Page "Dime novel" Paragraph 13

The competition was fierce, and publishers were always looking for an edge.

Once again, color came into the fray when Frank Tousey introduced a weekly with brightly color covers in 1896.

Street & Smith countered by issuing a smaller format weekly with muted colors Such titles as New Nick Carter Weekly ( continuing the original black and white Nick Carter Library ), Tip-Top Weekly ( introducing Frank Merriwell ) and others were 7 x 10 with thirty-two pages of story, but the 8. 5 x 11 Tousey format carried the day and Street & Smith, soon followed suit.

The price was also dropped to five cents, making the magazines more accessible to children.

This would be the last major permutation of the product before it evolved into pulp magazines.

Ironically, for many years it has been the nickel weeklies that most people refer to when using the term " dime novel.