When first introduced, mass-market paperbacks sparked a publishing
revolution. Critics despised them as lowbrow diversions, which did not
impact their popularity. But the business model barely worked. Prices
were so low, the books needed to sell in incredible numbers to make a
profit. An industry norm emerged to pump up sales, whereby most of the
novels were wrapped with images of women in provocative settings and
states of undress. Many readers were duly provoked to purchase, but this
recurring allure eventually lost its sway.
Simultaneously, an opposing theme of essentialism was asserting itself
in grocery stores. The No Frills brand presented goods in unadorned
packaging. It was as if the very intention to sell had been excised from
the label's straightforward design and terse declaration of
contents--SALAD DRESSING, FRUIT PRESERVES, LAUNDRY DETERGENT. No Frills
stripped the cloying appeal of traditional marketing and replaced it
with a candid offering of canned beets and corned beef, pure and plain.
Inspired by this direct approach, Terry Bisson and art director Frank
Kozelek developed the No-Frills book series in the early 1980s.
Signature Strengths, conceived and edited by Boy Vereecken, reproduces
in full the four books published in the series--Western, Mystery,
ScienceFiction, and Romance--as well as critical evaluations of the
fascinating experimental endeavor in genre writing and mass-market
publishing.
Copublished with La Loge, Brussels
