Below is a story from NPR about the imminent demise of the mass market paperback book. Mass market (MMP) refers to books typically sized 4x7. The idea was that they could fit in a pocket or handbag, and could be sold on uniform displays, such as rotating spindles (people of a certain age certainly remember these). The mass market format was how most people consumed books, including James Bond books. For more, listen to the story below.
This got me thinking: what was the last James Bond mass market paperback?
One candidate is Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks, released by Vintage in the U.S. in May 2009. Interestingly, a trade paperback (classified as any book larger than a mass market) with different cover art was released at the same time.
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| Vintage, May 2009. |
While Devil May Care may have been the last traditional mass market paperback, there is another candidate for the last. Jeffery Deaver's Carte Blanche was released as an oddly-sized paperback in the U.S. by Pocket Star in February 2012. It's very close to a mass market. In fact, the width is exactly the same. However, it's about half an inch taller. In my bookseller days, I would struggle with whether to ring this up as a mass market or trade paperback, and I'm still not sure today. Nevertheless, it did come after Devil May Care, so this might indeed be the last James Bond mass market paperback. It's just not a classic example.
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| Pocket Star Books, February 2012. |
Mass markets vanished much earlier in the UK. As far as I know, Raymond Benson's The Man With The Red Tattoo was the last new James Bond novel released as a mass market paperback by Coronet in 2003. After this, all new James Bond paperbacks in the UK were released as trade paperbacks.
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| Coronet, 2003. |
What about Fleming? This 2006 edition of Casino Royale is the last U.S. mass market Fleming title I'm aware of. It also got a trade paperback release. I was pretty excited when this appeared, as it fits beautifully on my shelf of mass market movie tie-in Bonds.
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| Penguin Books, 2006. |
In the UK, Penguin released the Quantum of Solace collection as a mass market paperback in 2008. This is the last UK mass market paperback on my shelf (it completes my UK movie tie-in shelf). As I don't collect later Fleming titles, I don't know if this was the last UK mass market paperback. But it could be!
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| Penguin, 2008. |
Here's a nice video by a bright young YouTuber about the history and demise of mass market paperbacks.
Have I overlooked something? What do you think of the Carte Blanche paperback? Should it be disqualified? Are you sad about the end of mass market books? Sound off in the comments below.
Happy New Year!
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