Books - hardback or paperback?

What kind of books do you prefer? Hardback or paperback?

Paperback is esier to read and lug about and stick in a pocket. Hardback is good to throw at people.

I love hardbacks if it's a new book by a favourite author. I'll also buy second-hand/rare hardbacks of a particular type of book/by a certain author/etc. I'm a big fan of.

is it the norm that the hardbacks come out before the paperbacks kts? I prefer paperbacks for the reasons damien specified, but I'm waiting on a book at the moment and it doesn't look like the paperback edition is going to be out for at least 6 months after the hardback

A lot of books are released firstly as hardbacks and a few months later in paperbeack form RBJ. If you check the Review section of most papers there is a seperate review section for latest paperback publications. It's all about lining the publishers' pockets.

quoteOriginally posted by Killing the Shadows
I love hardbacks if it's a new book by a favourite author. I'll also buy second-hand/rare hardbacks of a particular type of book/by a certain author/etc. I'm a big fan of.


Yes, almost always. In Ireland, if it's a popular book, it's normally a 3-step process hardback, then trade paperback (the same size as a hardback), then paperback. As Amnesiac said, lining the publishers' pockets - that's what it's all about.

A regular (non-trade) paperback usually comes out 6 - 10 months after the paperback; if it's a very popular title (i.e., a Harry Potter/Stephen King etc.) it can be 12 months or more.

KTS

P.S. RBJ, if you let me know the book, I can check and see when it's due out. [)]

It's neal stephenson - quicksilver. amazon.co.uk give a paperback as may 2004 (as opposed to confirmed late sep/early oct 2003 for hardback) and amazon.co.uk estimates are usually wildy optimistic.

You can always try the blackmarket. I'm a massive William Gibson fan and I got one of the advanced publishers copies of his latest book back in November. It cost me 25 quid or so but it wasn't released til Feb/March this year.

Do a search on Ebay. I did and theres one copy of it out there already. Its pretty expensive though.

yeah I saw that. the hardback edition's only a month and a half away, I have plenty of books to keep me going that long, not worth going to the hassle of dealing with ebay for. I got totally screwed over by ebay in the past, the company even launched a complaint process against me even thoug h I was the one being screwed over.

We get loads of these at work, advanced copies - i.e., uncorrected proofs. They're cool.

weirdly enough, looking at the publisher for my particular book, the publisher who is bringing out the paperback in 2004 isn't publishing the book in hardback at all (and that's the publisher who publishes most of the books by the author). Looks like the 2 who are publishing the book in hardback have bought out the rights or something. Bastards.

Ah the joys of watching one of your favourite authors reaching heights of popularity [p]

I've recently gotten into collecting hardback editions from several years back of all my favourite novels, I find ebay and local secondhand bookshops ok for this sort of thing, but the best by far is amazon marketplace on amazon.co.uk. I've never had a problem, it's always been perfect for me. And you can get them really cheaply as well, fifteen or ten euros at most for a lot of them. I even got a really good deal on a signed limited-edition Straub novel - 60 dollars on ebay! Excellent, collecting signed books is another hobby, but less of a one as it is more expensive!

Neither

virtual copy all the way ^_^

Hardback so I can keep it in a case till the author dies [0]

Paper back to read the actual book and to smack people out of me way with

If it's an author I like, e.g. Edmund White, Michael Cunningham, I'll buy the hardback. Otherwise, it's mostly softback.

either. I'm not fussed as long as its a good book!