Michelle Sagara

It's very interesting for me as someone who writes in non-fiction to compare the dynamics you discuss in fiction writing with the things that happen on my end. We don't for example HAVE bookstores, specialty or otherwise, in which publishers might compete for space to place their wares. (A large Barnes and Noble or Border's *might* have four shelves [not shelf units] of my entire field, and most of them come from quasi-academic/popular presses.) The closest we have are fieldwide conventions in which 200-300 academic publishers will set up booths in a convention hall, each selling only its own products. 'Bestsellers' in academic writing sell, at best, about 2,500-3,000 copies total (in a lifetime) unless it gets adopted as a text by some people or it's a reaaallly hot topic. (Comparison: The minimum threshold the publisher wants to sell to decide to print a book is usually around a thousand.) The books publishers are willing to actually *spend* money on marketing are ones by authors whose names people recognize - to heck with the content. This is where 'spend money on marketing' means maybe print a stack of bookmarks for people to take from your convention booth or print a poster of the book cover saying "New for August 2005!" to hang in said booth. Textbooks and books that are already showing signs of doing reasonably well might get into an ad in a relevant journal along with a dozen other recent titles.

So yeah, NONE of us are best sellers, none of us READ best sellers, and the whole concept is kind of odd to me. I don't use that as a source of reading at all, and never really thought to.

But I'll read any posts you make. :-) It's good reading anyway.