Among the things authors are not responsible for ...

[kinzel]

So, you hard-core hardback book readers ...

Can you tell me if *all* Baen hardcovers are the same width and height? If so is this a size you see in hardbacks from Tor or Daw or .... anyone else?

Odd question, you say? Well, gee, but see, the newest thing we, as authors, have been accused of is of being responsible for the fact that Duainfey ... and I assume Longeye as well, will not fit in a custom bookcase designed to house Lee & Miller books from Meisha Merlin.

And you know, just as we can't order a publisher to publish a book only in trade paper (of a certain size), or only in mass market, or first in hardback and then in three ring binders; we don't control the form factor of the style of book a publisher goes for.

Right -- see Duainfey is (according to Amazon, who/which may know) 9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches ... while a sample from the Meisha Merlin years, say Balance of Trade, they tell us is 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches. No, wait, the advertent reader may want to get a ruler out -- because my copy of Duainfey seems to measure 9.5 X 6.5 X ... hey wait, that's a full inch taller! Not only that, but Stars, the anthology, runs larger than Meisha Merlin books but not as tall as Duainfey ... and Amazon's ruler-crew says it is ...9.2 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches ....

And you know what? It is NOT OUR FAULT (as authors )that book sizes are not standard. But really, how many hardcover sizes are there on your shelves, anyway? Are all Baen books the same size? Does Baen use this form factor to make their books stand tall?

Comments

[topayz4.livejournal.com]

From looking at my bookshelves all Baen hardcovers are approximately the same size as Duainfey (give or take a quarter or half inch in height or width.) They're standard hardcover size which DAW and Tor and most other publishers stick to, unless they're YAs. The Meisha Merlin books are more the YA size, which I always thought odd.

[sleary.livejournal.com]

Memo to fellow fan: books are less thick than tall. When faced with too-tall books, stack them. It works good.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Well, I certainly wouldn't blame authors...

Lack of standardisation, certainly. Within publisher and printing era (i.e. until they change printers) there is usually some consistency, but not even always then. There are at least four different sizes of US hardbacks on my shelves[1], at least that many of trade paperbacks, and I can see at least five different paperback "mass market" sizes. That's not counting the UK publishers, who probably have that many again.

The wonderful thing about standards is...

... that there are so many to choose from...

[1] I don't have a big sample of any one hardback publisher, except my Tolkien set from Allen and Unwin (all printed around the same time and with a consistent cover style, so they don't count), but it seems to me from my much larger paperback collection that large publishers do tend to stick with the same printer for long periods and so the books within that time are fairly consistent. And some evidently use the same printers as other publishers. But "small presses" can vary a lot, and seem more likely to switch printers.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Stairs are good for stacking books. There's still plenty of room to get past, and the stacks are all neatly sorted in levels.

MRAS filing systems (Multiple Random Access Stacks) also have the advantage that the most recently accessed are usually near the top, so are faster to locate. Of course extracting something from lower down can cause a system crash and a re-hashing of the indexing order...

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

The three sizes of genre hardbacks I have are: 8.5" tall-mostly book club editions, +/-9" tall for some Baen/MM/other publishers, and 9.5" tall for some mostly big publisher hardbacks.

Trade paper appears to come in 8.5 and 9.0 inch tall, variously from any publisher. With the hard cover binding, these would correspond to 9.0 and 9.5 inch hardcovers.

All my bookcases are custom, and all the hardcover shelves are designed to accomodate the 9.5" hardcovers, as that is a common form factor.

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

One has to have stairs in order to use this particular system:)

I measure all my hardcovers . . .

[elektra.livejournal.com]

because I put pre-sized book jackets on them. And I have a bookcase full of Baen Books that I've proofread behind me. All of the hardcovers are 9 1/2" tall.
Other publishers I often buy are either 9 1/4" or 8 1/2". I stock those 3 sizes, as well as 8" to fudge smaller stuff and 10" & 12" to fudge larger stuff. The occasional 8 3/4' turns up too.
And, no, I'm not a librarian.

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

Yup! And the last place I had that had stairs, I built my mmpb shelves all along the outer side of the stairs (right angle turn in the middle of the stairs). Very nice shelves, chinese puzzle to install.

So I still didn't have shelf storage.

[lferion]

A brief survey of my bookshelves shows that my hc Duainfey is the same size as my other hc Baens, (larger format)Tors, Athenaeums and DelReys, and about 3/16ths of an inch taller and deeper than the DAWs, Aces and EOS'.

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an interesting system. Did you have to uninstall it when you left?

But when are you going to issue the collector's editions?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Lovingly illuminated, suitable for display on the coffee table or perhaps behind glass doors. Complete with their own personalized slip covers, these lovely tomes are a solid forearm's length tall, proportionally wide, and a good fist in thickness. Plus, the metal hinges on the binding guarantee that while the table underneath may be gouged, the contents will not be damaged except in catastrophic incidents.

Note: copies must be reserved in advance, as each and every one of these volumes is personally hand-engraved by a horde of dedicated fans, and if you've ever tried to get fans to do something, you'll know that it takes us a while to get them all in the same room, let alone working together.

e-books

[(Anonymous)]

And I'm waiting for your books to show up as e-books for the electronic readers. I have a Sony PRS 505 that I take everywhere - went on a cruise to Alaska and instead of carry heavy pb or hc books with me, I had around 20 books on a slim e-reader. There are several different brands on the marker - the Kindle also lets you surf the web - but I want to READ.

[jack_calls_dances]

My 5 Baen hardcovers are all the same size. Baen books relesed by SFBC are about an inch shorter.

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

Yes, I removed it, but there was a temptation to Abandon in Place.

Re: e-books

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

I wonder where you've been looking? We were among the first to get into ebooks in the late 80s and almost everything we've published either has been or is currently available in ebook formats. Srsly.

http://www.webscription.net/s-117-sharon-lee.aspx

[doccolt.livejournal.com]

My experience has been tha SFBC HC books are consistently smaller than most others.

[laurajunderwood.livejournal.com]

As a librarian in my other life, I can honestly tell you that there is NO--I repeat--NO standard for book sizing.

Because if there were, all books in the library would line up on all the shelves as neat as you please, and we would not have to adjust shelves for everything from paperback mass market to quarto...

I seem to recall one angry shelver proclaiming that libraries should buy all books of only one size and refuse to buy anything not in that size until all publishers were forced to print all books the same size.

Yes, we who were more experienced traded looks over his tirade and agreed that he was clearly socially retarded...and had unrealistic expectations and was apparently something of a control freak.

Fortunately, he no longer works within our hallowed stacks. ;-)

BTW, I glommed onto a paperback copy of Duainfey at my local B&N just this past weekend.

Yummy reading...

Laura J. Underwood

No taller than some Del Rey and Ace hardbacks

[jane-barfly.livejournal.com]

Books vary in height. The Baens I have that were published in the last six years appear to be the same height, which is the same as some Del Reys (not all) and some Ace hardbacks (again, not all.)

They are markedly taller than some Bantam Spectra hardbacks from eight to twelve years ago, but shorter than some other hardbacks from SFBC.

And don't ask me about non-fiction popular hardbacks - at least two inches of variance, not counting coffee-table books or pocket books of various flavors.

[zola.livejournal.com]

*puzzled look*

I know not of these "standard sizes" of which you speak....

[keristor.livejournal.com]

To use the MLMRAS (Multi-Level) system, yes *g*. However, MRAS filing systems (often called "heap storage") can be used virtually anywhere there is a reasonably flat and level surface. Especially that nice big flat thing[1] they build into most houses, the parts which don't have furniture on them are ideal for MRAS filing (and most of the furniture can be used for it as well)...

[1] Well, one of them. The other one is inconveniently placed overhead and things placed on it fall off. I need an working antigravity system to be able to use the ceiling as storage instead of wasting all that space up there...

Hardcover sizes

[(Anonymous)]

The Duainfey copy I have is 9.5 x 6.5. Which is the same as other BAEN hardcover books I own. But, I don't really understand the problem as I also own TOR and DAW and DEL Hardcovers which are not neccessarily the same size as BAEN or indeed each other. My paperback covers are also all assorted sizes. I think that having books be always the same size would be boring?? I like the varied look of my library (currently about 3000 books and counting. Including all of yours,hardback, paperback and chapbooks). Cheers Sandral

e-books

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for the reminder. I had not even thought of looking there. And I have bought other books from them

Sorry.

Hardcover's are all odd...

[(Anonymous)]

I have a lot of hardcovers, and I agree with everyone else who doesn't see any 1 standard size.

The one real oddity about Baen hardcovers is that at some point in the 90's, they started using the same typeface/layout for hardcovers and paperbacks (the HH novels? I'm not sure). But I don't know if they continued that approach - I don't think so, since the "OMG this is UGLY" feeling hasn't leapt out at me with my more recent HC purchases.

[qinshihuangdi.livejournal.com]

If it really bothers you that much, you do not need to violate physics.

Step 0: Make sure the bulding you are modifying is structurally capable of supporting the weight of books that it will. Messing up this step might kill people, or worse, damage your book collection. :)

Step 1: Remove old ceiling. You need to do this to get access to the support members that hold up the floor above or the roof. Make sure that you haven't messed up step 0, and made some assumptions that will get you killed. It would be better to get an engineer competent in this area to do so if you are not one yourself.

Step 2: Attach mounting brackets to support members. These will hold up your replacement ceiling and whatever in the way of netting and straps that attach directly.

Step 3: Put in replacement ceiling. Most regular ceilings ceiling will not support the weight of many books, and would be damaged if books are forced into them. I am thinking this should be a metal grate.

Step 4: Attach whatever straps and netting that are needed to hold up the books. These should be anchored to the new ceiling or the original supports. (Attaching to the original supports is why I am thinking grate.)

Step 5: Load with books.

Step 6: Try not to die.

Re: Hardcover's are all odd...

[anisosynchronic.livejournal.com]

Or perhaps, you got accustomed to the Baen look and stopped noticing after a while...

Tor has used different sizes of hardcover, including in the same series I seem to remember.

And then there is the taller paperback form that some publishers use for bestselling authors.... I used to hate trade paperbacks for having the bulk and mass and most of the expense of a hardcover (though it seems to be that the prices of them have gone up as a slower rate than hardcovers over the years) combined with the durability of a mass market paperback, which with the larger size and mass means much greater susceptibility to and faster deterioration and damage than to a mass market paperback, but the taller mass market paperback has replaced trade paperback as most detested format-- I have small hands, and the increase in the width of the book, even though it is slight, combined with the height increase, means that they are extremely uncomfortable for me to hold--the distance is too far for my hands from open edge of book to the spine to hold without discomfot/the open edge of the covers cutting into my hands, and my fingers can barely reach the spine hold, AND there is a "torque" factor due to the longer length of the book and not having large hands, it's one of the type of effects of the flopping ends of a teeter totter, trying from the MIDDLE to avoid flopping... doesn't work, there's a lot more effort and physical discomfort with the moments of inertia involved a longer length and trying to balance at that center...