thread: 2009-10-27 : Book Publishing - Some Startling Numbers
On 2009-10-28, Ben Lehman wrote:
John: Thank you. That amazon chart is superbly useful. I, too, think that the future lies in a hybrid of mass-market publishing (for some value of publishing: might be a column at a high trafficked website, whatever) and niche publishing directed at specific groups that the author is also a part of. I think this not because it's better or worse, but it seems to be a pretty good way to make money in publishing.
Note that this is very similar to the "webcomic model" with the comic's website being a replacement for "mass market."
One of the things which I couldn't figure out about your thread, is the idea that any product would sell anything "on it's own." Products don't act on their own: a sale requires at least a buyer and a seller, and usually requires much more community infrastructure than that (cross-promotion, AP reports, reviews, websites, IPR or other collectives, adverts in other related games, author presence on websites, a payment system, buyer played the game with a friend, etc.) I think that these sorts of community connections are going to be increasingly important for creative people to foster, as we move out of the "selling widgets" model and into the "support the artist" model.
I realize I'm probably not disagreeing with you, here. Just some thoughts spurred by your title and comments.
yrs—
—Ben
