Most histories of paperback publishing tend to gloss over, or ignore altogether, the earliest attempts to develop this market, preferring instead to begin their narratives with the rise of the modern paperback in the 1930s. This is unfortunate, since collectors thereby often remain unaware of the very significant influence that issues like postal rates and copyright law (or the lack thereof) had on the development of early markets for paperbacks:
For information on these earliest attempts to develop a mass market for paperbacks, collectors generally will need to turn away from general histories of paperback publishing and focus instead on histories devoted to specific exemplars of such publishing:
The advent of pulp paper caused many early paperback publishers to switch to a magazine format (from whence would arise both pulp fiction and the comic book industry), although successful paperback efforts like the Little Blue Books continued to suggest to mainstream publishers that a nascent mass market for paperbacks still existed:
The Little Blue Books relied on mail order for their success, as did Charles Boni Paper Books (which, ironically, would influence the development of book clubs more than the development of paperback publishing):
The last major attempt to produce paperbacks prior to the advent of what we today recognize as the modern paperback came in 1931, when Modern Age Books launched its famous threesome--Blue Seal Books were original titles for twenty-five cents each; Red Seal Books, usually priced at thirty cents, were classic reprints; and Gold Seal Books, at fifty cents, were illustrated works:
The modern paperback would soon make its debut....
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