Author Kelley Armstrong was sadly pulled away from our blogclutches yesterday and is popping over today ::crosses fingers:: to answer your questions. So you know… feel free to ask some.
Something I have been wondering about and seems the perfect time to address while Mz Armstrong is about but really this is a question for all – readers, authors, ebook, struggling to find someone to publisher that western romance you have that you know sybil would love people (odd that it always comes back to me… no?) and whoever else.
I have always wondered what is more important to an author… to get that ‘HARDCOVER’ stamp of approval from your publisher or high sales with a mass market book.
And I don’t mean moneywise really, although I am sure someone could come along ::coughjanecough:: and say well you only have to sell X amount of Hardcover books to equal an blank advance where as you would have to sell X amount of MM. But putting money aside a minute – no really.
In that dream world where you are accepting your Oscar for best novel for a screen play (lol is there ever such a thing?), your RITA, your Hugo, your Pulitzer, your whatever… do you dream you are a hardcover author?
What does becoming a Hardcover author mean to you?
Which is better, placing high on the NY Times Bestseller list for a mm or not placing at all for a hardcover? What would you want?
And being Nora and getting to have your cake and eat it too isn’t a choice for this exercise *g*.
It would seem to me – just a reader – a writer wants to be read. So knowing that many people went out to pay for your book – new – would be just as much of an honor. If not more so than a publisher saying, hey cool, you done well kid we think we can milk your fans of more cash here have a hardcover.
Not that I am bitter about it or anything *g*.
And for anyone who doesn’t know this, author for the most part do not decide if they are MM or Hardcover. So being pissed with the author is not fair.
But in this world gone mad, full of Libraries, Used Book Stores, Trade groups and Ebay hardcover isn’t as hard to get as it once was but those numbers don’t count as ‘sales’ for the author.
Am I missing something to think it is better to get a new book sale than a one time sell of a hardcover that resales 10 times.
How many on average would you say you buy a month? What was the last Hardcover book you shelled out coin for? And if you don’t mind, where did you purchase it?
Hardcover means less than nothing to me. I don’t like them anyway, because it’s too hard to read them in bed or the bath or while holding a toddler on my lap.
It all matters. Sales, lists, format, reviews, placement, publisher support. And in the long-term career, imo, it’s all part of the whole.
Hardcover publication offers the writer an opportunity at reviews that mm publications generally won’t be considered for. They last longer, and are stocked in more libraries (the read matters, too. A lot.)A hardcover will usually be given more publisher support, promotion and promotion dollars than a paperback. The publisher has a much, much larger profit margin on a hardcover, and can afford to put more money behind it–and also carve some of that profit off to put into the pot for paperbacks. The writer will, if all goes well, make more money–then potentially see higher sales of the paperback version if the buzz on the hardcover was good.
Is that like, THE Nora Roberts? Crap, now I’m starstruck and afraid to answer this and make an idiot of myself!
I’ve done the full loop from hardcover to trade to mass market original and now I’m back again. So I’ve had some experience with this, and have some very definite opinions on it.
My Experience
When Bitten sold, it was planned for hardcover in North America. I was thrilled. This was a huge vote of confidence on the publisher’s part. My first book was hardcover-worthy! So it would come out in hardcover, then a year later in mass-market, naturally, because as a reader, I knew that’s how these things work–ha!
So it comes out in hardcover. It gets reviewed by the New York Times (note I did not say “it got a glowing review from the NYT”) The reviews were decent enough, though. Sales…not so much. I told myself, no problem, it’s more a paperback kind of book anyway, and when it comes out in paperback it’ll do better.
Only it didn’t come out in paperback. A year passed, I asked when the mm pub date would be and didn’t get a firm answer. I quickly learned that books do not necessarily make the hardcover to mm transition in a year. In fact, if they didn’t sell well, they might not make it at all.
The publisher brought out Bitten in trade and Stolen in hardcover, but had no plans for either in mass market. And, big shock, they weren’t all that keen to publish my next book. I’d had my shot and I blew it.
Then along came Bantam. They wanted the next book (and two more after it), and they wanted to go mass market original. And that was exactly what I wanted to hear. To hell with the prestige of hardcover, I just wanted people reading my books.
Dime Store Magic came out and my sales spiked. Six months later, Industrial Magic came out and my old publisher had a change of heart and, at the same time, brought Bitten and Stolen out in mm. And all was good.
Now I’m back in hardcover. Again, it’s a huge honour. It’s like a promotion. Having had this experience, though, I’m a little nervous. I hope it goes well. I hope a mass market will follow for those who don’t want to pay hardcover prices or just don’t like reading hardcover (like me)
So why hardcover?
Prestige
I can rant against it, but I cannot deny it. The general perception is that hardcover=better book. Mass market originals don’t get the same review attention, they often don’t get the book club deals, and they don’t get the respect of a novel that first came out in hardcover. That’s changing a bit, as mass market originals become more common, but the old stereotypes remain. If it was any good, it would have been in hardcover.
Economics
Ready for your math lesson? I’m taking this purely from the author’s point of view.
Let’s say you’re an established author writing one book a year and selling a very respectable 50,000 copies.
Your paperback royalties are probably 6-8% and hardcover 8-10%. Let’s go with 8 and 10.
If your book came out as a $6.99 mass market original, this year, you made $28,000.
If your book came out as a $20 hardcover first, followed by a $6.99 mass market, and you sold 15,000 hardcover and 35,000 paperback, you made $49,600.
Same number of books, still selling more in paperback, but it’s going to be a whole lot easier to feed your family on option B!
Bottom Line
Authors rarely have a say in format–unless it’s contract time and they contract for x format. It’s the publisher’s call and when they think this author can pull her weight in hardcover, they’ll make the switch, for the prestige and the money.
I won’t say I’m horribly disappointed at the thought of making more money. Nor will I say that I don’t feel this is a step up in my career. But that also won’t keep me from feeling extremely guilty every time I sign a hardcover for a yonger reader, someone I know scrounged to pay for it because they didn’t want to wait a year to read my next book in paperback.
Oh, yeah, the actual questions.
Placing on the NYT list for mm or not at all for hardcover? I really would have liked to make the NYT list. I was getting so close. My last two made the extended list and, had this gone mm, I might have been able to put that oh-so-prestigious “NYT Bestselling Author” by my name. Big sigh.
More readers versus prestige/money? More readers all the way. I’m a story-teller. I write my stories not to make a fortune (luckily!) but to entertain. Yet the only way I’ll get to keep telling my stories for many years to come is if someone can sell them and make money off them. The better they sell, the more I’ll be able to write, and the more publishers will promote them, meaning I’ll get the attention of those readers I want.
Hmm…as someone who has blog called Thrifty Reader (LOL) I rarely buy hardcover. Last year I bought ONE. This year, I bought two already (just yesterday) and I’m buying another one in June. That’s it. And those are full price, bought on the day of release from the bookstore.
Other hardcovers I buy from the thrift store-for 2.99 Canadian.
I like paperback. Mostly because when I was going to school, I didn’t have enough money for hardcover, and now my library is full of paperbacks and it feels like a hardcover book doesn’t fit in there! I also like the portability (fits in a purse, lighter). That said, I have to be very careful with a paperbacks. They don’t last as long, its easier to scuff up, bend the cover and get spine creases. With hardcovers, I’m not thinking of how I shouldn’t bend the cover back too much or the book will be scarred, plus there is a certain comfortable heft to it when you lie in bed with it on your lap. I read Bitten in hardcover. Anyway, I know people whose libraries are only filled with hardcover books (like me, they like uniformity), but I personally will only spend money on a hardcover if I completely love the author and this justifies spending my money instead of waiting for a paperback. Another thing is: I find that sometimes publishers produce trade paperbacks instead of hardcover. These, I will buy more of than actual hardcovers, even though they are more expensive than mm paperbacks.
(oh m’gosh – Nora Roberts posted a comment – oh m’gosh – okay. I’ll stop gushing)
Just how much control does the average author actually exercise over this decision? I imagine the more successful the author (ahem, Nora), the more influence they can wield. But can they actually dictate hardcover vs. paperback?
This is an interesting dilemma for authors – do you publisher hop until you find one who will publish your book the way you want? How much wiggle room or decision-making powers are you able to write into your contracts with publishers?
Speaking as an avid reader, I’ll buy just about anything – hard or paper, I justify the extra expense of the hardcover by rationalizing that it looks prettier on my bookshelf after I’m done reading (I also decorate with books around the house – yes I’m a gurl).
I buy fewer hardcovers simply because there are fewer of them to be had in the genres I read. I’d buy more if more were published. I’m kinda glad they’re not, though, because then I’d be poorer than I am, or I’d be shopping at used bookstores a lot more often.
Hardcover or paperback – I’m not terribly picky. One way or the other, I’ll get my fix.
I don’t buy too many hardcovers either, but I’m still happy for authors who do make the jump. Like Ms. Armstrong said, it’s good for them because it brings more money and more clout. And publishers make their money where they can–it is a business after all, why shouldn’t they?
And if I don’t want to buy a hardcover, there’s always the library.
I don’t buy many hardcovers. It has to be a book that I am really dying to read to get me to buy hardcover. Too hard on the budget to buy hardcovers.
I think it is great when authors do get to have their work printed in hardcover.
As a librarian – what Kelley and Nora already said. Especially Kelley’s comment about prestige and hardcover = better book. Yeah, we all know that’s a bunch of horse hooey – but the perception does exist. Also, while a good library does buy and catalog mass market – they do have what I call a shelf-life. Sure hardcover books aren’t bound the way they used to be, but you have options. For one thing you can rebind it.
The fact is authors have little to no control over what format they’ll appear in. I’m sure La Nora has some input, but only because she has a reputation and sells a gazillion, jillion copies. When you make that much money for a publisher they’ll listen to a certain extent.
That said, when I can’t wait for mm I tend to borrow the hardcover from work. One of the perks of being a librarian. The only authors I tend to buy flat out in hardcover are Tess Gerritsen (just because I can’t wait) and Laura Levine (even though I read her books in one day).
Also one thing that should be noted, is that if you’re a huge fan of Bestselling Author the discount stores are a beautiful thing. I think I got Tess Gerritsen’s last book in hardcover at Costco for the same price as a trade paperback.
I absolutely hate hardcover. I honestly will buy more paperbacks than the hardcovers or wait the 6 months till it comes out in paperback. Till then I will go to my library. I was so upset when JD Robb’s In Death series went hardcover, but because I am a hardcore fan, I still buy it.
I don’t know what to say if it is true that the authors and publishers go hardcover just to get a coveted spot on the NY TIMES Best sellers list or to get more money out of the reader.
And books whether they are in hardcover or paperback don’t express the quality. Again, don’t choose a book by it’s cover or hard cover!
I am not a big fan of hardcovers. I can honestly say that the only books that I can think of htat i have bought brand new in hardcover (that weren’t a gift) were the Harry Potter books. Hardcovers are hard to read one-handed and I do a lot of that. they also do not fit in my purse very well. Luckily I have a very well stocked public library and can read them there and then i wait for the paperback. If it does not come out in paperback then I haunt my ubs and Amazon for the hardcover.
I do buy hardcover for favorites and historical mysteries or mysteries in general 🙂
One thing I like about a hardcover is the bigger font. I do mostly get hardcovers from the library. I personally can’t get all I want to read in HC. But sadly, with my library now in a freeze, not much romances at all. So I’m very behind with the HC releases 🙁 But I do understand the need and how that all works for the author.