Mass Market Paperbacks

By Andrew Grabois - Sep 17 , 2007

Modern mass market paperback publishing began in the U.S. in 1939, when Robert Fair de Graff (and his partners Richard Simon plus Max Schuster) published the first ten Pocket Books for twenty-five cents each. They were a huge hit right out of the gate, with Macy’s selling almost 700 copies before they even reached the display window.

Since those glory days of paperback publishing, when visionaries like de Graff attempted to bring the best – and even the not-so-good – books within reach of “the common man,” mass market paperbacks have been squeezed by relatively inexpensive, high quality trade paperback editions on the one hand and heavily discounted hardcovers on the other. In recent years, retailers and others have been returning nearly half of all mass market titles to publishers. Not surprisingly, observers have predicted the demise of the format. And yet, in 2006, net publisher sales (after returns) of mass market titles accounted for 13% of the entire trade segment.

According to Book Industry Trends 2007, mass market paperbacks generated sales of $1.8 billion last year, a 2.7% increase over 2005. The Book Industry Study Group is projecting a very healthy increase of 4% for 2007 plus a more than respectable rate of growth around 3% through 2011. Publisher net unit sales of mass market editions were 575 million in 2006, which was 19% of all units sold in the trade last year, but only a 0.2% increase over 2005. BISG projects a 1.5% increase in unit sales for 2007, with steadily decreasing rates of growth through 2011.

Most mass market paperbacks are sold to wholesalers and “rack jobbers.” The percentage split for net dollar sales by channel was:

• Direct to Retailer/Consumer = 40%
• Sales to Wholesalers/Jobbers = 56%
• Book Clubs/Mail Order = 4%

Net publisher sales (in millions) direct to retailers and consumers broke out this way:

• Retailers, Mainly Books = $221
• Exports = $158
• Direct to Consumer = $147
• Retailers, Mainly Nonbook = $116
• Colleges = $78
• Schools = $6
• Libraries and Institutions = $3

The percentage split in net unit sales by channel was about the same as dollar sales.

According to Bowker’s Books In Print database, more than 5,000 new mass market paperbacks are published each year (2005 was the last year that Bowker compiled separate figures for new titles and average prices by format), a decline of almost 30% from 2000, when 7,350 new mass market editions were published. Since 2002, mass market output has stabilized and is slowly inching upwards. In 2005, adult fiction and children’s lit accounted for almost 90% of all new mass market paperbacks published in the U.S. Below is a bar graph representing the output of new mass market titles and editions from 2000-2005:

According to Bowker, the average suggested retail price for mass market paperbacks in 2006 was $6.82, which is 14 cents more than 2005. Since 2001 the average retail price for mass market paperbacks has increased 51 cents, or 8%. Since these average prices were compiled from all mass market titles released by all U.S. publishers, it is about a dollar or so less than the suggested retail price we usually see from the largest trade houses. This is because the statistical universe includes children’s books and other inexpensive mass market editions. If we include mass market releases from just the largest trade houses, the averages will be more in line with what we’re used to seeing in our local bookstores. Below, compiled from Bowker’s Books In Print database, are the average prices for mass market paperbacks published by the largest twelve trade houses from 2001-2005:

• 2005 = $7.42
• 2004 = $7.35
• 2003 = $7.21
• 2002 = $7.30
• 2001 = $6.98

According to unit sales figures compiled by Publishers Weekly, the top four bestselling mass market paperbacks in 2006 were authored by Nora Roberts and published by Jove. They were:

• Morrigan’s Cross (2, 720,684 copies)
• Dance of the Gods (2,417,018 copies)
• Valley of Silence (2,403,329 copies)
• Blue Smoke (1,800,154 copies)

In addition to Ms Roberts, the other mass market authors on the one million plus sold list last year were James Patterson, Janet Evonovich, Michael Connelly, Dean Koontz, and Dan Brown.

As of the second week of September, the bestselling mass market paperbacks on both the Publishers Weekly and Barnes & Noble lists are:

• The Collectors, by David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing)
• Inferno: Star Wars Legacy of the Force Series, by Troy Denning (Random House)
• 74 Seaside Avenue, by Debbie Macomber (Mira)
• Break No Bones, by Kathy Reichs (Simon & Schuster)
• Killer Dreams, by Iris Johansen (Dell Publishing)