Books on the Nightstand discussion

On this episode, Michael's book he can't wait for us to read is Jodi Picoult's Leaving Time. The ebook for this is on sale on Amazon and iBooks (and probably elsewhere) for only $4.99 for a limited time. Same for All the Light You Cannot See if you haven't picked that up yet (which I hadn't, so I was so happy to see that!). Hope lots of you can grab some great deals!

Thanks for the tip. I've read All The Light We Cannot See and it is a wonderful book. Haven't read any Jodi Picoult ... so maybe this is my opportunity!

Thanks for the wonderful episode.

I have a question... I live in the UK and I recently read All The Light You Cannot See and I had a really hard time finding a hard cover in Waterstones (that's where I buy most of my books.) Since you talked about some books being released as Trade Paperback Originals or Premium Paperback Originals has this been released this way in the UK? I can find it hard cover in Amazon however the cover of the book is not the same (I think it is the US cover vs. the UK one.)

Thanks in advance!

-Bruno.

Oh, the UK is so different! I don't know the current state of publishing there, but 15 years ago when I visited, it was apparent that many books were issued there in trade paperback originals. It's possible that's still the case.

are there certain books destined to never reach paperback? i have been hunting for of katie roiphe's collection of essays, in praise of messy lives (2012) and monica trasandes's novel, broken like this (2012) since last year. i tried ordering the paperback version of katie's book from a third party seller on amazon, only to find out that it was just a mislabeled hard cover copy. :(

Adore wrote: "are there certain books destined to never reach paperback? i have been hunting for of katie roiphe's collection of essays, in praise of messy lives (2012) and monica trasandes's novel, broken like ..."

Yes, it does happen occasionally. Usually when the hardcover does not sell well, and the publisher does not think that they will get enough copies of the paperback out into the marketplace. Retailers tend to buy based on the performance of the author's previous book or the hardcover (if it is a paperback they are thinking about).

thanks, ann. i didn't realize that sales could be a factor in hardcovers not transitioning to paperbacks.

I should say that it also works the other way -- if the hardcover is selling very well, the publisher may choose to delay the release of the paperback. When this happens, it can sometimes be 2-3 years before the paperback comes out.