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Joyland trade - 2013
Joyland trade back
Joyland limited - 2013
Joyland limited back
Dell 63 - [c. 1943]
Dell 63 back
Showing posts with label Dell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dell. Show all posts
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Hard Case Crime Part I
The latest release from the folks at Titan Publishing and Hard Case Crime is a hit, thanks to the name of the author: Stephen King. In addition to the trade PBO Joyland has been issued in three limited editions, all but the cheapest (unsigned) sold out. The limited is a hard cover with a few nice features. The artist is the venerable Robert McGinnis with the front cover and nine internal illustrations. The back cover is a fun recreation of an early Dell "map-back". An original map-back can be seen below.
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Friday, October 1, 2010
LA Bantam - 10 cents Revisited Part II
Part I discussed another series of paperbacks that sold for 10 cents published by Dell. Like many LA Bantam books, all but four of the Dells had been published earlier but not in book form. Three had appeared previously in separate book form and one was a paperback original. Here are two more from the series. They are among the most recognizable and expensive of vintage paperbacks.
Marihauna first appeared in the May 3, 1941 edition of Detective Fiction Weekly. The Case of the Dancing Sandwiches was first published in Mystery Book Magazine Summer 1950.
Marihauna first appeared in the May 3, 1941 edition of Detective Fiction Weekly. The Case of the Dancing Sandwiches was first published in Mystery Book Magazine Summer 1950.
Dell 10 cent series 11
Dell 10 cent series 33
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
LA Bantam - 10 cents Revisited Part I
I've discussed LA Bantam's 10 cents price in a couple of posts (parts I and II) and don't have anything to add about LA Bantam. But I thought it would be interesting to see other examples of publishers selling paperbacks for less than the standard 25 cents.
The best known American example is Dell Publishing Company, Inc. of New York and their 10 cents series from 1951. They were described by the publisher as "a pocket-sized book at a price of 10 [cents] each." The trim size was equal to Dell regular books but the page count was considerably less at 64 pages. The 36 book experiment shows that even a large successful publisher couldn't sell profitably at 10 cents. But at least by clearly marking the books as 10 cents Dell didn't make the same mistake as Bantam.
The best known American example is Dell Publishing Company, Inc. of New York and their 10 cents series from 1951. They were described by the publisher as "a pocket-sized book at a price of 10 [cents] each." The trim size was equal to Dell regular books but the page count was considerably less at 64 pages. The 36 book experiment shows that even a large successful publisher couldn't sell profitably at 10 cents. But at least by clearly marking the books as 10 cents Dell didn't make the same mistake as Bantam.
Dell 10 cent 18
Dell 10 cent 18 back
Dell 10 cent 36
Dell 10 cent 36 back
Thursday, April 22, 2010
LA Bantam - Book Content
A break from looking at individual books. I want to compare the 29 Bantam Publications books with the early books that its competitors published. Bantam was the third US mass market paperback publisher after Pocket and the short lived Red Arrow. Three other large publishers, Avon (1941), Dell (1943) and Popular Library (1943) started within a year or two after Bantam quit. An analysis of the first 30 books of the four publishers shows :
crime/mystery/thriller 72 (60%) [Pocket 4 books, Avon 14, Dell 24 and Popular 30]
popular 23 (19%) [Pocket 10, Avon 9, Dell 5]
classic 10 (8%) [Pocket 9, Avon 1]
rest fiction and non fiction 15 (13%)
Interesting to note that the first publisher, Pocket, had the smallest crime/thriller/mystery group (13%), the next, Avon, larger (47%) and the last two, Dell and Popular, nearly 100%.
Bantam is similar with crime/mystery/thriller the highest fiction category at 8 (28%) but after that Bantam looks very different. Non fiction is the largest category with 11 (38%) and the other fiction is a mix - 3 pulp, 1 western, 2 children, 2 collections of poems, 1 anthology and 1 popular.
At 100 pages Bantam fiction was largely limited to collections, short novels or abridgements - quite different from the other publishers who had a total of 5 anthologies or single author collections. The other publishers had, in total, less than half (5) of Bantam's non fiction count (11).
Enough numbers. More on content in future posts. Here are early books from each of the publishers.
crime/mystery/thriller 72 (60%) [Pocket 4 books, Avon 14, Dell 24 and Popular 30]
popular 23 (19%) [Pocket 10, Avon 9, Dell 5]
classic 10 (8%) [Pocket 9, Avon 1]
rest fiction and non fiction 15 (13%)
Interesting to note that the first publisher, Pocket, had the smallest crime/thriller/mystery group (13%), the next, Avon, larger (47%) and the last two, Dell and Popular, nearly 100%.
Bantam is similar with crime/mystery/thriller the highest fiction category at 8 (28%) but after that Bantam looks very different. Non fiction is the largest category with 11 (38%) and the other fiction is a mix - 3 pulp, 1 western, 2 children, 2 collections of poems, 1 anthology and 1 popular.
At 100 pages Bantam fiction was largely limited to collections, short novels or abridgements - quite different from the other publishers who had a total of 5 anthologies or single author collections. The other publishers had, in total, less than half (5) of Bantam's non fiction count (11).
Enough numbers. More on content in future posts. Here are early books from each of the publishers.
Pocket 11 - 1939
Pocket 11 back
Avon 68 - 1945
Avon 68 back
Dell 101 - 1946
Dell 101 back
Popular 17 - 1943
Popular 17 back
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