boyajian@akov68.DEC (04/12/84)
Well, it's kind of hard to describe what a chapbook is. It *is* different from a paperback. Chapbooks are usually small print-run items (anywhere from 10-1000 copies, usually), printed on fine paper, the best via letterpress, and cost a bundle. In the sf field, there is a press called Cheap Street that publishes a handful of chapbooks year, most in the 200-copy, $65-75 range (signed and numbered, of course). Most are short stories by authors such as Ursula LeGuin, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, or Richard Cowper, though there have also been poetry collections by Bradbury or Zelazny. Definitely for collectors only! There are occasionally wider-distribution, higher print-run, lower-cost chapbooks that pop up in bookshops. I have a LeGuin poetry collection and a Moorcock Elric story in chapbook form that I got for under $5 each. Even these are probably too slight for the price, and aren't worth getting unless you're a Collector (like me). "Chapbook" seems to be a standard bookman's term, though I suppose it originated in Britain. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC Maynard) UUCP: (decvax!decwrl!rhea!akov68!boyajian) ARPA: (decwrl!rhea!akov68!boyajian@Shasta)