Although cheap and easy-to-read paperback books and e-books have been widely loved by readers, hardcover books have not been eliminated.
Apart from still only do hardcover classic books. Most hot selling novels will have two versions: paperback and hardcover for choice.
Why is the publishers willing to do this kind of repetitive "useless work"?
The traditional practice of European and American publishers is to publish new books in three formats at different intervals. The hardcover edition is the first, which is used to attract book fans and customers with more purchasing power.
If the books selling well, then release a paperback version after a period of sales. Then after a period, they will release a mass-market paperback with a smaller format. One-to-one corresponding to readers with different economic abilities, to fully tap the sales potential of a book.
This strategy is also often seen in the film and television industry. For example, movies are always released before they are released on Blu-ray DVD. The income of movie theaters should be greater than the profits of video stores. Even the cost of hardcover book printing will be higher than softcover book printing. But, on average, the profits of publishing hardcover books are higher than publishing paperback books. So they still choose to print hardcover at first.
Movie buffs always want to see movies first in theaters with good acoustics. Just as book collectors want to get their hands on a beautiful hardcover book as soon as possible. From another point of view, libraries also prefer hardcover books. Because hardcover books are easier to preserve.
The publisher's editors are also careful. They will only publish a paperback edition when sales of the hardcover edition have begun to shrink significantly, but demand is relatively high. If a hardcover book is bestselling, publishers often delay releasing a paperback edition. Even if doing so threatens to stifle the book's sales potential.
But, the value of hardcover books is not only reflected in the profit level. A hardcover is a sign of quality. Hardcover is an expression of the publisher's intent to show booksellers, critics, and readers that this is a noteworthy book.
Why do publishers still publish hardcover books at a greater cost?
With competition from more affordable formats such as paperbacks, e-books and audio, will anyone still buy hardbacks?
As things stand, there's no sign of publishers ditching hardbacks: British hardcover novel sales rose 11% in 2017.
When e-books became popular more than a decade ago. Some experts suggested that the format of the book didn't matter. But they are wrong.
A beautiful hardcover book can bring pleasure. It is worth for cherishing, collecting and passing on. Readers will continue to pay for hardcover books, just as some people would rather pay to see a movie in theaters than on TV.
Maybe you will want to ask here, since the sales of hardcover books are still increasing year by year. Why does the entire paper book market still give people the feeling that it is dying?
The answer is that in the era of electronic reading. Perhaps it is more of a war between paperback books and e-books.
The advent of e-books threatens the market for paperbacks, which are closer in both release time and price. It's as if fewer people are buying DVDs, and people are going to watch them on video sites instead.
But hardcover books still have their regular consumer group. Just like the movie theater business doesn't seem to be affected too much.
"Nowadays, some paperbacks are not selling as well as hardcovers" said a report in The Economist.
Maybe people should have confidence that in this era. Paperbacks may shrink, but hardcovers and thick books will not die either.
Just like the famous Taiwanese book designer Chen Weishen once put forward. In the future, paper books will have new functions.
Yes, books will exist, but in a different form.
Maybe in the future, our judgment of a book will no longer be some simple abstract words. But the appearance of the whole book, the overall feeling, and the state of holding it in hand.
We have all seen how vinyl records turned into CDs. And now we see that CDs are eliminated and turned into MP3 downloads. But there are always a group of people in the world who want to listen to vinyl, so now record companies are still making vinyl. And only top-level music will anyone be willing to buy vinyl discs. Some people are willing to buy hardback book is not paperback, is the same reason.
