[HPforGrownups] OotP not to be in paperback???

[Kriselda Jarnsaxa]

No: HPFGUIDX 57292

mmemalkin recently mentioned:

>I was in a Border's Bookstore today and was told by the clerk that
>books 5-7 will never be issued in paperback, and that the seventh
>book will be issued only as part of a boxed set.  I find all that
>very hard to believe, but wondered what anyone else has heard?

I've not heard anything, but one of the reasons that books come out in 
paperback is because they're much cheaper to produce, and sell considerably 
more copies than the hardback copy does.  I can't imagine that any 
publisher would want to cut into the potential market for a book like OoP 
or the other HP books by refusing to publish them in paperback, nor does it 
seem likely that they'd release book 7 ONLY as part of a boxed set.

One thing publishers have to keep in mind is that if customers refuse to 
purchase a copy of a book, but wish to read it anyway, they can always get 
it from the library, or buy it second hand.  Because those options are both 
legal and widely used, it is not in a publisher's best interest to make a 
potentially popular book too difficult to purchase.  I know that film 
companies often priced video tape copies of movies extremely high, so that 
the tape would get a lot of rental business before reducing the price for 
sales, but that was because they get a portion of the rental fees each time 
the movies is checked out, so it was in their interest to maximize those 
profits as much as possible.  When a book is checked out of a library, 
however, the book company gets nothing - same if its sold 2nd hand - so 
their only route to earning money is to sell as many copies as they can in 
any number of format...

Now, I would think that they may delay releasing the paperbacks of the last 
three books for a while, to maximize the number of hardback copies they can 
sell - but I can't see them just never releasing paperback at all.

As I said, though, I've not heard anything specific, and this is just my 
speculation....

Kriselda


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