Ep. 091 - Celebrating the life of the mass market paperback

Biz Buzz

The Death of the Mass Market Paperback

Recently, news came out announcing the death of a popular book format - the mass market paperback. At the end of 2025, the largest distributor of the mass market paperback disclosed they are no longer distributing them to retailers. 

So what is a mass market paperback and why are we sad to see them go? 

We look at the life of the mass market book and their impact on the publishing industry in this week's segment. 

Want to learn more? We've linked two articles down below where we did most of our research. 

Timestamps

Biz Buzz Segment: The Death of the Mass Market Paperback (2:04)

The Author's Voice Links 

From Publisher's Weekly - Last Call for Mass Market Paperbacks 

From The Guardian - "We're Losing Accessibility": the US says goodbye to the mass-market paperback 

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