world in 2006 with sales of € 1.83 billion.

Dell 39 front and back (1944)