10/09/2006
The Long Tail
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson is shaking up movers and thinkers in business. I highly recommend reading this book because we are in an Internet based business.
Facts from 2004 we should be aware of:
- Nielsen Bookscan tracked 1.2 million print titles in 2004
- Only 250,000 sold more than 99 copies
- Only 200,000 sold lmore than 1,000 copies
This includes backlist titles from "famous" authors...you know, Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Rand, Dickens, Poe, etc.
Anderson's thesis is that "things" have a longer shelf life than they used to because of changes in technology.
I know a lot of us want to be "in print" but unless you have an awesome niche such as JM Snyder and Laura Baumbach and know how to market it, the field competition is fierce. EBooks IMHO seem to do better. In the EWorld our lifespan can be timeless...a brick and mortar store like Borders is limited to shelf space and that's tough. POD is going to be a larger impact on the future too as smaller pubs realize they can beat the big houses because they won't have to provide storage.
The longevity of the net, the 24-hour shopping availability, the fact more and more people are using technology every day leads me to believe that eBooks are only going to increase in popularity.
Bottom line...if you sell more than 99 copies of any title...you are light years ahead of 3/4+ print authors!
Lucynda
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