Slashdot Mirror
Tiny Books Fit in One Hand. Will They Change the Way We Read? (nytimes.com)
Several readers have shared a report about publishing industry's new gamble to drive people to buy physical copies of books: making the books much tinier. From the report: As a physical object and a feat of technology, the printed book is hard to improve upon. Apart from minor cosmetic tweaks, the form has barely evolved since the codex first arose as an appealing alternative to scrolls around 2,000 years ago. So when Julie Strauss-Gabel, the president and publisher of Dutton Books for Young Readers, discovered "dwarsliggers" -- tiny, pocket-size, horizontal flipbacks that have become a wildly popular print format in the Netherlands -- it felt like a revelation. "I saw it and I was like, boom," she said. "I started a mission to figure out how we could do that here." This month, Dutton, which is part of Penguin Random House, began releasing its first batch of mini books, with four reissued novels by the best-selling young-adult novelist John Green. The tiny editions are the size of a cellphone and no thicker than your thumb, with paper as thin as onion skin. They can be read with one hand -- the text flows horizontally, and you can flip the pages upward, like swiping a smartphone. It's a bold experiment that, if successful, could reshape the publishing landscape and perhaps even change the way people read. Next year, Penguin Young Readers plans to release more minis, and if readers find the format appealing, other publishers may follow suit.
I would need MAGNIFICATION to read a "tiny" book, as would most people over 50.
This was done previous with Armed_Services_Editions, meant to provide compact books for soldiers in WWII.
An interesting idea but I don't see this enticing many people away from the traditional paperback form factor which is already a nice size.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This just seems like another gimmick to inflate the price. This book actually uses less resources to make than a standard paperback, so you'd think it should cost less, right? But no, it costs more!
"The mini versions of Mr. Green’s novels — “Looking for Alaska,” “An Abundance of Katherines,” “Paper Towns” and “The Fault in Our Stars” — will be sold for $12 each,"
Take 'The Fault in Our Stars' which they are offering in this tiny less-expensive-to-make format for $12!! What a deal! The hardback is currently about $12, the paperback about $7.50 and the kindle format is $10. So basically a hardback price with a paperback production cost.
From Wikipedia:
A mass-market paperback is a small, usually non-illustrated, inexpensive bookbinding format. This includes the U.K. A-format books of 110 mm x 178 mm (4.3 in x 7.0 in) and the U.S. "pocketbook" format books of a similar size.
That gives an area of 30 square inches. From TFA:
Picador released mini books by Denis Johnson, Jeffrey Eugenides, Hermann Hesse and Marilynne Robinson -- the tiny editions are 5 13/16 inches tall by 3 11/16 inches wide -- to celebrate the imprintâ(TM)s 20th anniversary.
That is 21.4 square inches. So it's 1/3 smaller than a current small paperback. Possibly useful, but not revolutionary.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I'm from Holland and I've never even seen one.
The people claiming they are "wildly popular" are the people trying to sell them. So they have a self-interest in exaggerating.
I have a Dutch friend. I sent her a link to this story, and she said she has never seen one, or even heard of them before, although she also admits she would have no interest in the titles currently published in this format (mostly chick-fiction (trashy novels)).
Now back to my e-reader...
Indeed. I see no advantage of this format over etext, and several obvious disadvantages.