Who said people donīt read books...
http://reedarvin.com/2005/07/english-tiger-tank.html
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.
posted by Reed R. Arvin
