"Another reason is that paperback books are sold like magazines. You might think this is stupid. It is not. This is pnh's cue to jump in with a comment explaining how this all works and why."
Very simply, there are two kinds of books: trade and mass-market. The distinction is not actually one of binding or trim size; it's one of distribution terms.
Unsold trade books are generally returned to the publisher's warehouse whole. Unsold mass-market books are usually stripped and their covers returned -- or, increasingly commonly, the books are pulped entire, followed by an affadavit attesting that this has happened.
Most trade books are hardcovers and "trade paperbacks"; most mass-market books are rack-sized paperbacks, but there are exceptions in all directions.
Cheap paperback books have existed for centuries. The modern American "paperback revolution", beginning in the 1940s, was driven not by the invention of inexpensive softcovers (which already existed) but the invention of the mass-market paperback distribution model. The sequence of events went roughly like this:
BOOKSTORES: "Nothing doing. Two or three of them take up the same shelf space we could use for a $2.95 hardcover. Begone with you!"
[Exeunt omnes, pursued by World War II.]
WOULD-BE PAPERBACK PIONEERS: "Hey, it's the postwar period! Here's an idea: forget the damn bookstores, let's sell our 25-cent paperbacks through the same system of jobbers and wholesalers that distributes magazines and newspapers to every newsstand, drugstore, bus station, and grocery store in America."
MAGAZINE JOBBERS AND WHOLESALERS: "Okay, Mac, but you gotta make 'em strippable, just like COLLIER'S and LOOK. Also, make your lists monthly. None of this carriage-trade 'season' stuff for us burly, down-to-earth practical men."
PAPERBACK PIONEERS: "No problem. Here, have a couple of dozen titles."
AMERICAN PUBLIC: "OMG! SQUEE!"
PAPERBACK PIONEERS: "Have a bunch more!"
AMERICAN PUBLIC: "SQUEE SQUEE SQUEE!"
BOOKSTORES: "Hey, wait! Can we stock these too after all?"
How paperbacks came to be sold like magazines
Very simply, there are two kinds of books: trade and mass-market. The distinction is not actually one of binding or trim size; it's one of distribution terms.
Unsold trade books are generally returned to the publisher's warehouse whole. Unsold mass-market books are usually stripped and their covers returned -- or, increasingly commonly, the books are pulped entire, followed by an affadavit attesting that this has happened.
Most trade books are hardcovers and "trade paperbacks"; most mass-market books are rack-sized paperbacks, but there are exceptions in all directions.
Cheap paperback books have existed for centuries. The modern American "paperback revolution", beginning in the 1940s, was driven not by the invention of inexpensive softcovers (which already existed) but the invention of the mass-market paperback distribution model. The sequence of events went roughly like this:
[1890 through 1941:]
WOULD-BE PAPERBACK PIONEERS: "Stock our 25-cent paperbacks, please!"
BOOKSTORES: "Nothing doing. Two or three of them take up the same shelf space we could use for a $2.95 hardcover. Begone with you!"
[Exeunt omnes, pursued by World War II.]
WOULD-BE PAPERBACK PIONEERS: "Hey, it's the postwar period! Here's an idea: forget the damn bookstores, let's sell our 25-cent paperbacks through the same system of jobbers and wholesalers that distributes magazines and newspapers to every newsstand, drugstore, bus station, and grocery store in America."
MAGAZINE JOBBERS AND WHOLESALERS: "Okay, Mac, but you gotta make 'em strippable, just like COLLIER'S and LOOK. Also, make your lists monthly. None of this carriage-trade 'season' stuff for us burly, down-to-earth practical men."
PAPERBACK PIONEERS: "No problem. Here, have a couple of dozen titles."
AMERICAN PUBLIC: "OMG! SQUEE!"
PAPERBACK PIONEERS: "Have a bunch more!"
AMERICAN PUBLIC: "SQUEE SQUEE SQUEE!"
BOOKSTORES: "Hey, wait! Can we stock these too after all?"