Perry Mason Part II

In my last post I introduced the Pocket editions of Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason novels. From 1940 until 1977 Pocket published all 82 novels in nearly 900 printings. The first decade's covers are illustrated. From 1950 to 1957 most of the covers are photographs. From 1958 to 1964 they are illustrated and after 1964 photographs again.

The photograph covers are, by and large, awful. The 1958 to 1964 illustrated covers are among the best ever produced in US paperbacks. Here are three by the one of the best of the best. Robert McGinnis is still working at 92 - see Hard Case Crime.

Pocket 4505 - July 1962 - 8th printing

Pocket 4519 - May 1963 - 4th printing

Pocket 4521 - July 1963 - 4th printing

Perry Mason Part I

Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970) wrote over 140 books in a 38 year career. Eighty-six of the books were novels with his most famous character, Perry Mason. My focus in this blog will be the astonishing fact that every one of those novels was published in paperback by Pocket Books. This may be the longest, and most profitable, publishing relationship of this sort. 

The first, The Case of the (TCOT) Velvet Claws, was published in 1933 with Pocket's edition dating from 1940. The last, TCOT Postponed Murder, was published posthumously in 1973, the Pocket following in 1974.

The 82 novels were reprinted many times by Pocket. I estimate there are around 900 printings. The covers on the reprints show the changing approach to catching the reader's attention at the drugstore. Some are awful and, I will argue in a later post, some are the best ever produced. For example - 

Pocket 223 - 1st printing - May 1943

art by H. Lawrence Hoffman

Pocket 223 - 21st printing - January 1948

art by Paul Kinnear

Pocket 242 - 16th printing - July 1953

Photograph cover

Pocket C-378 - 1st printing - November 1959

art by Charles Binger

Pocket Books at 75

Last June Pocket Books celebrated the 75th anniversary of mass market publishing in North America. The ad in the June 19th NY Times, promoting the first 10 Pocket Books, read:

"Today is the most important literary coming-out party in the memory of New York’s oldest book lover. Today your 25 cent piece leaps to a par with dollar bills….These new Pocket Books are designed to fit both the tempo of our times and the needs of New Yorkers….Never again need you say “I wish I had time to read” because Pocket Books gives you the time….The books you have always meant to read “when you had time” will fill the waits with enjoyment."

I'm surprised by how little press the anniversary received. Pocket Books has done next to nothing to promote, aside from a logo noting the event. Perhaps their embarrassed by the quality of the product. Below is an example. Horrible book. The acknowledgements section names 46 people that helped produce the book. At least Gertrude remains.

Interesting to note that the price of paperbacks has gone up 40 fold in 75 years while the average hardcover's price is up only 10 fold.

 

Pocket - June 2014

 

Pocket June 2014 back

 

June 2014 logo

 

Pocket 16 - September 1939

 

Pocket 16 back

 

Pocket 33 - January 1940

 

Pocket 33 back

 

Pocket 1939 logo

LA Bantam - Why 10 cents? Part II

Part I introduced the mystery of how Bantam Publications made a profit selling its books for 10 cents at a time when other mass market paperbacks sold for 25 cents. Here I'll look more closely at the economics of early paperbacks. A quote from page 369 of A History of Book Publishing in the US Volume IV: The Great Change, 1940 - 1980 (New York: Bowker, 1981) by John Tebbel provides the background:

"Pocket Books, along with everyone else, had to struggle against rising wartime costs, but for paperback reprinters it was an even more serious matter. Out of each quarter paid for books, 7 cents went to the retailer (9.5 cents if the buyer bought in quantities), another penny went to the author and the original publisher, while 10.5 cents went for production. That left 4 to 6 1/4 cents for selling, shipping and overhead. Because it cost 15 percent more to manufacture a Pocket Book at the end of 1941 than it had at the beginning ... shrewed manoeuvring was required to stay in business on the original twenty-five cent basis."

The period discussed by Tebbel is exactly when Bantam was publishing - 1940 and '41. Notice the range for costs is 22.5 to 27.25 cents. Even assuming that an entire print run sold profit was likely in the 1/2 cent to 1 cent range.

Pocket Books published in the 100,000s and its manufacturing costs were 10.5 cents. Bantam's print runs had to be less, yet the unit cost had to somehow be much less than 10.5 cents to be profitable. Also 7 to 9.5 cents to a retailer wouldn't have been supported by a 10 cent price and the other costs had to be much less than 5 to 7 1/4 cents.

However it was done one has to assume that Bantam expected to make a profit but it is hard to imagine any more than a penny per book. Given the scarcity of the books today print runs were likely in the 20,000 range. So, assuming once again the entire print run sold, profit per book would have been at best $200. At 29 books this works out to some $6,000 total profit. Even in 1940 this would not have justified starting the business.

I'll end with a Pocket and a Bantam book.

Pocket 97 - 1941

Pocket 97 back

LA Bantam 26

LA Bantam 26 back

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.

Pocket 11 - 1939

Pocket 11 back

Avon 68 - 1945

Avon 68 back

Dell 101 - 1946

Dell 101 back

Popular 17 - 1943

Popular 17 back