Just asking out of curiosity
There are so many really popular and praised series that would make bank if they were given a proper print run.
Plus it’s always nice to get new people reading a series
But these books haven’t had hardcover or paperback printings in years. Only either mass market paperback, or none at all
The first few series that come to mind are: the black company chronicles, Malazan book of the fallen, the Hyperion cantos, and the licanius trilogy
It makes no sense for publishers to not make new print runs of these series which are very much in demand
by Feisty-Treacle3451
4 Comments
It costs a lot of money to print a book and you can’t usually print a small number it’s usually in the thousands. So they usually wait until there is a want for it. Sometimes a movie/series coming out, a new story in a series, or the author wins some prestigious award.
Also while it may seem in high demand to you and your friends the demand needs to be significant and widespread.
Probably because it’s costly to print books, requiring a quantity that may not sell.
Why print something that would cost money when you can make an ebook for no cost and sell it for the same price.
I know that there’s still plenty of print readers out there but I imagine most focus in regards to physical media is for the new and trendy stuff or really absurdly popular media.
In the US, Hyperion got a trade paperback reprint. I’m not a fan of the cover (beige with some spirals, I think) so I was excited when I found the mass market version, not just because it was half the price but because the cover is cooler.
And, probably not the reprints you were hoping for, but I’ve noticed a trend in tiktok famous books getting hardcover reprint with stenciled/sprayed edges, new artwork, illustrated endpages, maps, illustrations, etc. I saw a special edition of The Poppy War at Barnes and Nobel that’s like $40.
Do you have market data that they are in demand? Just because you want it doesn’t mean it’s widely desired.
While there may be some blindness on the part of publishers to demand for a specific series, it’s highly unlikely they don’t have good data around projected earnings from such an approach. If there was enough money in it, it would likely happen. Keep in mind it’s not just that it’s profitable but it has to be worth the opportunity cost.
It is possible they have a blind spot and don’t have a good way to project demand based upon other sales (paperback/ebook), but that’s very unlikely. It’s also possible that their models don’t properly project demand of such runs because of inconsistencies in demand across books/genres, but still not super likely.