Trade books

Commercial publications produced for sale to the general public through bookstores are trade books. These may includes works on leisure time activities, religion, history, business, health, art or any other subjects providing they are not too technical or exceptionally high-priced. Trade books are the backbone of the publishing and retail book store industries, although textbooks and technical books are also industries themselves. More broadly, a trade book is anything that may be discounted 40 percent or more, regardless of type of subject or publisher. The concept of the trade book is integral to the industrialization of knowledge, literature and art, by which a book is just another commodity to be marketed and the consumer's needs for information or enjoyment are a secondary consideration.