Hard backs are here

Just thought I would let everyone know about the new move in self-publishing: Hard back books. Now, it was one of my requirements with my first book that I had a hard back option. I thus found a publisher that would produce a hard back. It did give me more of a aura of respect. Well, now EVERYONE seems to be offering hard backs.

In one way, it is good. The price of PoD (Print on Demand) now seems reasonable. Paying good money for a soft back seemed cheap, but when I received my recent independent books and received hard backs there was more of sense of value. Instead of the old library bound style: plain hardback with saddle-stitch spine covered with a paper overlay (that usually gets lost), the new hardbacks are printed hardstock (still looks like a saddle stitch spine). Being a gamer, I am used to the appearance, as game manuals have been printed like this for decades (my old first-edition D&D books were printed this way).

Note that when I say everyone is doing it, I, of course, mean all those I deal with. Having been working with independents for the last decade or so, I receive emails from most companies: PublishAmerica, AuthorHouse, Xlibris, Dorrance, Eloquent Books, and Strategic Book Publishing. Note that with my second and third book being done by PublishAmerica, I now have the option of having them printed in this manner.

I am not going to comment about it being the same crap on the inside, but instead mention that this could be good news for the independents. I have already mentioned that the value of independent books looks worthwhile as a hard back. Now, when one finds an author that actually is good, what you hand to another looks better than some odd-sized paperback. Note that for some reason independents cannot get their books printed as standard paperbacks, but only as larger 'trade paperbacks.' Actually the size of the hard backs are the same as the 'trade paperbacks,' but the size looks appropriate for hard backs. The reception of people to independents could thus now improve now that their product has improved (on the outside, still the same barely edited stuff on the inside).

Times are a-changin', and for once I believe it could be for the better. I am interested in how the 'established' publishers adjust to the new attack by independents. There is the hope that the bookstores will be more inclined to accept independent works, but I know that the shelves are bought by the big boys, so the bookstores have no (or very little) places to stock independents. Still, maybe the small bookstores that do tend to carry indepedents (because they are beneath the notice of the big publishers) will find their odd titles more presentable and thus easier to catch the eye of a customer.

Hmmm, Lulu.com has been offering hard backs for years, not that many authors opt for that format. I wonder if Lulu's growing popularity among self-published authors has more to do with the other guys coming around to them then any thing else.

Either way, I agree with you on the aura of respectability hard backs have. Or at least I agree that I feel the same way about them. I don't know about the larger market. With the Kindle and e-books in general becoming more and more popular I wonder sometimes if traditional publishing and bookstores aren't altogether dying animals. Sure, I believe, there will always be those who prefer physical paper and ink books and hard backs are clearly superior in this arena to paper backs, but if these companies don't at least offer an e-book format along with hard and paper back I think they're missing an even bigger boat then they were by not offering hard backs... and that's my two cents on the subject.