Marketing Paperbacks

The Sins of Tonia front cover. Over a blue and pink textured background, two women are shown. One, a blond in the foreground, is wearing a black lace brassiere and panties, with stockings and suspenders and a lace girdle. She stands at a three-quarter angle to the reader toward the left of the image and is removing a black negligee, which is over her head. She has a pearl necklace and looks straight forward toward the reader with her head slightly tilted to her right. In the background, a redhead is seen reclining on a bed or the ground, surrounded by cushions of many colours. Her head is tilted to her right and slightly bowed, and her eyes look straight at the blonde's legs. She is wearing a white negligee, her right hand on her hair, which is up in a bun behind her head. Her left arm is bent at the elbow and rests over a large, purple cushion. She is wearing earrings and bracelets on her left wrist. The scene is lit from the front and top. The image is surrounded by a white background.

Pulp fiction paperbacks were manufactured for wide distribution and quick sale. The wholesalers and distributors noticed that any book promising sexual adventures, mainly through its cover art, sold more quickly than other titles. They pressured the publishers to supply increasingly provocative cover art and suggestive cover text. No author’s work or genre was exempt from this treatment.

The pulp fiction book covers, regardless of genre, seldom related to the stories within. Whether the books were science fiction, horror, or mysteries, the publishers used sexualized images purchased from art agents and illustrators to sell their products.

An advertisement in the Publishers Weekly for Popular Library in 1950 read, “Here are the bare facts! It’s the cover that reaches out and gets attention first – and Popular Library covers are eye-dazzlers!”

The advertisement gives us insight into how pulp fiction was marketed in the mid 20^th century. Unlike hardcover books tastefully displayed on bookstore or library shelves, paperback books were sold in wire racks, cover facing outward, arranged by the publisher’s imprint. As can be seen below each publisher imprint had its own signature style to make the most of being displayed as a group. Illustrated covers were more common in the 1950s with the use of photography becoming more widespread in the 1960s.

Midwood Tower Publications from the early 1960s with a similar look and feel.

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Strange Breed front cover. Two women are on a bed, seemingly naked and partially covered with sheets. One, a redhead woman, is closest to the viewer and lies on her back, head toward the left of the image, with eyes closed, a smile, and her hands folded over her chest, under which a sheet covers the rest of her body. She seems to have both her knees bent. Her face is fully lit. The other woman, a brunette, is next to her in the background, her feet facing the opposite direction to that of the redhead's. Her torso is leaning on her elbows, which rest on her slightly bent knees. Her back faces the viewer in a three-quarter angle and is fully bare. A ray of light shines on it. Her legs are covered with a sheet from her hip down. Her face is bowed down with eyes open, also looking down. Her hair is partly tied up behind her nape. The scene is lit from the top right.

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Beacon Signal books from the early 1960s with their signature cover design .

Twilight Girl front cover: Over a red, textured background, a bed with white sheets is placed sideways to the reader, at the bottom of the image. A pillow is placed on it, to the right of the reader. A blond woman with short, curly hair sits on the bed facing the reader, her body at a three-quarter angle facing right. Her legs are crossed under the knees and are at a diagonal angle, bare feet pointing out toward the left of the image. She wears a white slip and a white, strapless brassiere. Her right hand is placed over her chest as she leans on her left arm, which stretches out toward the pillow. Her head is slightly tilted to her right, and she looks down with a serious expression on her face. Behind the bed stands a brunette with short hair and bangs, to the far right of the image. She is wearing a black negligee and stands at a three-quarter angle facing left of the image. Her right arm is bent at the elbow; forearm placed over her stomach. Her left arm is also bent, elbow on her right hand stretched-out fingers, and a cigarette is lit in her hand, fingers bent and pointing upwards. She is looking down at the blonde with a stern expression, head raised slightly. The scene is lit from the top left, casting a shadow to the side of the bed facing the reader.

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http://ec.msvu.ca:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10587/874/LPF-The Twisted Path-Front.jpg

Illustrated covers were more common in the 1950s. The use of photography became more widespread in the 1960s.

Lancer Press books from the mid-1960s.

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Duet in Darkness front cover: Two women are displayed in an indoors setting. One of them, a black woman with short, straight black hair, sits on the wooden floor in a white negligee. Her left side faces the reader, and she sits with her left leg bent at the knee and turned outward toward her back, her foot bare. Her left hand is posed on her left calf and has a ring on its ring finger. Her right hand touches the edge of a blue and black cushioned sofa to her right. Her head is turned sharply to her left, and she looks straight out at the reader with a serious expression on her face. In the background, beside her on the sofa, a redhead with straight hair to her shoulder sits, with both legs folded atop the seat, feet facing right of the image. She is wearing a short, denim skirt and a brown, sleeveless blouse with buttons at the front and a V-neck. Her left hand is blocked by the figure who sits on the floor, and her right hand is holding a cigarette, elbow rested on the back of the chair. She is almost facing the reader; her body slightly twisted to her right. Her head faces the reader, but her sight is directed toward the other woman, with a serious expression. The scene is lit with natural light coming slightly from the left, casting a shadow of the black woman on the sofa and on the brick wall in the background.

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Pulp publishers were also known for repackaging their novels with new titles and cover art to maximize their profits. Sloan Britton's Unnatural published in 1960 is the same story as The Delicate Vice released in 1963 by Midwood-Tower Books. In 1962, Dollar Books repackaged Newsstand Library's Honey Babe (Steve Bell) and The Third Theme (March Hastings) together in one volume with the new titles, Honey at her Lips and The Third Sex Syndrome.

Unnatural front cover. Towards the bottom right of the image, a blonde with hair to her shoulders stands, seen from her chest up. She stands at a three-quarter angle facing right of the reader, and her head is slightly tilted in the same direction. Her right hand is raised to her chest level, holding a lit cigarette. She is wearing a strapless white dress that shows her cleavage, and a layered necklace with gems and stones. Her eyes are half-closed and look towards her right, and she is smiling slightly. Behind her in the background, the figure of another woman, a brunette, can be seen standing naked, in the process of removing a white blouse which is already over her head. She stands next to what looks like a closet with red doors. Her back is lit by hard light coming from the top left of the image. Below the cover art, there is a yellow stripe with a brief description of the novel.

The Delicate Vice front cover. The scene is an urban scene at night. Two women, one brunette and one blonde, stand to the left of the image. The blonde has her back towards the reader at a three-quarter angle to the left and is wearing a yellow dress, adjusted to her waist and with a slit at the right to mid-thigh. She is wearing white, low heels and is leaning against a cast-iron lighting pole to her left. She holds a cigarette in her right hand, arms stretched downwards. Her hair curls upwards over her ears. The brunette is standing to her left, facing the reader. She is wearing a purple blouse with short sleeves and a V-neck, and slim-fit black pants to her ankles, with black, flat shoes. Her hair is short and her legs are parted, left hand's thumb tucked inside her pants' pocket. She looks down at the blonde's chest. Behind the women, a street with buildings with neon lights is seen. Light comes out of doorways and windows, and the women are lit by light from the street lamp above their heads, casting their shadows on the ground below them.

The Third Sex Syndrome front cover. A woman with long, pink wavy hair undresses (or dresses) in view of the reader. She is wearing panties. Her right arm covers her breasts as she removes (or puts on) her lower garment. In the background, a blond short-haired woman in an orange halter top and dark capri pants reclines on a white bed watching the woman in the foreground.

Sources

Bonn, Thomas L. Undercover: An Illustrated History of American Mass Market Paperbacks. New York, N.Y: Penguin, 1982.

Davis, Kenneth C. Two-Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America. Houghton Mifflin, 1984.

Rabinowitz, Paula. American Pulp: How Paperbacks Brought Modernism to Main Street. Princeton University Press, 2014.

Server, Lee. Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback, 1945-1955. Chronicle Books, 1994.

Marketing Paperbacks

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