Word: paperbacked
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...read their books. McGraw-Hill turned out 662 last year, Doubleday & Co. 650, Harper & Row 633, Prentice-Hall 449, Holt, Rinehart & Winston 345 and Random House 421. They all print text-and reference books, as well as children's books, which are dependable moneymakers. Their profitable textbook and paperback operations enable them to gamble on adult trade books-which as a rule lose money. Random House President Robert Bernstein estimates that 60% of adult trade books end up in the red, another 36% break even, and only 4% turn a decent profit...
...surplus is remaindered-sent back to the publisher, who is lucky to get 300 a copy from the remainder bookstores, which deal in such wrong guesses. Multiplied many times over, this is the true picture of the adult book business which, except for the appearance of the paperback, has not changed its ways appreciably in 50 years...
...printing plants, like Kingsport Press in Tennessee, one of the largest in the U.S. The sheer bulk of books retards their progress; jobbers have only so much storage, and can be poky about emptying their warehouses to make room for new consignments. To meet some topical demand, however, a paperback...
...unprecedented affluence for writers. A sale of 5,000 hard-cover copies at $5.95 will net the author only $2,975, at the royalty rate of 10% ; the percentage rises with book sales. This is not a great deal for a year or two of work. But paperback income-of which the author's share is 50% or more-can often amount to $20,000 even for a modest seller. And with successful books and name authors, five and six figures are common. Author James Jones got $800,000 against the paperback sales of three of his novels-none...
...that all that lettuce is not good for writers-besides being a lot of trouble for publishers. "Novelists are subsidized," says President Edward E. Booher of McGraw-Hill. "My trade editors have to run around constantly just to keep up with the big writers-getting big movie deals, big paperback deals. We pay them big money, and then we don't know whether their books are going to sell...