Publishing Small Pocket-sized Books

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Pocket Books publishing is the act of publishing small pocket sized paper back books, or bringing these books to market for public view.  Pocket books were the first massively marketed books in America.  These books were small, pocket sized, paperback books that were primarily non-fiction.   Some of the first companies to utilize pocket books publishing were Simon and Schuster and Penguin Books. 

There were a number of strategic benefits to pocket books.  First of all, they were much smaller and easier to transport than the more bulkier hardback books that were prevalent before these books came out.  They were cheaper to make and thus could be sold for a cheaper price to the public.  These books were the lovechild of the newspaper and the hardback novel.  Now, Americans could buy a book without paying extensive amounts of money, consume the book, and come back again the next week, while spending a minimal amount of money on this form of entertainment.  The books were also initially glued instead of stitched, which saved a considerable amount of time and money in the production process.

Pocket books publishing took off in World War II due to material shortages that prevented other media types from being used as extensively.  Other imitator companies begun to spring up, creating similar miniature sized books that were paperback and small.  Pocket books are well known for their publishing of major television series books such as Star Trek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

Today pocket books publishing is an industry wide phenomenon.  There are all genres of pocket books, and many times if there is a series of books, they are usually printed in the typical pocket books style.  Children's horror novels such as RL Stine's books took off in the 90's as a popular pocket books format.  The Harry Potter books, although not smaller in size, are somewhat based upon a pocket books publishing format.  These books are part of a series that is printed in paperback, non-fictional, targeted toward a particular audience (children), and highly marketed.

These books are not too expensive and are found in nearly every home.  The pocket books publishing tradition therefore is still very much alive today and can be found in every home that has a small miniature paperback book dealing with a non-fictional or entertaining topic..