Although published by Doubleday's Garden City Publishing Company in Garden City, Long Island, the Permabooks editorial office was located at 14 West 49th Street in Manhattan.

Instead, as the name implies, the first Permabooks were designed in a more durable format with board covers.

The edges of the stiff, unflexible board cover extended 1⁄8 in (3 mm) past the trim of the interior pages.

[1] The concept was heralded in a back cover blurb: The initial format only lasted three years, with Doubleday switching to the standard paperback appearance in 1951, as indicated by Hyde Park Books' breakdown of the numbering sequence: The Perma Star imprint began in 1952.

Perma Special, which also began that year, was a higher quality line selling for 50 cents.