Flip Books

A British publisher has turned to the Bible for inspiration to add some vigour to its sales of paper books.

CHRIS HARRIS FOR THE TIMESThe flipback at its real size. The text runs parallel to the spine, so the reader turns pages up rather than sideways

However, it is not the power of prayer that Hodder has chosen to employ against the steady encroachment of e-books into the traditional paperback publishing model, but the holy book’s physical properties.

It hopes that the wafer-thin paper used for Bibles will cause a publishing revolution when it is employed in a new type of book — the flipback.

Hodder, which is owned by the French company Hachette, is releasing 12 of its bestselling titles in a new compact format that may be the most radical adaptation of paper books since Penguin introduced the mass-market paperback to Britain in 1935.

The flipback is about the size of an old music tape cassette, albeit thicker. The text runs parallel to the spine, so that the reader, right, must turn pages up rather than sideways.

The idea is to compete with ereaders, such as the Kindle, for portability while still having the aesthetic pleasure of the printed page. In the Netherlands, where the flipback was invented, a million copies have been sold since 2009. Hodder will start with a dozen titles on Thursday, including John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain, and hopes to produce about 25 titles by Christmas, with estimated sales of 300,000.

Kate Parkin, who is responsible for the flipback at Hodder, encountered the books by accident at a dinner party in France. “I tripped over the handbag of a fellow guest and this thing fell out,” she said. “The guest was Dutch, and she said she read all her books in that format. She was so excited about it that I got hold of the Dutch company that do them and got them to send me some copies.”

The innovation was the work of a Bible printer, which had the freedom to invent new types of book because it has to use non-standard presses to create scripture books.

One shortcoming of the flipback is that it is expensive to produce, and so costs about £2 more than paperbacks. However, Hodder is confident that it will trounce e-books in one regard. “E-books are fantastic, but they don’t make a great gift. ‘Darling, I’ve bought you a download’ doesn’t really work.”