Publishers Killed the Paperback, Then Blamed Readers
American adult literacy is falling—28% now score at the lowest level, up from 19% in 2023—and the usual suspects are tech and schools. But the supply side gets a pass: the Big Five quietly discontinued the mass-market paperback in 2024–25, a format that once sold 387 million copies a year and launched Pocket Books in 1939 with 8.5 million sales in two years. Publishers blame consumers, yet their own shrinking, aging catalog may have helped kill the habit.
I believe that mass-market paperbacks democratized America. For basically the equivalent of a dollar or two, you know, you could be educated. You could pick them up at the school book fair. You could pick them up at a local gas station... You didn’t have to be an elitist.