In this solo episode Mark explains why you can't have Mass Market POD books; how the very definition of the term makes it impossible.

Prior to the main content, Mark shares a comment from Linda from the previous episode, with a reminder that there's a still a chance for those who comment on Episode 88 to win a copy of David Win's book THE INDIE WRITER'S HANDBOOK.

Mark then welcomes Chad Boyer as a new patron to the podcast via Patreon.com/StarkReflections and mentions that this past Wednesday he loaded a new "Stark Reflections on Other Podcasts" episode for Patrons. This one was on a recent episode of The Creative Penn by Joanna Penn, whose guest, Jason Brick, shared a great bit about the four critical elements from a pitch.

Mark then shares a word from this episode's sponsor...

You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

As the main topic for this episode, Mark explains the background of the main formats of publishing: Hardcover, Trade Paperback, and Mass Market. He then relays how just having the "mass market" size format option in POD, via Ingram Lightning Source or other POD providers, doesn't ACTUALLY make it a mass market book.

He then explains what an actual mass market paperback is and its uniqueness in terms of production, warehousing, distribution, and returns.

He does come to the conclusion that indie authors already have a far better proper "mass market" format that they bypassed legacy/traditional publishers in: the eBook format.

Links of Interest:

• The Creative Penn Episode 441 (with Jason Brick)
• Episode 88 - Indie Publishing, Not Self-Publishing with David Wind
• Findaway Voices
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Snowman Shivers

The music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0