This begins a series of articles about the evolution/revolution in the publishing world, with particular emphasis on the science fiction/fantasy field. I make no claim that these articles are at all authoritative. They'll just be some personal observations, based on my own experience. Take that for what it's worth. All disagreements respectfully welcomed. I'll use the term "science fiction" in the broadest sense, to include fantasy and all forms of speculative fiction.
The science fiction field as a commercial genre started almost exclusively as a short fiction medium. There were a large number of pulp magazines devoted to the new genre, but no lines of books as we know the term today--just a few specialty small presses, and they mostly reprinted novel-length serials from the magazines. Everything else was short stories.
The rise of science fiction books went hand-in-hand with the rise of paperback books in general, and paralleled the decline of the pulp magazines (which declined with the rise of printing costs and postage). A small number of star writers appeared in hardcover, because they'd already built themselves a readership following from the magazines. Science fiction became a staple of cheap paperbacks, just as they'd been a staple of pulp magazines.
As all genres became more successful in the paperback market, the hardcover houses started taking more of an interest--because they knew they could sell reprint rights to paperback houses. Soon the tail was wagging the dog. The hardcover publishers began publishing books, not to make money selling copies, but because they could make money selling the reprint rights in paperback. Paperback publishers developed "lines" of product, with multiple titles in each genre each month. The hardcover houses found themselves more as tributaries to the rushing river of paperback publishing.
Next: The publishing field as I found it when I started selling my own works.
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