Post AiviH01TdWDM7FUesi by WowSuchCyber@toot.zof.sh
(DIR) More posts by WowSuchCyber@toot.zof.sh
(DIR) Post #AivKSGlVKas2KKrbBg by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
2024-06-14T16:22:57Z
2 likes, 1 repeats
One of the secrets of the book-writing business is how few people read books. This is especially true of literary books. Like, if the NYT bestseller list were stripped of celeb books, self-help books, and "beach reads," I bet you could get on with fewer than 500 sales per week. Maybe fewer than 300. It's astonishing to read what publishing was like about 100 years ago before mass media, when regular people would buy the Saturday Evening Post for original short stories.
(DIR) Post #AivKcBq2VIv7wUiP8i by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
2024-06-14T16:24:44Z
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This is a longer rant, but I do feel like there's a severe downside in the longtime shift from local to mass media, where you get the best of media at the expense of the best experience. I remember Steinbeck writing in the 40s of how he remembered all the war songs from WWI, e.g. Waltzing Matilda, but that WWII hadn't yet produced the same thing. In fact, he hadn't realized radio had won.
(DIR) Post #AivKquQPWpuOHOkKRs by feld@bikeshed.party
2024-06-14T16:26:45.257095Z
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@ZachWeinersmith the bestseller list is fake anyway, you can game it buy putting in large preorders at book sellers and then never actually follow through with the order
(DIR) Post #AivL5cRKgAXYqMBwVE by sun@shitposter.world
2024-06-14T16:30:04.544815Z
2 likes, 1 repeats
@feld @ZachWeinersmith I don't know about today, but it used to still be curated. I remember when Rush Limbaugh came out with his book in 1992 it was very successful but it wasn't on the bestseller list. He made a big stink about it on his show and they eventually capitulated and added his book (and a bad review of his book lol)
(DIR) Post #AivLBOab5WfVclHOe8 by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
2024-06-14T16:31:02Z
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One thing I find frustrating is often when I talk about this someone mentions that people have been saying the same thing for generations. And, of course it's true, but that could simply meaning it's been getting monotonically worse over time and nobody's figured out the solution, if it exists. But I think the deep problem is we like Good Stuff and Local Connection, but the former is easier to get in bulk and cheap and doesn't require everyone else to participate.
(DIR) Post #AivLXjOQQAsIW5EjSa by DamonHD@mastodon.social
2024-06-14T16:35:08Z
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@ZachWeinersmith my family has for a couple of generations (all written up in Wikipedia) been in publishing, and I have not even written one book.
(DIR) Post #AivLsJdnMVLWjGF1ZQ by wagesj45@mastodon.jordanwages.com
2024-06-14T16:38:49Z
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@ZachWeinersmith This kind of reminds me of Twitter v. Fediverse. Lots more smaller communities on the fediverse. Lots less "good" content, but with the side effect of seeing the same people more often and getting less toxicity. Maybe something like the fediverse is the solution long term, mixing discoverability of mass media with smaller communities.I dunno. You talk about this much more eloquently than I do.
(DIR) Post #AivM9MZlhdAykrUEXg by istvan@noauthority.social
2024-06-14T16:41:57Z
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@sun @feld @ZachWeinersmith And then bumped it below “Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot” by Al Franken.
(DIR) Post #AivMoOJm89z21xZNoG by draeath@social.sdf.org
2024-06-14T16:49:19Z
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@ZachWeinersmith I have had grown-ass adults insult me for enjoying a good read. For real.It's distressing how the general public thinks about literacy these days.
(DIR) Post #AivNRylGZK66LrIzMO by mark@mastodon.fixermark.com
2024-06-14T16:56:27Z
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@ZachWeinersmith I dwell, from time-to-time, on how we've gone in less than 600 years from "A new literate generation learning the written form of their own spoken language through the medium of cheaply-reproduced common-touchstone books" to "Nobody reads books."Although, I think that's only the trajectory if one limits the scope to books specifically. People are reading more than ever before. But modern technology has disintermediated the physical printing press and its product from that process.
(DIR) Post #AivOtwvl4Kq8jh788O by tal@mastodon.social
2024-06-14T17:12:46Z
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@ZachWeinersmith I love a good book, but they're bought and sold on moral aspirations, not unlike gym memberships.It's so funny! It's the closest thing to a mass delusion conspiracy that I know of. (And.... I've ordered almost all your books along with the Kickstarter 😆)
(DIR) Post #AivPySZhSTbVzWVkJ6 by mistersql@mastodon.social
2024-06-14T17:24:47Z
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@ZachWeinersmith imho, economic forces have just made it clear what was prestige culture. Because prestige culture is "good" because you have to say it is good to keep your aristocrat (or nowadays upper middle class) membership card, everyone was lying about how great Shakespeare was. Now people vote with their dollars & there are enough people with literature degree to create Neuromancer & Windup Girl (pop & well written). Good riddance to prestige literature.
(DIR) Post #AivQWBsS2u2U3CMkL2 by cstross@wandering.shop
2024-06-14T17:30:50Z
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@ZachWeinersmith More than that many sales would be needed, but in a slow off-season week it's possible to debut on the NYTimes hardcover fiction list with a few thousand sales when the title launches. Also, there are other bestseller lists. (I've never made the NYTimes one, but apparently I hit the USA Today bestseller list with some launches.)
(DIR) Post #AivQvQC1xP0BgpYSzg by VE2UWY@mastodon.radio
2024-06-14T17:35:23Z
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@ZachWeinersmith Even mass media has lost some of its power. 40 years ago EV. ER. Y. ONE. watched the MASH finale. Today there are TV shows that have been on for 20 years that most people have never heard of. The shared experience thing is gone. Yes, everyone watched the first season of Stranger Things, but not all on the same night at 8 (7 Central). The only way to get that now is with live sports. And the big leagues (pro or "amateur") keep enshittifying.
(DIR) Post #AivSdMAMOGFxtdHsG0 by dougfort@mastodon.social
2024-06-14T17:54:35Z
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@ZachWeinersmith Not just short stories in "The Post", there was a rich tradition of serials. I can remember reading "A Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich", "The First Circle", "Fail Safe" "Seven Days in May" and others.
(DIR) Post #AivY5pBKbUx9lY8Sie by LukeAlmighty@gameliberty.club
2024-06-14T18:55:46Z
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@ZachWeinersmith Good :andyinsane:
(DIR) Post #AivcCKAAjEdDPHwq5Q by rantingnerd@hachyderm.io
2024-06-14T19:41:44Z
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@ZachWeinersmith Obligatory Tom Lehrer reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrbv40ENU_o
(DIR) Post #AivecRrutygCk6zguG by jonhendry@iosdev.space
2024-06-14T20:08:52Z
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@ZachWeinersmith Imagine the numbers if books bought but never actually read could be subtracted.
(DIR) Post #AiviH01TdWDM7FUesi by WowSuchCyber@toot.zof.sh
2024-06-14T20:49:48Z
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@ZachWeinersmith one aspect to consider is the people mass. Majority of people get a worse experience but they are not fond of books. Book people on the other hand have access to an enormous library...
(DIR) Post #Aivpdtvx8nnVZQmFBQ by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
2024-06-14T22:12:19Z
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@wuweiwolf True, though I think the no profit thing is important. A lot of formerly paid work now quietly goes into ad revenue for sites that don't split with people who do the writing.
(DIR) Post #AixNf2cfubAQPNR2rg by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
2024-06-15T16:08:16Z
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@cstross I've hit it a couple times, but whether and where I hit appears to be really random? Though part of that is a question of how many celebrity memoirs came out that week. Like, Bea Wolf had crazy good opening sales and didn't make it. It's also had a nice long tail. More and more I think the list is a kind of cargo cult thing - everyone cares about it, but it doesn't matter much.