The Grand Illusion
Over the past few years, I’ve seen more than a few complaints about the cost of books, particularly the cost of mass market paperbacks. So I did a little analysis. My first book, The Fires of Paratime, was published in 1982 as a mass market paperback, for a price of $2.95 (which would theoretically cost $9.81 in today’s dollars). In 1993, Tor published The Towers of The Sunset (the second Recluce book) in mass market paperback format for $6.99 (costing $12.50 in today’s dollars).
But those comparisons fail to take into account the length of books. The Fires of Paratime was only 239 pages long (for a price of 1.2 cents per page), while The Towers of the Sunset was 536 pages long (for a price of 1.3 cents per page).
Over the next ten years, the price of my books increased fairly consistently at the rate of inflation while the price per page rose to around 1.5 cents. That per-page-price remained around that level until 2023, when it jumped 33% to 2.0 cents per page. Even so, that increase didn’t cover inflation. When my last mass market paperback was published (Contrarian in 2024), it listed at $14.99, but for Tor to cover the increased inflationary costs would have required a price of $16.25, which most readers are unwilling or unable to pay without sacrificing something else.
Historically speaking, the price of paperback books has pretty much tracked inflation over the past sixty years – until 2023. While a mass market paperback still remains the same in inflation adjusted dollars as it has for the last twenty years, the income of the average middle-class or poorer American hasn’t kept up with inflation.
And that’s not a problem that the publishing industry can solve, because the industry is low margin, where the majority of editors make less than legal secretaries.
Just a data point:
Agatha Christie
Remembered Death
Pocket Books, 3rd printing, 214 pp.
1959
$0.35
(Inherited from my mom.)
Tiny bit of research:
bls.gov:
$0.35 in 1959 = $3.92 in 2025
officialdata.org:
$0.35 in 1959 = $3.90 in 2025
Guess paperbacks were a better buy that far back, anyway…
It’s the e-book prices that are really shocking now though.
A large range of your e-books are listing at $21.99 CDN on Kobo. Thing is, in 2019 those same books were sitting at $8.99 or so (I double-checked against the receipts in my e-mail for specific titles). In 2022, it was $12.99 or so.
Just took a look at the hardcopy prices and just about choked. I’m thinking some of it is the specific publisher though, as I went and looked at a few other authors I follow too. For comparisons, the new Mercedes Lackey novels are listing at $37-$39 apiece hardcover. Those are both DAW and Baen books, and the paperbacks are all over the map from $12 and going up, though the trade paperbacks are pretty expensive (27-30-ish).
Indigo is listing your paperbacks starting at $31 and going up to almost fifty for some!
Granted this is CAD and I have no idea what the ever-changing tariff landscape is doing to publishing and book-buying.
I don’t even want to try and say it’s overpriced or not. I don’t have the knowledge to make a judgement. I can say I’m thinking twice about my book-buying and a lot of potential purchases end up waiting for sale prices. I only hope that doesn’t impact what the authors make.
Having been an avid reader of LEM’s books, through Amazon in Kindle format, I was able to track these purchases back to 2020.
11/5/25 Legalist $24.99 CDN$
9/2/25 Sub-Majer’s Challenge $21.99 CDN$
3/31/24 From The Forest $16.99 CDN$
1/7/24 Contrarian $17.99 CDN$
10/4/22 Councilor $15.99 CDN$
1/18/22 Isolate $14.99 CDN$
1/16/21 Fairhaven Rising $14.99 CDN$
2/1/21 Recluce Tales $ 2.99 CDN$
1/28/21 Mongrel Mage $ 2.99 CDN$
1/21/20 Quantum Shadows $15.99 CDN$
I don’t remember why several were at $2.99 but the price of these digital bits (no paper involved, just a kindle book) has increased 56% over 5 years from 1/20/20 $15.99 to today’s $24.99. The spike from 2024 to now is significantly steeper.
I too won’t comment on whether this is unfair, but I can say that at $24.99 for an intangible object, I won’t be reading the book unfortunately.
Most of your books are £6.99 on the kobo uk store, with the new releases peaking at £11.99 and £13.99.
Which is about right for hardcover equivalent new releases and par for the course for non-discounted ebooks.
Physical books in Forbidden Planet and Foyles are between £6-8 for older titles in paperback and £12-18 for hardcovers and newer releases.
It’s getting hard to find paperbacks though, ebooks basically devoured that market in the past few years.
Books are an intangible value converted at material cost into a tangible product.
Economy-vise the value of money falls as the cost of life/living increases. Everything we acquire is the result of availability and our need/desire/value/affordability individual and sovereign calculations/circumstances.
“… the income of the average middle-class or poorer American hasn’t kept up with inflation.”
I am lucky because I can afford the present prices of LEM’s books. We are of an age where my selfish concern is that he obtains sufficient income for his art and craft to remain wealthy/healthy/and actively productive.
For those of you who follow Mick Herron: how do you explain the increased size and conversion of novels from paperback to hardback of his Slough House series? It would seem to explain the increase in price but why switch to a more expensive production?
I strongly suspect the US market is finally killing off the old mass market paperback strip cover to return model, and moving to rolling 90 day sale or return across the entire range of formats, aka the Trade channel, which the rest of the world did decades ago.
As part of that they’ll be attempting to premiumise the paperback market to pick up those readers who don’t want ebooks by offering a larger-but-not-hardcover-sized book with bigger print. And almost certainly perfect bound.
Which is probably actually cheaper to produce than the old sort of book when considering how books have generally gotten longer. Perfect binding allows for much more diversity in book length compared with sewn through binding.
The UK did the size change around 2010-2012, moving from A format to B format near universally for paperbacks.
However, compare the price of a read once magazine to LEM’s books, which can be reread so many times. Worth every penny/cent, I say!
Considering that movie ticks are $15 per seat, the price of books is minuscule. I have 3/4 of your books and they give me great pleasure. In hard back I have all 12 Imager novels, many Reculce, and some Sci-Fi. If you cannot afford to buy, just use the library.