A memo to HarperCollins (UPDATED)

To the fine folks at HarperCollins,

Please don't take this as a personal criticism. After all, I have enjoyed many fine books you have published by many fine authors. Some of them I even count as friends, or at the very least, friendly acquaintances. Your publicity department is one of the best, and you employ many hardworking editors who fall in love with books and then want them to sell to as many people as possible.

But on one thing, you fall down. And I found this out late last night as I browsed one of my local Chapters bookshops.

I walked over to the "new releases" shelf, and saw a copy of Jennifer Haigh's BAKER TOWERS. Hmm, I thought, I want to read this. Looks good. What's this? It's out in trade paperback? How can this be? It topped the Booksense list! It just got a great review from La Maslin! What's a major release doing in trade pbo? I was confused.

Then I looked over and saw Michael Gruber's VALLEY OF BONES in a similar edition. I grew suspicious, perused the back cover, and saw the words that pissed me off: International Edition.

I'm sorry, but what market research determined that Canada should only get knockoff editions instead of the real hardcovers? What about the collectors? Do you want us poor people to have to go to Amazon and order the hardcovers instead of settling for these paltry (albeit handsome looking) "international editions"?

It's one thing for the UK publishers to do it. That's a question of Commonwealth vs. North America. But why get on that bandwagon and make us poor Canadians even more confused about what edition is available?

But I guess this is a trend. How sad. I shall mourn the loss of the pretty hardcovers adorning the new releases table, replaced by impostors.

Bah.

Sincerely yours,

Sarah Weinman

UPDATE, 3:30 PM EDT: If anyone's seen that strip from Peanuts where Linus shouts "rain, rain go away, come again some other day!" and it stops, well, you might get an inkling as to how I feel at the moment. Although my raving has provoked a very interesting response from Kevin Hanson at HarperCollins Canada, which appears after the jump.

I read your comments about trade paperback editions replacing hardcovers on select books in Canada with interest.

We, at HarperCollins Canada, have been introducing "a very select number" of books in original trade paperback formats as a way to make them more financially accessible to Canadians. Over the past number of years, hardcover prices have increased so dramatically, in part because of currency, that many people have decided not to purchase them for less well known authors. The original trade paperback is a way to make trying out new authors more affordable. Typically, the hardcover is also available but in more limited quantities for collectors and those, who like you, prefer the original hardcover. You can source hardcovers, for example, on-line if you choose.

As the Canadian dollar appreciates against the US dollar, as it has been doing, the spread in price between original hardcovers between the two markets will diminish naturally, and any trend towards trade paperback originals will fade as well.

Although the reasoning makes sense, I wonder why such a program wasn't implented back in 2002, when the Canadian dollar was struggling to reach 65 cents against the American one (unlike its current 80 cents or thereabouts.) Granted, the industry can't snap to instant judgment, but it does seem like a bit of a catch-up response.

Still, no doubt the fluctuating dollar has really played havoc with the industry, especially in Canada, and this is just one way to get around it and still keep potential readers buying.

And one last thing: it was never my intention to malign trade paperbacks, originals or reprints. One need only look at my essay from last year to see how I feel about the format.

Comments

[Mary]

Don't know much about the hardcover vs trade pbo situation in Canada. But it does bring to mind a general Canada/US question. Its always mystified my why we don't hear more about Canadian authors in the US. We certainly get quite a bit of the UK authors but you don't really hear much about Canada.

I wish there were more outlets for this sort of thing. Here in NYC we have a program called Upper North Side (http://www.uppernorthside.com/) that publicizes all sorts of Canadian Culture (music, books, art, plays, etc). But I don't know how many people know about it.

Mary, resident Canadaphile (is that a real word?)

[Jenny D]

Hmm... interesting... didn't respond at the time, but just followed Ron's link back here to see the e-mail sequel. I love those international paperbacks! And it's exactly what that HarperCollins person says. Basically, I'm in Heathrow and looking for stuff to read on the way home to NY & there are lots of books I wouldn't pay full-price hardcover for but am willing to spring for the weird large-format PB (examples that come to mind: Sebastian Faulks, "On Green Dolphin St."; Vikram Seth, "An Unequal Music" (or whatever that book was called--it wasn't quite that, but something along those lines); and several Elizabeth George new releases. Thanks for clearing this up for me...