It seems like a very good price for a book described as being in good condition.
I noticed the book was described as:
Format Details B-format paperback
Edition Statement 2nd Revised edition
I wasnt sure what a B- format paperback was.A little searching revealed that:
Why size matters
Cheap and chunky or lots of classy white space? Honor Wilson-Fletcher unpicks format and feel in part two of our series on the book business
Author X is agitated. So is her literary agent. The publisher has decided that her forthcoming book will be published in A-format; that is, 110mm wide x 178mm high. The modestly priced A- format will allow Author X the greatest opportunity to become a bestseller. The book is more likely to be accepted for sale by supermarkets, railway and airport stores and WHSmith, all of whom are anxious to demonstrate value for money to their customers. So why on earth is the writer unhappy?
Well, she sees herself as a B- format author. She wants her book to be published as a paperback measuring 130mm x 198mm. B-format paperbacks are associated with literary authors and prestigious lists such as Picador and Faber, and she wishes to be taken seriously by the critics. Author X cannot decide which she wants more - critical or commercial success. She wants both, really.
How has the size of her book come to have such significance? And if size is so important, how do we account for the tremendous critical and commercial success of Dava Sobel's Longitude , published at a mere 192mm high? Was it that shy 6mm that made the difference?
Publishers, authors and agents argue about size as much as they disagree over jacket design. Long, long meetings are spent debating the merits of A-, B- or C- ("trade") formats. Trade paperbacks are 135mm x 216mm. That is the same size as a lot of hardbacks, although in the US agents referring to "trade" actually mean B-format. Are you keeping up here?
The central wrangle used to be over whether to opt for a hardback or a paperback. Hardback publication was hard to avoid: literary editors didn't review paperbacks, and good reviews were vital. This is now considered a largely defunct complaint against the media, but privately publishers admit that hardbacks still have a whiff of significant seriousness. Literary editors respond to this aroma of worth, apparently, whether they know it or not.
So how to decide? Publishers can seek help from retailers. This is as close to consumer research as they generally get, and booksellers the world over are influenced by size. It used to be impossible to buy an English-language edition of Captain Corelli's Mandolin in paperback on the island of its inspiration. Cephallonian booksellers, in keeping with many European countries, only sell A-format paperbacks. Until Random House issued an A-format edition of the book for export, plus a film tie-in edition, they couldn't sell a single copy on the island. Of course, for the UK market, Louis de Bernières had to appear in B. He's a literary writer, published by an exclusively B-format list. But similar problems can also occur in the UK if a particular retailer has only one size of racking that won't accommodate larger paperbacks. It's clearly essential to listen to the needs of your customers.
Size isn't just about the physical dimensions of the book - decisions will have to be made about the size of the typeface or font used for the contents of a book, and the thickness of paper, too. A lot of A-format paperbacks, the size associated with blockbusters and beach reads, have been "bulked" to produce that apparently highly desirable "brick of a book" look. Bulking simply involves using thicker kinds of paper. Slim novellas in B-format - the kind Author X was so desirous of sharing shelf room with - might appear even more waif-like were it not for the generous dimensions of the print and the elegantly wide margins of white space on each page.
Of course, some authors will genuinely produce 700-page monster novels. No need for bulking here. Instead, the publisher's production team are left squinting at page proofs, trying to work out how small they can make the typeface without blinding readers, or being forced to produce a book so colossal its spine snaps the first time it is opened, fluttering irreplaceable pages from its vast interior.
Publishing is a sophisticated business these days, and it is now possible to produce a simultaneous variety of formats of the same book to suit different markets. Perhaps this is the ideal solution for Author X? We like our literary paperbacks in B, for example, but are happy to see them reappear in A if they have a film or TV tie-in picture on the cover.
Format is a shorthand to help retailers and consumers understand what kind of book they're looking at. This is why authors and agents get so uppity. How many consumers are aware of all this hard work to get their attention? One frustrated publisher suggests that if only the retailers got the right message about a book 50% of the time, it would have been worth the agonising debate.
The agent may want their author's book to look as durable as possible. An impression of significance could give Author X's creative outpourings a sharper elbow in the table-top jostle for attention in bookshops. Publishers don't all agree: the audience for literary hardbacks is tiny. And sometimes authors put their oar in. Hanif Kureishi, one of Faber's biggest sellers, took the decision himself to insist on paperback publication, believing the hardback to be elitist, old-fashioned and expensive. The Black Album sold 25,000 copies in hardback; Intimacy , straight into trade paperback, sold 55,000, but at a cheaper price.
Yet fashion is a fickle thing. Sick of being undercut by competitors producing trade paperbacks for £10, publishers are now bringing out hardbacks at similar prices. The sort of hardback published a few years ago at £15.99 will now appear at £12.99 - and then probably be discounted further. Trade paperback sales are beginning to decline and the hardback may, just possibly, be in for a small revival. Is it any wonder that our author is concerned?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/au ... gpublished" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Wonder how the anecdotage fits into the size debate-its enormous-is it an a b or c or other??
