Hardcover

A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also

known as hardbound, and sometimes as
case-bound) book is one bound with rigid
protective covers (typically of binder's
board or heavy paperboard covered with
buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or
occasionally leather). It has a flexible,
sewn spine which allows the book to lie
flat on a surface when opened. Modern
hardcovers may have the pages glued onto
the spine in much the same way as
paperbacks. Following the ISBN sequence
numbers, books of this type may be
identified by the abbreviation Hbk.

A typical hardcover book (1899),

showing the wear signs of a cloth
cover over the hard paperboards

Overview
Hardcover books are often printed on acid-
free paper, and they are much more
durable than paperbacks, which have
flexible, easily damaged paper covers.
Hardcover books are marginally more
costly to manufacture. Hardcovers are
frequently protected by artistic dust
jackets, but a "jacketless" alternative has
increased in popularity: these "paper-over-
board" or "jacketless" hardcover bindings
forgo the dust jacket in favor of printing
the cover design directly onto the board
binding. [1][2]

Marketing
If brisk sales are anticipated, a hardcover
edition of a book is typically released first,
followed by a "trade" paperback edition
(same format as hardcover) the next year.
Some publishers publish paperback
originals if slow hardback sales are
anticipated. For very popular books these
sales cycles may be extended, and
followed by a mass market paperback
edition typeset in a more compact size
and printed on thinner, less hardy paper.
This is intended to, in part, prolong the life
of the immediate buying boom that occurs
for some best sellers: After the attention
to the book has subsided, a lower-cost
version in the paperback, is released to
sell further copies. In the past the release
of a paperback edition was one year after
the hardback, but by the early twenty-first
century paperbacks were released six
months after the hardback by some
publishers.[3] It is very unusual for a book
that was first published in paperback to be
followed by a hardback. An example is the
novel The Judgment of Paris by Gore Vidal,
which had its revised edition of 1961 first
published in paperback, and later in
hardcover.[4]

Prices
Hardcover books are usually sold at higher
prices than comparable paperbacks.
Books for the general public are usually
printed in hardback only for authors who
are expected to be successful, or as a
precursor to the paperback to predict sale
levels; however, many academic books are
often only published in hardcover editions.

Usual structure
Hardcovers usually consist of a page
block, two boards, and a cloth or heavy
paper covering. The pages are sewn
together and glued onto a flexible spine
between the boards, and it too is covered
by the cloth. A paper wrapper, or dust
jacket, is usually put over the binding,
folding over each horizontal end of the
boards. Dust jackets serve to protect the
underlying cover from wear. On the folded
part, or flap, over the front cover is
generally a blurb, or a summary of the
book. The back flap is where the biography
of the author can be found. Reviews are
often placed on the back of the jacket.
Many modern bestselling hardcover books
use a partial cloth cover, with a cloth-
covered board on the spine only, and only
boards covering the rest of the book.
Gallery

Old hardcover books at the Merton College

library.

Dust jacket on a hardcover book

 A King James Bible bound in blue faux-
leather cloth.

Hardbound book with half leather binding

(spine and corners) and marbled boards.
 Contemporary hardcover, with partial cloth
cover, on the spine only, and boards for the
rest

See also
Book size
Softcover

References
1. Post, Chad W. (2009-06-22). "In Praise of
Paper-Over-Board - Publishing
 Perspectives" (http://publishingperspective
s.com/2009/06/in-praise-of-paper-over-boa
rd/) . Publishing Perspectives. Retrieved
2013-05-07.

2. Neyfakh, Leon (2009-08-24). "The New

Thing: Books Without Jackets" (https://obs
erver.com/2009/08/the-new-thing-books-wi
thout-jackets/) . Observer. Retrieved
2013-05-07.

3. Bosman, Julie (26 July 2011). "E-Books

Accelerate Paperback Publishers' Release
Dates" (https://www.nytimes.com/2011/0
7/27/books/e-books-accelerate-paperback-
publishers-release-dates.html) . The New
York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 (https://www.
worldcat.org/issn/0362-4331) . Retrieved
14 May 2011.
 4. "The Early Fiction of Gore Vidal: 1946-1956"
(https://web.archive.org/web/2016030321
5118/http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/early.ht
ml) . Archived from the original (https://ww
w.pitt.edu/~kloman/early.html) on 2016-
03-03. Retrieved 2017-05-14.

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