Live data from Hacker News

Most books don't sell only a dozen copies

countercraft.substack.com

61–70 of 143 posts

Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies

#61

>>>0.4% or 163 books sold 100,000 copies or more >>>0.7% or 320 books sold between 50,000-99,999 copies >>>2.2% or 1,015 books sold between 20,000-49,999 copies >>>3.4% or 1,572 books sold between 10,000-19,999 copies >>>5.5% or 2,518 books sold between 5,000-9,999 copies >>>21.6% or 9,863 books sold between 1,000-4,999 copies >>>51.4% or 23,419 sold between 12-999 copies >>>14.7% or 6,701 books sold under 12 copies…

McLean's comments are spot-on, if you read them carefully. She describes herself as a "numbers gal" and she is.

Limiting it to the top publishers immediately leaves out lots of books. But OK, these are major players who are putting their own resources on the line for some books, so that's a valid slice.

For that 14.7% that sold under 12 copies: as a self-published author, I have to say, "Why not my book instead of that crap?"

The problem, of course, is that they didn't expect it to sell that few copies when they printed it. They didn't say, "Hey, this one looks like 10 copies or so. Let's go with it!"

Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies

#62

I forget if there’s a term for this, but I once read (and subsequently discovered) that a large portion of disagreements are simply because people are working with different definitions for things. This seems like an example of that: depending on how you define “book” these claims are accurate or not.

Yes, I've also struggled to pause many disagreements just to clarify terms, ironically because the other person didn't get what I was doing since there is no common word for this sort of disagreement.

If anyone has a good one, please chime in.

Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On the other hand, some technical books don't require agents, and O'Reilly has to be a very large publisher in terms of books sold. I think you are drastically over-estimating the share of developers that read software development related books. Out of the 150+ software engineers I worked with on a daily basis throughout my career so far, I can guarantee you not even 5% have ever read programming books (and I work…

Really? I can't think of any dev I've worked with who didn't at least have some reference books handy. Though to be fair, it's been 10 years or so since I've worked in-person with people on a daily basis, so maybe my impression is just way out of date. I still buy the occasional programming book, but nothing like I used to now that we have all the online resources.

I think O'Reilly has really tried to adapt to the online revolution. I don't know how well it's worked.

Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies

#64
post #12

The whole 2% makes 95% of all revenues doesn't just apply to books... it certainly is true for the video game industry, and I suspect, most of the industries being sold online.

On video game sales, I find it interesting how successful games can be while being 90% the same as an existing established game. I’m not coming at this from some kind of ethics/copyright perspective, I think it’s totally fine to rehash the same idea. I’m just surprised they sell so well when I look and think “why would I buy this, I basically already have it”. The particular example I’m thinking of is a series called…

To me Plate Up seems probably as similar to Overcooked as Mafia is to GTA (maybe even less similar, actually). Yeah both are sort of about a similar thing with a similar third-person view but after that similarities end. If you don't care about a genre all games in it are the same to you.

Definitely no need to be discouraged if a game you want to make already exists, but "same game with different polish" is not the case with games in question...

Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that I know nothing is a very important realization, though, and if a lot of words helps someone else realize that they know nothing, too, it's probably worth it.

Sure, but don’t click the publish button. There is already so much noise out there that we shouldn’t actively drown out people who actually do know something.

So many people think they know something wrongly. It’s a breath of fresh air when someone doesn’t pretend they do.

Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies

#66
post #62

I forget if there’s a term for this, but I once read (and subsequently discovered) that a large portion of disagreements are simply because people are working with different definitions for things. This seems like an example of that: depending on how you define “book” these claims are accurate or not.

Yes, I've also struggled to pause many disagreements just to clarify terms, ironically because the other person didn't get what I was doing since there is no common word for this sort of disagreement. If anyone has a good one, please chime in.

Semantic mismatch?

Miscontextualization?

Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies

#67

I forget if there’s a term for this, but I once read (and subsequently discovered) that a large portion of disagreements are simply because people are working with different definitions for things. This seems like an example of that: depending on how you define “book” these claims are accurate or not.

Is “idiolect” the term you’re looking for? Everyone has an idiolect, which is the language unique to the speaker.

Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies

#69

I forget if there’s a term for this, but I once read (and subsequently discovered) that a large portion of disagreements are simply because people are working with different definitions for things. This seems like an example of that: depending on how you define “book” these claims are accurate or not.

Is “idiolect” the term you’re looking for? Everyone has an idiolect, which is the language unique to the speaker.

Sometimes, yea. But I more mean there’s an argument or debate and the two sides simply don’t have the same facts. And twenty minutes in you find out, “oh you thought I meant 22.1. I was taking about 24.0!”

Re: Most books don't sell only a dozen copies

#70

Pretty long post for "I know that I know nothing". However, there is gold in the comment section: Kristen McLean actually throws some numbers at us [1]. "66% of those books from the top 10 publishers sold less than 1,000 copies over 52 weeks". Well, uh, that's what I thought. Interesting nonetheless. [1] https://countercraft.substack.com/p/no-most-books-dont-sell-...

I know that I know nothing is a very important realization, though, and if a lot of words helps someone else realize that they know nothing, too, it's probably worth it.

Agreed! Now I have that Operation Ivy ear worm stuck in my head.

https://youtu.be/hOqvWiDKv_w

Listen at your own risk.

Post reply on HN