THE TAKEN: Format = bigger. Price? Not so much.

I had a friend contact me on Facebook recently regarding THE TAKEN being released in trade rather than mass market paperback, as was the Zodiac series. His preference was for mass market, and for that I'm sorry. I can promise the format takes nothing away from the text – but I understand about personal preferences, and I certainly understand about the bump in pricing being a concern for readers. I don't want pricing to keep you from getting a good read, so here's what I know about the move, some of which is a bit of an open secret in the publishing industry:

1) Very bluntly: mass market paperbacks are struggling. Most book buyers are consuming books at that price range on e-readers. You might not be one of them, but they're plentiful enough that mass market is facing a collapse. What does this mean for authors? You either get a bump into trade, or you come out as an e-original. See the squeeze? I feel fortunate to be on the trade side of that equation.

2) Also bluntly: though the trade paperback version of THE TAKEN is listed at $13.99 – and that's because it's a bigger, costlier (and IMHO, more beautiful) format to produce, even the listed prices at e-retailers is only $9.32. That's only one dollar and pennies more than the last in my Zodiac series, which came out in the smaller mass market format. Not that great of a difference after all.

3) Another good thing about moving into trade paperback is that I'm now able to be sold more easily into libraries. Borrowing from a library is great for All: libraries with patrons retain funding and keep their doors open, I get to earn a living and keep writing because my books are being purchased rather than stolen via illegal downloads, and you get THE TAKEN for free. (Libraries, FTW!)

So you can imagine how chuffed I was to hear that Harper's library department is featuring THE TAKEN as their SF/F read for the summer. (Here's the early word via Harper, if you're interested.)

All in all, let me just say that if you like my books, the move into trade pb is, overall, a positive one. The format is gorgeous, and it shows that support for the new series is there and growing. I don't know if it'll ever be released in mass market – my gut says no – but you can pick your poison between trade, audio, or e-reading, and those are all good options.

Here, btw, is your one-dimensional view of the book – less than three months away from release now. Open it in another window, and you'll see the full description and treatment … and a fantastic new cover quote from an author I auto-buy and adore … but that's a post for another time.