James at #8. Of course you could be right, but here in Ontario we had something similar last summer when 17 young men were arrested as part of a terror group and, as a trial now approaches, it is becoming clear that most were boys wanting a little adventure and mystique, perhaps two were serious, and one of those may have been an agent provocateur.
So while wolves do come along once in a while, most of the time I think the most reliable rule is "believe the opposite" until absolutely proven otherwise.
"It is a common place in the industry that for real trade, 2% of the books make the money to support the rest"
- any idea if that number has changed much in recent years, and if so in which direction?
Sorry, but I'm not convinced by the arguments here.
We know that a lot of medium-list books remain - but this is an issue of change, not absolute numbers, and nowhere do you address the issue of change. Nothing you say suggests that the distribution of books being sold is broadening, and nothing argues against the contention that it is narrowing.
I grant that the paragraph from the WSJ is just an assertion and has nothing to back it up either, but one unsubstantiated assertion does not cancel out another.
(And I say this as someone with a book published recently by a small publisher in which I quote this very weblog. I just don't agree with your argument in this case.)
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