Friday, December 1, 2017

The Growing Popularity Of Softcover Booklet

By Mary Wright


Reading has over time become a favorite pass time for many with books being found everywhere from the bookshops and along the streets. For writers, however, getting to reach their target audience is the biggest hurdle. Printing and publishing costs take the biggest portion of the budget. Hardcover books are expensive to produce, and most writers are now opting for softcover booklet.

While paperback books are covered in soft, easily bent paper, hardcover books are covered with heavy paper covered with a piece of cloth. Printers began using paperbacks in the 19th century, and it was mostly used for reprinting previously printed books. These books would then be sold for a price lower than the original print at a variety of places.

Most of them were produced in large numbers and were known as the mass paperback. Among these copies, some did not get buyers and were returned to the printer who would make the inside pages into pulp and produce more paper. Books that got to readers with their covers absent showed, that the writer had not received money for them.

The first original print in paperback was produced in the 1950s. With time, more original books had reprints. Most of these were by upcoming authors as it did not necessitate a lot of investment. The popularity of the books grew as they were cheaper to produce and buy, took relatively less time to produce and was widely available.

While writing a book to be printed with a paperback, the writer edits the first page and last as the front cover and back cover respectively. The second page and second last pages are the inner sides of the cover for the front and the back respectively. Depending on the writer choice soft covers can be thicker than interior pages or similar to other pages. The thicker pages have extra durability though they are a bit expensive comparatively.

Production of hardcover books results in a relatively high-profit margin. Therefore printers attempt to create a balance for writers between the two by producing more paperback books, this serves to seal the gap. During production, the paperback books can either be mass market or trade paperbacks.

Once printed, the pages of the book have to be bound together. The writer can choose to have their books saddle stitched, perfect bound or spiral coil bound. Saddle stitching is easy and is done by neatly arranging the papers then folding them and creating a mark in the middle then stapling with a stapler design for it. Perfect bound books are virtually everywhere and are bound by gluing sections of the book to a heavier cover at the spine. In-spiral coil binding, the coil is usually the spine of the book and is attached to holes in the pages which are punched by the same machine that does the binding.

There was once a phase when some publishers criticized paperback books saying their diminished the entire structure of printing. Paperback booklets however despite all these have gained popularity among writers and are now go to for writers without finances who are yet to gain ground. The books have also become loved by many readers.




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