So may memories of summer vacations with backpacks full of books. And then there was this part, Lisa Williams: The mass-market has always implied a certain kind of disposability. Just read the message on the title page of most mass-markets: “If this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as ‘unsold or destroyed’ and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it.” Why is that message there? Because mass-markets are so cheap that it’s not worth it for a bookstore to pay shipping to return unsold copies to the publisher; they’re so flimsy that it’s not worth a publisher’s while to receive thumbed-through, un-resellable mass-markets in a box. So when a mass-market doesn’t sell, unlike with a hardcover, the store doesn’t return the book for credit with the publisher. It rips off the front cover and sends that in. The rest of the book goes in the dumpster—or, perhaps, is [taken home to feed the addictions of the book-obsessed teenagers] by...employees.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 14:36:02 +0000
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