It's not the first time that it's crossed my mind but Roger's post about his royalties again prompted the question in my head.

Why do Macmillan New Writers publish in hardback? Surely it's better in the first instance to publish in paperback. Paperbacks are cheaper and therefore I would think that most people would maybe go for a paperback by a new author rather than a hardback at twice the price.

Is there a particular advantage with publishing in hardback?

Geoff

Ooh, I don't know - I have a vague idea that Emma once said something about this, but I can't remember what thread it was in.

And I must admit to being a paperback tart - 99% of the time I ignore the hardback completely and just wait for the cheaper option.

A
xxx

I think they decided that they wanted to books to have a certain prestige and collectability (is that a word?). Plus there is this old idea that only hardbacks get reviewed, but I think that is a very old idea and now trade paperbacks get reviewed alongside hardbacks. The books are produced to a very high standard - with real cloth (not paper cloth) on the binding, proper stitching and even a lovely ribbon bookmark. Whatever else you say about them, they are lovingly and superbly produced. Other than that, I don't know.

I'm sure you're right, Roger, it's about making the trade take a potentially dismissable project seriously. The last thing MNW want when selling into the shops is for the books to have an air of 'this is the only way we could do it economically.' Putting in the ribbon was the final touch - posher even than most hardbacks. I'm sure it's significant that the guy who started MNW came from production. It does still reduce (though not eliminate) the chances of a book getting reviewed if it's issued as a paperback original, so various people who should know have told me.

A good deal of the publicity, as I recall, was along the lines of 'catch the major writers of tomorrow while they're still a well-kept secret'. I'm sure that's what got Goldsboro and their ilk interested - their whole market is the first-edition-first-printing collectors who want to be ahead of the crowd - the early-adopters of the book trade.

I'm a paperback tart too, on the whole. But I was very struck in NZ and Oz, where they only have a trade (i.e. large and handsome) paperback of TMOL, just how many people wanted to cuddle my hardback copy. I had to guard it very carefully, as it had all my marked up readings and timings in it!

Emma

<Added>

I think what I'm saying is that it's not always an advantage to sell something at a lower price. When After Eights were invented, apparently, they could have sold them for under £1 (probably £5 now) and made a comfortable profit. But that would have meant people didn't feel they were posh enough to take as a present or of course offer round after dinner, which was the market they were after. So they priced them at over £1, purely for that image, even though presumably in sheer numbers they probably sold fewer boxes.