THE ENGLISH TIGER TANK
The Wall Street Journal has the most interesting bestseller list, because it lists relative sales. For example, you can see how many books the #1 bestseller is moving compared to the #2 or any other book on the list. So how big of a tank is that little, magical book called Harry Potter? It sold 555 times more books than then #15 book on the fiction list. Not 555 x more than some ordinary book. A book on the bestseller list. It sold 62 times more than the #2 book. Folks - it sold 16 times more than every other book on the list combined. It even sold 8 times more than every other book on the fiction and non-fiction list combined. Very, very healthy for the bookstores and Scholastic, Inc, the book's publisher. Very unhealthy for publishing generally. So many people are reading so few titles - although crushed by HP, the #2 book still sold 10 times as many as the #14 book - that it's tough for publishers to have a meaningful overall strategy.
3 Comments:
Well there seems to be a ton of speculation about JTH. Like how is he getting paid? If he actually lives off the grid how come he drives a 15 year old car? He uses a sat-phone sohe must be connected somewhere?
These are un-thinking questions that even the most beginner student of privacy tactics knows how to do.
If you're actually interested in the IDEAS behind The Traveler, rather than whether it is a well written book, you may want to checkout this site Live Off The Grid which explores REAL-WORLD ways to live off the grid like Twelve Hawks claims he does.
I love this, folks. Posted anonymously, natch. But I wonder: it's common knowledge that THE TRAVELER'S publisher put up a number of websites to promote that book. LIVE OFF THE GRID has TJH's name prominently displayed at the top. Could LIVE OFF THE GRID be one? Speculate away.
-Reed
When I read your comment about Harry Potter and so many people reading so few different titles, and how it makes it so hard on publishers to develop a sales strategy, it occurred to me that you could be talking about new music versus the radio industry. Clear Channel's lock on all the major radio stations in the United States means that any new music faces insurmountable odds against achieving radio airplay--in all genres, in all markets.
We read what we read, and we listen to what we listen to, because we only get presented with what the giant media conglomerates decide to sell us at any given moment.
Post a Comment
<< Home