I’m excited about the paperback edition of Women and the Piano coming out this Tuesday.
As you probably know, not all hardback books are subsequently released in paperback. It depends on the type of book, on the hardback sales, on the presumed size of the readership. If there has been substantial interest in a book, then a paperback edition gives everyone a second bite at the cherry.
I’ve heard one publisher say, however, that bringing out a paperback of a non-fiction book is basically an act of goodwill, because most sales are of hardbacks, and paperbacks don’t make much money. (We’re not talking here about thrillers or romantic fiction, of course, but about so-called ‘niche subjects’ like classical music.)
I am one of those who holds off from buying fiction in hardback and waits until it comes out in paperback, and I assume there are lots of people like me, so I’m hoping that my paperback might appeal to a new group of readers.
The cover (see picture) has some subtle changes from the hardback version. Font sizes, shapes and colours have changed; the subtitle ‘A History in Fifty Lives’ has disappeared from the front cover. Quotes from reviews have been added on the back cover and inside the book. It’s noted on the front that the book was one of the New Yorker’s ‘Best Books of the Year’ (the year 2024, that is). A detail I particularly like is that the pianist’s left hand is now resting on the ‘P’ of ‘Piano’.
All of which gives the paperback edition a nice ‘zing’ and makes me look forward to seeing it in bookshops. I’ll be signing some copies at Topping’s Bookshop in Edinburgh next week.
Good luck with your paperback edition. I sometimes wonder why books aren’t published first in paperback – I frequently find myself thinking “I’ll buy that when the paperback comes out”, but then it either doesn’t, or by that time I’ve forgotten about the book and miss seeing the paperback in shops. So in trying to force me to pay the hardback price the publisher loses my sale altogether. I also find paperbacks usually more comfortable to hold when reading. It’s an underappreciated format and deserves to be used more flexibly by publishers.
James, I agree with you about paperback format – whenever I’m looking for a book to take on a journey, I automatically avoid hardbacks and look for something light to put in a pocket or bag, so paperbacks work well for me. I believe some books (anticipated to be very popular) do come out straightaway in paperback, but publication in hardback first seems to be the general rule.