A medley of mass market paperbacks

In The Silver Bullet: Hardcover vs. Paperback?, I put forward the theory that the majority of mass market paperbacks on the racks at Walgreens, Kroger’s, K-Mart etc. are romantic suspense, erotica, paranormal, anthologies, and chick lit (all part of the romance genre). There’s also a smattering of historical romances, cozy mysteries, westerns, horror and sci-fi/fantasy. This leaves very little room for straight suspense or police procedural mystery/thrillers in the impulse-buy market.

When I say mystery/thriller, I am talking about mystery/thrillers that have been released in original paperback, not paperback versions of hardcover novels.

Yes, you still see some suspense, noir mystery, and police procedurals, and some thrillers in these outlets, but due to shrinking shelf space, you’re not going to see them in Walgreens unless there’s some push by the publisher.

And I’m not even mentioning the titles that take up over half the rack—the big established names on the paperback bestseller list, which always consist of J.D. Robb and James Patterson.

Mass market paperbacks have always relied heavily on the “impulse buy” component. And, like the animals in ANIMAL FARM, some mass market paperbacks are more equal than others. (Those would be the ones that get into the Walgreens and all of the grocery stores, where impulse buying happens. Or books that have space bought for them on the New Releases kiosks at the chain bookstores. A couple of books spine-out in the bookstore, however, aren’t going to attract anyone’s eye.)

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. You can see this month’s list for Berkley Jove, which is under the same umbrella as Penguin Signet here.

I think this is a good snapshot of what’s popular in mass market right now. Bear in mind, this is only one imprint, with its own philosophy and style. You can see the Berkley Prime Crime mysteries (mostly cozies) here. You will see the categories “police procedural”, “private eye” and “suspense” listed. But if you look carefully, and know the market, you will see that a lot of these books came out in hardcover first. I’m talking about writers like Jonathon King, Jack Kerley, C.J. Box, Martha Grimes, P.J. Tracy - the list goes on.

The question I’m asking: is this sampling reflective of mass marketing publishing in general, or is this particular to one month, and one company?