[HN Gopher] An In-Depth Look at What/How/Why Books Sell (2016)
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An In-Depth Look at What/How/Why Books Sell (2016)
Author : pepys
Score : 51 points
Date : 2021-05-26 15:31 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (electricliterature.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (electricliterature.com)
| nvarsj wrote:
| It's interesting considering other markets where Amazon isn't so
| dominant. Web novel websites are really popular in Asia for
| example - the content is completely free to read and anyone can
| upload a novel. The best novels get ranked really high, are
| easily discoverable, and end up getting publishing deals. Due to
| the low barrier to entry, good UX, and popularity of the sites,
| even new authors can get a lot of exposure. I feel like there
| isn't really anything similar in the US. Amazon has basically
| extinguished all innovation in this area (like they did with the
| audio market too, e.g. CDNow which was one of the best curated
| music sites of all time... and now we have Amazon Music and
| Spotify).
| judge2020 wrote:
| Wattpad, AO3 and Fanfiction.net seem to fit this description -
| and fanfiction.net is home to what is considered the longest
| work of english literature, 'The Subspace Emissary's Worlds
| Conquest'.
|
| https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4112682/1/The-Subspace-Emissary...
| david_shaw wrote:
| _> I feel like there isn 't really anything similar in the US._
|
| I'm not super familiar with the space, but I think this is what
| WattPad seeks to achieve. I know there have been at least a few
| stories on there that struck it big via Netflix deals.
| paulpauper wrote:
| tldr: most books do not sell many copies and or earn back their
| advances, and writing is a hell of a hard way to make a living
| nanna wrote:
| The author of this post must have free access to BookScan, or
| otherwise insanely deep pockets. It's really not cheap.
|
| > Single ISBN report PS90.00. 2 to 9 additional ISBNs in the same
| report PS18 each
| https://www.nielsenisbnstore.com/Home/BookScanLifeTimeReport
|
| Anyone know a more affordable way to do this kind of market
| research?
| jrgaston wrote:
| It's a shame to see the low sales numbers but I can't say I'm
| surprised. I read about a book per week but most people I know
| read maybe a few books per year, if that.
| ggambetta wrote:
| My novel doesn't. I don't know why. The few people who have read
| it really like it, so I believe it's not that it sucks. But I've
| tried ads, promo services who have mailing lists of readers per
| genre,... and very few people buy it. _Something_ doesn 't work.
|
| Is it the cover? Is it the blurb? Is it the theme? Is it the
| price? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QPBYGFI Anyone knows anyone
| in publishing who could help me debug this?
|
| (On the other hand, my not-novel Computer Graphics from Scratch
| seems to be doing well!)
| ehutch79 wrote:
| The name. Unless you're writing some fantasy breeding erotica?
|
| The nazi imagery, even in a negative light isn't the best idea.
|
| The blurb is fine. just fine though. It's a different skill
| than writing fiction, closer to writing marketing copy.
| ggambetta wrote:
| You're not the first to comment on the name, and I can't see
| the implication there. Perhaps because English is not my
| native language? Sounds completely innocent to me :(
| Natsu wrote:
| > You're not the first to comment on the name, and I can't
| see the implication there.
|
| Seed is a slang term for semen. The cover has nothing at
| all related to plants and instead looks like spy stuff,
| where you expect a fair bit of sex due to the genre (e.g.
| Bond girls like Dr. Goodhead or Pussy Galore), which is
| what tips the interpretation towards sexual innuendo.
|
| Also, it doesn't help that it feels like a reference to
| some Bond film names that were also sexual innuendo, e.g.
| the Man with the Golden Gun, where gun also means penis.
|
| I hope this helps your understanding of English, I know how
| hard it is to learn other languages and you write well
| enough that I would not have guessed that English was not
| your first language.
| drknownuffin wrote:
| The cover and intro blurb look like airport fiction. Which ...
| is a reliably good seller, so if it's well written on top of
| that, I've got no clue why it's not selling.
| ggambetta wrote:
| To be fair, "action fiction" is exactly what I was aiming to
| write.
| drknownuffin wrote:
| I wasn't trying to make a barbed comment, I just couldn't
| think of another label to put on it.
| rikroots wrote:
| From the article:
|
| > The first thing that writers need to understand is that book
| sales -- like advances -- are all over the place. This is true
| even for individual authors. It's not unheard of for an author
| to get roughly similar critical acclaim for their first three
| novels, yet have them sell 10k, 100k, and 10k respectively.
| Publishing is full of luck, timing, and unpredictable trends.
|
| This is, in my experience, entirely true[1]. If your novel is
| not selling a hundred thousand copies a year then it doesn't
| mean it's not a very good book. It just means that the 'word-
| of-mouth' chatter between readers (which is, in my personal
| view, by far the biggest driver of book sales) was concentrated
| around somebody else's novel at the time you were publishing
| and promoting your novel.
|
| [1] I commented about my own lucky book adventure a couple of
| years back on HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20549429
| watt wrote:
| I did read the first page. The rhythm of sentences seems
| simplistic, words too short, sentences too short. Too much
| telling, not enough showing.
| ggambetta wrote:
| Fair enough, thank you.
| tomasdore wrote:
| Maybe you're being too hard on yourself? I mean your
| expectations may be too high? It has good reviews there, and
| seems pretty creditable. I liked the first chapter, which I've
| just read. I think I'd be happy with it. Lots of famous authors
| have written many more books than the books they are known for.
| And those are the famous ones! The attrition rate is high. In
| your situation, I would seek to find out what 'normal' is and
| then I'd measure myself against that.
| koboll wrote:
| >Is it the cover?
|
| It's absolutely the cover, yes.
|
| The photography, the fire effect, the composition, the
| typography choice, and the 'shine' effect on the text all
| scream low quality.
| Freak_NL wrote:
| Reading a couple of pages using Amazon's preview feature...
| It might not be just the cover (which, in a more positive
| light, does seem like it allows one to judge the book by it).
| n00bdude wrote:
| Would you mind reading a couple pages of mine?
|
| https://blondyn.com/lolpop.html
|
| I actually randomly started adopting a very similar reading
| model with my short story series just yesterday, though
| with incorporating ~ 3 ad units per short story.
|
| I've thought about testing this out for a bit, & while the
| idea of "inline-ads" sounds way-distracting, it does
| somewhat fit in with the "Pop Art" style literature of
| these short stories
|
| Any feedback / critique super appreciated
| 5tefan wrote:
| Agreed. Writing is very hard. This is simple and repetitive
| in style. It is a writing style I would expect from fast
| paced. I came to see this as a warning sign. Didn't get
| through the sample and stopped reading. On the other hand I
| haven't written a novel. Keep up your work.
| ggambetta wrote:
| If I'm reading this correctly, you mean "the text is
| equally low quality"? I appreciate the honest feedback.
| 5tefan wrote:
| Feels like a staccato of names. Werner, Hans, Bauer,
| Lange and others all over the place. "Hans helped Werner
| carry Bauer" caught my eye and most sentences start with
| a name. Of course it was dark and foggy as well. Lots of
| adjectives I wouldn't miss if they'd be gone (complete
| silence, absolute blackness). Also felt no sense of
| direction or what these guys were even up to. That is
| easy critique from a reader. My writing covers e-mails
| and stuff.
| ggambetta wrote:
| I love the cover :( I commissioned it through 99designs, went
| to many iterations with many artists, and even if I didn't
| make it myself, I'm basically responsible for it. I feel like
| it's the kind of cover this kind of book should have. I guess
| I'm wrong :(
| hycaria wrote:
| It's a good cover because it tells me in an honest way that
| I will not be interested in it.
| blacktriangle wrote:
| I like the cover, it makes me think of an Andy McNab novel,
| and based on the blurb looks like you're in a pretty close
| genre.
| wincy wrote:
| I mean, I think the cover is cool. It makes me think of a
| Jason Bourne novel involving Nazis. Which is also a type of
| book I'd never read, sorry.
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| Maybe because it's a nazi-themed thriller? Nazi fiction has
| always been about USA (good) vs Hitler (evil), but this
| millennium has shown how evil our own governments can be.
| Nowadays we commoners understand wars are not for fighting
| evil, but for gaining geopolitical and economical control. The
| theme doesn't inspire hope anymore.
|
| Disclaimer: I'm just a dumb casual reader.
| andi999 wrote:
| Did any of the few people who read and liked it recommend it to
| somebody else. If no, why not.
| SquibblesRedux wrote:
| "There is no shortage of wonderful writers. What we lack is a
| dependable mass of readers." - Kurt Vonnegut [1]
|
| [1]
| https://www.google.com/books/edition/Conversations_with_Kurt...
| klelatti wrote:
| First of all, well done on getting this far. I've had several
| goes at writing a book and never got this far. Writing a book
| is really hard!
|
| Some brief feedback though on the first chapter. I thought the
| writing style was fine for this genre but I didn't really
| understand what it was that would make me move onto the next
| chapter. I wonder if you're holding back just a bit too much of
| what is so special about the content of the trucks. Maybe it
| just needs a bit more to draw the reader in?
| handrous wrote:
| Size-of-market may be a factor. All the money seems to be in
| romance/porn novels (if self publishing) and YA (with a
| traditional publisher).
| Zababa wrote:
| I'll preface this by saying that I don't want to be mean and
| just give you honest feedback. I haven't read either of your
| books and just looked at the amazon page you linked, look at
| the cover and read the blurb for The Golden Seed, and looked at
| https://gabrielgambetta.com/computer-graphics-from-scratch/,
| looked at the cover, skimmed the table of contents and read the
| paragraph under the title. This is of course entirely personal
| feedback based on how I feel about both of your books.
|
| For "The Golden Seed", both the cover and the blurb seem "too
| much", like the kind of book you encounter by the dozen in a
| bookstore. It's also a fiction book, which appeals less to me
| because I can either ask people in my family for
| recommendations (there are a few big readers) and then have
| something to talk about, or read well-known books (for example,
| I've read The Three-Body Problem recently, after hearing about
| it 4 or 5 times here and really liked it).
|
| On the other hand, Computer Graphics from Scratch attracts me
| more: its cover is in the same style as "Automate the Boring
| Stuff with Python", of which I've heard great things about; the
| "from scratch" appeals to me because I like the idea of
| building things from scratch; the table of contents has an
| entire part on raytracing, and the book seems oriented at
| beginners, which I like because I previously tried and failed
| to build a raytracer following the raytracer in one weekend
| project, and I think I could achieve it with this book. It's a
| technical book, which I'll value more because it feels like I'm
| building a skill. I also have a friend that made a few graphics
| experiments as a hobby and this could be a great conversation
| topic.
|
| Again, this is very personal feedback but I hope it can help
| you understand why some people might buy one and not the other.
| emeraldd wrote:
| My first thought, write another one ... second thought, have
| you looked at Pod casting? Scott Sigler, J. C. Hutchins, and
| Nathan Lowell all seem to have made some progress that way.
| greenie_beans wrote:
| He still writes about this sort of stuff if anybody is curious:
| https://countercraft.substack.com/people/2796313-lincoln-mic...
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