backlist and frontlist

The backlist (sometimes alternatively written as “back list”) is a term that originated in the book publishing industry and refers to older, established titles that are still available from the publisher. This is in contrast to the frontlist (or “front list”), which consists of newly released or forthcoming titles that a publisher is actively promoting in the current season. An appropriate mix of both backlist and frontlist book titles and authors has always been essential to the long-term survival and prosperity of the publishing business, although the precise proportions of that mix differ to some extent depending upon the individual companies, their priorities, and the subject areas covered by their book titles. Innovations and changes in relevant law, retailing, and technologies have also altered the mix. In addition, technological innovations and the advent of the digital age have affected how publishers build and maintain their lists. This entry provides an overview of the backlist and frontlist, the importance of effective list building, and the impact of technology on backlists and frontlists.

Backlist

In a sense, the backlist has existed for almost as long as there has been a printing press, since at its most fundamental level, the backlist consists of those titles for which the publisher still has copies in stock for a considerable amount of time after they were first printed. Even in the contemporary digital age, a significant portion of a publisher’s money remains tied up in stock and warehousing. But in time, the meaning of backlist was expanded to include any book for which the publisher would continue to accept orders, even if this required a new print run. Indeed, reissuing books with new cover designs, different sizes and bindings, new introductions, or other ancillary material is commonly practiced to revive backlist sales and cross-promote newer offerings.

For backlist titles, it is generally assumed that any major initial investment costs have already been recouped (or written off). Some may even be in the public domain and therefore available from multiple companies to package creatively, although publishers, along with authors and their estates, support long terms of copyright, and further extensions thereof, because this protects the value of the backlist. Note, however, that not all old books are backlist titles; those which, for lack of consumer demand or other reasons, go out-of-print are not a part of a publisher’s backlist.

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Frontlist

Similarly, not all new, never-before-published books become best sellers. The frontlist refers to a publisher’s newly released or forthcoming titles that are expected to potentially become bestsellers, especially those receiving the strongest marketing and publicity support. These most often include the books the publisher actively hopes will become bestsellers and therefore promote heavily ahead of release. Advance orders are critical, as peak sales typically occur within a year of publication and often well before that. For example, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold an estimated 2.6 million copies in the United Kingdom within its first 24 hours on sale after its July 21, 2007, release.

The term midlist, in contrast, is reserved for new books for which publication seems economically justifiable but are not otherwise expected to become fast-selling bestsellers, and indeed, most new books end up being on the midlist. On rare occasions, books expected to be midlist titles become unexpected bestsellers, providing big revenue windfalls for their publisher. Dan Brown’s 2003 book The Da Vinci Code is a famous example.

Importance of List Building

Careful list building is one of the most important editorial roles in any publishing house, as both its reputation and the state of its finances are intimately linked to its list. According to John B. Thompson, university presses have often relied heavily on backlist titles for a substantial share of their annual revenue, while trade publishers generally derive a larger share of income from frontlist publishing. The precise balance varies widely by publisher, imprint, and market segment. Of course, a newly established publisher would ordinarily be building its list from scratch, but a common—and simple—way of growing a backlist is to acquire another press and add its list to one’s own. In the Anglo-American publishing context, this strategy was especially visible in the latter part of the 20th century.

Nevertheless, the frontlist has increased in importance to publishers over that same period. There are a variety of reasons for this transformation, but arguably, the most important relates to changes in bookselling. The first of these is the secondary used book market. The growth of the secondary used-book market also changed publishing economics. Although used-book sales had long existed, online marketplaces and search tools such as AbeBooks, Amazon, and BookFinder expanded their reach substantially from the late 1990s onward, putting additional pressure on publishers’ backlist sales, especially in categories such as textbooks. The second reason relates to the entry of supermarkets and superstores (e.g., Walmart in the United States and Tesco and Asda in the United Kingdom) into book retail and the consolidation of bookstores into just a handful of nationwide chains. The Walmart stores stock frontlist bestsellers (and anticipated bestsellers) exclusively, but the chain bookstores also prioritize frontlist titles, and due to their size and market penetration, orders from just a few retailers can make or break a publisher’s advance sales. So, trade publishers now put more energy into the promotion of the so-called big books, that is, the hoped-for bestsellers.

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Impact of Technology

Digital technologies have had important, and sometimes contradictory, effects upon backlist and frontlist publishing. Modern book transactions rely on International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs), which were developed in the late 1960s and standardized internationally in the early 1970s. ISBNs later helped support the digitization of distribution, inventory control, and sales tracking by providing a unique identifier for each edition of a book. Starting in the 1980s, publishers were able to manage their lists better, to move frontlist titles that were no longer selling in large volumes to the backlist, and to identify which backlist titles were not selling at all and allow them to go out-of-print entirely.

Conversely, print-on-demand technologies have made it easier for publishers, especially specialist and scholarly presses, to keep many more titles available as backlist books for far longer than was practical in a purely warehoused print model. The same, of course, also applies to e-books. E-books may also compete with parts of the secondary print-book market, although copyright law and technical restrictions have made the lawful resale of digital goods far more limited than the resale of physical books.

Chris Anderson has argued that the digitization of entertainment media and the attendant reduction in costs ought to allow corporations like publishing houses to focus on growing a sustainable business of selling fewer copies of more products (the backlist), instead of many copies of just a few (the frontlist). This ought then to lead to a more diverse creative landscape. How workable his predictions will turn out to be for the publishing industry remains to be seen, but there is no question that backlist and frontlist will remain important concepts to book publishers for many years to come.

The original version of this article was published by SAGE Publications in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Journalism.