What is the difference between 単行本 and 文庫本?

Mx. Re

What is the difference between independent books and paperback books? Because their sizes are different, for the contents, could it be that paperback books are worse or something too?

Answer that was chosen as the BEST ANSWER

Mx. E

It is not the case that there is a difference in the contents between independent books and paperbacks. A work that sold great numbers in independent books will be published in paperback form as a cheap edition, and a work that sold great numbers in paperback books will be published in independent book form as a collector’s edition.

However, as a hurdle of publishing, it is probably a fact that paperback books are easier to publish than independent books, isn’t it? Especially if it’s a publishing recession now.

The hurdles after you published it will become reversed. If you sell 5,000 copies in independent books, they will probably do you the favour of letting you publish your next book, but if you do not sell 10,000 copies in paperback books, you will not be able to get them to do the favour of letting you publish your next book for you.

Answers other than BEST ANSWER

Mx. Chi

An independent book is a book that was planned and published independently. A paperback book is usually something where the demand for cheap books was expected after it was published as an independent book. In terms of material, because paperback books are cheaper articles, they have a tendency to deteriorate over time. Because paperback books are newer publications than independent books, for works in which the author lives, there are times when any material in which the author’s elaborations were done will be recorded in paperback books. Because paperback books are objects that are published for the younger generation, for old works, there are times when editorial repairs will be performed in many ways in order to make them easy to read and they will become objects that differed from the original text that the author wrote.

Mx. n

If there is a desired work and in the case where both the “independent book” version and the “paperback book” version are already in the bookstore, in the majority of cases, they are often supplied in “paperback book” size with almost the same contents as the “independent book”. In addition, on the occasion of “publishing in paperback”, there are also cases where it will be all the better deal because “newly written text” and a well-known person’s “book review” are added anew. On the other hand, depending on the writer, there are also times when they will drastically rewrite the contents at the time of “publishing in paperback”, and there are also cases where the contents of the 2 books reach the point where they are different things. (e.g. “Audubon’s Prayer” by Isaka, Koutarou; Takamura, Kaoru’s writings and so on)

But broadly speaking, I think that there is almost no need to worry that the contents are “inferior” because they are “paperback books”, I tell you. There probably is a possibility that they have a tendency to deteriorate over time, but….

Mx. e

Essentially, it is a difference between publication forms. They are used irrespective of the contents.

Independent books are “independent” exactly as stated, and are books that are created by one’s own plan and format of that work. In the present day, they mostly become hardcovers, but there is no particular rule.

Paperback books are things like the complete works that publishing companies create, and it was originally something where they create something that they carefully selected such as a masterpiece that they should save for many years at a low price with a small-sized edition and then publish it as a popular edition. As a general rule, they are produced by regular means with each individual publishing company and label. It is something that came up so that continuing to reprint for many years in the form of independent books will be difficult, and even younger generations such as students will be able to obtain famous books. However, at the present time, there are also books that have been made in paperback from the beginning, and for independent books that are sold “as they are”, they have a tendency to continue publishing everything in paperback.

In the case where independent books works are published in paperback, there will also be times when they change only the form of the book without changing every word and phrase, and there will also be times when corrections, revisions and so on are carried out.

Source

 * https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q14161131839

Other Language

 * 単行本と文庫本の違いは何ですか？