Via The Guardian we learn that UK publishers are planning to abandon the hardback format for works of literary fiction because they sell so badly.

Since 2001, booksellers have doubled the discounts offered on hardback novels and some have sold fewer than 100 copies.

Note that this applies only to “proper literature”. Those crappy genre novels, which the obviously taste-impaired public seem to buy in much larger quantities, may still get hardback editions. Whatever is the world coming to?