Friday, April 15, 2005

Double books

I mentioned the so-called Ace Doubles in my previous message and started to think about the whole "invention". The Ace Doubles had two front covers and two novels - hence you could get two books at the same price and decide afterwards which one you want to read. I don't really know if it's a good idea - all the Ace Doubles I've seen have too small a font and the marginals are too narrow. And if it was a good idea, I think it would've been more popular with other paperback houses.

I don't know if there were any other publishers doing Doubles. I think I've seen (in the net) some sleaze/sex paperback Doubles, from cheapo houses like Midwood, but I'm not sure. Gryphon Books has done some Doubles, but I think they are pamphlet-sized, with 40-60 pages.

This never caught on in Finland. I don't know why. There were some reprint doubles, but no original novels published thus. And I don't think I've ever seen an original Finnish paperback double. There were some "triples", but they had only one cover (it would be hard to imagine what it would be like if all the books had their own front cover! Stephen Hawking might be able to figure it out). The Finnish Doubles and Triples were mainly Westerns (Walt Slades and such) or Hank Jasons.

So, well, maybe when and if and possibly and perhaps my idea for Blood Hound Press ever becomes true, it could be possible that I might think of doing some paperback doubles. Emphasis on "maybe". It could be fun, you know.

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