Help a Writer Out

In our discussion on the “Venti” sized paperbacks now adorning the shelves of a bookstore near you, many of y’all had some strong feelings about the new format. From how it fits on the shelf to how it fits in your bag, and how much bigger is the typeface, anyway, we’re picking the Venti apart. Some hate it outright, but there are some for whom the new size is an attempt to differentiate new publications from older rereleases. Others have big honking huge hardbacks that fit much easier in to the Venti paperback printing format.

In a recent comment, a relatively new author, whose books might not be familiar to some of you, asked for help from the Bitchery.

Nora Roberts wrote:

“So, is there anything anyone likes (or doesn’t absolutely hate) about this new size paperback style? Or is the consensus here it’s just annoying, crappy and inconvenient?

I can’t—or don’t want to—go into a lengthy explanation of why a cover ‘look’ won’t really work to distinguish (if it’s really necessary anyway) my original paperbacks from the reprints. Frankly, I don’t push my brain into this sort of direction often, or deeply. I’d rather be writing the book, and leaving those problems or concepts to people who think about that stuff all the time, and know more about it than I do. But when I’m asked to consider something like this, it’s helpful to get input from the people who buy the books.”

So, help a writer out – is there anything good about the Venti style? What can make a book stand out from its peers in the first place size-wise, and what recommendations would you as a reader have about a potential new format? What would be the best possible scenario – perhaps taking the best parts of a paperback and the best parts of the trade size? Bring it on, Bitchery!

 

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