Transcript Open Source Book Writing

BOOKS BEYOND THE
BLOCKBUSTERS
thelongtail.com
Chris Anderson
172,000
Books/Year
“Commercial books”
Where are they all going?
Almost all books are in the Long Tail
Sells more than
5,000 copies
6%
Sells less than
5,000 copies
94%
LT is more than a third of the market
Percentage of total sales (units)
Sold less than
5,000 copies
35%
Sold more than
50,000 copies
23%
Sold between
5,000 and 50,000
copies
42%
The average book
sells 500 copies a
year
Fewer than 2,000 books/year
(1%) will get any marketing
budget at all
There has got to be a better way
Technology
World
Technology
Book
Marketing
World
Marketing
Book
Book
Publicist
Specialty:
books
Economics
Book
Economics
World
Management
Book
Management
World
A better way
Self publishing (Lulu, etc)
 Free ebooks
 Free audiobook downloads for hardcover
purchasers?
 *cough* Google Book Search *cough*
 DIY marketing

DIY Marketing case study
April 2004
September 2004
October, 2004
Why do it?
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Own meme
Feed meme
Fill dead space between article and book
Tap distributed intelligence/research
Beta test/peer review
Generate book buzz
Own and feed the meme
Concerns
“Giving away the book”
 “Peaking too soon”
 “Memetic exhaustion”
 “Distraction”

First year stats
Posts: 180 (3.5 a week)
 Total words written: 120,000
 Average daily traffic: 1,600 visitors (year
two: 5k)
 RSS subs: 5,000 (year two: 20k)
 Technorati rank: ~200

Long Tail marketing
Free ARC to any blogger who wants to review
it (the LT of book reviewers!)
 Free ARCs as prizes for reader contests
 Crowdsourcing coverlines, cover art, etc..
 Meetups instead of signings
 Company speaker series
 Asking Nicely™

Blog:
thelongtail.com