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For $15.11, you can have the same book on a nicely bound hardback printed on acid-free paper. The production, storage, and delivery of this medium increases the

For $15.11, you can have the same book on a nicely bound hardback printed on acid-free paper. The production, storage, and delivery of this medium increases the cost of the book by 12 cents. If that 12 cents reflects the actual marginal expense of printing each copy, it begs the question why cheap mass-market paperbacks exist.

InclinedPlane 16y ago
Mass market paperbacks exist as a means of creating market segmentation. Book publishers release an expensive, high-profit version of the book initially and then release a lower cost version of the book later, to rake in volume sales. The result is that people who value the book more will be able to spend more money on it. Today this is done by releasing the high-profit version as a hardback volume and the low-profit version as a paperback, though in reality the production cost differences between the two are comparatively minor. And, as many people notice, after a paperback version comes out often the hardback version will be heavily discounted, nearly to the price of the paperback. But if the versions were identical and merely differently priced many consumers would complain. See also: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckie...