Prometheus Books announced yesterday that its science fiction line, Pyr, would be entering the mass market field next summer with a new paperback edition of Joel Shepherd‘s Crossover, the first novel in a popular trilogy starring a former assassin android who gets pulled back into her old job. “Joel’s series is smart, sexy, action-packed, and features a very well-rounded and admirable female lead,” says editorial director Lou Anders in a press release detailing Pyr’s decision to dip its toe into the mass market, spurred by what he describes as “significant interest” from booksellers in seeing Pyr titles in that format. “We’ve been very happy with [his novels’] performance thus far in trade paperback, and feel they are especially suited to lead our charge into mass market.”
Crossover will arrive in the new format in May 2009, with the sequels, Breakaway and Killswitch, appearing over the following two months. The books will actually be published in the “premium” mass market format—those taller paperbacks (4-1/8 inches x 7-3/8 inches) with a $9.98 price point: slightly higher than other mass market books, but significantly less than trade paperbacks.