Is Hardback Windowing Costing Too Many Paperback Sales?

There was an interesting, but brief, article in The Bookseller today by an English bricks-and-mortar store manager who argues that hardback windowing is hurting overall sales, and that paperbacks should be released at the same time.

He feels that the blaze of publicity tends to accompany the hardback release, and many customers are unwilling to pay the price, and that by the time the paperback release happens, they have forgotten about the book. He states that "hardbacks, or rather delayed paperbacks, are killing bookshops".

He further argues that the release of the e-book at the same time as the hardback further confuses customers about why the paperback isn't available too, and is forcing customers online, and away from booksellers.

In the comments, one bookseller makes the point that the paperback release date is often unknown when the hardback is released, which customers are not happy about.

There was some pushback in another article in Teleread, where the writer argued that publishers have no choice, as they need the extra profit from the hardback, and no-one would buy the hardback if everything was released together. Although he does acknowledge that most hardbacks don't sell out their print runs then end up on discount tables, which does nothing for writers or publishers.

My personal opinion, is that the bookseller is right, that the superfans would buy the hardback anyway (and probably an e-book too), and that giving the customer as much choice as possible is the best way to maximise sales. Also, with the healthy margins for the larger publishers in e-books, there isn't as much logic in protecting the hardback sales anymore, not at the cost of overall sales.

The original article from The Bookseller is here. And the response is here.

What do you think? Is hardback windowing costing too many paperback sales? Should it be scrapped?

Dave

shaldna said:

BUT, I know that I've never paid full price for a HB, even the new releases that I buy are almost always on half price in teh chain stores, so a HB is costing the same as a PB.

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That's a very good point. I don't have a lot of money to throw around, and I spend too much on books as it is. So, for me at least, when I absolutely have to buy a hardback, it tends to be from a supermarket or somewhere else I can get it cheaply. Which again undercuts the logic for hardbacks in the first place (bigger profit for publisher, better royalties for writer).

Torgo said:

My feeling is if you chucked in the ebook with the hardback you might be able to charge a few bob more for the bundle.

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I know Cory Doctorow did that with his latest. Are there any (small/big) publishers doing the same?

(I think it's a great idea, but they might be too worried about piracy, unfortunately)

Torgo said:

I'm trying to persuade the people here that it'd work. I don't see the piracy angle, though? I mean, if it's out in ebook at all, it's pirated.

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I totally agree. I guess what I'm saying is some publishers might worry that the purchaser of the hardback would just give the "code" (or whatever you use to package the e-book with the hardback) to someone else, costing them a sale. And that free e-book could be cracked and.... you know the rest. I don't agree with it, I'm just wondering why they haven't done it yet.