You mean, mass market originals are hot again?

Trend pieces are so difficult to understand. Something is hot, then it isn’t, or maybe it never was? So Jeff Trachtenberg’s Weekend Journal piece about what some publishers are doing with mass market paperback originals is puzzling since oh so many people are quick to proclaim that bandwagon dead, dead, dead, and yet…here are some anecdotal studies. Naomi Novik with her fabulous Temeraire trilogy, released in rapid succession. Mariah Stewart’s romantic suspense trilogy, and James Swain’s double-header Tony Valentine gambling mysteries. Plus some others not mentioned, but worth noting: Paul Levine’s SOLOMON VS. LORD novels; Kay Hooper’s early psychic suspense trilogies; Josie Litton (aka Maura Seger) being relaunced with one-per-month releases.

Whatever the case, there are sound reasons for going with mass market, as Trachtenberg found out. Consecutive paperbacks can offer some marketing advantages. Ballantine found that when it published books by Stewart and Novik in quick succession, the books were featured prominently in the bookstores for three months in a row. Bonnie Claeson, co-owner of the Black Orchid mystery bookstore in New York City, says that diehard fans who read as many as five books a week prefer the rack-size paperbacks. “It’s about price and convenience,” she says.

But inferring whether this is ultimately viable is another story. The piece points out that there are way more copies in print of Swain’s books – 150K compared to hardcover sales of 30-35K – but what was the original print run and more importantly, what’s the sell-through? I suppose the almighty Bookscan could reveal all, as it usually does…

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