R.I.P. MASS MARKET PAPERBACKS

Hello, monster kids! I'm back from a much-needed vacation (what vacation isn't?). My wife and I flew down to Los Angeles and took a Princess Cruise to Mexico with stops at Cabo San Lucas (home to the Tijuana Cartel), Mazatlan (home to the Sinaloa Cartel) and Puerto Vallarta (home to the Jalisco Cartel). No obvious signs of any criminal activity, but it was a little startling to see Mexican marines on guard at Cabo armed with automatic rifles. Still, it wasn't enough to make me fearful.

I met four family members on board and had a great time. Mexico wasn't my first choice for a cruise, but my sister-in-law had it planned way ahead of time. In any event, it was good to get out of the northwest freezing weather and someplace where it was in the 80's. Of course, when we landed at SeaTac it was raining (no surprise there). Got back in time to watch the Seahawks win spectacularly in the Super Bowl. I hope you enjoyed Weird Comics Week in the meantime.

Now, on to my latest rant.

I've lived long enough to see a lot of changes in the book industry, some of them good, some not so good and some that are just tragic. Let me elaborate . . .

Well, here goes another beloved tradition down the toilet. The glory days of the mass market paperback will soon fade into memory sometime this year. You may notice in the following article that they were "designed with affordability in mind". Now I can only say that they are designed with higher profits in mind. Even though trade paperbacks are made with a considerably higher amount of better quality paper, I don't see that the move is value added for consumers. I also attribute the decision to the rise of Kindle and other e-formats as described below.

I will miss these handy little books as much as I've missed everything else that has disappeared into obsolescence. One thing for sure, you won't be able to call paperbacks "pocket books" anymore.

Mass Market Paperbacks are discontinued

Publishers Weekly last month reported that ReaderLink, the largest full-service distributor of hardcover, trade, and paperback books to booksellers in North America, stopped distributing mass market paperbacks at the end of 2025.

By Michael Kozlowski | January 25, 2026 | Goodreader.com

Mass market paperback books are being phased out and will soon be discontinued. Publishers Weekly reported that ReaderLink, the largest distributor of hardcover, trade, and paperback books to booksellers in North America stopped distributing mass market paperbacks at the end of 2025.

Mass-market paperbacks are usually about 5-by-7 inches, printed on lower-quality materials, and designed with affordability in mind. Trade paperbacks, on the other hand, are a bit larger and use higher-quality paper, making them more durable.

The apex of mass market paperback adoption was the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. With a lower price point, sales of mass market paperbacks “easily dwarfed” those of hardcover and trade paperbacks. Mass-market paperbacks were popular in stores like K-Mart, airports, big-box retailers, and grocery stores, where they normally retailed for $5 to $7 and got people into reading.

“Those who were deeply involved with the boom years of mass market paperbacks consider that period an important one for publishing and reading,” Esther Margolis, a former Bantam executive, said in the story. “I believe that mass market paperbacks democratized America. Books and reading became popular in a way never before seen.

There are a few reasons mass-market paperbacks are no longer being published.  The first is the gradual disappearance of paperback racks and other displays in drugstores and supermarkets, and the explosive growth of chain bookstores whose bookshelves are devoted to hardcovers and paperbacks.

The second is the decline of book departments at big-box stores like Walmart and Costco, where mass-market paperbacks failed to be profitable.

Finally, e-books have been popular for over 15 years, and they are released on the same day as a hardcover edition, so digital readers don’t have to wait over a year to save some money.

You only have to look at the overall publishing market in the United States in 2025. In the first eleven months of the year, Mass Market sales were down 26.2% and totaled $81 million. At the same time, normal paperback novel sales were $2.9 billion in revenue.

Do you have any fond memories of mass market paperbacks? I remember being at Safeway in the 90’s and them having a large selection of Hardy Boys and science fiction in mass-market paperbacks. Since they were so inexpensive, I would normally get a few books and devour them. The quality wasn’t good in the long term; books tended to yellow within a few years, whereas traditional paperbacks remained pristine over a decade.

BUD PLANT SELLS HIS WEBSTORE

Bud Plant, owner of Bud's Art Books announced last year that he was retiring in 2026 at the age of 73. In a recent blog post, Plant wrote that he had sold his business to long-time friend Bill Schanes.

I have been a customer of Bud's fine establishment for many years and I'm sad to see him go. I hope that Mr. Schanes doesn't decide to re-invent the wheel after he takes over which happens so often when a business changes hands.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Bud's Art Books, it is one of the most valuable sources for books about art, comics and just about anything else that is printed regarding the topics we all enjoy. Visit the sight by clicking on the sidebar on the right column of this blog.

This message was published on his blog:

A press release has just gone out announcing that this business, as of February 1, will now be owned by a new corporation co-owned by William “Bill” Schanes and Sasha Fera-Schanes, who currently co-manages Pop-King Inc., an eBay store, with her father Steve Schanes, Bill's brother.

Our staff will remain the same. New to us is Marty Grosser, former 37-year head editor of Diamond Previews, stepping into my duties here. He’ll be choosing new items to handle, editing descriptions, recommending items, putting together the weekly eblast, editing the print catalog and so on. I (Bud) have been working with Marty to get him up to speed for several weeks now.

I will remain on board on a part-time basis over February and March to see that the transition runs smoothly and to help out wherever I can.

Many of you will know Bill Schanes; Bill was Vice President of Purchasing for Diamond Comics for 30 years; he retired 13 years ago to take time off and travel. Bill and the Schanes family started and ran the legendary Pacific Comics—publisher of comics, portfolios and books, and an early comics distributor. I (Bud) acquired their distribution arm in 1985. You may recall they were first to publish Dave Stevens and The Rocketeer, Jack Kirby’s creator-owned titles and much, much more.

Bill has no lack of experience in this industry, and he and I have been friends since he started out in the industry in the mid-1970s—he’s several years younger than I am. Bill was also integral in the sale of my own distribution business to Diamond Comics in 1988, after which I went back to direct-to-customer retailing which is where this brings us to today. – Bud

CREEPY NO. 10 (PART 2)