Since the dawn of the modern age of publishing, there has been a few golden rules to publishing- one of which being that your book normally releases in a nice, sturdy, expensive hardcover edition when its first put out on the market, and then about a year later publishers release the cheaper, but less exciting paperback edition of the same book. Simple. But there’s also some books that break the norm- ones that are released as a paperback edition right away. And because this is a semi-trend at the moment, I naturally have to go state both the pros- and cons- of skipping over that precious hardcover phase.
As far as I can tell, this actually isn’t the most recent publishing innovation. Books have been released immediately to paperback since at least the 80s or maybe earlier- these books included campy horror reads, those long 70+ book series where after a while you wonder how they’re able to not run out of ideas, and the romance novels with the covers that you definitely shouldn’t be seen with in public. In the Adult marketing category, Romance is still the most common genre to get straight-to-paperback releases (and, thankfully, most of these books have a lot more “discreet” and socially acceptable covers now.) Over in YA, there’s less romance being put straight-to-paperback, and most of the hardcover-skippers in that age category are thrillers and horror reads.
There’s one clear benefit to straight-to-paperback books: the cost. Books have become one of the most heavily affected industries by inflation, and a hardcover book can cost $20 to $30 or more. Meanwhile, paperback books can be at least $10 less than this, and typically cheaper if it’s a less popular title. Therefore, a debut author may end up selling more than expected because their book is cheaper than their competitors in hardcover.
However, this price benefit may be soon running out due to- you guessed it- inflation. Adult paperback books now typically are $20 or more- that’s the price of a hardcover in the YA or middle grade categories. This is possibly the most ridiculous part of book inflation- especially because paperbacks are way less durable due to their paper covers. Add that to the fact that a hardcover version of a paperback original is most likely to not exist, and if it does it’s most likely only available to libraries (and if you get lucky, a paperback original will be popular enough to get an expensive collector’s edition in hardcover a few years later), and what seems like a cost-friendly option for books soon becomes less effective.
In addition, paperback originals may simply portray a book as lesser-than- considering hardcovers are seen as a luxury to the point of which really popular titles won’t release in paperback until a few years after publication. This is exceptionally clear when it comes to the Romance genre. Previously, I mentioned Romance is one of the most popular genres to be sent straight to paperback. Back in the day, romance was seen as a trashy genre that people should’ve been embarrassed to read, to the point of which E-Readers became popular with romance readers since it could keep the books hidden from other people. Romance is a lot more accepted nowadays- but still often skips the hardcover stage, especially in the Adult age category where it’s often very “spicy”. While this is clearest in Romance, this theming may also be seen in other genres that get sent to paperback first- it implies the book may be “lesser then” and should be separated from its premium hardcover peers. But there is a redeeming part to the separation- the price decrease, despite being less impactful due to inflation, may make the books stand out more to readers and bring more popularity to the author.
So, should straight-to-paperback books stay? I believe they should, as it helps decrease prices and separate books, making them possibly more popular. But due to the current ways of society with inflation and some genres being unfairly promoted, I think this trend should be worked on a little before it becomes the next huge thing.
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