SPRING PAPERPACK PREVIEW
ing trying to sell hardbacks during
the rest of the year, I began to wonder
if perhaps the traditional idea of
hardbacks as gifts at Christmas was
somewhat behind the times.
I started carrying out an informal
survey, assessing the proportion of
hardbacks to paperbacks being read
on the Underground. Now I realise
that a hardback is not necessarily
best suited to a commuter’s needs,
but I felt this would be balanced out
by the fact that people often buy
hardbacks when they can’t wait to
read them and so they might read
those books on the Tube. Any
way, it was six weeks
before I saw a single
hardback
being read and this made me decide
to include as many paperbacks as
hardbacks in the B-ring in 2006.
Indeed, it was mostly the paperback
titles which we sold in quantity. So in
2007 the majority of titles supporting
our main Christmas campaign have
been paperbacks. Blackwell has also
gone for a bigger emphasis on paperbacks
and Waterstone’s seems to be
giving more prominence to its Paperbacks
of the Year offer.
Picador, meanwhile, plans to print
a limited run of hardback copies of its
paperback originals, but with higher
than usual production values. I’m not
sure how well these will sell, although
I think the principal problem will be
ensuring that those few copies are
stocked in the outlets where people
ask for them. But Picador is confronting
one of the other problems book
buyers have with hardbacks—they
can sometimes be poorly designed
and shoddily produced. When care
is taken, such as with Cape’s
edition of Arthur & George by
Julian Barnes, people find it
difficult to resist such elegant
and tactile volumes.
Avon calling
In 2007, there’s been one
other publisher whose
focus on what people
want has been particularly
impressive, and that
is Avon, the new division
of HarperCollins. It published
its first title in July
2006, but at the time of
writing, claimed to have
sold at least 20,000 copies
of each title it has so far
published.
Currently, Avon publishes
three titles a month—one
crime, one older women’s
fiction and one younger—all
in A-format, which are carried
in all of the supermarket
chains, including Waitrose.
There is also an Avon book
club in conjunction with Closer
magazine, which reaches
600,000 readers.
In general, Avon’s titles
are similar to those of many
other publishers, although
I’d say that some, such as
Damaged Goods by Helen
Black, the first in a series
featuring the investigations
of a family-care lawyer, or
The WAG’s Diary by Alison
Kervin, whose title
speaks for itself—show
an exceptional grasp of
the market. Reading group
appeal is also a common aspect.
Avon has also borrowed a trick
from the magazines that its titles are
www.thebookseller.com The Bookseller Spring Paperback Preview | 4 January 2008 5
PUBLISHERS’ LEAGUE TABLE
MARKET OVERVIEW
Publisher Giants Bestsellers Breakthrough Ones to watch Total
HarperCollins 17 17 5 2 41
Arrow & Vintage 17 14 2 5 38
Penguin 12 10 8 1 31
Transworld 10 15 2 2 29
Orion 6 9 1 2 18
Little, Brown 7 7 1 - 15
Headline 7 5 2 1 15
Macmillan 4 7 3 1 15
Hodder 7 5 - 1 13
Simon & Schuster 3 5 3 2 13
Bloomsbury 2 5 1 4 12
Ebury/BBC 2 3 3 - 8
John Murray 1 - 2 2 5
Avon 1 2 1 - 4
Quercus - 1 1 1 3
Canongate - 1 - 1 2
Faber - - 1 1 2
Portobello Books 1 - - - 1
Myrmidon - - 1 - 1
Duckworth - - - 1 1
Serpent’s Tail - - - 1 1
Random Group 75
Hachette 51
HarperCollins
(incl Avon) 45
Scoring: Giants 1pts, Bestsellers 1pt, Breakthrough 1pt, One to watch 1pt
so often shelved beside. Many come
shrink-wrapped with a free gift, such
as a necklace or lip gloss. And every
month, one title has a competition
to win, for example, an all-expensespaid
trip to the theatre. It also has
an ingenious system of simple pictograms
on the reverse so that potential
readers know exactly what to
expect, and its sagas are usually in
large print (something other publishers
would do well to note).
Top of the league
In researching this article, what I
have learned above anything else is
that the future of publishing can still
be bright. Books will be around in
their current form for the foreseeable
future, and even if younger readers
turn out to prefer their books
stored digitally, as many prefer their
music already, then an industry prepared
to listen will still have an exciting
and profitable product to sell.
The league table above has awarded
each title listed in the preview
a point according to whether it is
predicted to be a giant, bestseller,
breakthrough title or one to watch.
Treating HarperCollins as a single
imprint minus Avon puts it top of the
league with 41 points. Grouping the
imprints of Random Group, Hachette
and joining HarperCollins and Avon
gives Random Group 75 points, while
Hachette and HarperCollins trail
with 51 and 45 points respectively.
But, in a time when there is an
abundance of good-quality paperbacks
on the market, I’d like to apologise
to the scores of authors whose
books are not included in this preview.
At least, as a bookseller, I can
try to handsell you.
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