ABSTRACT
Paperback Parnassus, as a large bookstore, has a considerable choice of simultaneously available sources from which it can order paperbacks. For trade paperbacks, Parnassus can order either directly from publishers or from one or more jobbers. For mass market paperbacks, it can order either directly from publishers or from one or more jobbers or from a local independent wholesaler (ID) or perhaps from an ID which is more distant geographically but which is interested in servicing the city where Parnassus is located. In the world of paperbacks, and especially in the world of mass market paperbacks, the terms jobber and independent wholesaler have their own specific meanings. As between mass market and trade paperbacks, these channels are not entirely distinct. Some IDs, while geared to the mass sale of national newspapers and magazines and paperbacks, have added trade paperbacks and even some hardcover books, primarily to service local schools and, to a lesser extent, trade bookstores.
