From Evolution to Revolution in Paperback Publishing—Part One

Writing just a few years ago in The New York Times Book Review (January 10, 1982), Edwin McDowell, publishing correspondent of the Times, discussed what he termed “The Paperback Evolution”: the substantive changes in paperback book publishing that had occurred in the nearly half century since the “paperback revolution” of the 1930s, when Robert DeGraff launched his enormously successful Pocket Books line and spawned a host of imitators of not only his products but of his pioneering, entrepreneurial distribution tactics—probably the biggest factor in the success of the Pocket Books line. A little more than three years later, McDowell wrote another column on paperbacks in the NYTBR (September 28, 1985), and this time he entitled his article “Turmoil in the Racks: The Second Paperback Revolution.” What had happened during that brief period that made him see this type of publishing going from “evolutionary” to “revolutionary,” and what implications does such radical change have for the library collection‐building process—if any? For answers to these questions, a look at paperback publishing, particularly mass market, over the last decade or so is in order.