Ian Ballantine announced the new publishing plan in 1952. The strategy involved releasing trade publishers' original titles as both hardcover and paperbacks at the same time.
The first book to follow this strategy was Cameron Hawley's Executive Suite. Houghton Mifflin published the $3.00 hardcover while Ballantine distributed its 35¢ paper-cover edition simultaneously.
The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth appeared as number 21 in their catalog. This novel had previously appeared in Galaxy Science Fiction under the title Gravy Planet.
Ballantine prevailed in the struggle for the Tolkien work with editions including a message on the back cover from Tolkien himself urging consumers to buy Ballantine's version. He asked for and received permission to add this statement after learning that Ace was not paying royalties to Professor Tolkien.
Lin Carter edited the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series starting in 1969 bringing rare titles back into print while launching Katherine Kurtz's Deryni series.