Alphabetical List of Series

Alphabetical List of Series

Types of Series

Paperback Predecessors

Early paperback series that mostly failed. Subscription models, magazine models, lapses back into hardcover publishing. Also inexpensive hardcover reprint series like the Modern Library, Triangle Books (Doubelday during WWII), which were at the price point of early trade paperbacks. 

Mass Market Series

Early series from firms primarily devoted to paperback publishing. Usually inexpensive and in the smaller, mass-market size. Only series that published mostly quality titles, even if a few had alluring covers early on. 

Trade Series

Series from trade publishers who mostly issued hardcover books for retail markets. Typically (but certainly not always) books in these series were larger than those from the paperback-oriented firms and were accordingly more expensive. These publishers occasionally issued classroom series, usually after diversifying their interests by acquiring textbook publishers. Those series will be listed under the Classroom Series section. 

Classroom Series

Paperback series directed at the secondary or university market. These series are marked by supplementary materials, outlines, study guides, and so on, but the line between them and trade series can be blurry. 

Library Series

Series that were marketed to institutional purchasers like libraries, which may have been offered a library discount. Their materials were usually more durable. 

University Press Series

Series issued by university presses. 

Specialty Series

Some publishers historically operated in discrete sectors that had their own apparatus of distributors, bookstores, trade associations, and so forth.  Some of these areas include religious, art, medical, legal, and technical publishing. Trade publishers occasionally branched out into these fields as well, so their more specialized series are listed here as well. 

On the Difficulty of Classifying Series

Jesse Ephron, Fear and Loathing on the Discount Trail, PW, June 17, 1974, at 52-53 (incredible article about trade vs text (trade discounts vs short discounts). Mentions tons of publishers & series and how hard it is to tell the difference between trade and classroom books). 

Jean Peters, ed., THE BOOKMAN'S GLOSSARY 71-72 (Bowker 6th ed. 1983): 

discount A percentage deducted from the list (retail) price of a book, thereby determining the cost of the book to the dealer purchasing it from the publisher or wholesaler. Thus, a $10 book sold to a dealer at 40 percent discount costs $6 and from this 40 percent difference, the store's operating costs and profit must be derived. Trade discounts (also called long discounts), which are established for selling general books to retailers, scale from 30-45 percent and upward (depending on the individual publisher and quantities purchased). A trade discount schedule is printed by a publisher to announce the variations in discounts dictated by the number of books ordered. Legally, a publisher must offer the same discount schedule to all booksellers.
 Short discounts are lower discounts, offered on the relatively few retail sales of books ordinarily sold directly to professional persons or institutions. Library discounts are special discounts offered to library purchasers. Professional, or courtesy discounts are those offered to individuals. Cash discounts (e.g., 2 percent off the total of a bill if it is paid in thirty days or less) are those offered for prompt payment of an invoice. See also markup; net pricing.