Yes - they don't want to flood the used book market with paperbacks, which would compete with future sales of the same title. If you're a bookstore and a hardc

Yes - they don't want to flood the used book market with paperbacks, which would compete with future sales of the same title. If you're a bookstore and a hardcover doesn't sell, you have to return the whole book to the publisher. If a paperback doesn't sell, you just have to rip off the front cover and return that to the publisher. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripped_book https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripped_book